Postmortems from Game Developer

Poptop Software'sTROPICO

by brent smith

In the spring of 1999, Poptop had just wrapped up development on the successful RAILROAD TYCOON II (RT2) and its expansion, THE SECOND CENTURY. At the time, Poptop was staffed by the overwhelming count of four artists and two programmers. Being that small, we had had no time to think about anything other than the current project, and suddenly we found ourselves sitting around a table, eyes still slightly glazed from the inevitable project-end rush we had just gone through, looking for new ideas. These were uncharted waters for Poptop. RT2 had been based very closely on Sid Meier's classic RAILROAD TYCOON. The original RAILROAD TYCOON had been an inspiration, a design manual, a blueprint for making a good ...