Populous

Populous is a God Game, scratch that; Populus is the God Game. Designed in 1989 by Bullfrog (developers who also brought us Theme Park, Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper) under the leadership of a young Peter Molyneux (who later brought us Black and White). It saw the player taking the role of a deity that helped a primitive tribe of people into a powerful enemy to defeat the rival gods.

There are currently four main games in the series, plus a few expansions:

• 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 (?)
• Populous: The Beginning (1998)
  • Populous: The Beginning - Undiscovered Worlds (1999)
• Populous DS (2007)

Bullfrog was taken over by EA in 2007, in the era where EA had made a reputation for the Borg-like assimilation of studios they bought out, so it's highly unlikely another sequel will be made.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Populous franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

• Bonus Stage: Complete the third game, and you can take part in an over-the-top straight-out battle called Armageddon.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Provided one of your followers is left on the map you'll still survive. Just don't expect to survive for long.
• G-Rated Sex: Two people walk into a house, and three people come out.
• God Game: The first such to to be written, and as such the Ur Example.
• A God is You: The Trope Maker.
• Hide Your Children: They pop out of huts fully grown.
• Isometric Projection
• Terrain Sculpting: One of the Trope Makers for Video Games.
• Video Game Cheats: There's normally 500 levels, with the level names working as a password system. Entering "killuspal" (kill us, pal) as the password warps you to level 999, which is basically suicidal.