Jake Solomon is a famous developer who has worked on games like Civilization 3, Civilization Revolution, XCOM: Enemy Unknownand XCOM 2 during his tenure at Firaxis Games. After release Marvel's Midnight Sun (a great game from Marvel that is highly underrated), Solomon left Firaxis to pursue a “new dream”. This new dream has been described as a combination of life simulation The Sims and The Truman Show, but even though Solomon performed it, no one ever plays it.
Solomon's New Life sim and studio are shutting down
The reality is that the gaming industry is going through a tight squeeze. Talent like Jake Solomon should be able to research and design the games they really want, but development jobs are dwindling significantly, as are the big development studios. For example, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are industry darlings, and a former Rockstar developer who worked on both reportedly can't find a job. Solomon started a new studio to work on this dream Life Sim game, but unfortunately it is shutting down.
In a heartfelt post on Twitter, Solomon explained that his new studio, Midsummer Studios, is closing its doors. He's obviously proud of the work building the studio, as well as working on his dream game – describing it as “a game we poured our hearts into”. A game called Burbankwould be a combination of life sims and The Truman Show with a dose of something special. Solomon explained: “I believe people are storytellers and I want them to share whatever stories and characters they come up with. Burbank will allow you to. Playing this game, we have moments where the characters come to life in a way we've never experienced before, and for an old game developer like me, that's special.” Solomon doesn't address the financial reasons Midsummer Studios is shutting down.
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Burbank was a New Life Sim that combined the approach of The Sims with The Truman Show
Closing the studio doors, Solomon wanted to show the world the pre-alpha footage still in development. Burbank:
IN Burbankplayers would be able to create a plethora of “TV shows” that are similar The Truman Show essentially. In the latter, Truman Burbank is unaware that his entire life is a massive reality television show where all his friends and family are actors keeping the illusion going. Players would be able to create slice of life sitcoms, cop shows, sci-fi shows, career shows (sort of like medical dramas like House) and have the characters interact with each other for romance, drama, plot, or whatever the players wanted. Players could customize their main character and supporting cast, creating stories and plots that used the Life Sim game. They've been creating episodes, developing cast abilities, and taking this new life sim in a direction no other life sim has gone before.
But it seems it does Burbank is one of many games that will never be made. That's the cost of the industry's continued struggles. Fantastic game ideas never come to fruition, at the cost of the developer's dreams and financial stability (in general). Worse, Solomon had the guts to demo the game when his studio closed its doors. Meanwhile, developers around the world can't include their shattered dreams on a job application for several unfortunate reasons.
