How Planet Coaster 2 Devs Use Community Feedback to Create a Stronger Sequel

Important points

• Planet Coaster 2 features water park attractions. Respond to community requests and expand the scope of roller coaster gameplay
• Improved customization options include riding scenery and object scaling.
• The game caters to both management-focused and design-focused players. It has tutorials and pre-built options for all experience levels.

Theme Hospital, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Zoo Tycoon were all essentials from my childhood. They give me time to enjoy. has a strange charm With picking up guests and trying to kill them. and the inability to visit a real-world theme park or zoo (hospital, not so much) without judging every aspect of it. I couldn't help but walk around thinking, 'I'll decorate that maintenance hut with decorations.' There should be a bench on this path. This shouldn't be the end. Why isn't there a trash can in sight?

Being able to visit various tourist attractions It also gives me the motivation to go home and start building the theme park or zoo of my dreams. I recently visited (pretty good) Thorpe Park with Frontier Developments to try out Planet Coaster 2 and as well as exploring the park. My visit also made me crave some good old business management games. Great, Planet Coaster 2 launches on November 6th.

Planet Coaster 2 builds on its predecessor. By presenting a familiar playing style But there's a new selling point, including water park attractions. Pools, thrilling water rides, and more can get your guests wet. Planet Coaster 2 game director Richard Newbold told me, “A water park has been a request from the community for a long time,” but it was something the team wanted to include to build on the foundation of the existing roller coaster.

In addition to adding elements to the water park There are also some notable improvements, such as a new depth to the detail you can get from customization. Now you can really add decorations to everything. Even a roller coaster cart You can add firefighting jets to really get the ride going. Will Health and Safety approve it? Probably not. Does it look really cool? definitely.

“In the original version of Planet Coaster We saw a lot of amazing creativity that players brought to the system we had,” Newbold told me. Navigating themes We put them together, blueprint them, and share them. In this sequel, we want to build on that, adding more themes, creativity, and creativity. and new functionality”

In addition to the ability to add scenery pieces directly to player cards and coasters, Planet Coaster 2 also introduces scaling to allow players to change the size of scenery pieces. This is a highly requested feature from the community. Customization options have been improved, Newbold told me the team. “Can't wait to see what people can do with those and combine them,” such as “the ability to change the color of objects and new themed pieces. Attaching it to the player The first flat player blueprint. Which you couldn't do in the original version.”

As for some of the rides, Newbold describes them as “theme-free” from the original Planet Coaster. Removing some of the themes surrounding the ride, such as teacups, means that players can create their own theme with a variety of creative options in Planet Coaster. 2

Whether or not these cute creative options will be expanded post-launch, Newbold stressed that the team “Consider the various parts In games we might want to focus primarily on But for the launch We've really focused on that. management system and creativity system as well We are making sure that when the game launches The game will have a lot of great things for you to experience. Whether it be creativity or running a successful theme park.”

Planet Coaster 2 is very similar to the original game. Provides a different gaming experience If you like management You can use pre-made blueprints to create your park without worrying about all the little details. However, if you like depth and design being able to choose every little element of your park. This is a designer's dream playground.

Newbold told me he was. He is more of a “management gamer”, better at park management than intricate design. He will “use other people's creativity” by looking at blueprints others have made and learning from them to create his blueprints. myself He also told me that his favorite rides are flat rides because he likes to create themed areas.”[Flat rides are] It's more of a two-dimensional thing. It allows me to plan my park in a visual way that, for me, I can understand a little more and plan.”

As someone who equally suffers from a lack of design skills, I completely agree. Nothing reminded me of my failures in ride design more than during my trial run on Planet Coaster 2, where I made a roller coaster too scary for anyone to ride. I need time to fix it. (with help from helpful Frontier employees) rather than building it from scratch. I'm terrible at it. What do you mean people don't want to experience the extreme G-Force in my amazing ride?

Because Planet Coaster 2 is a very in-depth game. So it might be very useful for players to understand. Especially if they are new to the series. or even the genre as a whole. However, Planet Coaster 2 has a number of features to ensure that all players can enjoy theme park building. Regardless of experience or design skills.

“The tutorial will teach you the basics of the theme park. building a water park [and] We even have a help screen,” Newbold tells me. “We have blueprints ready for people to place quickly. So if you are interested in the details of building a roller coaster from scratch. You can use those to fulfill your desires and make some guests really happy.

“But if you look at how it was made, Or know what you're doing Or want to go deeper? You also have access to in-depth management of those creative systems. So let's see what's possible. We have a lot of basics to start with. But for those who have experience They can dive into creating something from scratch and get all the details. But we have those blueprints to get people to it faster.”

Newbold has been a fan of business management sims since he was a child. And his own experiences have helped shape his work as a game director. “Theme Park was the first game I played that showed how much enjoyment I could have as a player in adjusting prices and details. A little bit of the administration To make sure my guests are happy. And make sure there's enough salt on my chips. Details like that.”

Appreciating this level of detail made him realize that his fan base Most sweat the small stuff, too, so while some players may overlook these elements entirely, Newbold adds, “We don't want to not have that because there's such a huge audience. Love that detail.” He says the customization and creativity options are the same. As for whoever wants it, come. For those who don't There's a blueprint.

Some of the team behind Theme Park founded Two Point Studios, which recently launched its next business sim, Two Point Museum. However, Newbold tells me that the Frontier team isn't worried about Two Point releasing a theme park game.

“It shows that there is still passion for this type of game. [whether] Is it a developer or a player? It shows that over the past few decades These games resonate loudly. They resonated with us when we were kids. But now they still resonate with people. It shows that there's a lot of passion in the development side and in the community of people who buy these products. For us, it's always great to see more management games in the industry. Because it shows there's an appetite and it's great to see how people are tackling the same type of problem in different ways.”

Because Frontier Developments has so many management simulation games under its brand, Newbold told me that “there's a lot of cross-cohort learning we have at Frontier about all the different types of management games,” even though some developers are working on individual pros. project, but others also share projects or move from one place to another between rounds. “We bring that experience to solving similar systems or similar problems. Then we had a conversation. This worked very well for this game. But it will work well with this game on these systems that we have.”

One example he points out in particular is that F1 Manager is a more UI-heavy game, so the team took that experience into consideration when creating the UI for Planet Coaster 2. “We used different games. We're always in development at Frontier to capture that learning and see it align with the game we have on hand. But also the experience we have.”

Whether you are like me and like to break pre-built things and get your park ready to use. (and make money) or do you prefer to customize every inch of your park to your own imaginative design? You can release Get creative again as Planet Coaster 2 launches on November 6th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.