It has been said that British indie developer Chris Sawyer, the brain behind the Transport Tycoon and Rollecoaster Tycoon series and the TT follow-up, Chris Sawyer's Locomotion, was one of the reasons why the "tycoon" subgenre of management games really took off in the 90s. Prior to that, it was more of a niche theme in desktop computer gaming, with a rather small and insular fanbase.

So, let's say this young Glaswegian coder and game designer doesn't risk it in the early 90s and doesn't strike a deal with Microprose to publish his Interactive Transport Simulation (ITS) project, which in OTL became the much-loved Transport Tycoon (and its sequels and successors). He continues to collaborate with other development teams or even becomes a full-time member of one, but never manages to start his own little game company.

What would happen ? Would the subgenre remain more of a niche, underground matter ? Would it be dominated by the other succesful early tycoon franchise of Microprose, Railroad Tycoon ? And would said game be the trendsetter instead of Transport Tycoon ?
 

Pkmatrix

Monthly Donor
Huh. No love for management games then ? :(

Just no conscious Americans, 'tis all. ;)

The thing is, by the time Chris Sawyer came around Sid Meier had already made Railroad Tycoon and Will Wright had released Sim City, so it's not like the management simulation genre hadn't already found its footing.

A definite butterfly, however, is that the Tropico series might not come to be. PopTop Software developed Tropico 1 based on the engine they developed for Rollercoaster Tycoon II, so without Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon my favorite society sim (and its sequels) would probably never come to be.

It's interesting to think about. I wonder how the lack of Chris Sawyer would influence the directions Sid Meier and Will Wright go in their development ideas? The Sim-like characters in Rollercoaster Tycoon are sort of precursors to the characters in The Sims...maybe The Sims is butterflied away too?
 
The thing is, by the time Chris Sawyer came around Sid Meier had already made Railroad Tycoon and Will Wright had released Sim City, so it's not like the management simulation genre hadn't already found its footing.

True, but as I noted, it could steer the management genre to rather different directions.

Fun fact : Transport Tycoon only got its OTL name because Microprose already published Railroad Tycoon and wanted its lineup of management games to have broadly similar titles (brand recognition et al).

A definite butterfly, however, is that the Tropico series might not come to be. PopTop Software developed Tropico 1 based on the engine they developed for Rollercoaster Tycoon II, so without Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon my favorite society sim (and its sequels) would probably never come to be.

It's interesting to think about. I wonder how the lack of Chris Sawyer would influence the directions Sid Meier and Will Wright go in their development ideas? The Sim-like characters in Rollercoaster Tycoon are sort of precursors to the characters in The Sims...maybe The Sims is butterflied away too?

Yeah, these would be great and logical PODs ! :)

Not really sure how much RCT influenced the fledgling genre of life simulations, including The Sims (since other management games had been experimenting with customer morale and preferences and other RPG-like AI features as well). Tropico is a definite concern, though - at least engine-wise and design-wise, in any case...

One other thing I could see is less of a cottage industry of freeware TT and RT clones, á la Simutrans or OpenTTD itself.

Also : Did the Railroad Tycoon games have a custom map and scenario editor ? If not, non-existant Chris Sawyer titles could cause such a feature to be absent from management games for somewhat longer than in OTL.
 

Pkmatrix

Monthly Donor
Did the Railroad Tycoon games have a custom map and scenario editor ? If not, non-existant Chris Sawyer titles could cause such a feature to be absent from management games for somewhat longer than in OTL.

Railroad Tycoon II (1998) did. But, at that point, most strategy games were including map/scenario editors (Age of Empires came out at that time and also had one). I think most of them imitating the level editor from Warcraft, though, so...
 
Sid Meier had already done the first Civilization game and I think Sim City had also come out before the first Tycoon game. So I don't think it would have much effect.
Microprose would not have the income from the games so it possible it could have gone under. Most Computer Game companies were just on the edge financially.
 
..A better POD would be what if No Sid Meier? Would there be any Sim games if there was never Civilization? No Sim City, Non of the City Building Games, Non of the Typhoon games.
And what effect on Real Time Strategy games with out the idea of building of units and researching new Tech that came from these games. We might see some Real Time Strategy games but they are going to be more like Wargames. Would they be as popular?
 
We might see some Real Time Strategy games but they are going to be more like Wargames. Would they be as popular?

You mean this ? Given their OTL track record, I'd say they'd be about as popular as in OTL, with a few major franchises (like OTL's Total War series).

Sid Meier had already done the first Civilization game and I think Sim City had also come out before the first Tycoon game. So I don't think it would have much effect.
Microprose would not have the income from the games so it possible it could have gone under. Most Computer Game companies were just on the edge financially.

Those are management games, but not exactly tycoon games. You don't run companies in those and Civilization isn't even in that genre - not a clear-cut management game, but a historical turn-based grand strategy game.

I was not implying that management games would not appear, I was implying they would probably diversify less and not become mainstream as early as in OTL.
 
You mean this ? Given their OTL track record, I'd say they'd be about as popular as in OTL, with a few major franchises (like OTL's Total War series).



Those are management games, but not exactly tycoon games. You don't run companies in those and Civilization isn't even in that genre - not a clear-cut management game, but a historical turn-based grand strategy game.

I was not implying that management games would not appear, I was implying they would probably diversify less and not become mainstream as early as in OTL.

Sid Meier Gettysburg was the first Game that I stay up all night playing. And I loved it when I pull off Picket Charge and beat the North.

The Management Games were the forerunner of the Typhoon games and a influence on them. One could argue that Mule was the First Typoon game in Sci Fi Clothing.
 
The Management Games were the forerunner of the Typhoon games and a influence on them. One could argue that Mule was the First Typoon game in Sci Fi Clothing.

*grammar Nazi mode*

Tycoon is not the same as typhoon.

Tycoon = rich guy, billionare
Typhoon = tropical storm or a type of fighter jet


But you are right about that bit of gaming history.
 
*grammar Nazi mode*

Tycoon is not the same as typhoon.

Tycoon = rich guy, billionare
Typhoon = tropical storm or a type of fighter jet


But you are right about that bit of gaming history.

When I type stuff at 11:00 PM, I make spelling Mistakes. Sorry
 
The problems with tycoon games is that once you win once and figure out how to beat the AI then the game becomes unplayable.

I played Arline tycoon once and without trying i ended up with most planes in the air and the best economy
 
The problems with tycoon games is that once you win once and figure out how to beat the AI then the game becomes unplayable.

I played Arline tycoon once and without trying i ended up with most planes in the air and the best economy

Though some titles have better replayability than others.
 
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