Hayo coaster friends!
Can you believe it?! This Sunday is Planet Coaster's third anniversary!
Back in 2016, Planet Coaster launched on 17 November. Since then, we've had an absolutely crazy ride with you all, from creating the Thememaker's Toolkit to adding in 12 additional content packs, including the remarkable World's Fair, Magnificent Rides, Classic Rides, and Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters packs! We've had the privilege of working with the genius minds at Carowinds to introduce their Copperhead Strike into the game, and now, with the recent announcement of Planet Coaster: Console Edition, we'll get to introduce Planet Coaster to many more people. We just cannot believe the transformation the game has gone through these past few years.
You, our community, have been such an important part of our journey. Through our weekly streams, social media channels, forums and meet-ups, we've heard how memorable Planet Coaster is for you, and now we have the opportunity for the game to touch even more creative minds! We've been so lucky, and grateful, to have you as our community. Our development team have always been so inspired by our wonderful PlanCoFam, as you shared your tips, tricks and creations, and came together as a tight-knit community. It's always been a pleasure of ours to get to meet so many of you at events, and hear from you on the internet!
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the incredible Planet Coaster developers, who have dedicated hours, months and years to creating a unique rollercoaster experience. Our development team have worked hard to bring you the ultimate thrill-seeking experience, and they're excited to now bring it to consoles! Here's what they have to say to you:
"My favourite memory of Planet Coaster was the countdown we did for the release of the Magnificent Rides Collection. Knowing that the Chairlift was the final ride and seeing the positive reaction to it made my Christmas last year. Also, back when we added cleaning facilities to the game, I spent several months cleaning toilets in game!" Gameplay Programmer Rob Chisholm.
"My best Planet Coaster development story was when I walked around on stilts as reference for Pirate King. Looking ahead, I cannot wait to start playing Planet Coaster on my sofa." Head of Animation Nick Rodgers.
"I'm looking forward to seeing how people react to the effort we've put into reworking the controls and game-flow to really work on console, it's not just been a case of us porting the game. During development, I spent a lot of time launching guests through the air with errant coaster cars... for performance testing! Honest!" Principal Programmer Mark Allen.
"I'm excited to see how well the system and creativity of Planet Coaster on PC translates to the console version. I worked on the crowd library, and was able to make optimisations and adjustments to the point where I'm now the co-owner of the amazing system." Core Programmer Johan Holthausen.
"There have been many awesome moments, but getting to create the bonus level for the Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters was probably my favourite. Abandoned 'haunted' parks are a theme that comes up a lot in fiction and games. Since we now had these cool 'haunting mechanics', I thought we absolutely needed to have an abandoned theme park full of ghosts for the player to bring back to life. I went a bit wild with it and I loved the way it looked once art was done with it! The team has been coming up with interesting adaptations to introduce the game to the controller, and we've also added a narrative to the career levels. I'm very much looking forward to the reactions of our awesome community and to the experiences of new players!" Game Designer Anne van Leeuwen.
"I think we had a great time working Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters and getting to tweak the setup for the Ecto-1 driveable vehicle. I'm a big fan of old American cars and it was fun to be able to set it up to behave like the real thing probably would have! I'm really looking forward to seeing how players react to the way we've made the game work on a controller, it was a huge challenge to overcome but I think we've achieved a lot." Producer Lloyd Morgan-Moore.
"I had to test some vomiting and rubbish disposal animations, so I made Binland. It was an awful park full of mainly bins and very expensive toilets where everyone vomited constantly, only pausing occasionally to see the incredibly dedicated Princess Amelie smiling and blowing kisses (she had a great "can-do" attitude!). There were never enough janitors in Binland. There was another time where we made a robot suit out of cardboard boxes for filming reference of one of the entertainers! Regarding console, I'm really looking forward to console players making better parks than I've ever made!" Senior Animator Oscar Paterson.
"Planet Coaster's release was busy but extremely rewarding. One evening, the team bonded by sharing roller coaster themed jokes after hours, some of them were off the rails! ...I'll see myself out. For Planet Coaster, I was lucky enough to lend my voice for a selection of guests. Nothing is more surreal than standing in one of our audio rooms making 'queasy' noises while a lovely, bemused Audio Designer laughs affectionately at you behind the glass! I had a blast getting to do that. I really cannot wait to see the blueprints created by the next generation of players. Our community have blown me away with the amazing designs I've seen over the years, all my personal parks include community made blueprints and look so much better because of it!" QA Manager Laura Massey.
"For me, my favourite memory from development was seeing the first alpha levels roll in and the users taking our creative tools so much further than we ever imagined they would. A community member created a Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings that was so complex that it crashed our dev machines. We ended up using that level as a benchmark to see our performance improvements throughout development. Planet Coaster holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first game I helped release! I will continue to look at the community and all of the amazing things that they create with a lot of love." Senior Render Programmer Gert Dhaenens.
"Recording reference for the mascot characters on Planet Coaster was hilarious! For the robot mascot DexR, we built a cardboard suit and sellotaped it to one of the Senior Animators and had him walk back and forth through the office and spin around on the spot! I spent a lot of time getting into character as well and rolling around on the floor. It was a small team and we embraced being a little silly and getting out of your comfort zone in order to make the animation as good as we could! It'll be great to see the console players reactions to Planet Coaster who may not have had a chance to pick up the game before. Its also an interesting design challenge to get the game feeling intuitive on a controller and that's really exciting as well!" Animator John Shepherd.
"I'm really looking forward to Planet Coaster being available to a lot of new players and seeing what cool things they make! My favourite memory is when we were working on our reveal trailer and we got to see it for the first time and see the audience reaction, that was really exciting. We were such a small team then! Also, getting to work on so many fun rides, like the Magic Katz which is based on a ride that I used to love as a kid, so I was very happy to get to make it." Senior Artist Danielle Phillimore.
"My top moment of working on Planet Coaster so far was when we released the Thememakers Toolkit, seeing how quickly the community got the hang of it and started releasing amazing content was awesome to see. Of course, my personal favourite item will always be The Cube! I'm looking forward to people getting to use the new coaster building/editing controls. I think it has translated over to controller input really well and it feels great to use." Gameplay Programmer Sam Cipolat.
Thank you all for joining us on this wonderful ride for (over!) three years. It has been an absolute pleasure to be supported by all of our wonderful community, and we cannot wait to introduce even more people to Planet Coaster: Console Edition. Our PlanCoFam have been our inspiration and guidance, and we're looking forward to hearing stories about our PC community befriending our console community and continuing to create the most mind-blowing creations. We appreciate you more than you know!
Can you believe it?! This Sunday is Planet Coaster's third anniversary!
Back in 2016, Planet Coaster launched on 17 November. Since then, we've had an absolutely crazy ride with you all, from creating the Thememaker's Toolkit to adding in 12 additional content packs, including the remarkable World's Fair, Magnificent Rides, Classic Rides, and Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters packs! We've had the privilege of working with the genius minds at Carowinds to introduce their Copperhead Strike into the game, and now, with the recent announcement of Planet Coaster: Console Edition, we'll get to introduce Planet Coaster to many more people. We just cannot believe the transformation the game has gone through these past few years.
You, our community, have been such an important part of our journey. Through our weekly streams, social media channels, forums and meet-ups, we've heard how memorable Planet Coaster is for you, and now we have the opportunity for the game to touch even more creative minds! We've been so lucky, and grateful, to have you as our community. Our development team have always been so inspired by our wonderful PlanCoFam, as you shared your tips, tricks and creations, and came together as a tight-knit community. It's always been a pleasure of ours to get to meet so many of you at events, and hear from you on the internet!
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the incredible Planet Coaster developers, who have dedicated hours, months and years to creating a unique rollercoaster experience. Our development team have worked hard to bring you the ultimate thrill-seeking experience, and they're excited to now bring it to consoles! Here's what they have to say to you:
"My favourite memory of Planet Coaster was the countdown we did for the release of the Magnificent Rides Collection. Knowing that the Chairlift was the final ride and seeing the positive reaction to it made my Christmas last year. Also, back when we added cleaning facilities to the game, I spent several months cleaning toilets in game!" Gameplay Programmer Rob Chisholm.
"My best Planet Coaster development story was when I walked around on stilts as reference for Pirate King. Looking ahead, I cannot wait to start playing Planet Coaster on my sofa." Head of Animation Nick Rodgers.
"I'm looking forward to seeing how people react to the effort we've put into reworking the controls and game-flow to really work on console, it's not just been a case of us porting the game. During development, I spent a lot of time launching guests through the air with errant coaster cars... for performance testing! Honest!" Principal Programmer Mark Allen.
"I'm excited to see how well the system and creativity of Planet Coaster on PC translates to the console version. I worked on the crowd library, and was able to make optimisations and adjustments to the point where I'm now the co-owner of the amazing system." Core Programmer Johan Holthausen.
"There have been many awesome moments, but getting to create the bonus level for the Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters was probably my favourite. Abandoned 'haunted' parks are a theme that comes up a lot in fiction and games. Since we now had these cool 'haunting mechanics', I thought we absolutely needed to have an abandoned theme park full of ghosts for the player to bring back to life. I went a bit wild with it and I loved the way it looked once art was done with it! The team has been coming up with interesting adaptations to introduce the game to the controller, and we've also added a narrative to the career levels. I'm very much looking forward to the reactions of our awesome community and to the experiences of new players!" Game Designer Anne van Leeuwen.
"I think we had a great time working Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters and getting to tweak the setup for the Ecto-1 driveable vehicle. I'm a big fan of old American cars and it was fun to be able to set it up to behave like the real thing probably would have! I'm really looking forward to seeing how players react to the way we've made the game work on a controller, it was a huge challenge to overcome but I think we've achieved a lot." Producer Lloyd Morgan-Moore.
"I had to test some vomiting and rubbish disposal animations, so I made Binland. It was an awful park full of mainly bins and very expensive toilets where everyone vomited constantly, only pausing occasionally to see the incredibly dedicated Princess Amelie smiling and blowing kisses (she had a great "can-do" attitude!). There were never enough janitors in Binland. There was another time where we made a robot suit out of cardboard boxes for filming reference of one of the entertainers! Regarding console, I'm really looking forward to console players making better parks than I've ever made!" Senior Animator Oscar Paterson.
"Planet Coaster's release was busy but extremely rewarding. One evening, the team bonded by sharing roller coaster themed jokes after hours, some of them were off the rails! ...I'll see myself out. For Planet Coaster, I was lucky enough to lend my voice for a selection of guests. Nothing is more surreal than standing in one of our audio rooms making 'queasy' noises while a lovely, bemused Audio Designer laughs affectionately at you behind the glass! I had a blast getting to do that. I really cannot wait to see the blueprints created by the next generation of players. Our community have blown me away with the amazing designs I've seen over the years, all my personal parks include community made blueprints and look so much better because of it!" QA Manager Laura Massey.
"For me, my favourite memory from development was seeing the first alpha levels roll in and the users taking our creative tools so much further than we ever imagined they would. A community member created a Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings that was so complex that it crashed our dev machines. We ended up using that level as a benchmark to see our performance improvements throughout development. Planet Coaster holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first game I helped release! I will continue to look at the community and all of the amazing things that they create with a lot of love." Senior Render Programmer Gert Dhaenens.
"Recording reference for the mascot characters on Planet Coaster was hilarious! For the robot mascot DexR, we built a cardboard suit and sellotaped it to one of the Senior Animators and had him walk back and forth through the office and spin around on the spot! I spent a lot of time getting into character as well and rolling around on the floor. It was a small team and we embraced being a little silly and getting out of your comfort zone in order to make the animation as good as we could! It'll be great to see the console players reactions to Planet Coaster who may not have had a chance to pick up the game before. Its also an interesting design challenge to get the game feeling intuitive on a controller and that's really exciting as well!" Animator John Shepherd.
"I'm really looking forward to Planet Coaster being available to a lot of new players and seeing what cool things they make! My favourite memory is when we were working on our reveal trailer and we got to see it for the first time and see the audience reaction, that was really exciting. We were such a small team then! Also, getting to work on so many fun rides, like the Magic Katz which is based on a ride that I used to love as a kid, so I was very happy to get to make it." Senior Artist Danielle Phillimore.
"My top moment of working on Planet Coaster so far was when we released the Thememakers Toolkit, seeing how quickly the community got the hang of it and started releasing amazing content was awesome to see. Of course, my personal favourite item will always be The Cube! I'm looking forward to people getting to use the new coaster building/editing controls. I think it has translated over to controller input really well and it feels great to use." Gameplay Programmer Sam Cipolat.
Thank you all for joining us on this wonderful ride for (over!) three years. It has been an absolute pleasure to be supported by all of our wonderful community, and we cannot wait to introduce even more people to Planet Coaster: Console Edition. Our PlanCoFam have been our inspiration and guidance, and we're looking forward to hearing stories about our PC community befriending our console community and continuing to create the most mind-blowing creations. We appreciate you more than you know!
