Who are we?
We love simulation games. We think there should be more of them, so we started SomaSim in 2013 to make more of them. We live and work in the amazing city of Chicago.
We’ve just announced our upcoming game, Rise of Industry 2! Go to the Steam page to wishlist it and get notified about the newest info!
City of Gangsters, was released in 2021. City of Gangsters is a management tycoon game, where you start a criminal operation from nothing and grow it into a well-oiled money machine. The Atlantic City DLC was released in 2021, Criminal Record in 2022 along with several other content and gameplay expansions.
Our previous game, Project Highrise was released in 2016. Project Highrise is a deep and complex simulation of a modern skyscraper. The Las Vegas expansion pack was released in 2017 and several content packs have followed.
We released our first game, 1849, in May 2014. Inspired by classics like the Caesar and Pharaoh series of games, 1849 is a city management game set in the California Gold Rush. In September of 2014, we added the Nevada Silver expansion pack to 1849.
Robert Zubek
Co-founder/Lead software engineer
Rob architects all of the tech for all of our games. He designed and crafted the systems that have allowed us to simulate skyscrapers, the Gold Rush and Prohibition. And soon 1980s corporate America. Rob frequently gets his hands dirty when it comes to game design and art direction.
Previously, he was a principal software engineer at Zynga, where he built large-scale social games such as CityVille and FarmVille 2. Prior to Zynga, he developed online game infrastructure at Three Rings Design and console games at Electronic Arts/Maxis. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Northwestern University in 2005.
Matthew Viglione
Co-founder/Lead Designer
Matt does most of the game design, writing and art direction. Matt likes to design (overly) complex game systems that make Rob’s life as a game programmer difficult.
Before starting to make games, he spent over a decade in communications, previously as the director of communications for Catholic Charities in San Francisco. A graphic designer by training, anything done in print, in a video, online, in newspaper, on the side of a bus, or anywhere else for Catholic Charities, came out of Matt’s office.
Benn Marion
Lead Artist
Gabriel Firmo
Software engineer
Gabriel adds some extra tech firepower to the SomaSim team, helping give the bandwith so that our ideas can be bigger and more ambitious. Gabriel works day-to-day hunting down whatever the game needs, be it feature and systems architecture, bugfixing, or the occasional design discussion with Matt.
Before SomaSim, Gabriel was at Northwestern focusing studying Computer Science and Literature. When he’s not programming for SomaSim, he’s still making games – designing TTRPGS and TCGs in his spare time.
Matthew Ryszkowski
3D Artist
Matt is SomaSim’s 3D artist. He is responsible for translating Benn’s sketches and concept art into fully modeled and textured 3D assets. Much of 3D Matt’s time is spent detailing models, creating textures, and setting the 3D assets up in the game engine.
Matthew graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a major in Game Art. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Matt moved to Chicago in pursuit of his passion to create art he enjoys and working in the gaming industry.
Brian Block Swanson
Composer/audio engineer
Georgia-based composer and sound designer.
Brian created the sound tracks for Project Highrise, City of Gangsters, and Rise of Industry 2.
Also known as Gene Wilson. If you know, you know.