Park Beyond has set the record straight since its announcement: Limbic Entertainment’s new simulation management software doesn’t want to curb players’ imaginations, but rather encourages the construction of the craziest amusement parks ever seen. But to do this, just a creative wagon is not enough: first of all, you need a project, a strategy, a rule that applies to both a virtual and a real amusement park. We had the opportunity to interview at the Park Beyond press event held in Europa Park in October. Louis VogtLevel Designer of Limbic Entertainment, e Mathis Gullonis Project Manager for MackNeXT, the company that designs, builds and manages Europa Park’s attractions. Both designers told us how to create and manage an amusement park, each from their own perspective and from our own perspective. Double interview from Park Beyond We are revealing some secrets about amusement parks that you may not know.
start over
Design an entire amusement park start over It’s not easy, and Gullon knows this very well, who opened his speech during Park Beyond’s press event and described MackNeXT’s latest work, the Rulantica water park. Built near Europa Park, it took two decades between planning and implementation as the company had to face a long series of problems involved in the design of an amusement park.
This list has been elaborated by the product manager in a series of useful ideas To overcome the Park Beyond sandbox mod. The first step in designing an amusement park is accidentally thinking about the more technical parts of the project. Gullon tells us these come later and the starting point is to analyze the more human aspects: What do the public want and what do we want to convey to them during their visit to our park?
Centering the designvisitor experienceAs such, venting imagination and emotion seems to be the primary focus of both real amusement park designers and Park Beyond visionaries.
The questions are also closely linked to the economic plan of the project, as identifying livable themes and experiences in the park also indirectly leads to the identification of a target audience, as in the opening words of Mission 2 of Park Beyond. The second step is the macro design of the park, which approaches the task from an almost urban perspective: deciding how and where the attractions will be located, creating easily passable roads, positioning eateries, services, etc. “A good map It always provides a grand entrance, surprising and at the same time anticipatory, optimized and always interesting routes and compact attractions to follow,” explains Gullon. Land use is clearly not an issue at Park Beyond, but Compact and The idea of designing a functional map was perhaps the most useful inspiration among those implemented during our sandbox mode test.
However, we are aware of what happens to us by chance because it is not common to seek advice from an amusement park’s project manager before playing a management simulation like Park Beyond. How teach player on multiple concepts? This question is answered by the game’s Level Designer, Louis Vogt. “The question they ask me most often is about my contribution to Park Beyond: what good is a level designer when they are the players who create the levels?” Vogt tells us with a smile.
“We’ve decided to add one at Park Beyond. narrative campaign where all aspects of the construction and management of the park are handled. Thanks to the tutorial levels, players get familiar with the vehicles and mechanics, and that’s where my job comes in.” tutorial mission #1 encourages the player to make twists, loops and very steep descents on the existing small map, but starting positions here are almost forced and slow slowly becomes more free.
This concept was also applied to subsequent missions, with the maps being progressively enlarged. L’step by step approach The game’s concepts have also been used for other constituent elements of the tutorials, even if the developer told us it’s not really his competency. Vogt specifically refers to the advanced design concepts described later in the campaign, such as the force of gravity and the safety of the roller coaster, and the game interface, which is replenished with new menu points as players add new information. already taken.
what brought us here
Great designers, you know, someone happens, someone is not born. While Park Beyond empowers everyone to create their own theme park, how do you actually get there? “It obviously depends on what direction you want to focus on,” Gullon replies when we asked him about it. academic path. “If you want to design individual rides, it’s better to focus on a design school, if you’re more interested in the design of the park than the architecture, if the technical part of the attractions attracts you, obviously the engineering part.
Doing what I do, i.e. following the construction of new attractions or parts of the park step-by-step, from concept to commissioning, we usually go with a management engineering course. However, I took an economics management course, but the truth is there is no university for amusement parks. If you want to enter the sector, you must have an endless passion for the subject.”
Also he developer Although many steps forward have been made to date, video games are one of those careers that are quite difficult to code in a given work process. We questioned Vogt about his journey, specifically what took him to Park Beyond. “I joined Limbic in 2019, I was most recently hired during the launch week of the Tropico episode. At that time the team was focused on the game release but it was also a future-oriented project. When I arrived, I was able to breathe deeply into the air saturated with enthusiasm and anticipation. New innovations that will be developed later in awareness of our capabilities. We concentrated heavily on the title: Limbic was strong on the management front, and we knew it was particularly effective to discover how to turn the narrative aspect into didactic phases. A mechanic. Most of my colleagues love roller coasters… and that’s it!”
A strong parallel between attractions and video games is linked to:technological innovationand how important it is to stay up to date in both industries. Part of this update process goes through industry fairs, where upcoming games are often seen and tested on the playground for the first time.
parallelize with GamescomGullon, where Park Beyond took part with a demo, talked about IAPPA Expo, the trade fair organized by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions every year in America, Europe and Asia. “Participation is clearly exciting because you are exposed to all the innovations the market has to offer. But the most important and stimulating moment comes when you have the opportunity to meet colleagues and experts in the industry,” the words arguably carry. We invite you to the Gamescom atmosphere this year, which is full of developers who can’t wait to tell their games.
the people want
In those moments of the interview, while talking about the new horizons of the industry, Gullon told us how much technique and technology was secondary to ideas and emotions, and that it was a subject that we partially anticipated. Going into detail, Gullon continues: technology must be at your service creativity and not vice versa. There has been a trend in the industry lately that has seen the birth of attractions connected to certain technologies, but if you put it at the center of the experience, the public is unlikely to be passionate about it. “Helmets for virtual reality, roller coasters or other similar experiences that aren’t very successful, on the other hand, attractions like Universal Studios in Los Angeles that predominantly use augmented reality to further enhance their attractions have been particularly appreciated,” Gullon said.
“People finally want simple things: fun and carefree. The more personalized and proprietary an experience is, the more the public likes it. Today, it’s getting harder and harder to propose attractions and parks that don’t have anything to do with major intellectual property, as well as incorporating social themes into attractions. Those who spend a day at the amusement park don’t want to think about the park’s energy consumption, waste disposal, or water recycling. “All this is happening behind the scenes: the park has strict policies in this regard, and there are almost 12,000 employees working efficiently and in a controlled manner, but not interested in knowing that the visitor, for example, Europa Park consumes as much electricity as a town of 6,000 inhabitants.
For its part, Limbic also knows well what do the players wantand most importantly he knows what he wants to offer them. After testing Park Beyond, we admitted to Vogt that we were impressed with the depth of the game. We talked about a careful focus on both macro and micromanagement in our testing, and when asked how the team managed to manage everything in-game in such a functional and cohesive way, the developer replied: “We decided to go in that direction because we know that not all players are the same. user creativity. We knew that there would be players who were more interested in the management mechanics and focused more on the design part. For this, the catalog offers a long series of objects ready to be placed. But at the same time, whoever wants to have the opportunity to create every detail by hand.”
Source: Multiplayer
