The announcement that Jake Solomon, first amongst the legendary Sid Meier's pupils, had left Firaxis to start his studio, Midsummer Studios, comes as a surprise, especially with the switch from strategy to the life sim genre. Looking towards the opportunity to create something entirely different, Soloman reflected on where his last game, Marvel's Midnight Suns, went wrong.
A great game at its core, Midnight Suns takes the XCOM formula that has come to be synonymous with Solomon, mixing social elements with a card-based combat system. Critics and players loved it, but the game was ultimately considered a commercial flop. Speaking to VGC, he explains that the cards were probably to blame: "I think cards were a major problem. It was a good design solution, but I was naive about what people would think when they saw the mechanic was cards. Not everyone on my team was behind the idea, but they trusted me."
Then there is the issue with how the game was perceived, which, as Soloman describes it, was not exactly what he was hoping for: "The most typical reaction when people play Midnight Suns is surprise, and that's not the reaction you want. That is not the reaction that lends itself to mass appeal."