I Miss the God Game Genre, It's Time to Bring It Back

With consoles dominating the console market, certain PC-friendly genres have fallen by the wayside. Sadly, this includes "god games," which were one of my favorite things to play when I sat down at my computer back in the day. With all the RPGs and shooty-bang-bang titles on the market, I'm definitely feeling the itch to exercise my (not so) divine will.

What’s a God Game?

God games are related to both simulation games and strategy games. Typically, in these games, you play a powerful character that has control over the world and the people in it. You use your supernatural powers to influence the living creatures, such as human worshippers, within the virtual world. Sometimes these games are open-ended, and don't have a specific goal. In others there are conditions you're trying to satisfy. Of course, it's not strange to have both modes in the same game.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly which game is the genesis of the god game genre. Little Computer People came out in 1985, and is essentially what The Sims would become later. Speaking of The Sims, in some ways, these are also "god games" as much as they are "social simulators."

However, I think there's little doubt that Populous is the first true god game that cemented the genre. Designed by Peter Molyneux (among others) whose name would eventually become synonymous with the god game genre. In Populous, you are a god and the world is seen from an isometric perspective on your tabletop. You have followers, and then there are enemy followers who stand against them. You can't directly control anything, but you can use your divine power to raise and lower land, cause earthquakes, or empower followers.

Moby Games

Populous isn't my favorite game in the genre, but it did set the template for later, better games to really polish to a shine.

Some of My Favorite Games Are God Games

God games are still a staple of my game library, but they're almost all retro at this point. Nonetheless, a good god game is timeless, and I have many classics on my personal list. The most obvious one would be Black and White.

Moby Games

This is perhaps the most literal god game, since you are in fact a being that's worshipped by human followers, which gives you power to protect them from the dangers of the world, and of course other gods and tribes.

High on my list is the first Dungeon Keeper, where you play the eponymous keeper and have to grow your dungeon while fending off those pesky heroes who keep invading.

Moby Games

Some people might mistake Dungeon Keeper for a real-time strategy game, but you're more of a manager than a commander, and creatures will get to what you ask of them on their own time. Be too forceful and they might leave or turn against you! This is one of the greatest games ever made, and I love playing it on my MacBook using DOSBox.

There has never been a better time to bring back the god game genre. I don't just say that because of how great graphics are these days, but because of how far so many other hardware and software systems have come. My laptop, for example, has 24 CPU cores, and most games barely use eight of them. Modern multi-core CPUs are perfect for intricate multi-system simulations, and god games can make use of those in spades.

Artifical intelligence is also coming along in leaps and bound, and I really think we could inject so much life into the simulation for a god game. Developers were already able to do so much with what they had in games like Black and White, I can only imagine what they could do now.

The last major god game release was 2011's From Dust, which was fine but didn't resurrect the genre.

The good news is that there's still interest in god games as a whole, and there are now many more smaller indie and AA (double-A) developers who can tackle this type of game. For example, I'm looking forward to Fata Deum, which is set to release some time in 2024 and is essentially a spiritual successor to Black and White.

Hooded Horse

Even better, the original god game guru Peter Molyneux, is involved with another announced god game called Masters of Albion.

22Cans

It looks fantastic, but I have to keep my expectations in check. Since, as much as I love his work, Mr. Molyneux is known for exaggerating the truth.