Jake Solomon is a storied developer who worked on games like Civilization 3, Civilization Revolution, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and XCOM 2 during his tenure at Firaxis Games. Following the release of Marvel's Midnight Suns (a great Marvel game that is severely underrated), Solomon left Firaxis to chase "a new dream." That new dream has been described as a Life simulation game combining The Sims and The Truman Show, but despite Solomon showing it off, no one is ever going to get to play it.
Solomon's New Life Sim and Studio Are Shutting Down
The reality is that the game industry is undergoing a tight squeeze. Talent like Jake Solomon should be able to explore and design the games they truly want, but development jobs are severely dwindling, as are major development studios. For example, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are darlings of this industry, and a former Rockstar developer who worked on both is reportedly unable to find work. Solomon had founded 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 in building the studio, as well as the work on his dream game—he described it as "the game we poured our hearts into." The game, titled Burbank, would have been a combination of life sims and The Truman Show with a dose of something special. As Solomon explained, "I believe people are storytellers, and I want them to share whatever stories and characters they can dream up. Burbank lets you do that. We have moments playing this game where characters come alive in a way we've never experienced, and for an old game developer like me, that's special." Solomon does not get into the financial reasons Midsummer Studios is shutting down.
Burbank Was a New Life Sim that Combined The Sims' Approach with The Truman Show
In closing the doors on the studio, Solomon wanted to show the world pre-alpha, still-in-development footage of Burbank:
In Burbank, players would have been able to create a plethora of "TV shows" that are similar to The Truman Show in essence. In the latter, Truman Burbank is unaware that his entire life is a massive reality TV show, where all his friends and family are actors keeping the illusion going. Players would have been able to create life sitcoms, police shows, sci-fi shows, career shows (something like medical dramas like House perhaps), and make characters interact with each other for romance, drama, plot, or whatever players desired. Players could customize their main character, as well as their supporting cast, creating backstories and plots utilized by the Life Sim game. They'd create episodes, develop cast abilities, and push this new life sim in a direction that no other life sim has yet achieved.
But it seems that Burbank is one of many games that will never be made. That's the cost of the ongoing struggles in the industry. Fantastic game ideas will never come to fruition, and that comes at the deeper cost of a developer's dreams and financial stability (in general). What's worse is that Solomon had the pull to show off the game as his studio closed its doors. Meanwhile, developers the world over can't even include their broken dreams on a job application, for several unfortunate reasons.