Development
Populous: The Beginning was the first in the series developed with entirely 3D graphics. The game was published more than four years after Populous II with developers stating the delay was due to waiting for the hardware specifications to come along enough that they would allow them to do something very different and new. Producer Stuart Whyte said of the work, "We're really proud of what we've done in software because it does look really nice."
The Populous series inspired the term "god game", with players assuming the role of an omniscient being who lead his people to new territories or into battle. Alan Wright, the game's project leader, stressed both the departure Populous: The Beginning took from previous titles in the series, as well as distinguishing itself from similar games like Command and Conquer. The elements of smart villagers and terrain-reforming, he said, "adds a whole level of gameplay not found in those titles." Bullfrog representative Brian Allen asserted that these departures distinguished Populous: The Beginning from other real-time strategy games on the market at the time. In some aspects, the developers were forced to remove features due to technical constraints; for example, the "Plague" spell from previous Populous titles was dropped because in practice the spell was too frustrating.
Originally, the game was known as Populous: The Third Coming, but the name was changed by the time the game was shown in a fully playable beta form in late 1998. The game was the first in the series to be made without Populous creator Peter Molyneux, who had left Bullfrog to create Lionhead Studios. The music was composed by Mark Knight, who had joined Bullfrog's team in 1997.
Read more about this topic: Populous: The Beginning
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