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By this time only two engineers remained on the team: the intern and audio programmer. Johnson joined Firaxis in April 2000 and, along with Jake Solomon, started mid-development on Civilization III with director Sid Meier and designer Jeff Briggs. He considered the exodus an opportunity to help his idol and save the franchise from collapse. At the time he joined, much of the previous development team were abandoning Civ III, which was still early in its development. Johnson followed the Civilization III development externally and jumped at the chance to join his idol Sid Meier. It ended up being the inspiration for the name of his current game development studio: Mohawk Games.Īfter finishing his internship at Electronic Arts, Johnson started employment at Firaxis Games. Johnson cites this as proving that while he might lose some challenges, he will honor his word. The bet required Johnson to shave his head to give himself a mohawk. While in college, one of Johnson's friends, Ratha Harntha, won a bet he made with Johnson. Johnson played the cello in the Stanford Orchestra, and at one point traveled to China to perform with his fellow Stanford musicians. Tin would eventually be hired to work on Johnson's game Civilization IV, where he composed the Grammy winning song Baba Yetu. Johnson returned to school for a semester at Oxford with his college roommate Christopher Tin.
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During his internship at EA Johnson worked on Knockout Kings, developing its AI. Prior to college, Johnson was not aware that computer science consisted of learning programming until he first enrolled at Stanford University, where he started by acquiring a BA in History, and eventually a MS in Computer Science.Īfter college, Johnson started an internship with Electronic Arts, when a friend interning there got him an interview.
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Johnson did not play a lot of games in college, choosing to fully embrace the college experience, resulting in him largely missing the experience of playing Civilization II at that time. His mother recalls him saying, “One day, I'm going to go work with Sid Meier!” This eventually came to pass when he joined Firaxis Games in 2000. In particular he loved games made by renowned strategy game developer Sid Meier. Eventually he developed a particular interest in games that involved history and war. He grew up on mid 80's games, and electronic card games of the period, playing a wide variety of game genres, ranging from board games to strategy to shooter games and racing. His first ever notable gaming platform was a Commodore 64, which his parents bought for the family, when he was 7 years old. In hindsight he has stated that he thinks his parents made the right decision. At age 13, Johnson was offered the opportunity to go to college early, but his parents thought that he would benefit more from being around friends. He grew up in Centralia, Washington with his one sibling, Bjorn Johnson, and his cousins Kjell, Erik, and Sonja. Soren Johnson was born in Olympia, Washington to Kenneth and Ruth Johnson. Johnson is known for being one of the earliest developers who involved the internet gaming community in game design, testing, and discussion. Their first game, Offworld Trading Company, was released to moderate critical acclaim. The studio brings together people he has worked with in the past, along with new talent, to create new intellectual properties. They later moved to Alexandria, VA during the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. In 2013, Johnson founded Mohawk Games, an indie studio in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. He also worked on Civilization III as a co-lead designer. He is best known for his work as a lead designer on Civilization IV, Offworld Trading Company, and Old World. Johnson's games primarily belong to 4X strategy, with a number of his titles having been critically acclaimed. Soren Johnson (born May 23, 1976) is an American video game designer and programmer.