Planet Coaster 2 Interview
Recently, I was invited to play two hours of the upcoming Planet Coaster 2, where I got the opportunity to play through one Career Mode Scenario (the third chapter, Double Trouble) alongside delving into the sandbox. After my play session, I had the opportunity to have an interview with two members of Frontier Developments!
First, before we delve into the questions, I’d love for you to introduce yourselves to our readers real quick! Richard Newbold: Hi, I'm Richard Newbold; I'm the Game Director at Planet Coaster 2. Adam Woods: And I am Adam Woods, Senior Executive Producer on Planet Coaster 2.
Thank you so much for having this interview with me! We like to start with a bit of a fun question to lighten the mood before we actually begin everything, so my question to you both would be: let's say you were building your own Water Park; what would you name it?
Adam Woods: Oh, that's a really good question! Uhm, I would call it... The Woods Wicked Wet Water Park. Richard Newbold: Uhm... I would go something simple and just be like The Wet Fun Park. Something simple — I don't know, I just—— Adam Woods: Can I change my answer? The Woods Wicked Wet Wonderland! And then I've got full Ws! Richard Newbold: My park's name, following Adam's amazing alliteration, would be very functional: it would be like "The Four Flumed Water Park", and it would have exactly four water flumes. We get Four Flumes, which isn't full alliteration, but you know, it tells you exactly what you're going to get. I like that; I like being straight with people!
Usually, our audience likes really light-hearted questions, so I wanted to get that one out of the way because, to me, it's the most important — I feel it's crucial we humanise the people we're interviewing. One of my questions for you two was: what was the most challenging or fun aspect of developing Planet Coaster 2?
Richard Newbold: With Planet Coaster 2, one of the greatest and fun things we've been working on is the amazing water parks that you see and bringing that fun aspect of going to a water park and being on those flumes and those slide and bringing that in-game to our players and creating really realistic, authentic-looking water and taking that from the initial prototype to what you saw in the preview you've been playing of something that moves and reacts when our guests get in it when you add more wave machines, and the laser river jets, and having something that is really amazing to look at in-game. That's been a really great fun development opportunity we've had with Planet Coaster 2.
Alright! That perfectly leads me to my next question, which is: what went into the decision to focus on the water park theme this time around? Everywhere you look in the advertisement, it's water park everywhere, and we love it — it's very different from the original.
Adam Woods: Yeah, it's one of the headlines since we've also got lots of new creative tools as well as the new management features as well. As you say, water parks are featured very heavily, and it’s something that our incredibly wonderful and engaged community that is still playing the original Planet Coaster has been asking for [them]; they've been asking for pools, and we've been wanting to do it as well, we are all—— well, a lot of us here are big water park and theme park fans. So, it just made sense to give the opportunity to build this water park together with your rollercoaster parks and hopefully build the wonderland I've got in my mind — the Woods Wet Wicked Wonderland, hopefully!
You mentioned something great — how was it that, with the massive success that you had with Planet Coaster, how did that affect the way that you looked at making the sequel?
Richard Newbold: To make a sequel to such an amazing, original game (and one that is still being played and has done tremendously well), what we looked at were things that we wanted to bring to the game as Planet Coaster players, and as well as developers and things that we wanted to challenge us as developers but create an experience that's fun for players of Planet Coaster 2. Bringing those amazing water parks, expanding in those creative tools that we had in the first game, and making it really quick and easy to get theme parks up-and-running really quickly — we've added a lot of new blueprint capability compared to the first one. You can now build flat-ride blueprints, so it's really quick and easy to put these blueprints in as inspiration for you to then use to inspire your own parks using the more detailed, creative tools that we have that players can build up to getting.
While playing the game, I noticed that there is a lot of decoration — it's even beyond what I can imagine (which is not much, because I'm not the creative sort!), but I did notice that there were five main themes that you had: the Mythology, the Aquatic Park, the Resort, the Viking, and the Planet Coaster. What went into the decision to make these the main themes, and are there more coming?
Adam Woods: As you say, we've got five themes: we've got Resort, Viking, Mythology, Aquatic, but we also have the Planet Coaster theme, which is quite broad in its approach, as well as lots of lovely wall-set pieces and a real-nice theme around that. That also gives you access to some more of the functional scenery pieces as well which really add detail to the park. I think when we were looking at the themes, we were looking at things that would complement a rollercoaster park but also a water park. So, Vikings are obviously quite synonymous with their longboats and voyaging across the sea. Mythology is a lovely, charming way to add some magic like Medusa and the big, raging bull animatronic, which all play themselves to be interesting, charming themes that would allow players to build the theme park they want to. And, I can't wait to see how they use the themes how we've not even envisioned them and combine the pieces from the themes to make their own themes up. And not only that; you've also got the flexi colour choices on top of it, so you're not prescribed to just the one colour that we provide. Most of the pieces will have the opportunity to be recoloured however you want fit, so we are interested to see what kinds of themes players make themselves out of the first ones we're providing in the release.
The original Planet Coaster had a few DLC; is a similar post-release idea planned for Planet Coaster 2? Can you tell me about that?
Richard Newbold: We're not talking about the DLC for the game — we're just really focused on bringing all of the amazing things to the sequel to players on November 6th.
Can you tell me a little bit about what made the sequel come to life? What made the decision for you to say it was time to leave Planet Coaster behind and move forward with the sequel?
Richard Newbold: I think, this felt like the perfect time to have a sequel to Planet Coaster — we have those amazing water parks and what we can visualise and bring to life in-game with technology and learnings as well as all of the amazing improvements to those creative tools and enhancements. Adding that functionality for you to now be able to attach scenery directly onto your coasters, directly onto your rides, and all of the new management systems that the water park aspects adds to the sequel — ensuring that you have lifeguards in place to make sure that your guests don't get into trouble in your water, the new facility systems, the new utility systems with power and water and all of those challenges, along with a new game mode, our franchise mode. Being able to collaborate and work with your friends and work asynchronously in the same park, passing that between you as you work together on creating these amazing theme parks and water parks. Adam Woods: Also, real quick on that, Artura — you mention "what brings it to life", and I just wanted to give a bit of a shoutout to our team here. It's their passion, it's their enthusiasm, and it's their incredible knowledge and experience that the development team here at Frontier that we're very privileged to work with. They really bring the game to life with the detail they put into the game — it's quite incredible. And, of course, a massive shoutout to the community that is still playing and is very excited about what we're doing here as well!
Is there anything you'd like to say to your community — maybe something I didn't touch on? You have open ground to leave any message you'd like here!
Richard Newbold: I think for us, it's been amazing to see what the community have been doing with the original Planet Coaster, and we're looking forward to see how they take those creative tools and those new functionalities (the ability to scale objects, the new brushes) as well as those amazing scenery pieces that we've been talking about. Combining them in new ways that we haven't envisioned in the development team and just seeing where they take it once the game is out in November.
Adam Woods: I just wanted to give a big thank you to the community for playing and supporting us. We're looking forward to bringing Planet Coaster 2.
Unfortunately, our time ran short, and I wasn't able to ask all of the questions I would have liked. Despite that, I had a great time with the team at Frontier Developments, and I hope you enjoyed this interview!
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