Hi SPRidley
"One is more asking as a fellow artist and game designer, how was the jump into creating the 2D expansions or RCT2, and your work as lead artist, to working in 3D with RCT3. I suppose it was huge, but I would love if you could get more into detail about the whole experience and how you and the team tackled it."
I'd been making games for quite a few years before I started the work on RCT2 which covered both 2D and 3D development but I'd never dealt with something quite as technically challenging as working with RCT2. Half the development was technical implementation which was not so much the case on 3D games. We created thousands of tiny sprites which needed to have every rotation and twist from every angle for the coasters to work correctly. It was very challenging but very rewarding. When we first started RCT3 the task ahead of us was immense - To turn a 2D, sprite-based game into 3D and to increase the content, enhance the gameplay as well as make it look beautiful was a scary task. But we had a lot of very experienced people on the team (a significant number who are now working on Planet Coaster) which really made RCT3 a great success. In terms of the most amazing development experience, RTC3 is only seconded to working on Planet Coaster.
"The other is about Planet Coaster. We've seen some amazing concept art of really advanced coaster parts you are working on. Like the B&M suspended chainlifts motor section, the B&M coaster gates opening station, or the brakes section having full realistic suports. My question is, how are you going to implement all this advanced coaster parts. Are they built automatically while building the coaster, or its placement of them somewhat different and/or optional."
The aim for us is that every coaster you build will reel as functionally correct as any coaster you'd find in real-life. This is incredibly challenging task but we have our brightest minds on creating an automatic system that can build the correct configuration of pieces and elements that's seamless and beautiful. I'm very passionate about all the rides construction (you might have noticed [squeeeeee]) and especially of the track construction. I also understand that if you don't have all the correct pieces in the right places the tracks will just look and feel wrong.. Even people who are not big fans of coaster engineering can tell when something is not right because it's all about the supporting details that help paint the bigger picture.
Ultimately this is a game and we can only go so far when trying to recreate real-life, coasters come in sooooo many different configurations and change so often so in some cases it'd be totally impractical and restrictive to emulate how some coaster elements behave. We're taking what we believe is the best route that'll offer the biggest variety and reward for players who are both enthusiasts and casual.
We've come a long way so far and have still got a long way to go before we'll be finished with the coaster construction as a whole, but we are taking our time as it's really complicated and we want to to ensure we get it right.
"I would have liked to know if there could be some on board system we could add music to the coasters, but we already know sadly custom music is out, so I dont know if you could answer any of that."
I've covered this in a previous post me thinks [yesnod]
It's always a pleasure to speak to another artist, thanks for the great questions! [up]
