Utopia: The Creation of a Nation is a strategy video game. It was developed by Celestial Software and published by Gremlin Graphics (later known as Gremlin Interactive

Gremlin Interactive

Gremlin Interactive was a British software house based in Sheffield and working mostly in the home computer market.- History :...

), in 1991

1991 in video gaming

-Notable releases:*Microprose creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game .*Electronic Arts releases James Pond 2 and Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the 1990s....

 for Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

, Atari ST

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

 and MS-DOS

MS-DOS

MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

. It was later released for the Super NES

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

 in 1993

1993 in video gaming

-Events:*March — In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super PLAY starts. The original name is Super Power.*Midway Games embroiled in controversy for its game Mortal Kombat from 1992 when the game is launched for video game consoles in 1993....

, by Jaleco

Jaleco

is a Japanese video game publisher and developer established in 2006.The original Jaleco Ltd was founded in 1974. In 2006, it decided to become a pure holding company by renaming itself Jaleco Holding and splitting its video game operations into a newly created subsdiary that took its former name...

 in the USA. This release made use of Nintendo's SNES mouse

SNES Mouse

The Super NES Mouse is a peripheral released by Nintendo in 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . Originally designed for use with the game Mario Paint, the SNES Mouse was sold in a bundle with the game and included a plastic mouse pad...

.

The game, taking place in the future, on a new planet

Planet

A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...

, is open-ended.

It is the player's task to colonize the new planet, manage the colony

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

 and raise the quality of life for the citizen in order to reach utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

.

Initially the player has a few colonists with a lot to do. The player needs to build everything from scratch. Building takes time and free colonists, in addition to money. Buildings under construction are depicted by scaffold

Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a temporary structure used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures. It is usually a modular system of metal pipes or tubes, although it can be from other materials...

.

However certain buildings require personnel (hospitals, labs, mines, factories, shipyards ...) and therefore the player has to engage in population management. The player also has to micromanage

Micromanagement (computer gaming)

In gaming, micromanagement describes minor, detailed gameplay elements that must be manually addressed by the player. It appears in a wide range of games including strategy video games, construction and management simulations and pet-raising simulations...

 features such as tax rate

Tax

To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...

, birth rate

Birth rate

Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...

 and trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

.

In addition, each world also has a competing alien race which is trying to colonize the same planet. There is no option to form alliances, which means that the player's population must come into conflict with the aliens. The player never actually gets to see the alien city, as it is located outside the playable map, but must instead rely on espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 to find out what the aliens and their city look like.

Scenarios

Utopia includes ten scenarios, all with a different planet and a different alien race. The scenarios are named according to the alien races:

Eldorians, Vroarscans, Soomanii, Kal-Kriken, Catalytes, Squiz-Quijy, Pascalenes, Tilikanthua, Vanacancia and Lucratians.

A data disk

Expansion pack

An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...

 called Utopia: The new worlds was later released by Gremlin. This disk required the original Utopia and could not be played as a stand-alone game. It included the following scenarios:

Foralbo, Parillatians, Chevanno, Old-Worlders, Sarturians, Sal-Kadeem, Rako-Gorda, Key-Guardians, Darjakr'Ul and Temarkians.

The "Old-Worlders" were said to be humans, coming from Earth's earlier attempt to colonize the same planet. In practice, they were handled just as another hostile alien race. The terrain of the Sal-Kadeem planet was unique in that it was mostly covered with silver-colored oil that was impossible to build on. Buildings were restricted to tiny patches of habitable land.

Buildings

• Chemical plant: Build these on fuel deposits to extract fuel.
• Command Centre: Needed for several vital colony functions, such as research, trade, and vehicle construction.
• Compressed fuel tank (invention): Stores more fuel than the normal fuel tank.
• Flux pod: Stores and distributes power. Must be built next to another building. All buildings must be within twelve squares from a flux pod.
• Fuel tank: Stores fuel.
• HDX missile (invention): A more powerful version of the missile.
• Hospital: New colonists are born here.
• Hydroponics: Grows food.
• Laboratory: Your researchers work here.
• Land mine (invention): Destroys most land-based enemy vehicles passing over it.
• Landing pad: Allows ships landing on it to refuel, provided there's a fuel tank nearby.
• Laser turret: Fires on enemy invaders on sight.
• Life support: Converts the planet's unbreathable atmosphere to human-breathable air.
• Living quarters: Your colonists live here.
• Long-distance radar (invention): Detects enemy vehicles within a wider radius than the normal radar.
• Matter transporter (invention): Allows ships to refuel in flight.
• Mine: Build these on ore deposits to mine ore.
• Missile: When fired, locks on to the nearest enemy vehicle and destroys it on contact.
• MORGRO hydroponics (invention): Grows more food than the normal hydroponics.
• Plasma gun (invention): A more powerful version of the laser gun.
• Power plant: Provides a constant source of power.
• Radar: Detects enemy vehicles.
• Security HQ: Cuts down crime and helps to keep the morale up.
• Ship yard: Builds spaceships.
• Solar converter (invention): Provides more electricity than the normal solar panel.
• Solar panel: Provides electricity from the sun.
• Space moss converter (invention): Build these on space moss, a pinkish moss that grows on all planets. It extracts chemicals from the moss and converts them to breathable air.
• Sports complex: Can be used to briefly boost the morale.
• Store: Stores food and ore.
• Tank teleport (invention): Teleports tanks standing on top of it directly to their destinations.
• Tank yard: Builds tanks.
• Weapons plant: Builds weapons. Needed for vehicle construction.
• Workshop: Produces tech goods, which are useless in the colony, but valuable trading objects.

Vehicles

• Tank: Land-based vehicle. Will only move on habitable surface. Does not use fuel.
• Hover tank (invention): A variation of the tank that can pass over flat obstructions, but will still stop at mountains or chasms.
• Explorer: Non-armed civilian spaceship. Can construct new landing pads far away from the colony.
• Fighter: A small, lightly armed military spaceship.
• Assault craft: A slightly heavier-armed spaceship.
• Cruiser: A large, heavily armed military spaceship.
• Fusion cruiser (invention): A variation of the cruiser that never needs any fuel.
• Warship: The largest and most powerful military spaceship.

Bugs

• It is possible to build Fusion Cruisers before they have been invented. In addition, this way they are free of cost, and only take one month to build. This can be done simply by clicking the empty space (where the Fusion Cruiser will appear when it's been invented) in the ship selection menu.
• If you access a ship's control panel while the ship is launching, the ship will keep launching perpetually. This happens even if you exit the panel immediately without giving the ship any orders. The ship will fly off the top of the screen and reappear at the bottom, corrupting the graphics and perhaps eventually crashing the game.

Successors

Utopia was succeeded by K240

K240

K240 is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd in 1994 for the Amiga. It is a sequel to 1991 Amiga game Utopia: The Creation of a Nation.-Story:...

, which carried the colonization idea over to an asteroid belt

Asteroid belt

The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...

. The most prominent improvement was that in K240, the alien race was no longer off the map, but its cities could be viewed the same way as the player's. K240 was in turn succeeded by Fragile Allegiance

Fragile Allegiance

Fragile Allegiance is an open-ended 4X real-time strategy game from Gremlin Interactive, released in 1996 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. The game begins on May 25, 2496 as the player begins their employment with TetraCorp who have set up a new asteroid mining franchise operation in the Fragmented...

, further refining the idea of colonizing an asteroid belt.