God Games
A God game is a computer game that lets you create and control the lives of virtual people, cities or worlds. The category has drawn the interest of some of the best-known game designers in the world, often propelling them to prominence. Major examples of the genre are:
City, Nation, World Level
Utopia by Don Daglow, published by Mattel for Intellivision (1982)
SimCity by Will Wright, published by Maxis for many systems (1989)
Populous by Peter Molyneux at Bullfrog for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST (and
later for other systems) (1989)
SimEarth by Will Wright, published by Maxis for many systems (1990)
ActRaiser by Tomoyashi Miyazaki, published by Square Enix for SNES (1990)
Civilization by Sid Meier, published by Microprose for many systems (1991)
Age of Empires by Rick Goodman, Bruce Shelley et al at Ensemble Studios,
published by Microsoft for PC
Black and White by Peter Molyneux, Ron Millar et al at Lionhead and distributed
by Electronic Arts (2001)
Spore by Will Wright, to be published by Electronic Arts for the PC
Individual Level
Little Computer People by David Crane, published by Activision for Apple II
and Commodore 64 (1985)
Alter Ego by Peter J. Favaro, published by Activision for Apple II, PC and
Commodore 64 (1986)
The Sims by Will Wright, published by Electronic Arts for the PC (2000)
God Games vary from mathematic simulators to creative games. The name is derived from reference to games in which the character plays a godlike entity that controls entire worlds; Populous is generally credited with inspiring the name.
In many God Games, the player does not win or lose per se, but is challenged to attain and maintain a level of success and with the absence of goals or objectives the player often experiences a greater deal of freedom in such games than other genres.
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