It’s a well-known fact that people enjoy playing games, not least in those where players have some form of control. Over the several decades of gaming history, there have been plenty of revolutionary examples in both video and casino games - here’s some of the best.
A Lesson From History
A lot of the popular God games, or those rooted in real-time strategy, have been based on periods in history, most notably, the Roman Empire or Ancient Greece. These two periods have become rather popular with game-makers in real-time-strategy circles, as well as others such as in casino games to capitalize on the period’s popularity. The likes of Age of the Gods from Betfair take inspiration from Ancient Greece with Greek-inspired card symbols, as well as free games inside the slots named after Greek gods such as Athena and Zeus. Outside of the Greek influence, Age of the Gods aims to hark “back to the days of classic online slots”, offering a familiar experience to players.
Leading on from this, the idea of build-your-own-empire games has been a major exponent of utilizing history to make a great game. Two such examples are Age of Empires and Rome: Total War. The former has spawned an eight-part series that, with each different game, has moved forwards in history, allowing for the building of worlds in different historical ages. The latter is one of the most legendary real-time strategy games of the last couple of decades, focusing specifically on the Roman period of history. Both games offer compelling experiences when it comes to gameplay, forcing the player to think about strategy and how to deal with the AI opponents. Interestingly, Age of Empires’ AI actually has less of an advantage than its competitors, making the game a lot more engaging.
Moving Into The Modern Age
‘God games’ themselves are really nothing new and have been around since the late seventies and early eighties. However, it’s really with the advent of proper 3D graphics in the late nineties and early 2000’s that the genre started to take shape and make appearances in video games and slots. A pioneer of these types of games was Bullfrog Productions, most noted for their popular Theme series of games, Theme Hospital and Theme Park.
The one explicitly ‘God’ series in the Bullfrog collection is Dungeon Keeper, a rather clever game where you run your own dungeon. It was originally released back in 1997 and featured a follow-up two years later. The beauty of Dungeon Keeper is its nature as a management RPG of sorts where you simultaneously build a dungeon, defeat enemies and at the same time level up individual characters. In the following years, it became a smash hit, even being picked up by EA in recent years and being placed in their Origin library to be downloaded. Intriguingly, the area of dungeons and mythology have also been picked up by other game makers, including those in gambling circles. Slot games based around popular board game Dungeons and Dragons have popped up in recent years, as well as other themed games in areas such as sci-fi and fantasy.
It’s easy to see the appeal of God games from the outset, not least due to their strategic elements. What’s more, with the ability to create your own world in some games and slots, there are endless possibilities out there that should make for an enjoyable gaming experience.
