One of the A-list titles we are anticipating (and the first of MacSoft's recent Take Two acquisitions to be published) this late Spring is Tropico, a truly unique title from the creators of Railroad Tycoon II. Phil Steinmyer of Pop Top took some time out from his work on the Mac version of this title to talk with IMG about the game, the Mac OS and OS X versions, and the future. Here is a sample:

IMG: What is your favorite part of Tropico?

Steinmeyer: The people. Most strategy games ignore the personalities of the people in the game - you have knights and orcs and peons, and the only differentiation between them is how many hit points they have. For Tropico's political and social elements to work, we needed deep, realistic people. Each person in Tropico has over 50 unique characteristics - from innate qualities like their intelligence and courage, to their immediate needs like their hunger and rest level, to things like their political views and level of religious belief, to family relationships - if you assassinate Pedro's brother, Pedro will probably not be too happy with you in the future.

I think part of the reason the Sims has been such a hit is that gamers like to see people acting realistically - not robots with flesh, the way most games treat people - Tropico has that Sims-feel to it's people, but we have a lot more people in our world 200-500 by the end of the game.

IMG: What's the release timeline for Tropico on the Mac, now that you're distributing through MacSoft?

Steinmeyer: We expect to Gold Master the game in early June, so Tropico should probably be on the streets in early July - definitely ahead of MacWorld.

Feature: Interview with PopTop's Phil Steinmeyer

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