Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Soren Johnson
Soren Johnson (born May 23, 1976) is an American businessman, game programmer, and video game designer. Johnson's games primarily belong to 4X strategy, with several of his titles having been critically acclaimed. He is best known for his work as a lead designer on Civilization IV, Offworld Trading Company, and Old World. He also worked as a co-lead designer on Civilization III.
In 2013, Johnson founded Mohawk Games, an indie studio in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. They later moved to Alexandria, VA during the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. The studio brings together people he has worked with in the past with new talent to create new intellectual properties. Their first game, Offworld Trading Company, was released to moderate critical acclaim.
Johnson is known as one of the earliest developers who involved the internet gaming community in game design, testing, and discussion.
Soren Johnson was born in Olympia, Washington to Kenneth and Ruth Johnson. He grew up in Centralia, Washington with his one sibling, Bjorn Johnson, and his cousins Kjell, Erik, and Sonja. At age 13, Johnson was offered the opportunity to attend college early, but his parents thought he would benefit more from being around friends. In hindsight he has stated that he thinks his parents made the right decision.
His first ever notable gaming platform was a Commodore 64, which his parents bought for the family when he was 7 years old. He grew up on mid-80s games and electronic card games of the period, playing various game genres, ranging from board games to strategy to shooter games and racing. Eventually he developed a particular interest in games that involved history and war. In particular, he loved games made by renowned strategy game developer Sid Meier.
Johnson did not play many games in college, choosing to fully embrace the college experience. This resulted in him largely missing the experience of playing Civilization II at that time. 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 an MS in Computer Science.
After college, Johnson started an internship with Electronic Arts when a friend interning there got him an interview. During his internship at EA Johnson worked on Knockout Kings, developing its AI. Johnson returned to school for a semester at Oxford with his college roommate Christopher Tin. Tin would eventually be hired to work on Johnson's game Civilization IV, where he composed the Grammy-winning song Baba Yetu. Johnson played the cello in the Stanford Orchestra and, at one point, traveled to China to perform with his fellow Stanford musicians.
While in college, one of Johnson's friends, Ratha Harntha, won a bet he made with Johnson. The bet required Johnson to shave his head to give himself a mohawk. Johnson cites this as proving that while he might lose some challenges, he will honor his word. It was the inspiration for the name of his current game development studio: Mohawk Games.
Hub AI
Soren Johnson AI simulator
(@Soren Johnson_simulator)
Soren Johnson
Soren Johnson (born May 23, 1976) is an American businessman, game programmer, and video game designer. Johnson's games primarily belong to 4X strategy, with several of his titles having been critically acclaimed. He is best known for his work as a lead designer on Civilization IV, Offworld Trading Company, and Old World. He also worked as a co-lead designer on Civilization III.
In 2013, Johnson founded Mohawk Games, an indie studio in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. They later moved to Alexandria, VA during the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. The studio brings together people he has worked with in the past with new talent to create new intellectual properties. Their first game, Offworld Trading Company, was released to moderate critical acclaim.
Johnson is known as one of the earliest developers who involved the internet gaming community in game design, testing, and discussion.
Soren Johnson was born in Olympia, Washington to Kenneth and Ruth Johnson. He grew up in Centralia, Washington with his one sibling, Bjorn Johnson, and his cousins Kjell, Erik, and Sonja. At age 13, Johnson was offered the opportunity to attend college early, but his parents thought he would benefit more from being around friends. In hindsight he has stated that he thinks his parents made the right decision.
His first ever notable gaming platform was a Commodore 64, which his parents bought for the family when he was 7 years old. He grew up on mid-80s games and electronic card games of the period, playing various game genres, ranging from board games to strategy to shooter games and racing. Eventually he developed a particular interest in games that involved history and war. In particular, he loved games made by renowned strategy game developer Sid Meier.
Johnson did not play many games in college, choosing to fully embrace the college experience. This resulted in him largely missing the experience of playing Civilization II at that time. 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 an MS in Computer Science.
After college, Johnson started an internship with Electronic Arts when a friend interning there got him an interview. During his internship at EA Johnson worked on Knockout Kings, developing its AI. Johnson returned to school for a semester at Oxford with his college roommate Christopher Tin. Tin would eventually be hired to work on Johnson's game Civilization IV, where he composed the Grammy-winning song Baba Yetu. Johnson played the cello in the Stanford Orchestra and, at one point, traveled to China to perform with his fellow Stanford musicians.
While in college, one of Johnson's friends, Ratha Harntha, won a bet he made with Johnson. The bet required Johnson to shave his head to give himself a mohawk. Johnson cites this as proving that while he might lose some challenges, he will honor his word. It was the inspiration for the name of his current game development studio: Mohawk Games.