[bshipp]

Having played (and lost countless hours) Transport Tycoon Deluxe in the 90s and then OpenTTD 10 or 15 years ago, I'm just tickled that this game adaptation is still going strong.

Chris Sawyer's ability to create addictive building games that remain fun to play long after their contemporaries have ended up in the dustbin of history is superhuman, in my humble opinion. Add to the fact that he did it all in Assembly, and it's hard not to place his achievements on a bit of a pedestal.

[rightbyte]

I would say Roller Coaster Tycoon is his best design. It was just before 3D became forced mandatory for games for some reason and not a one man job any more. I mean at the same time Sim City was actually good too.

[massysett]

There are still new 2D games out there: Factorio, Dwarf Fortress. For some games 3D just doesn’t add anything of value.

[arp242]

These are much more recent games; things have bounced back and there's loads of 2D games today, but starting around the year ~2000 there was a decade or so everything had to be 3D, which often meant "3D FPS shooter", whether it made sense or not.

This often meant a regression in graphics quality (e.g. Baldur's Gate 2 vs. Neverwinter Nights) and frequently a regression in gameplay too (usually due to horrible controls and/or camera, something like Monkey Island 4 is a good example).

[Vvector]

I'd say there is still plenty of room for topdown/isometric games. Factorio for example.