If you’re a fan of games like X-Com and the recent Midnight Suns, some news surrounding that studio was recently released. Both of these franchises are directed by Firaxis Games. In particular, they are from the mind of Jake Solomon. Today’s news is involving him or more specifically his future. Let’s look at what he’s said.
Jake Solomon posted a statement about his future. This is what he’s said.
I’m a big dreamer, and I fulfilled two lifelong dreams in making XCOM…and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. I’m the luckiest kid who ever lived. X-COM was my favourite game growing up; it’s why I’m a game developer. Marvel comics made me a dreamer, and those characters feel like my extended family.
I’m grateful to Sid first and foremost for teaching me. If I’m ever half as good as him I’ll be twice as good as I am now. I’m grateful to my Firaxis teammates, past and present, for for making dreams into reality. Genuine love and gratitude. We did some real good stuff together. I’m grateful to 2K for always believing in the dreams, and always supporting us with the resources needed to bring them to life. And I’m so thankful to everyone who enjoyed XCOM and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. I’ve never taken this job for granted. Thank you for letting me do this job.
I loved designing tactical turn-based games, but it’s time for other, smarter people to push that space forward. My brain is on fire with a new dream. Time to go chase it.
So that’s him announcing he was leaving Firaxis to pursue a new dream. However, the question is what exactly is his new dream. When that statement was posted we knew nothing about where he was going, or what project he had in mind. It was all very vague.
So Where Next For Jake Solomon
Not only is Jake Solomon leaving Firaxis he wants to create a new type of game. So he’s looking into funding to create a new studio to chase his dream. He revealed this in an interview with Simon Parkin on a podcast known as My Perfect Console. In the interview, he looked back over his Firaxis spell and more specifically Midnight Suns. It seems after that game launched he was not feeling any urge to want to create another turn-based strategy
Solomon reflected on his time at Firaxis, saying following the release of Midnight Suns he found himself unexcited “about doing another turn-based strategy game. As for what he had to say, Eurogamer has a quote from the podcast.
[It’s] not because the genre isn’t amazing – it’s where I’ve spent my life – but I felt like I didn’t have anything more to say in that area.
So I started thinking, what would I do if I wasn’t making this? If I wasn’t making another turn-based strategy game at Firaxis? And I started to get excited about… Well, there are other things that excite me as a designer, and the idea of starting something new was really exciting to me.
And I kind of I realised, as the company was changing, this was my opportunity to think about maybe I should make a change. If I’m ever going to do my own thing, which again Sid [Meier] had started multiple companies and I thought to myself, if I’m ever going to start my own company, which isn’t in my nature but… I felt like I can do this, do a whole new thing and be completely in charge of it, and that was just too exciting for me
As we see further in the interview, his choice of the game would be a game competing with Life By You and The Sims. Yes, we may have another life sim on the market one day.
My intention… if anybody gives me the funding for it, is to open my own studio locally. I’m going make a new kind of game.
I can’t move too far away from what my experience is, and so… I’m a creative director, but the truth is I’m actually a very in-the-weeds system designer. I make games as a creative director but I actually end up designing a lot of the systems for the games. So every game that I’ve made, I end up designing – even on Midnight Suns, I had some amazing designers but I ended up designing individual heroes, enemies and their abilities. I’m just a very in-the-weeds designer.
So, system design is important to me, I want to make a sort-of systems-based game. But I think it won’t be turn-based strategy. I kind of want to make something that’s a bit more of a life simulator, like a life simulation game.
Where we are now is that he is looking for the funds to finance this new studio. Given his pedigree, it hopefully shouldn’t be long until he finds the funds to chase that dream
