Chris Sawyer

Chris Sawyer
Residence	Dunblane, Scotland, United Kingdom
Education	Computer Science degree, Strathclyde University
Occupation	Computer game developer
Known for	Designing and programming, RollerCoaster Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, Chris Sawyer's Locomotion, and Transport Tycoon.
Website	www.chrissawyergames.com

Chris Sawyer is a Scottish video game developer who is best known for designing and programming Transport Tycoon and the RollerCoaster Tycoon series. He is the founder of 31X, a mobile game development company.

Career

Sawyer first 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, Sawyer worked on DOS conversions of Amiga games and was involved in many projects, including Virus, Conqueror, Campaign, Birds of Prey, Dino Dini's Goal and Frontier: Elite II. He also contributed to the DOS version of Elite Plus.

Sawyer's first management simulation game, Transport Tycoon, was released by MicroProse in 1994 and became a classic of the tycoon series of games. A year later, he improved and extended the game, giving it the title Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Sawyer 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. After creating RollerCoaster Tycoon, he resumed work on the sequel for Transport Tycoon, but again postponed it to create RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. Upon completing that project, he resumed his work on the Transport Tycoon sequel, finally releasing it in 2004 as Chris Sawyer's Locomotion.

Sawyer also served as a consultant for Atari in the development of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. In November 2005, Sawyer sued Atari, claiming that they had failed to pay him certain royalties. Sawyer and Atari settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in February 2008.

Sawyer wrote most of his games in x86 assembly language, using only the services of freelance artist Simon Foster and musician Allister Brimble as needed.

In 2010, Sawyer founded 31X, a video game developer focused on mobile games. He created the company specifically to develop Transport Tycoon for iOS and Android. Jacqui Lyons serves as the company's executive producer.

Credits

The following is a list of video games Chris Sawyer has been credited for over the course of his career.

Title	Year	Publisher	Notes
Virus	1988	Firebird Software
Revenge of Defender	1989	Epyx
Xenomorph	1990	Pandora
Conqueror	1990	Rainbow Arts Software GmbH
Elite Plus	1991	Microplay Software
Campaign	1992	Empire Interactive
Birds of Prey	1992	Electronic Arts
Goal!	1993	Virgin Games
Frontier: Elite II	1993	GameTek, Konami
Transport Tycoon	1994	MicroProse
Dino Dini's Soccer	1994	Virgin Interactive
Transport Tycoon World Editor	1995	MicroProse
Transport Tycoon Deluxe	1995	MicroProse
Frontier: First Encounters	1995	GameTek
RollerCoaster Tycoon	1999	Hasbro Interactive
RollerCoaster Tycoon: Corkscrew Follies	1999	Hasbro Interactive
RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes	2000	Hasbro Interactive
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2	2002	Infogrames
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3	2004	Atari	Consultant
Chris Sawyer's Locomotion	2004	Atari
Transport Tycoon	2013	31X	For iOS and Android

See also

• RollerCoaster Tycoon (series)

External links

• Chris Sawyer Software Development
• Chris Sawyer's profile at MobyGames
• Interview with Sawyer on Locomotion from GameSpot