When Area 52 released a trailer of Rollercoaster Tycoon World earlier this month the internet wasn’t exactly set ablaze with excitement. While it carried all the hallmarks of the Rollercoaster series, it looked like it could have been made a decade ago.
The team have published a long blog post explaining that they plan to overhaul the visuals ahead of launch, turning it into a prettier and more realistic looking game.
Here’s the trailer in question:
“The trailer did not show the final game and the game everyone should expect from the RCT franchise,” Area 52 admit. “The game is currently in what we are calling a pre-alpha stage – features and graphics are still being coded.”
Area 52 say they’ve been working on “core functionality” since they took over the project in Autumn. and that’s “why there has not been significant visual progress on the title.”
“Now, however, we are able to finally continue working on the higher level functionality and visuals.”
Despite the engine work being completed, Area 52 state in the post that they’ll be upgrading to the Uity 5 Engine before release. They hope to “take full advantage of the many new environmental, lighting, and shadow improvements as well as many other features in our original Unity 4.6-based engine to create a game that looks great.”
The team also plan on changing the Rollercoaster’s art style following comments on the trailer, they will make it “more believable/realistic overall, while still keeping the charm of RCT. We want the rides to feel like they can be found in real life. Even though some of the rides may never actually exist, we want them to look like they could, and are constructed with real materials.”
And, for anyone who wants a different style, “once our robust user-generated content systems launch you will be able to make the scenery, rides, etc. that you want and we plan to fully support that.”
“We know that today these words must ring hollow, but trust that we are doing everything we can to make the game look excellent.”
There’s still no release date for Rollercoaster Tycoon World.