Editing Transport Tycoon (section)

==Development==
Having been playing ''[[Railroad Tycoon (video game)|Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon]]'', ''[[Populous (video game)|Populous]]'' and ''[[SimCity]]'',<ref name="AA2018">{{Cite web|url=https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/chris-sawyer-interview/|title=Chris Sawyer (Transport Tycoon/RollerCoaster Tycoon) – Interview|website=Arcade Attack|date=August 9, 2018|access-date=May 17, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202224743/https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/chris-sawyer-interview/|archive-date=Dec 2, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Wired2013">{{cite web|url=https://www.wired.com/story/chris-sawyer-transport-tycoon/|title=Enigmatic developer Chris Sawyer on remaking Transport Tycoon for mobile devices|last=Faraday|first=Owen|website=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|date=September 20, 2013|access-date=May 18, 2025|archive-url=https://archive.today/20240325004857/https://www.wired.com/story/chris-sawyer-transport-tycoon/|archive-date=March 25, 2024}}</ref> Chris Sawyer began exploring ideas and prototypes for a transport simulation game as early as October 1992,<ref name="CGR">{{cite magazine|date=January 1995|title=What about all of the unemployed horses?|volume=4|issue=6|magazine=[[Computer Game Review]]|location=[[Lombard, Illinois]]|publisher=Sendai Publishing}}</ref><ref name="Wired2013" /> using his own isometric game engine he had developed in his spare time.<ref name="AA2018" /> For Sawyer, the game, known originally as ''Chris Sawyer's Transport Game'' or ''Interactive Transport Simulation'', started off as a way to contend with the monotony of his [[Video game conversion|game conversion]] work.<ref name="RetroGamer">{{cite magazine|date=2015|title=In the chair with Chris Sawyer|url=https://archive.org/details/Retro-Gamer-UK-2015/Retro%20Gamer%20UK%20138/page/94/mode/2up?q=%22Transport+Tycoon%22|volume=|issue=138|number=|pages=92-97|magazine=[[Retro Gamer]]|location=[[United Kingdom]]|publisher=[[Imagine Publishing]]|access-date=May 19, 2025}}</ref> It also would allow him to combine his love for open ended simulation games and trains, he began with adding them into the game world alongside other vehicles.<ref name="AA2018" /> Sawyer wanted "little vehicles all going about their business", where both playing and observing the action is enjoyable.<ref name="Wired2013" /> ''Transport Tycoon'' was entirely written in [[x86 assembly language]], Sawyer has stated that he prefers to write in a [[low-level programming language]] as oppose to a [[high-level programming language]] like [[C (programming language)|C]] as he wants to know what every function does in complete detail and to optimise for efficiency.<ref name="RetroGamer" /> He claimed that working in assembly code allowed him to add more complexity to game, as it allowed him to optimize the workload on the [[Central processing unit|processor]] better.<ref name="RetroGamer" />

Over the course of development, Sawyer in addition to adding different modes of transport, he implemented various different worlds and a basic economic mechanic to earn money, one that was even more simple than the one in Railroad Tycoon.<ref name="AA2018" /> The time period was set from 1930 to 2030, as this would according to Sawyer lead to "greatest variety of train and vehicle type" and that 100 years per playthrough felt right. It would give players 30 years of steam trains followed-up by diesel and electric trains, and ending with high-tech monorails.<ref name="PCGamer1995">{{cite magazine|last=MacDonald|first=T. Liam|date=January 1995|title=Cover Feature - Planes. Trains Automobiles. and Ships, too|url=https://archive.org/details/UneditedPCGamer_marktrade/PC_Gamer_008u/page/n49/mode/2up?q=%22Transport+Tycoon%22|volume=2|number=1|pages=48-55|magazine=[[PC Gamer]]|location=|publisher=GP Publications|access-date=May 20, 2025}}</ref> Creating a challenging [[Artificial intelligence in video games|artificial intelligence]] was of paramount importance for Sawyer. He considered it the most challenging element to program, he would spend hours playing the game on his own figuring out the best strategies a human player would use and then building algorithms that simulate those aforementioned strategies for the opponent companies.<ref name="PCGamer1995" />

Jacqui Lyons, Sawyer's business agent,<ref name="Eurogamer2016">{{cite web|url=https://www.eurogamer.net/a-big-interview-with-chris-sawyer-the-creator-of-rollercoaster-tycoon|title=A big interview with Chris Sawyer, the creator of RollerCoaster Tycoon|last=Yin-Poole|first=Wesley|website=[[Eurogamer]]|date=March 3, 2016|access-date=May 20, 2025|archive-url=https://archive.today/20231025221508/https://www.eurogamer.net/a-big-interview-with-chris-sawyer-the-creator-of-rollercoaster-tycoon|archive-date=October 25, 2023}}</ref> approached a number of video game publishers with a half-finished version of the game.<ref name="AA2018" /> Sawyer would leverage his preexisting relationship as a work-for-hire programmer with MicroProse, to convince them to take a chance on a game.<ref name="Wired2013" /> Following a productive meeting with MicroProse, Sawyer agreed to sign with them to publish the game, as he found the team at MicroProse more supportive. Ultimately, they would publish the game, which included changing the name to ''Transport Tycoon'', where it would sit alongside their ''[[Railroad Tycoon]]'' franchise. When he signed the contract with MicroProse, the railroad parts were already nearly finished. Originally, a producer at MicroProse set the timetable of two years for the rest of development, but Sawyer managed to get the game in shippable state in 4-5 months, although he had to cut some content and ideas. Some of these were later included in the deluxe edition.<ref name="AA2018" /> MicroProse had very little input on the game itself, most of their suggestions were either unfeasible or ignored. On a suggestion of Sawyer, the game contains a few easter eggs referencing other MicroProse games.<ref name="RetroGamer" /> 

By the time Sawyer had finished up his last game conversion contracts, he had created a full-fledged version of the game in low resolution with his own crudely hand-drawn graphics. He decided to spend all of his time for a couple of months on the project and see how much progress he would make. The low quality [[bitmaps]] Sawyer drew were replaced by Simon Foster, an artist he had met around that time. Foster recreated the art of the trains, trucks, buildings and scenery with high-resolution bitmaps. This was made possible by newly released graphic cards with the ability to render 8-bit graphics which allowed them to render the redone art and sound.<ref name="AA2018" /><ref name="RetroGamer" /> Within several months the game was almost hundred percent complete and would be shown to MicroProse.<ref name="RetroGamer" />