Midsummer Studios announced their existence in May 2024 with a promise to “revitalise the life sim genre”, but now, they’re closing down. Co-founder and former XCOM developer Jake Solomon confirmed the news on social media this week, saying goodbye with some brief pre-alpha footage of Burbank – a build-your-own-TV-series project with a lot of generative AI in it.
“We built a studio, we made a game, and I’m really proud of both,” Solomon writes. “Before we close the doors at Midsummer Studios I’d like to share a glimpse of Burbank, the game we poured our hearts into.”
Everything I knew up to this point about Midsummer’s activities came from Katharine Castle’s (RPS in peace) write-up for Eurogamer in May 2024. Back then, the studio’s debut project was billed as a small town life sim with inspirations ranging from Stephen King to Gilmore Girls. You’d have been able to create a character and choose a story theme, like seducing the local hottie. The town itself was billed as an endlessly evolving simulation, with new scenarios arising over time.
I’m not sure whether they’re the same game, but Burbank appears to have sprung from similar narrative sandbox ambitions. In his social media post, Solomon describes Burbank as “’Life Sims + The Truman Show’, but it’s more than that”.
“I believe people are storytellers, and I want them to share whatever stories and characters they can dream up,” he continues in that post. “Burbank let’s you do that [sic]. 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. What you’re about to see is definitely pre-alpha. But this game was a dream of mine, our team made it come true, so watch and dream with us.”
Here’s an embed of Solomon’s post with the Burbank clip. Apologies, Xitter haters – I can’t find it on another platform.
As you can probably tell from the Wonkaverse voice-acting, the game’s characters were to “use AI for memory, reasoning and speech”, though Solomon doesn’t explain what form of generative AI or machine learning the game would have called upon. “That’s what let’s you create anyone you want and drop them in any story you write,” he goes on. “But all of our art is created by our talented artists. We had no interest in replacing *any* developers with AI.”
Except for the writers and performers you presumably didn’t hire to create stories and dialogue, I guess? I’d like Solomon to go into more depth here. I’d also like to hear more about why exactly Midsummer are going under, and whether Burbank will live on in some guise, as Solomon’s present-tense framing sort of suggests it might.
The studio launched with $6 million in funding raised by Krafton, TV and film company Day Zero Productions, and a brace of venture capitalist firms – Transcend Fund, Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, and F4 Fund. $6 million is a lot of money to me, but I am not a Money Scientist, and I don’t understand the workings of venture capital beyond a general sense that VCs are leopard seals in humanskin suits.
As of writing, Midsummer have 12 members of staff listed on LinkedIn, including Solomon himself. Best of luck to all affected.
