From the Press Release
Game industry veteran and Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson announces the creation of a new independent studio dedicated to building core strategy games, Mohawk Games. Johnson is joined by co-founder Dorian Newcomb, winner of a prestigious BAFTA award for his work as art director of Civilization V and Brad Wardell, the designer of the Galactic Civilizations series. Johnson will serve as Mohawk’s CEO while co-founder Brad Wardell serves as the studio’s president, handling day-to-day business operations.
Financed by the Stardock Strategic Investment Fund, Mohawk is currently recruiting top game industry talent for the Baltimore-based studio. The company has already begun development on its first title, codenamed Mars, which runs on Oxide Games’ recently announced Nitrous engine.
"Mohawk puts gameplay first," said Soren Johnson. "Our goal is to make games that will be played for years, based on elegant, replayable 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."
Johnson espouses Mohawk's core philosophies in the inaugural post (http://mohawkgames.com/2013/11/04/introducing-mowhawk-games/) on the studio's blog, including ongoing community involvement, early access programs, and extensive mod support. "Games cannot grow in a vacuum, without the oxygen of player feedback. Indeed, communities often understand games better than the designers themselves," Johnson writes.
Johnson believes that the time is right to found Mohawk Games. "We are living in the age of the independent game studio - never before have the development tools been so powerful, the distribution channels so accessible, and open development so valuable," he said.
For more information about Mohawk Games, please visit www.mohawkgames.com.