Civilization 4 designer consulting for Stardock

Civilization 4 lead designer and Zynga staffer Soren Johnson has signed on to work with Stardock on upcoming games.

The developer told Joystiq that Johnson isn't a full time employee, and is instead acting as a consultant.

"We've brought on board someone many of you know – Soren Johnson who has come to Stardock, at least for a while, to oversee the design of all our games. I think his impact on our upcoming (think 2014/2015/2016) will be pretty obvious," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell wrote on the developer's forums.

Johnson has most recently helf the position of design director at Zynga; he joined the social publisher in September. Prior to this role he served a stint at Firaxis, where his pivotal role on Civilization IV earned him the undying respect of the strategy crowd, but as an AI specialist programmer he also contributed to Spore.

Stardock's most recent effort is the Legendary Heroes expansion for Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, but its catalogue includes Demigod, Galactic Civilizations and The Political Machine.