Recently we had the chance to speak to various ex-Bullfrog developers about the making of Powermonger, the studio's forgotten RTS follow-up to Populous, and in the process, ended up hearing a lot of interesting stories about the game that we sadly ended up cutting from the finished article.
Among them was the fascinating story of how Powermonger originally got its name and some of the ridiculous alternatives that were suggested for the project at the same time.
According to those we spoke to, Powermonger was originally meant to be released under the title Warmonger. However, at some point during its development, the game's publisher Electronic Arts got cold feet, giving Bullfrog a litany of different reasons as to why the name needed to be changed.
This ranged from EA believing that the title was "too aggressive", to suggestions it may not go over too well in the German market. As a result, a bunch of different names were sent through to the team, some of which were previously listed in the July 1990 issue of The One Magazine. This included names like Exodus, Overlord, Food (Yep, EA wanted to name a game Food and nothing else, apparently), Ruling Force, Right To Rule, Dominator, and Conqueror.
"They sent through a list and some of them were just absolute bollocks," remembers Alex Trowers, a map editor on the game. "There was one called The Adventures of Rupert the Battlesheep, which was very specifically because you could recruit shepherds to your army and the sheep would still follow them, and also because our producer at EA was called Rupert Easterbrook. I think as a joke they had added that to the list of potential game names and thankfully we didn't end up using it."
In the end, a compromise was reached, with Bullfrog and EA coming up with Powermonger as a final replacement. However, not everyone loved the name, with the game's artist Gary Carr thinking it sounded a bit too close to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles's catchphrase Cowabunga, while the game's main programmer Glenn Corpes argued that it wasn't really a word (or at least a word still in common usage). Nevertheless, it didn't matter, as once the game was released, people ended up embracing the name not realizing that it could been titled something entirely different. This is something that apparently occurred across a bunch of different Bullfrog games over this period, with the most famous example being that Populous had originally been developed under the name Creation.
"The thing with video game names is it doesn't matter," says Trowers. "As soon as it gets out in the public consciousness and as soon enough people play it, that's just what it's called. So I learned that relatively early on. And for all of the getting upset or precious about whatever name we'd come up with at the start, it doesn't matter. Like Bullfrog is a stupid name for a game studio. But you say that now to a person of a certain age and they're like 'No, no, Bullfrog means something different.' You co-opt the name and you own the name and away you go, right."
What do you think? Would you play a game called The Adventures of Rupert the Battlesheep? Or are you more a Food fan? Let us know in the comments!