Parkitect

The development blog of a theme park sim/management game by @Sebioff_, @GarretRandell, and @AShellinthePit!

[themeparkitect]

Parkitect development in numbers

I always find statistics posts about projects interesting... We’ve been working on this for almost 7 years now, so here’s a bunch of numbers about Parkitect!

Project

Engine: Unity Programming language: C#

Asset folder (the actual “content” of the game): Size: 3.93 GB Files: 35,944 Folders: 1,322

Total project folder (this includes Unity cache files etc): Size: 21.6 GB Files: 364,258 Folders: 2,837 Build duration (all supported platforms together): ~20 minutes (incremental build; a clean build would take 1-2 hours)

Repository

Type: Git Size: 3.5 GB Branches: 90 Commits: 13,778 (a “commit” is a change to the game, like for example the addition of a new feature or a bug fix. It can be anything from a single number being changed in the code to the addition of hundreds of new sound files in one go)

Here’s a visualization of all the file changes made during development. Every dot represents a file in the project. A file getting zapped represents a change to that file. Every branch represents a folder in the project (with the folder name being shown as text). The legend on the left side explains what the colors mean, and how many files of a certain type there are in the project. The most important file types are:

cs: C# source code file prefab/asset: Unity data files fbx: 3D model wav/ogg: Audio files

We moved the repository in 2017 which messes up the visualization a bit.

File changes by release: Campaign: 46,732 Multiplayer: 7,230 Taste of Adventure: 6,404 Booms & Blooms: 5,117

Code

This only includes our own code, not engine or other third-party code

Size: 7.44 MB Files: 2,112 Folders: 138 Lines: 241,156 Biggest files (Top 5): 1.: Park.cs (3,737 Lines, contains a bunch of data + methods related to stuff belonging to the park) 2.: MultiplayerController.cs (2,946 Lines, base class for multiplayer related code) 3.: TrackBuilder.cs (2,461 Lines, handles most of the track building UI) 4.: TrackSegment.cs (2,335 Lines, contains methods for positioning trains and connecting multiple segments to a full track) 5.: Attraction.cs (2,192 Lines, base class for handling user interactions when building things in the game)

Lines of code by topic (Top 4): 1.: Attractions (40,828 Lines) 2.: UI (35,915 Lines) 3.: People AI (13,607 Lines) 4.: Multiplayer (11,123 Lines)

Art

3D models: Size: 221.49 MB Files: 2,276 Textures: Size: 227.07 MB Files: 961

Audio

Sound files: Size: 2.52 GB Files: 4,789

Stores

Updates released on Steam: 533 (in addition to the regular monthly updates we like to patch immediately if there’s anything that might be inconvenient for players. There’s also many non-public updates though for testers)

[themeparkitect]

Announcing Parkitect Multiplayer!

Hey everyone, it's the 2nd anniversary of Parkitect’s 1.0 release this week and we've prepared something for you to celebrate:

On December 8 we’ll release a new free update that adds a cooperative online multiplayer mode!

Up to 8 people can play together, building the same park. You can see what other people are doing - it’s a bit like everyone is playing together on the same PC.

Creating a new game or joining one is done through a lobby. You can also directly invite your Steam friends to join. It's pretty easy!

Have a good one!

[themeparkitect]

Parkitect: Booms & Blooms released!

The big free update to Version 1.6 and our second paid DLC called Booms & Blooms are available now.

Here's a summary of all the changes:

Booms & Blooms DLC (paid):

added Effects Controller for creating your own fireworks shows, fountain shows, triggering effects from rides, ... (+ modding support for triggering animations!)

added Tilt Coaster

added Pivot Coaster

added Steeplechase

added Rowboats

added Heart Breaker

added Star Flyer

added switch segment for Mine Train Coaster, Junior Coaster

added custom image flags

added fireworks

added speakers for playing music across the park/custom sound effects

added new trees and shrubs

Version 1.6 (free):

added option for automatic day/night cycle

added mowed grass terrain type

added deco objects: frames, additional basic shapes, truck, small light that can be stuck to surfaces

added alternate font styles for 3D text signs

added German guest names

added stat boost display to stats tab in employee info window

added option for changing rotation direction to many flat rides

added leaf movement animation to trees

added depth visualization to blueprint builder

added Italian translation (thanks to Antonio!)

improved performance in heavily decorated parks by up to 50%

improved performance of ride lights to cost ~90% less than before

improved performance when placing blueprints

improved audio implementation, resolving issues with sounds not playing/being too loud after loading savegame

improved fire/water/smoke effects by allowing them to be stuck to any surface

improved number input fields to use proper decimal separator depending on system language

improved long grass deco object and other older plants to have custom colors

increased zoom range

updated most trees to be resizable

updated object highlighting to use an outline

fixed visual artifacts around objects in front of water

fixed game window getting resized when opening graphics settings menu after manually resizing the window

fixed a case where the height of the Skyfall ride could not be changed

fixed a very rare case where the UI could become unresponsive

[themeparkitect]

Announcing the Parkitect: Booms & Blooms update!

Hey everyone, we're excited to tell you about the Parkitect: Booms & Blooms Pack today!

It will launch next week, on September 2nd.

This update consists of two parts: the paid Booms & Blooms Pack ($7.99/€6.59), adding explosive new content; and a free patch that adds a whole bunch of improvements and new features to the base game. Here's a trailer to show you some of the highlights:

So, what exactly is included?

Paid content

In the Booms & Blooms pack you'll find:

With the new Effect Controller you can create your own firework shows or synchronize effects with your rides! There's also new speakers that allow you to play your own music, or you can use the Effect Controller to trigger your own sound effects.

Two new thrill rides, one new water ride, and three new coasters! And with the new switch segments your Mine Train Coasters and Junior Coasters can ride backwards!

There's a new set of trees, and new flags that you can put your own images on!

Free update

Some of the highlights of the free portion of this update include:

adjustable direction for spinning rides

new basic shape variations, updated old plants to be recolorable, updated many old trees to be resizable 

we have completely reworked how the game gets rendered, making use of some more modern GPU features to improve performance. How much of a difference you see depends on your system and the park you're playing (the more heavily decorated your park is the bigger the difference you'll see). Camera mods should benefit from these improvements as well. As a result of these improvements we also allow you to zoom out further now.

similar changes have been made for the light animations of flat rides, moving more work to the GPU. Again, how much of an improvement you'll see depends on your park - the results you see below is for one of the most extreme cases possible

[themeparkitect]

Version 1.5d Update

We’ve released a few updates since the big Taste of Adventure update - here’s a summary of the changes:

Version 1.5d:

added a tooltip that displays the ride stats whenever a test run is completed while building a track

fixed balloons being invisible after loading a savegame

fixed issues with disappearing text on Mac/Linux

fixed guests not entering rides without queues

fixed not being able to lower/raise licorice/chocolate fences

fixed error when changing prices in zone window attraction list fixed balloons getting sometimes stuck when bulldozing balloon shop fixed being able to build Spinning Coaster elevator sections through other rides

fixed guests having trouble getting to the park entrance in the Jungle Adventure scenario

fixed bad performance when changing terrain type under water

fixed nothing left to research when converting campaign savegame to sandbox mode

fixed a case where it was possible to remove objects in pause mode when it is not allowed

fixed a case where coasters could temporarily have an extreme intensity rating for no apparent reason fixed ride entrance/exit tiles missing tunnel frames when burried below terrain

changed ride stats to not count station wait times anymore

Version 1.5c:

added Spanish translation

added option for inverting vertical camera axis

updated all translations

fixed not being able to build river rapids blueprints if the ride has any bumpers

fixed no tracked ride blueprints goal sometimes not getting completed

fixed not being able to select 3D text for blueprints/with the bulldozer tool

fixed wrong train spawn orientation when spawning on a turntable

fixed an error in some custom train mods that made it impossible to select objects

fixed doors not working when placed on an attraction exit

fixed tall diagonal helixes could go off-grid

fixed guests being able to see through flat ride platforms

Version 1.5b:

changed "no pause" optional goals to "no building while paused"

fixed a case where queue lines could be misconnected when built in a certain order

fixed queue signs on queue tiles that use only one custom color having wrong custom colors

fixed graphical glitch when building an elevator

fixed "My Images" folder having to be created manually

fixed a case where blueprint preview images would be tiny

fixed not being able to put some Candy/Adventure theme objects into blueprints

fixed category list in deco builder window cutting off long category names in wrong places

fixed ghost train previews not running during thunderstorms

fixed not being able to build depots/trash chutes in scenarios where building underground is disabled

fixed being able to build through downward elevator segments

fixed weirdness when trying to place a flat ride on a lake/lava near terrain edge

fixed a case where doors would visually clip through walls when they shouldn't

balance adjustments for "Taste of Adventure" campaign

added command line argument -savedatafolder=Your/Path to allow using any savegame folder location you want (e.g. for installing and running the game from a USB drive)

Version 1.5a:

fixed coaster physics behaving differently than before the Version 1.5 update

fixed attraction/shop marketing campaigns being much cheaper than they used to

fixed vertical custom image signs displaying the images upside down on one side

fixed a case where resetting campaign progress could lead to a black screen instead of reloading the campaign map

fixed loud fire noises on the Yucatan Ridge scenario from the Taste of Adventure campaign

fixed medieval door appearing in the wrong deco category

improved color randomizer button to generate more varied colors

[themeparkitect]

Taste of Adventure expansion out now!

Here’s the full changelog:

Taste of Adventure expansion (paid):

added new campaign with 10 scenarios

added Candyland theme

added Adventure theme

added River Rapids

added Inverting Wooden Coaster

added Inverting Spinning Coaster

added Vertical Spinning Coaster

added Swinging Coaster

added Safari Ride

added Experience

added Clockwork

added Shirts stall

added Sub Sandwiches stall

added Corn Dogs stall

added Cookies stall

added animated door and gate deco pieces

added Lava

added turntable segments for Water Coaster, Boat Dark Ride

added elevator segments for Wild Mouse, Spinning Coaster

added 3D text signs

Version 1.5 (free):

added customizable water color

added custom image signs (+ modding support)

added ride photo sections

added spin lock option to Spinning Coaster

added free park entry/free food/free ride voucher marketing campaigns

added option for continuing to play with all research available after completing all scenario goals

added construction costs/remaining value display to shops/rides info tabs

added color palette randomizer button

added scenario editor tool for marking deco objects as source of bad scenery rating

added scenario editor setting for disallowing building underground

added "win without pausing" scenario goal

added "win without using ride blueprints" scenario goal

added "own at least x tiles of land" scenario goal

added option for resetting campaign progress

added modding support for custom coaster trains

allowed using regular path styles as queues

allowed overlapping staff zones

improved track builder: when deleting a track segment the track builder UI preselects the settings of the removed segment

improved Steam Workshop support: savegames, scenarios and blueprints can be updated now

improved tracked ride animations to be much more smooth

updated Content Manager window to load faster; added search and filters for own/subscribed content

updated fountains to be resizable

updated underwater tunnels to be buildable anywhere

updated guest visualizers to highlight objects with positive or negative influence

updated sandbox mode to award all goal rewards from the start when playing without goals

updated night mode to be remembered in savegames

updated ghost mansion ride to allow more trains

updated blueprint builder window to display approximate cost when building without deco

fixed some rides (like Go-Karts or Calm River Ride) counting as "coaster" in some statistics/goal completion checks

fixed a case where a vandalism wave event notification could get stuck after loading a savegame

[themeparkitect]

Announcing the Parkitect: Taste of Adventure update!

We're super excited to show you the Parkitect: Taste Of Adventure today!

It will launch next week, on November 20th.

This is a huge game update that consists of two parts: the paid Taste of Adventure expansion, adding a ton of tasty new content; and a free patch that adds a whole bunch of improvements and new features to the base game. Here's a trailer to show you some of the highlights:

So, what exactly is included? 

There's a whole new campaign map for you to prove your theme park building skills in 10 challenging scenarios. Can you also beat them without pausing the game or using blueprints?

Adventure

Exciting new objects for the most intrepid adventurer!

Candyland

Welcome to the land of cotton candy and gingerbread!

River Rapids

A staple in many theme parks, but certainly the trickiest ride for us to implement! Features customizable channel width, freely placeable bumpers, rapids and waterfalls

Safari Ride

A calm scenic ride that can be made more exciting with freely placeable bumps on the track.

Vertical Spinning Coaster

A coaster than can only be built vertically with freely spinning rows of seats.

Swinging Coaster

A Wild Mouse-type of coaster with unique cars that can swing sideways

Inverting Spinning Coaster

A spinning coaster capable of launches and inversions

Inverting Wooden Coaster

A hybrid coaster combining wooden and steel sections

Experience

A thrill ride that spins and inverts guests

Clockwork

A flat ride that looks exciting in motion but is fairly tame

Cookies, Shirts, Sub Sandwiches and Corndogs!

Animated doors and gates

Lava

turntables for the Water Coaster

elevators for the Wild Mouse, Spinning Coaster and Swinging Coaster

customizable 3D text signs

Free update

Some of the highlights of the free portion of this update include:

customizable water colors

custom image signs (with modding support!). Your custom images are stored in the savegame/blueprint, so other players can see them too when downloading your shared content from the workshop! Note that custom images take up a lot of the limited storage space in blueprints though

ride photo sections for all tracked rides

modding support for creating custom coaster trains!

improved staff zoning that allows overlapping zones

all path styles can be used as queues now

improved track builder that preselects the settings of removed track segments, making track editing faster

[themeparkitect]

Version 1.4

Half a year ago Parkitect 1.0 has been released, which seems like a milestone worthy of a small update!

Todays free update adds the following:

Knight costume for Entertainer A fitting costume for the medieval deco theme

Photo Spots Encourage your guests with these new path objects to marvel at your scenery and take a photo of especially beautiful places

Boat Dark Ride A pretty high-capacity gentle water ride where guests ride in boats through nicely themed scenery. The boats have no restraints so this ride is only capable of very small drops.

Flat ride modding support Thanks to contributions by Michael P the Parkitect Asset Editor allows modders to create completely custom flat rides now, such as this Barrel Dance ride by p.marcell

In other news, due to Garret being located in Canada and me in Germany we’re forced to work remotely which is working fine, but I had grown a bit tired of working from home every day for the past five years of Parkitect development. So over the last few months I’ve been busy with setting up a proper small office and we’ve hired a second full-time programmer. Thanks to your support Parkitect has done really well and is continuing to do so, which allowed us to do this. We’re all set up now to continue supporting Parkitect and new projects eventually and can’t wait to pick up work at the new place in about three weeks :)

[themeparkitect]

Version 1.3

Version 1.3 is available now! It mostly fixes some annoyances, for example the default window spawn positions have been improved to not be in the center of the screen anymore (i.e., the place you want to work on and most likely don’t want to have obstructed by windows...)

Since the game remembers where you dragged the windows to you will only really notice this on a fresh install. It has been annoying many new players though, so it’s good to have that improved.

We also overhauled the Build Challenge voting UI. The old UI always gave an advantage to entries that were submitted early. It showed the highest-rated entries first, so if you submitted a good entry very early it was likely to get to the top of the list and as a result receive even more votes and stay at the top, whereas entries that were submitted after a few days oftentimes got buried and received very few votes. This has gotten more extreme after the 1.0 launch since there are more players now. The new voting UI looks like this:

it only highlights one entry at a time, giving you a better view of the build

voting or waiting for a few seconds switches to the next entry

the order of entries is somewhat randomized but entries with fewer votes have a higher chance of being shown first, so overall everyones submissions should receive roughly the same amount of visibility, even if you submit quite late

the actual ranking at any point can still be seen on the Workshop

It’s entirely possible that this will need some further tweaks of course, but let’s see how it goes :)

Changelog

- added new Build Challenge voting system - added a highlight to the transport system connectors of the Deliveries Building/Depot/Trash Chute when in transport system build mode - added lower camera sensitivity options - some campaign balance adjustments - updated Korean translation - improved which shop gets researched if scenario starts without a food/drink shop - improved default window spawn locations to obstruct the view less (for newly installed game) - improved Korean font support - fixed guests sometimes ignoring certain food/drink shops when hungry/thirsty - fixed being able to delete things in the tutorial when you're not supposed to - fixed clicking notification for drowned guests moving the camera way off-screen - fixed rides that were pretty much fully covered still stopping during thunderstorms - fixed some sounds not playing while game is paused - fixed a case where background music could play twice - fixed being able to delete prebuilt scenery on land with support rights (e.g. road in Highway Hijinks scenario) - fixed market research ride intensity preferences graph being quite inaccurate - fixed being unable to delete/select particle effects after reloading a park - fixed rides with a queue length of 1 tile being unpopular - fixed "hold to win" countdown resetting when reloading savegame - fixed mods not being loaded when creating a new scenario - fixed bad starting loans in default sandbox scenarios

[themeparkitect]

Korean + Dutch, Soundtrack

Parkitect has an official Korean translation now, and the Dutch translation received a complete overhaul.

The game is by far the most popular in Germany, the US and Korea currently, so we hope the addition of a Korean translation and Korean font support will make the game more comfortable to play. Parkitect also always had a large amount of players from the Netherlands since the beginning. The Dutch translation had become very incomplete over the years, so it was time for an update :)

We know there are still some very common languages missing, and of course we will continue adding support for more languages over the coming weeks and months.

Soundtrack

We had some requests to make the soundtrack available as separate download, so if you want to listen to the games music outside of the game you can do so now. It is now available on Steam.

If you have backed our Kickstarter at the Soundtrack tier or bought the Soundtrack Edition directly from our website you can find the soundtrack as a separate download in your Humble library now. If you're not using a Humble account and lost your download link please use the Resender to retrieve it.

Changelog (Version 1.2a)

- added Korean translation - updated Dutch translation - added stripe pattern to sources of bad decoration rating to make them easier to distinguish from undecorated areas - small campaign adjustments - made info pips (no resources, no path connection etc) click-through while building something - improved ghost train visibility when a visualization view is enabled - fixed a case where water could disappear in unexpected places when terraforming - fixed very short rides being more exciting than they should be and 1-2 other small exploits - fixed a memory leak

[themeparkitect]

Version 1.2

Hey look, it’s another update in time for the weekend/holidays! The full changelog is at the end of this post. The highlights are:

Track segments automatically snap to each other if the height difference is reasonably small:

This makes reconnecting track ends easier after editing a ride, and should resolve the troubles new players had with getting track heights to match when being misaligned by 1/8 height unit.

Existing guest/ride/shop info windows automatically get closed when clicking a different guest/ride/shop (unless you pin them):

This should reduce windows cluttering up the view.

Added the park ratings to a tab in the Park Info window:

The park ratings are quite important but could previously only be found by hovering on the ratings bar in the main menu, which is slightly hidden. This will give people a second way to discover them, and there are also some additional tooltips explaining the ratings a bit.

The research menu button received an animation to reflect the current research state:

The fill state of the vial tells you the research progress without having to open the research window, and it looks nice I guess.

And there’s a little something for the winter season :)

See you all next year!

Changelog

- added automatically snapping track ends to each other if they are close enough - added three new ride music options: Street Organ, Winter Funderland, Barollerquoster - added research and goals to the default sandbox parks (you can still disable them if you want) - added research menu button reflects the current research progress - added hats for the winter season - added park rating tab to Park Info window - added attractions visited + products bought stats to guest info windows - added tooltips explaining guest stats/park ratings a bit - added option for bigger UI scale - added support for GOG Galaxy Achievements - opening a guest/ride/shop info window automatically closes all other unpinned guest/ride/shop info windows now - made sure ESC key can still be used for cancelling actions, even if a different alternate key has been defined in the control settings - improved loan payment UI to be less confusing - improved pipette tool for picking an attraction to advertise to also work on queue paths - updated graphics settings to offer FPS rates depending on refresh rates supported by screen - updated French/Russian/Simplified Chinese/German translations - fixed Trash Chute sometimes not connecting to paths - fixed a case where queue sign could appear in an odd orientation - fixed a case where scenario descriptions on campaign map could be cut off - fixed a case where guests could float through the air when using an Elevator - fixed a case where guest thoughts would not show up in ride/shop/park thought overview lists - fixed Spiral Slide not working anymore when picking up a sliding guest - fixed Fruit Juice being less popular than intended

[themeparkitect]

Any way of getting help after purchasing the game, downloading and now trying to "install" or get game started. WINDOWS user.

Please contact us at [email protected]

[themeparkitect]

Version 1.1

Phew, that was an intense ride :) There have been 2-3 slightly bigger issues for some people that had to be hotfixed, but overall I’d say the launch went pretty smoothly!

It has been great to watch all of the reactions, ratings, reviews and feedback. Thank you! We have an update to Version 1.1 for you today to resolve most of the more pressing small bugs and confusing things you have reported. For the next update we will focus on improvements to the coaster track builder to make finishing tracks more comfortable.

Changelog

- added a proper time countdown display for scenarios that require holding the goals at 100% completion for a while - added number showing the current progress to goals list - added hovering on the date display on the main menu shows the remaining time until the end of the month - added land cost per tile display to land purchase tab - added confirmation dialog for hiring second research team - added more generic deco shapes - added tooltips to finance sheet lines - updated Chanute Airfield to make deliveries building more noticeable; made it more clear that the runway is just a ground texture, not a path; reduced terrain cost - updated Coral Caldera to start with prebuilt transport system tubes into the main build area - made area highlights in tutorial more noticeable - reduced research durations by 10% - reduced guests preferred ride intensities in Maple Meadows and Chanute Airfield slightly - fixed campaign progress not getting synchronized through Steam Cloud - fixed some cases where the campaign map unlock animation would not run properly - fixed a case where the token for completing the optional goals would not unlock - fixed a case where the token unlock animation for optional goals would play when it had already been played before - fixed black screen when running the game on some Macs - fixed performance issues on iMac/retina resolution Macs - fixed a couple of achievements problems - fixed missing sound effects when building coaster segments - fixed tutorial getting softlocked when not building the Carousel flat on the ground - fixed tutorial getting softlocked when destroying the Carousel - fixed music not playing at intended volume after restarting game - fixed Steel Coaster default blueprints not displaying prices and showing outdated stats - fixed a case where the lines in the finance spreadsheet were misaligned - fixed Build Challenge map missing some decorations - fixed a case where the mouse could stop working after hitting the Escape key

[themeparkitect]

Release!

Here we go! Version 1.0 is OUT NOW :D Available on Steam, Humble and GOG.

Changelog:

- added campaign mode! Can YOU become the ultimate Parkitect? - added tutorial - added achievements - added French translation - added Traditional Chinese translation - added Russian translation - added time challenge goals (= finish the scenario within a certain time) - added ride profit goals - added shop profit goals - added a bunch of basic coaster blueprints - added flags - added tree type selection to terrain generator - added helix to Inverted Coaster - added UI audio volume setting - improved preview trains to keep running when building coasters during thunderstorms - improved behaviour when hovering shop/flat ride/utility building over uneven terrain - improved performance when terraforming below wooden supports - improved performance if there are many people on screen - improved performance when disabling Temporal Anti-Aliasing - changed profit display on main menu to show operating profit - hundreds of tiny balance adjustments and fixes - fixed trains going crazy when derailing - fixed a case where trains could play lift sounds while not being on a lift - fixed shop prices not being properly synchronized if shop is built from a blueprint - fixed brush tool not working on smoke/fog effects - fixed holding brakes counting towards air time - fixed a problem where hitting keyboard keys could trigger unintended actions - fixed a case where too many shopkeepers were hired - fixed a case where queue entrance signs would show the wrong text - fixed a case where the deco window could become unresponsive - fixed camera moving when holding left alt

[themeparkitect]

Devlog Update 221

Just three more days until launch! As a quick reminder, the price of the game will change to USD $29.99 / EUR €24.99 around November 28th, so this is the last chance to grab the game at its current Early Access price.

Devlog

We’re happy to announce that in addition to the existing English and German translations the game will fully support French, Russian and Simplified Chinese at launch!

We don’t have a lot of experience with translations yet, so if you notice anything weird with them please let us know. We will also consider adding more translations in the future.

And if you took a look at the Steam store page recently you might have noticed that the 1.0 update will also add a whole bunch of Achievements :)

[themeparkitect]

Devlog Update 220

Hey! If you haven’t seen it yet - the 1.0 version of Parkitect with the campaign mode will release next week on November 29th, and there’s a trailer for it here!

We’ve been working on the campaign mode for about a year now and planned it for much longer, so let’s talk a bit about it now that it’s revealed!

Design

All the way back in 2014 we knew that we wanted to have some sort of map for the campaign instead of just a list of levels, but it wasn’t clear yet what that would look like. Initially we thought about doing a globe, but then another game did that :)

Then for the longest time we thought it could work like a rolling pin, sort of like the world in Animal Crossing games. But bending the map like that would have made it much more complicated to build, and it would also not have fit the rest of the game too well. So we decided to roughly match the look of the terrain and decoration that you find inside the game itself.

Now it became a bit like the overworld maps you can find in Mario games. We didn’t want players to be able to see all of the levels from the start and wanted the map to be obscured in the beginning and only get uncovered as you progress, to make you wonder a bit about what’s still to come.

To pique your curiosity even further we wanted the map have multiple themes and biomes that would roughly match the scenarios you’d find. Fitting all of the different scenario settings into one connected map in a way that somewhat makes sense was pretty tricky, especially since the campaign should also start easy and get more difficult as you progress. So we couldn’t simply move some scenarios to a different place on the map where they would have fit in better geographically because their order was somewhat fixed.

We went with clouds for obscuring the map, simply because it made sense. We also like how there sometimes are holes in the cloud layer that let you get a small glimpse ahead at what’s yet to come

At one point we thought about changing the map to look like a blueprint that gets turned into reality. We liked the look of the effect, but there would have been so much animation and movement going on that it was distracting from the important part, which is the next level getting unlocked.

We slowly started having a nice landscape, but the map was still feeling a bit empty... we wanted a bit more visual feedback showing which levels you have already beaten. So we added these buildings - each building resembles a scenario you have completed and can be found within that scenario. It is like a trophy that you unlock as reward for winning the scenario, to remind you of the level you played and to make the map feel more alive thanks to you.

The way it slams onto the map with a shockwave that pushes away the clouds is pretty satisfying too! And we think now it’s also looking a bit like the park maps that you can find at many theme parks, with the main attractions being drawn it at unrealistically big proportions.

Gameplay

Due to the branching paths there are usually 2-3 different scenarios you can choose from to progress, so if you get stuck somewhere you have the option to continue with a different level.

After you have beaten a level you can play it in sandbox mode, so if you want to revisit it and build a more complex park with unlimited money, goals disabled or to build some rides that are usually not available in that level you can do that! We hope this will give creative players a small incentive to give the campaign a try.

You might have seen the little coin pop up in the level unlock animation above. You get one coin for beating the scenario (and you can’t buy them with real money or anything like that, just to be clear about that). Additionally, you can get a second coin by beating all of the optional goals of the scenario. You don’t have to beat the optional goals to move on to the next scenario, but it can still make sense to go for them if you feel like you need an extra challenge or to get the second coin, because at some points you will need a certain amount of coins to progress.

So if you beat some of the optional goals this can also allow you to skip some levels.

Every level has at least an optional time challenge goal where you need to complete the scenario by a certain date (and might have to restart if you miss it!) and sometimes a couple of extra challenges.

This adds a hard mode to every level for players who like this sort of challenge with a reward that’s actually useful, and without blocking people who prefer taking their time or simply aren’t that fast from progressing to the next scenario. It’s hard to please everyone, but we hope this will be a good compromise to let as many players as possible enjoy the game in the way they want to play it.

[themeparkitect]

Launch date!

Hey! Take a look at this:

That’s right, the 1.0 version of Parkitect will release on November 29th. Most notably, it will add the Campaign Mode to the game! The campaign spans 26 scenarios with unique and varied settings and is played on a world map with branching paths that gets gradually revealed and comes to live as you progress.

All of the campaign parks have been designed by Silvarret and Joshua Tjarks, so you can be sure they are very nicely decorated.

Launch price

As announced previously we will increase the price with the release of this update. Our final price will be $29.99 / €24.99 and should come into effect across all stores around November 28th.

Since this has been asked before: of course the 1.0 update will be free for you if you already own the game or buy it at the current price. You won’t have to pay extra for it.

Future

So what will the 1.0 release mean for the future of Parkitect? During December and early January we expect to be 100% busy with talking to press and players, the inevitable hotfixes and taking a bit of time off over the holidays.

Beyond that we will of course continue to support the game with patches and updates - there’s some more features and content for both creative players and management players that we’re excited to start working on as free updates! However, these updates will happen whenever we have something ready to show instead of on the fixed weekly devlog/monthly game update schedule that we’ve used for the past ~4 years.

Thank you!

Finally, a HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped us to get this far! This game wouldn’t exist without all of the Kickstarter supporters, and it would have been a much smaller game without all of the Early Access supporters. And of course thanks to everyone who has worked on this game over the years - there have been so many people: obviously Garret, for taking on the risk of working on such a big game with me; Tim and Luuk, who have contributed enormously to the community surrounding this game and did an amazing job with working on the game itself; Gabby, who was always there to help with absolutely anything we needed help for; Gordon for bringing his unique music style to the game that makes building coasters so much more fun; Em, Rachel and Maris for creating thousands of sound effects for all the different things in the game and figuring out how to make them sound good; Fabrice for designing new scenery pieces when we ran out of ideas; Silvarret and Joshua for designing probably the absolutely nicest campaign parks; Marlon, M. Joshua, Michael and Trudy for the trailers and promo art; and of course all of the game testers and community moderators over on reddit and Discord!

Thanks <3