Christopher Sawyer is a Scottish video game designer and programmer.
21 Facts About Chris Sawyer
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Chris Sawyer is best known for creating Transport Tycoon, which has been considered "one of the most important simulation games ever made", and the best-selling RollerCoaster Tycoon series.
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Chris Sawyer had an interest in computers and programming from an early age, writing simple scripts in BASIC on a ZX81 at a local store in Doune.
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Chris Sawyer graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Microprocessor Systems from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
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Chris Sawyer began to write games in Z80 machine code on his Memotech MTX home computer and then later on an Amstrad CPC series home computer.
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Chris Sawyer sent tapes containing his games to Memotech, who arranged first publications of his titles.
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Chris Sawyer faced issues with Megastar failing to pay him royalties on continued sales of his games, and the revenue was only enough to buy him a disk drive and printer.
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From 1988 to 1993, Chris Sawyer worked on MS-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.
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The title sold well, and Chris Sawyer immediately sought to create a sequel.
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Chris Sawyer had been interested in the engineering aspect of roller coasters for some years, but had only ridden a handful of them, including Wild Mouse at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Thunder Loop Express at Loudoun Castle.
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Chris Sawyer developed the game in x86 assembly language by himself, using only the services of freelance graphic designer Simon Foster and composer Allister Brimble.
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Chris Sawyer later used some of the revenue from Transport Tycoon to travel across Europe and the United States, and developed a lifelong interest in roller coasters.
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Chris Sawyer served as a consultant for Atari in the development of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, which was designed by Frontier Developments and released later in 2004.
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Chris Sawyer had understood that further development of the franchise would require 3D graphics but was not interested and left the work to Frontier.
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In November 2005, Chris Sawyer sued Atari, claiming that they had failed to pay him certain royalties.
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Chris Sawyer continued to work with Origin8 to bring the first two RollerCoaster Tycoon games into RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic released for mobile in December 2016.
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Chris Sawyer has little involvement with these titles, beyond playing the occasional build.
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In 2022, Chris Sawyer extended Atari's rights to the franchise for another decade.
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On 1 November 2024 it was announced that Chris Sawyer had entered into an agreement with Atari to allow them to acquire the Transport Tycoon intellectual property.
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Chris Sawyer has expressed a dislike of modern 3D graphics, describing this as a reason he let Frontier develop RollerCoaster Tycoon 3.
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Chris Sawyer gave his favourites as Taron, Zadra, Balder, and Ravine Flyer II.