This article has a talk page!This page details pre-release information and/or media for Populous: The Beginning.
Populous: The Beginning went through at least two major iterations, with pre-release materials revealing a pre-alpha design that was seemingly more complex with many objects and ideas scrapped for the more streamlined final game.
Press Kit#
As with many Bullfrog games, there was a press kit of early pre-alpha screenshots sent to games magazines. These are collected on the CD of Issue 44 (August 1997) of the Czech Score magazine. Some of them have the text "4/29/97" appended to them, so they presumably were created on that date. The first three images were included alone on the previous issue's CD, so it makes sense to assume the rest are indeed from a later build as labelled.
Magazine Coverage#
PC Gamer (UK) 44 - June 1997#
An early preview article on the game, including pictures from the press kit. It confirms the game was called Populous: The Third Coming at this point in development. Interesingly, while the images show the early medicine man character, the text does refer to them as the shaman and mentions it's a he. The article states there will be 30 levels and "bonus" levels (like in Dungeon Keeper?), unlike the final's mere 25 levels and no bonus levels at all. It's confirmed the game is only at the pre-alpha stage at this point, and the cut plague spell is specifically listed as being a feature of the game. Finally, the article (correctly) skeptically reports the game was intended for release in September of that year.
Computer Games Strategy Plus - November 1997#
A slightly later preview article. Notably the shaman is confirmed to now be female, and a red shaman with the cut early mask design is visible in a newer build screenshot in the article. There are several cut ideas mentioned, such as another mention of the cut plague spell, and a snippet that Spies could see into buildings to show how many/which characters were inside. It also claims "A drum tower will attract wild men from the surrounding area so you won't have to hunt them down to convert them" - explaining why the final game guard towers are inexplicably represented by an icon of someone beating a drum. The progression of units described here is different to the final game: It's said braves can be converted to either priests or warriors as in the final game, but only warriors can be promoted to "super warriors" (confirmed in the game's debug names to be the early name for fire warriors). It's also said that the single player game will be somewhat non-linear and the player can quit difficult levels and return to them later once the shaman has acquired better spells "without losing any progress she made", something not possible in the final game. Finally there are also several references to "meteor storms" which just seems to be an early name for the final game's Firestorm spell.
The article was also printed on the magazine's website, including the new screenshot of the shaman above that was not included in the original press kit (as it's clearly from after that phase of development).
(Source: freelance)
PC Gamer (UK) 51 - Christmas 1997#
A follow up preview on the game. This features a lot of stills from what is now known to be the original scrapped CGI intro sequence, as available on YouTube. It also includes an interesting screenshot showing clearly what appears to be the first attempt at the game's GUI, as also seen in the 1997 E3 footage. The article has some interesting tidbits, including expanding on the claim from the previous PC Gamer preview to now explicitly state it would feature 6 secret bonus levels and 24 regular levels, and once again reiterating Drum Towers would be needed to draw in wild men (and that killed braves would reincarnate as wild men). The cut first design of the female Shaman is visible in screenshots.
IGN - October 1998#
IGN posted a preview of the game shortly before release in October 1998. While not terribly interesting in the main, the game's producer Stuart Whyte confirms exactly why the plague spell was cut: "we did have a disease that people passed on to one another, but it just became too frustrating in actual practice."
Videos#
Pre-Alpha Build#
This odd silent video from the cover CD of the September 1997 issue of Edge magazine shows the pre-alpha build of the game in action, with the medicine man on display, and lots of early building designs. Interestingly the medicine man seems to act as some kind of conduit for the player's spells here, with them descended from above and then bouncing off him to then finally do their work, as shown at several places in the video where ground lowering spells are used. Also on display is a very early building picker that seems to show a kind of rotating carousel of buildings to place, and a strange spell where units seem to get beamed up into space. There are also different early spell effects visible, including different early explosion effects, and a shattering effect for destroyed buildings similar to that seen in early builds of Syndicate Wars. The game is simply referred to as "Populous 3" on the CD, and claims it would be released in September that year.
E3 Video#
Watch on YouTubeThis footage from 1997's E3 show in June that year shows an interesting early build, and is some of the only footage with an actual GUI visible for this period of development. It's interesting that at this point the interface is very reminiscent of that of Dungeon Keeper's, with a much darker looking aesthetic. It's also possible to see some of the cut early stonehenge style buildings on display.
Pre-Release Promotional Trailer#
This highly entertaining promotional video oddly begins with the Bullfrog logo from Syndicate Wars, so presumably was the only footage of the modern Bullfrog logo yet created at that time. It also shows an early build of the game in action, with the early shaman sprite in place rather than the medicine man, but with the pre-alpha buildings clearly visible.
Early Intro#
This early version of the game's CGI intro was reportedly discovered in the 2015 Climax group lot purchase. Notably it includes footage of the cut early design of the Angel of Death figure brandishing a sword at the end. It also features music not present in the final game, which has been confirmed by Russell Shaw to be the last piece of music he composed before leaving Bullfrog for Lionhead.
Release Trailer#
This trailer to promote the game's release was included on PC Gamer (UK) Cover CD 63, from the December 1998 issue. While the quality of the video is very low and seems to be from a close to final build, there are still some interesting changes to be observed in what is an earlier version of the final control panel design at around 25 seconds in. Most notably spells are in a different order and seem to use slightly different icons to the final designs. There's also some kind of change to what would normally be the mana bar above the spell icons, but the video quality is too poor to see exactly what this is. The video also makes use of clips from the above intro video as well.