Chris Sawyer

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This article is about the computer game developer. For the English footballer, see Chris Sawyer (footballer).

Chris Sawyer is a Scottish computer game developer who is best-known for designing and programming RollerCoaster Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, and Transport Tycoon.

He entered the games industry in 1983, writing games in Z80 machine code on the Memotech MTX home computer, and then the Amstrad CPC series home computer. Some of these were published by Ariolasoft, Sepulcri Scelerati and Ziggurat. The former was a rare instance of a game being accepted by a publisher when it was already nearing completion. From 1988 to 1993, Chris Sawyer worked on PC conversions of Amiga games and was involved in many well-known projects, including Virus, Campaign, Birds of Prey, Dino Dini's Goal, and Frontier: Elite II. He also had a hand in Elite Plus for the IBM PC.

Sawyer's first management simulation game, Transport Tycoon, was released through Microprose in 1994 and became a classic of the modern tycoon computer games. The game was moderate hit, and he immediately sought to create a sequel. However, while still working on the basic game engine, Sawyer developed an interest in roller coasters, and changed the project into what would become RollerCoaster Tycoon, originally called White Knuckle before release. [1]

Sawyer also served as a consultant for Atari in the development of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3.

Sawyer's latest effort, Chris Sawyer's Locomotion, which he describes as "the spiritual successor to Transport Tycoon," was not a great commercial success. Despite this, he is currently involved in developing a new mobile game, Train Tycoon, in conjunction with Czech company Redboss Games.

Sawyer recently sued Atari, claiming that they had failed to pay him certain royalties. [2]

Unusually for a commercial game developer, Sawyer has created best-selling games almost entirely by himself, using only the freelance services of one artist and one musician. As a result, his games are not very graphically or technically advanced, though fans of his games argue this is offset by great gameplay.