As Planet Coaster Console celebrates the release of the Vintage and World’s Fair double pack, we spoke to game director Gary Richards about the inspiration behind the pack and the team’s love of theme parks. We also found out more about the pack itself, and talked about the reception Planet Coaster Console has had.
Theme Park Research And Inspiration
As with any game, one of the starting points is research and inspiration. Frontier as a studio is already familiar with theme parks, since it also made Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, and most of the team are “huge theme park fans.” Richards told us that as Planet Coaster was developed the research included “numerous visits to theme parks in the UK, USA, across Europe and even some journeying all the way to Japan!” So of course, we wanted to get specific and find out where the very best coasters outside of the game are found.
As with most theme park fans, Richards finds it difficult to narrow down his choices although he cited Disneyland in Anaheim as “such an inspiration for all coaster park builders across the world” going on to call the experience of visiting Mickey and Minnie’s home “mind-blowing.” Expanding a little he tells us how, due to being a UK studio, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, and Blackpool Pleasure Beach are all firm favorites of the team, while some prefer Disneyland Paris, which is accessible from the UK by train.
These British theme parks will no doubt be familiar to anyone on the same side of the pond as Frontier, but if you’re trying to imagine the scale they are similar to Six Flags or Hershey Park, rather than Disneyland and Universal Studios. Over the years they’ve all evolved and while this Brit was disappointed that there was no mention of my local theme park, the long-since closed Camelot that had jousting knights to accompany its coasters, they do have some very unique rides.
Alton Towers is currently home to a coaster called Wicker Man but where it stands used to be a log flume, specifically the longest log flume in the world at the time of opening. Richards cites this as a childhood favorite saying he has “fond memories of family visits during the summer holidays.” The reason for enjoying the more sedate rides stems from his fear of heights which he says “tends to rule out some of the more extreme vertical coasters, such as The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.” This means that while he loves “the engineering and design behind making a thrilling rollercoaster that doesn’t make everyone nauseous” in terms of riding coasters he prefers the aforementioned log flume or “a flatter runaway train style ride.”
Planet Coaster also shows its real-life theme park love by working with parks to include specific rides including Cedar Point’s Steel Vengeance and Carowinds Copperhead Strike.
World’s Fair Brings World Foods As Well As Décor
Moving onto the new DLC, we specifically asked about the inspiration for the World’s Fair pack and how the team decided which regions to highlight. Richards told us “As with every DLC pack, we’re always keen to look at what the community is building in their parks, and with players across the world, it was no surprise that there was a lot of international inspiration.” Expanding he says, “We saw that many players were creating Asia-inspired blueprints and parks, so we set about making it easier to construct these themed aspects in their parks, it’s one of the reasons for the large tiled roof set.”
You can see the heavy Asian inspiration in the range of both Chinese and Japanese assets. Different sets of stores, shells, and decorative items evoke both cultures well and reflect an aesthetic that has been missing in the game.
Alongside the décor, this pack focuses on introducing new street foods. Speaking about the team’s desire to add new cuisine, Richards says that the multicultural approach allowed the team to “create Planet Coaster style brands to suit.” He continues “Mexico and Spain are good examples where we could build upon what was already available in the base game to create compelling new content that fits into those regions and gives players greater creative options for their parks.”
However, there are far more options than just those two. Richards says “We’ve introduced all-new shopping brands, which add food and drink options from all over the world. This includes new stores, signs, and vending machines for German sausages, Mexican burritos, freshly baked French breads, Japanese sushi, Italian gelato, and much more! This is as well as the all-new Vintage takes on many of the Planet Coaster shopping brands you already know and love!”
Everyone Loves A Rollercoaster And A New Platform To Ride It On
One of the highlights of the pack is the dueling coasters. Richards explains the beauty of them saying “Different coasters stations have the ability to be linked together so their launches can be synced which each other. This allows you to create multiple tracks that twist, turn and coil around each other and watch the coaster cars hurtle along your creation in sync, or you can delay the launches to create a ‘race and chase’ spectacle.” For those who struggle to build coasters, you’ll be relieved to know that “There’s a fantastic blueprint of a dueling coaster that comes with the World’s Fair Pack to help people get started.”
Finally, we got specific asking about Planet Coaster Console, and how content is transferred to the new platform. While the core game is the same, Planet Coaster Console has a completely unique UI and control system which means making things multi-platform may not be as easy as it sounds.
Talking about expansion development, Richards says “Expansions are developed in the same way as the base game, we have a set of quality and performance guidelines which the content team all work towards, to ensure the same high quality across all platforms. Each platform has its own memory, performance, and graphical settings which our internally developed Cobra engine uses to ensure the best possible user experience regardless of the platform you’re playing on”
Planet Coaster Console comes as a result of previous successful console adaptations of Frontier sim games, specifically Jurassic World Evolution. Richards says “We always wanted to bring Planet Coaster to console players, and with the fabulous response we got from Jurassic World Evolution, it was clear there was an appetite for these types of game on console.”
A straight copy of a game like Planet Coaster just isn’t possible for a game of this type and the team knew it. “We knew that it needed to be more than just a port” Richards says. “So, we completely redesigned the controls and UI from the ground up to ensure that it was easy to play on a gamepad, whilst retaining the depth, charm, and sophistication of the original.”
The game also required the team to develop the Frontier Workshop, its own version of the Steam Workshop which PC players used to share creations and blueprints. This has been a great way for the console community to connect as Richards tells us “There’s already been a huge amount of player-created content shared and downloaded, it’s been a joy to watch our Planet Coaster Console community grow and inspire each other with all their amazing creations.”
As the Planet Coaster Console community continues to grow, the World’s Fair and Vintage Pack is likely to be just one of many DLC packs coming to the game.
Thank you to Gary Richards for taking the time to speak to us. Planet Coaster Console: World’s Fair & Vintage DLC is now available on Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PS4, and PS5.
Next: Planet Coaster Console Vintage & World’s Fair Pack: Different Focuses That Work Well Together
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Helen began playing games at an early age with her first computer being a hand-me-down Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It didn’t put her off… She is all grown up now but is still a gamer at heart, especially when it comes to The Sims and other strategy and simulation games.
She juggles the daily demands of life with a family and somehow still finds the time to indulge her two passions in life, writing and gaming; sometimes both at the same time.
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