Populous

Populous, released by Bullfrog Productions in 1989 and designed by Peter Molyneux, is the founding work of the god game genre. Players act as a deity overlooking an isometric tile world, raising and lowering terrain to create flat land where followers build settlements and multiply, then unleashing miracles—floods, earthquakes, volcanoes—to devastate a rival deity's population. The game spans 500 escalating levels across desert, tundra, rock, and other themed worlds. Beneath its simple two-button controls lies a layered contest of terrain shaping, population growth, and divine energy management, a design that went on to profoundly influence later titles such as Black & White and Spore.