God game, or God sim, is a prominent branch of RTS where the player is placed in the seat of God or other similar higher power, sometimes as low as city managemnt (Sim City). The main difference between traditional RTS games, such as Command & Conquer and Warzone 2100, is the lack of direct control over units and the total automation of similar entities in-game. While some Godsim games use AI to determine the actions of such units (the Sims), Many choose to enact changes in the game through dice rolls and statistics, representing the resultant data through representetive animations (Sim City).

The genre became popular with the release of Populous, developed by Peter Molyneux, one of the highest rated god games to date. Since the late 1980s there have been improvements on the genre including better graphics and more in-depth AI modelling. Caesar III, Pharoh and other similar games by Sierra bridged the small gap between RTS and god game by introducing the barracks where military troops could be trained to defend the city from attacks or be sent to aid Caesar in his conquest of North Africa and Europe. Its implementation, however, was clumsy and it did very little to add to the gameplay.

Peter Molyneux's involvement with the god game genre is unprecidented, with the Populous series alongside Black & White, however his upcoming title; Godus has been met with less than good reviews of pre-release gameplay. Having said this, the god game genre thrives on titles like The Sims, which is as popular as ever.