Guests learned how to walk across the terrain this week in case they’re suddenly not on a path anymore, either because you dropped them somewhere or deleted the path they were standing on. They’re pretty confused and just randomly walk around until they eventually get back onto a path, but that’s a lot better than getting stuck and not moving at all as they did before.

That means I got to throw guests off paths onto various structures to test what happens - for science! And fun.

(This is what the “parks” I build look like 99% of the time - just test cases for certain conditions.)

Making them able to walk across the terrain was one of these tasks I’ve been procrastinating since forever, and in the end it was neither hard nor a lot of work to do. But I also made use of code originally written for other parts of the game that did not exist a couple months back…sometimes it can be a good idea to let a tricky programming task wait and it might become easier to solve due to other code changes, or you learn something new that helps or suddenly have an idea how to tackle it differently.

Sandbox Pre-Alpha

It looks like we’ll be releasing the pre-alpha later this week! It’ll be available to everyone who backed our Kickstarter or bought the game from our website. We’ll post here, on our subreddit and Twitter once it’s been uploaded.

If you’ve been following this devlog you already know this, but here’s what to expect from this release anyways:

This will be an early WIP release and not quite representative of the final game, so you’ll surely run across some bugs. We’ll be putting out updates fairly frequently, and some will contain major changes (new features, systems, overhauls, etc). That said, the game is playable, though there is no goal or challenge yet. Money has no impact at the moment, but the guests act more or less as we want them to. Right now the game is about building cool stuff and trying to keep people happy and ratings high. Money will become an important factor soon, as we’re working on the resource system and staff system that are major factors of it. These updates will be free, in case some were wondering.

With that out of the way, we’re excited to see what everyone makes with it! :)

Parkitect Nexus

Parkitect Nexus is a fan-made sharing site made by one of our awesome backers, Luuk Holleman. It’s a great place to share coaster blueprints and park saves, and Luuk’s even pulling data out of the saves to display on the site! Check it out, and be sure to share some creations once you get your hands on the game. There’s already a bunch of really cool stuff on there!