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Civ 4 lead's consulting gig at Stardock followed Zynga layoffs, still deciding his future

Soren Johnson, lead designer of Civilization 4, has clarified his role at Stardock following company CEO Brad Wardell's announcement his studio had secured Johnson "at least for a while, to oversee the design of all our games."

Johnson tells Joystiq that Zynga's decision to shutter its Baltimore studio last week left him jobless and he quickly jumped into a role as a consultant at the developer famous for its Galactic Civilization franchise.

"Brad Wardell and I wanted to work together for a while, so I immediately started a consulting job with Stardock to help them with their current projects," Johnson said in an email to Joystiq. " I am, however, still trying to decide what my next permanent position is going to be."

Late last year Stardock launched Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, previously the studio released Rebellion, an expansion to the real-time strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire. Prior to his stint at Zynga, Johnson had worked at Maxis as part of the team that developed Spore.