[dropcap size=dropcap]V[/dropcap]ideo game industry veteran and Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson, announced the establishment of a new independent studio dedicated to the development of strategy games, Mohawk Games.
Johnson was joined by a team of other two important characters in the video game industry: Mohawk’s co-founder Dorian Newcomb, a BAFTA winner for his job as Civilization V artistic director and Brad Wardell, former designer of the Galactic Civilizations series. Johnson will hold the position of CEO while Brad Wardell will be the president of the studio, taking care of the company’s daily business operations.
“Mohawk puts gameplay first,” said Soren Johnson on the official Mohawk website. “Our goal is to make games that will be played for years, based on elegant, re-playable systems that are not limited by finite content creation. Our development process emphasizes rapid iteration above all else, requiring our games to be playable as soon as possible so that we have time to find the fun” he continued.
Funded by the Stardock Strategic Investment Fund, Mohawk studios are looking to hire young talented developers and designers from the video game industry, gaming enthusiasts willing to come to work in their studio located in Baltimore. The company also began developing their first title, code-named Mars, which will run on the new engine developed by Oxide Games called Nitrous. “The company has already begun development on its first title, codenamed Mars, which runs on Oxide Games’ recently announced Nitrous engine” said the official press release from November 5, 2013.
Johnson informs us on the Mohawk studio’s philosophy and direction through the official blog available at mohawkgames.com. According to him, “games cannot grow in a vacuum, without the oxygen of player feedback. We will interact directly with our fans, learning from them and never assuming that we know better.” The concept is not new yet few companies choose to directly involve the fans in the production process. As for the funding needed in order to develop new games, Johnson is not afraid of searching for new alternatives: “We will use alternative funding methods, such as crowd funding and early access programs, to enable a virtuous cycle in which fans can support our ideas while also holding us accountable to their expectations” he concluded.
We are more than eager to find more about Johnson’s future plans and of course, to be updated with fresh news on the Mars project.