Born in India but raised in the UK, Julian Gollop became fascinated with board games as a teenager, and saw computers as a way of disguising rules that were too complicated for a tabletop game. At the age of eighteen, he created his first video game, Time Lords (1983) on BBC Micro.

He then went on to ZX Spectrum for turn-based tactical strategy games Rebelstar Raiders (1984) and Chaos: The Battle of Wizards (1985), the latter being published by Games Workshop based on his own 1982 board game. In 1988, Julian Gollop founded Target Games - later known as Mythos Games - and comes out Rebelstar IIand then developed the concept with Laser Squad(1988), which itself laid the foundations for the future X-COM: UFO Defense (1994). The latter was almost cancelled twice during its lengthy development, but proved to be a commercial success on release and is still regarded today as one of the best PC games ever created.

Of the many sequels and variations on the franchise, Julian Gollop designed only the third episode, X-COM: Apocalypse (1997), which unfortunately failed to live up to its ambitious initial concept. Julian and his brother Nick try in vain to create a remake in 2001, which led to the bankruptcy of Mythos Games, even though elements of the unfinished project were acquired by Altar Games to produce UFO: Aftermath.

Julian Gollop then founded Codo Technologies and comes out Laser Squad Nemesis (2002) and Rebelstar: Tactical Command (2005), then decided to move to Bulgaria to take a break from game design. But he eventually missed it and joined Ubisoft Sofia in 2006, where he worked on Chessmaster (2008), Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars(2011) - one of the best games at the launch of the Nintendo 3DS - and Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (2012) as creative director. He has since returned to strategy games with Chaos Reborna sequel to its 1985 game, financed through a participatory approach.