XCOM’s Jake Solomon Q&A – Building a Narrative-Driven Life Sim Game at Midsummer Studios

Today, former XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns designer Jake Solomon announced the foundation of Midsummer Studios, a small indie company established with the help of several industry veterans who worked on games like Civilization (Will Miller) and The Sims (Grant Rodiek). This startup has already raised $6 million from investors like Transcend Fund, Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Ventures, Krafton, and Day Zero Productions.

Solomon and his colleagues won't be making an XCOM-like game. They are instead building a next-generation life simulation game focused on player-driven narrative. I had a chance to speak to Solomon about Midsummer, this new project (which will be released on PC early access at first), and the state of the industry as a whole.

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What can you tell me about the founding of this new company? How did you choose the name and everything?

My family is Norwegian and I have incredibly fond memories of my family’s Midsummer celebration, which we still celebrate today. Honestly, it’s a good party. It is also a little bit about
rebirth, a look to the future, and gathering with those important to you. Creating a new company is a big step, and Midsummer was a good fit for what we’re trying to build.

You said you have 10 people now, right? Are you working from an office or remotely?

We have hired 11 people and work in an office together in Hunt Valley, MD, just a little north of
Baltimore.

In the future, when you need to scale up, would you be open to hiring remote workers?

We are actively discussing how to accommodate remote and hybrid team members as we grow the studio. It’s incredibly important to us that folks feel like they belong to the studio and our culture regardless of where they work. It’s not easy to get right, so it’s something we’re trying to figure out.

Your debut game will be in the life simulation genre, which is quite a departure from your previous games. Is that a