Populous (series)
| Populous | |
|---|---|
| Genres | God game |
| Developers | Bullfrog Productions |
| Publishers | Electronic Arts |
| Creators | Peter Molyneux |
| First release |
Populous 1989 |
| Latest release |
Populous DS 2007 |
Populous is a series of video games developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts. The first game in the series – Populous was released in 1989. At the time, it was hailed as revolutionary, and it coined the term "god game".[1]
Gameplay
The games involved the player taking on the role of a deity and leading followers into battle against opposing deities, and intervene by using a variety of "divine intervention" that affect the world and indirectly, the people.
The first two games were similar. In Populous and Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods, much emphasis was spent on flattening the terrain. The view of the game-world was isometric. Populous: The Beginning was more like a conventional war-game than a god-game and uses true 3D instead of isometric 3D. In Populous: The Beginning, the player is set in the role of a shaman instead of a god, but at the end of the game attains godhood.
In an interview, the series creator Peter Molyneux, said that "Populous was like it was due to my incompetence as a games programmer ... the reason the feature (raise the land) was there was because I couldn't get the little people to navigate around the coast".[2]
History
The series includes:[3]
- Populous (1989)
- Populous: The Promised Lands (1989)
- Populous: The Final Frontier (1989)
- Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods (1991)
- Populous II: The Challenge Games (1992)
- Populous: The Beginning (1998)
- Populous: The Beginning - Undiscovered Worlds (1999)
- Populous DS (2007)
References
- ↑ Populous to The Sims: a history of playing god at techradar
- ↑ Retro Gamer magazine, issue 71. Pages 82-89 "In the chair with ... Peter Molineux"
- ↑ The Populous series at MobyGames