GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Preview

The third game in the blockbuster theme park-building franchise is going 3D and will even let you ride the coasters.

1 Comments

RollerCoaster Tycoon appeared with little fanfare in 1999, but the highly addictive strategy game that let you design and operate your own theme park became an instant blockbuster that resulted in two expansion packs and a sequel with two further expansion packs. The franchise has sold more than 7 million copies since its launch, and it's proved that there's a huge audience out there for well-designed, fun, family-friendly games. We recently had the opportunity to see an early version of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, and this next game may very well revolutionize the series.

Hang on! RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 will let you ride your roller coasters.
Hang on! RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 will let you ride your roller coasters.

RollerCoaster Tycoon creator Chris Sawyer isn't working directly on the game, but it is being developed by his friend, David Braben, and Braben's studio, Frontier Developments. Braben and his team are certainly familiar with the series, because they worked on the two expansion packs for RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. Sawyer has taken an advisory role for the game by providing feedback to the development team while he works on a new, yet-to-be-revealed project.

The biggest and most obvious new feature in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is the fact that the entire game now takes place in full 3D. The previous games modeled three-dimensional environments but presented the game with 2D graphics. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3's powerful new 3D graphics engine should have a transformative effect upon the game. Not only does it mean that the series will have an updated and modern look, but you'll now be able to actually ride your roller coasters as if you were sitting in the front seat.

The new game will also put more emphasis on "peeps" (the term used to describe the visitors to your park). In the first two RollerCoaster Tycoon games, the peeps were fairly uniform, so, save for gender, they all pretty much looked the same and wanted the same things. In RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, you'll have a lot more to worry about. Peeps now have ages and belong to different age groups. This means that you'll have to please a whole range of visitors. Children--and families with children--will want kid-oriented rides and amusements, while teenagers and young adults will steer toward the more "extreme" thrill rides. Meanwhile, seniors and older visitors will desire more sedate amusements. Even the musical selections you choose for each ride will affect its demographic appeal. If you choose edgy music for the thrill rides, you'll skew the audience for that ride to the most adventurous visitors to your park. Furthermore, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 will incorporate group behavior, which means that if peeps enter the park as a group--like in a family or as part of a tour--then they'll want to try to stick together. This means you'll have to also provide group-oriented rides and amusements.

The 3D graphics engine will feature impressive water effects and lots of detail.
The 3D graphics engine will feature impressive water effects and lots of detail.

The 3D engine also guarantees variety in the way peeps look. By varying gender, age, height, clothes, hairstyle, hair color, skin color, and more, the developers promise that no two peeps will look the same. This will lend a much more diverse feel to the theme park because you'll see hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, of distinctly different peeps walking around. You'll even be able to see a peep's facial expressions, so you can gauge mood easily. Moreover, you'll be able to watch as your peeps ride coasters. Some peeps will throw their arms in the air during the dives, while others will clutch the bar in front of them in terror. The peeps will even respond to intense G-force effects, which are the result of sudden and sharp turns, so you can measure whether a ride is a bit too exciting for your guests.

Like in the original RollerCoaster Tycoon games, you'll be able to select from premade roller coasters, or you can construct your own. According to Braben, the construction process is a lot easier with a 3D engine. In particular, you can have a window that shows a first-person view of the coaster while you design it, allowing you to adjust on the fly without having to constantly switch back and forth between design and test mode. The terrain tools will also be much easier to work with, and roller coasters will adjust to existing terrain a lot better. Of course, there are still rides and amusements other than roller coasters, and all of them will be back in the sequel, along with entirely new designs. The developer plans to have five distinctly different themes and rides. Themes include generic, space (complete with miniature space shuttle simulator), Wild West, adventure, and spooky. The developer will also increase the amount of control you have over the game's economy. For instance, there are now two umbrellas that can be sold--child-sized and adult-sized--and you can price them differently to try to appeal to kids. You can even decide whether to offer cheeseburgers at the burger stand, and you can price them differently too.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 will feature a campaign mode that's similar to that of the first two games. You'll start with six parks available to work on, and you'll unlock new parks upon successfully completing scenarios. The good news is that the developer will finally provide the full-featured sandbox mode that the community has been clamoring for. (You could jury-rig a sandbox mode in RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.) This mode will let you build a park from scratch, without the constraints of scenario objectives or time limits. According to Braben, the studio is also developing a new user interface for the game--one that's less intrusive than the existing interface. One of the problems in previous games was that the interface windows blocked your view of the park. The new interface should concentrate vital information in the corners and on the bottom of the screen.

While roller coasters are the heart of your theme park, you also have to provide other rides and amusements.
While roller coasters are the heart of your theme park, you also have to provide other rides and amusements.

The game's graphics engine will apparently push a serious number of polygons, thus allowing you to create huge parks with differently-themed zones. The developer has reportedly been working on some theme parks with as many as several thousand peeps milling about. According to Braben, the development team has been able to maintain acceptable performance for its planned minimum hardware requirements--a 733MHz processor with at least a GeForce 2-level card. Frontier has been working on the sequel for about 10 months now, and it seems to be making good progress thus far. If all goes according to plan, we can expect RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 to ship this holiday season.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 1 comments about this story