The game was originally conceived by a small British video game developer company,
Mythos Games – led by
Julian Gollop – as a sequel to their 1988 science fiction tactical game
Laser Squad,
[16][17] "but with much neater graphics using an isometric style very similar to
Populous."
[18] The initial 1991
demo presented a relatively simple, two-player tactical game then known as
Laser Squad 2 (or
Laser Squad II), which ran on the
Atari ST. The Gollop brothers (Julian and Nick) approached three video game publishers,
Krisalis,
Domark and
MicroProse, eventually brokering a deal with MicroProse.
[1][19] Julian Gollop was especially happy about it because he greatly respected MicroProse and believed it was probably the best video game company in the world at the time.
[1][16]
"When we first got the contract with MicroProse we were very pleased but concerned about what they might require us to do. We did have a few arguments in the beginning because they didn’t understand the game design I had written. [...] I had a tough job trying to explain it, and I had to produce a few more documents and attend a big meeting with their in-house designers, producers and head of development."
Julian Gollop[16]
Although supportive of the project, the publisher expressed concerns that the demo lacked a grand scale in keeping with MicroProse's hit strategy game
Civilization. The Civilopedia feature of
Civilization also inspired an addition of the in-game encyclopedia, called the UFOpaedia. All that and the UFO theme was suggested by MicroProse UK head of development Pete Moreland.
[1][20] Julian Gollop's personal inspirations included several traditional games, in particular, the board wargame
Sniper! and the tabletop role-playing game
Traveller.
[1]
Ful version : wikipedia under development