Get ready to open up your own amusement park all over again with Planet Coaster’s sequel. Planet Coaster 2 was announced recently and looks to make several enhancements over its predecessor. That hopefully means creativity is only limited by your imagination! Spend your time perfecting your coaster to your liking. Or dig even further by ensuring your theme park is full of thrilling attractions and relaxing spots to keep your guests happy and that the revenue flow continues with ease.
Since its announcement, Planet Coaster 2 has been looking to ensure that fans get an even more immersive experience. This time, waterpark attractions are the big component added to the game series. We recently had the chance to interview Rich Newbold, the game director for Planet Coaster 2. During our conversation, we learned a little more about what we can expect from the game when it is released into the marketplace.
Gameranx: Could you tell us when development started for Planet Coaster 2?
Rich Newbold: We’ve been working on Planet Coaster 2 for a while now and we’re really excited to be bringing it to players this Fall.
Gameranx: Coming off the first instalment, were there any specific areas in mind that you wanted to adjust or enhance for the sequel?
Rich Newbold: The original Planet Coaster was such a success that it was hard to know where to begin! In Planet Coaster 2, we’re really excited to bring new features to players, with much-requested water parks coming to the franchise for the very first time. It’s something that we felt a sequel would allow us to do justice to.
With all the amazing ways pools and flumes can be found at various real-life parks, it gives players a new way to give their guests a great day out. Alongside a range of new features and mechanics, new rides and coasters, and more, we’ve spent time and effort building upon features from the original Planet Coaster to enhance gameplay. One great example is the path building system – we wanted to provide players with more opportunities for creativity and customisation. Now they’ll be able to build more authentic looking plaza areas, while we’ve added new path types and ways to customise those too.
Gameranx: How has fan feedback from the first game influenced the sequel’s development?
Rich Newbold: Feedback from our community of players of the first game is super valuable, and we’ve had lots of suggestions over the years. This has meant carefully reviewing and prioritizing those suggestions and identifying what’s going to take a game like Planet Coaster to the next level.
When it comes to management, for example, one area we’ve focused on is the staff, who play a vital part in the running a successful park. In Planet Coaster 2, players will have greater control of their staff to optimise the running of their park. They’ll be able to create staff zones to define areas for wandering staff like janitors to concentrate on, and set a staff schedule that allows them to, for example, define exactly which shop a vendor is working in during specific hours.
Gameranx: Were there any particular theme park locations or rides that also inspired this sequel?
Rich Newbold: We’re huge fans of theme parks here at Frontier, and it’s been a real passion project for many of us to work on Planet Coaster 2. We get to feed in all our love and affection, not only for theme parks but for water parks too. Some of the team enjoy their summers away experiencing lots of different types of flumes and pools around the world and we’ve been bringing that enthusiasm to all we’ve been working on. We’ve also got some new coasters and rides in Planet Coaster 2 inspired by some of those our team experienced in theme parks.
Gameranx: How have the customization options changed and will it be familiar to players who have already played Planet Coaster?
Rich Newbold: For existing Planet Coaster fans, the game will feel familiar, but we’ve enhanced a number of tools to allow for even more customisation and creativity, as well as having an exciting range of new rides, shops and scenery on offer. For new players, creating the ultimate coaster is easier than ever, from altering patterns and colours, to attaching scenery directly onto them, as well as twinning and symmetry options which can quickly apply a design to the entire ride. For those who enjoy scenery customisation, we’ve added the ability to scale scenery pieces to provide a huge number of options for how players customise their parks.
Gameranx: Likewise, how has the management side of things changed from the first game, especially with the addition of water park attractions?
Rich Newbold: As players of the original Planet Coaster will know, managing their park well is the key to giving guests an incredible experience and ensuring a stellar park rating. In Planet Coaster 2, it’s never been easier to manage parks thanks to new heat maps providing a comprehensive overview of the day-to-day, while players can also delve into the smaller details.
With the addition of incredible new water parks comes new aspects of the park to manage, such as keeping pools clean. There’s deeper management when it comes to staff and guests too – for example, guests will need adequate shade to avoid catching the sun too much and getting sunburned, and the addition of water rides and pools mean players will need to provide lifeguards to keep everyone safe and improve their park rating.
Gameranx: Keeping guests happy is key to ensuring your park’s thriving. I understand it should be easier to locate some areas of the park that need to be addressed. Could you elaborate on how this new heat map tool works?
Rich Newbold: Planet Coaster 2’s new heat maps are a powerful tool to locate any issues quickly and easily in the park and keep things running smoothly. Players can detect problems with their guest experience such as mood, needs, and ailments, as well as staff morale. They can use Heat Maps for the park’s utility needs too, to identify which rides or facilities are requiring power, or which pools need additional filters for water cleanliness.
Gameranx: There are also some multiplayer options. Players can build together, but am I correct in that only one player can gain access to the park at a time? So, are players not able to build on the same map simultaneously?
Rich Newbold: That’s correct – for the first time ever, in Planet Coaster 2, players will be able to build, manage, and explore each other’s parks asynchronously, which is a technical term for the ability to take turns on a single save. They’ll also be able to do this cross-platform too. While they won’t be able to work on the same save at the same time, players will be able to allow their fellow thrill-seekers to build upon their changes in Sandbox mode and can also race one-another to the top of the leaderboard in Franchise mode.
Gameranx: What can you tell me about the Franchise Mode?
Rich Newbold: Franchise mode allows players to build a connected theme park empire, as they work alongside and compete against others across the globe and enter their parks into time-limited leaderboards for different challenges such as daily income, cash balance and more. As mentioned previously, this will be done asynchronously, and leaderboards will be cross-platform.
Gameranx: Are there plans already for future content, and can players expect a roadmap of what content will come later?
Rich Newbold: We have nothing to announce on future content – we’re focused on launching the game for players this Fall.
Gameranx: Can we get an update on the current development process?
Rich Newbold: We’ve just announced, so currently we’re focused on creating an amazing experience for players at launch – we can’t wait to show more of what we’ve been working on over the coming months.
Gameranx: Is there any chance we might know when players will get another look at Planet Coaster 2?
Rich Newbold: We’ve just shared a first look at the gameplay for Planet Coaster 2 in this week’s episode of Frontier Unlocked
Planet Coaster 2 looks to be shaping up to be a great gameplay experience, and we can’t wait to check it out. The developers aim to launch the game in the marketplace this fall, so we’ll have to watch for their deep dive video uploads until then. The first of which can be viewed above.
