Gone Gold with Simon Hill
Welcome to Gone Gold with Simon Hill, a show that features fun, insightful interviews with some of the biggest names in video games. From developers, to actors - this show delves in to what makes your favourite video games tick.
Gone Gold with Simon Hill
Frontier Dev - Planet Coaster 2
In this insightful episode I'm joined by Game Director, Rich Newbold and Senior Executive Producer, Adam Woods as we delve in to the development of Planet Coaster 2. We hear about where the concept for a second instalment for the game began and what lead them in the direction of adding in Water Parks. We also hear about some funny research trips and field trip stories that lead to some hilarious scenarios for the team and... What's next for Planet Coaster 2? Find out here.
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Gone Gold with me, Simon Hill, esports host, industry presenter and TV personality. Here we are back for another episode of Gone Gold. How has everyone been? It's been a busy week here at Gone Gold HQ. I'm not sure if you caught it, but I was featured in one of the UK's leading newspapers this week. They've covered my journey in video games, hosting multiple esports events alongside my recent work hosting at Wembley Stadium and so much more. It's a very flattering feature. If you haven't seen it, you can check it out in full by heading to my social media at Simon H Official on Twitter or X, whatever it's called these days. Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. Thank you to everyone who for tuning in. Please feel free to give this podcast a little rating on your chosen platform or even leave a little review. This will help push the show in front of more people as it works its magic with the algorithm. It also helps me be able to approach more of your favourite guests in the future. Talking of guests, this one has been in the works for some time now, and I'm incredibly excited to have this studio on my show. Whether you're a fan of Roller Coaster Tycoon or Thrillville Zoo Tycoon or Jurassic Evolution, Frontier Developments have led creativity into every new era we've had in the industry and has delivered something spectacular. In this episode, I sit down with game director and senior executive producer It's all here. It's gone gold with Frontier Development. This is a very exciting episode for me. As someone who has been a fan of the developer for many years, I'm thrilled to welcome one of the premier creators of innovation in the gaming space with many incredible IPs they have under their umbrella. Today, I'm sitting down with Frontier's Planet Coaster 2 game director, Rich Newbold, and senior executive producer, Adam Woods. Gents, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to the show.
Adam:Thank you, Simon, for that intro that's uh i feel really i feel geared up for myself now can you just follow me around yeah that's wonderful as i walk into rooms like
Rich:that's what i was gonna say you just follow me around just
Simon:introducing me to people even people i love just here being the hype man that's what they pay me for let's get started with finding out how the studio's feeling the game came out in november since then you've really dedicated yourselves to giving us a that you and the team have put in over the last six, seven, eight months?
Rich:Yeah, incredibly proud of the team. It's been such an effort to make and release a game. We did that in November. And then since then, the team has done an incredible job moving to the spring roadmap and doing monthly updates. And that... in itself is an incredible logistical feat, but ensuring that the quality of the content and the features that we're putting out in those updates is really high and they've been received so well. And I think the team have done an incredible job and I don't think I have enough praise to give them for what they've been doing over the last eight months, as you say.
Simon:And Adam, it's been a journey for you from November to now and... It's in a really good place. Planet Coaster 2, it's the best time to play this game.
Adam:Yeah, I truly believe that as well. I think... we listened to the feedback from the players. We had things that we wanted to continue to develop with the game as well. You'll know, Simon, from yourself, that we frontier launch games, but then continually support them after as well. So there's always that plan to sort of nurture the game after with free content, with PDLC and those things that we've seen on our other titles. So it's just, it's a lovely position to be in that you can continue to build on your game. I think a game is kind of, much like most pieces of art, because I believe games are art as well, they're never really finished. There's just a point where you go, I'm happy with it. But with us at Frontier and our games, we can continue to keep, you know, brushing on some more strokes and some more colour and adding features and content. So it's a lovely place to be.
Simon:You do seem to dent my wallet quite often, especially with Planet Zoo, the original Planet Coaster as well, and looking forward to what the future holds for Planet Coaster 2. But let's go right back. When you initially launched Planet Coaster back in 2016, you had this huge following, a very creative and passionate community. The reviews were great, landing an 84 on Metacritic. It was a clear success. At what point did Did the studio then make the decision to begin work on a second instalment?
Adam:I think it was sort of a combination of a few things. We had continued experience. I mean, we've got a massive heritage of park simulator games, Ronco's Tycoon. even going back to some of the rollercoaster tycoon packs in the real early days Thrillville so it was a continuation of that expertise that we moved into Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo Jurassic World Evolution, Jurassic World Evolution 2 as well so sort of using that knowledge and background that we built up we were clearly still had a massively engaged community which we are so thankful for even at that point you know sort of as you say six seven, eight years since the launch. Still, you know, making some incredible things in Planet Coaster, which still boggles my mind how they put these things together. And then the ideas in the studio started to form, you know, what would we want to see from a Planet Coaster 2? What would we want to see from the sequel? Clearly, the water parks were a massive part of that focus. It's a very close thing to my heart in terms of my family. We go abroad quite a lot and... very lucky to be able to go and visit different water parks and things. So it was always something I'd love to see that combination of, of, uh, of water parks and theme parks pulled together to create the best day out. Right. You know, that's sort of, you see under a blazing sun. Um, so all those things sort of came together and, and, uh, yeah, we, we, we started to put some proof of concepts together and, and, uh, how, how does the visuals, what does the visuals look like for this? And then, carried on from there on and now we are here where we are.
Simon:And Rich, when you're planning the second game, of course we know that the addition of being able to create your water parks were a huge focus. What was the ultimate goal for the studio going into the development phase?
Rich:Building what Adam says really, having that vision of water parks being a key driver of the sequel. That visual, that aesthetic, that feeling of that crystal blue pools, flumes, people having a great time at a water park was a really big driver of what we wanted the vision to be for Planet Coaster 2. But building upon everything that the original Planet Coaster had that was great, roller coasters, rides, building that management of making sure your guests are happy and just putting those two things together and having lots of creativity as well as with the water park, how we're going to allow players to build pools, how we're going to make them allow them to build their own flumes and water slides and, and add in all those special pieces as well. So it's that, combination of the vision and also leaning into the creativity and that that feeling that you have of being at a park but also having the control as a player of you get to build your own build your own theme park build your own water park what will you choose to design when you're in control of that
Simon:we love to hear fun stories on this show and i am under no illusion with the incredible ip that you guys work on i know you can't exactly visit a jurassic world but with the nature of some of the ip frontier develop including planet zoo of course when you're creating a game focused around thrill rides and water parks. Your research trips must be so much fun. What are some of the most memorable field trips the team have taken coming up to the development of Planet Coaster 2?
Adam:I think for me, as I said before, I've actually got a lot of sort of personal experience with theme parks and a few sort of choice water parks around the world that I like to go. So a lot of that was being drawn from my family experience and taking my kids there and then being able to relive those moments in a game that I'm making is always kind of a bit of a weird sort of how do I get to this point in my life I'm sort of mixing my family experience with my work which was lovely myself and Rich did take a trip out to Alton Towers which is one of the biggest parks in the UK which is one of my favourite that and Chesterton, Chesterton's probably my first one I went to and I remember riding the Vampire which was my first big roller coaster so that's always got a really sort of strong point in my heart for me personally. But Alton Towers was very cool as well. And I think it was sort of witnessing that. And it's that feeling of going, well, I'm on a roller coaster. I love roller coasters anyway, but this is my job. Brilliant, isn't it? And then more recently, ahead of launch, and this is always going to be a standout moment for me, I was very lucky to be able to go to Thorpe Park. We had an influence and a press day there. And I got to ride Hyperia seven times in a row doing press interviews on the roller coaster, which was something I never thought I would be able to experience. And that was great fun, particularly when one of the interviewers couldn't actually talk halfway around. So I was asking them questions. I managed to turn the tables and say, what do you think your favorite roller coaster is? Because, yeah, so that was really great fun that day.
Rich:Well, for me, one of the challenges of being the game director on Flight Coaster is something I can't control I wish I could is that I get afraid of heights and I get motion sick so for me the trips to Alton Towers as Adam says was me trying to push myself past those innate things that as I say I can't control that I can't stop that irrational well it's not really an irrational fear of heights I think it's a quite irrational thing I think Adam is the irrational one because he doesn't seem to have it but I can't control my motion sickness which is I take the meds so it's like for me those trips to Alton Towers and Thorpe Park are me pushing, trying to build that courage and Adam being there to support me and going, right, Adam, I want to get on as many rides as I can. And Adam going, okay, I'm here with you, buddy, but it's okay if you don't. And I'm like, no, I'm going to do it. I've got to push myself. I need to feel that experience myself so that I can ensure that I'm as knowledgeable and as experienced as a game director on these kind of experiences. And Adam and I have a very close relationship. I was lucky enough that he would let me hold his hand if I needed to. And we went to Thorn Park, I went to Hyperia, and it's like, okay, this is a big new
Adam:coaster. you got onto that and I'd been round once already and Rich got on to see how he was going to feel and I turned around and went it's a lot if you don't want to be on this coaster it's absolutely fine because I think out of all the coasters I've witnessed you do Rich and I want to give you a shout out that yes you do get motion sick but you went on them so well done for that I do give you your props on that but yeah I turned around and went it's quite a lot this one you might not want to do it and again fair play to you you actually did it so you're building up that
Rich:But one was enough. I was aiming to try and be like Adam and we were going to take turns, but I did the one and I went, I think it's a bit much for me, Ads. And he's like, okay, it's fine.
Adam:I'm enjoying this. I even dialed back my screaming on that ride as well. I'm not even going to scream. I'm just going to put my hands down and I'm just going to let him experience it.
Rich:Yeah, because I've been on before and his hands are up and he's like, this is the best. But for that time on Hyperia, he gets himself in because he knows that if I'm sat next to him and he is... like not holding on and not kind of being safe. It's just going to make it worse. So he reined it back in for me, but I tried, but it was just, I couldn't cope with it more than once, I think. But Adam was like, I'll cover you, buddy. I'll go six more times. Don't worry about it.
Simon:What a real
Rich:friend you are, Adam. He really is. And then I know that the audio lead, Ben, and the team had great experiences on reference gathering for the water parks. So finding a local swim pool and having a whale of a time just, you know, dive-bombing water with microphones and just collecting that real-world reference of water parks and how we want the splashes to sound like real splashes. So that authenticity that we put in all of the games we have at Frontier, whether they're F1, Space, Roller Coasters, Dinosaurs, making sure everything feels authentic, and that was part of that as well, of these coasters and water parks are based on, inspired by in real life experiences that you have. So we want to make it feel as real as possible for when you're building the parks, when you're in really close, guest views, stuff like that. So they had a lot of fun. I think it was it wasn't a bright summer day. I think it was a classic British spring or autumn time. It was an outside pool. I don't think it was the brightest of days, but they had a great time getting that reference of I think there's a lot of reference of just getting inflatables and just squeezing them And getting that nice rubber feel. Trying to get on top of them and all that sort of stuff, yeah.
Simon:Well, thank you for taking so much responsibility and going out of your way to go on these thrill rides and these really enjoyable days out to make our experiences in the game so much better.
Adam:It's a hard life. Hard life.
Rich:It is a hard life. He's been sarcastic. To me, it was.
Simon:Let's get into the game. The reason I love the Planet series is because of the freedom of creativity and the flexibility in the management side of the game. With Planet Coaster 2, you really focused on these elements of the game. How important was it to improve these aspects going into the second installment?
Rich:They're really important for me. I think, as Adam mentioned, the community that we have from the original Planet Coaster and the Planet Zoo one, they have demonstrated an incredible creative spark using the tools and the content we give them to build things that aren't necessarily theme park or kind of water park related, but just amazing creations. And then some of them are going to link that to theme parks and build these wonderful layouts. But they've just showed an amazing breadth of imagination of taking pieces and using them in ways that we could never imagine. So for me, for the sequel, I wanted to continue to build on that. I wanted to ensure that those people that are playing these games for creative reasons have easier ways or more ways to do it. So in the sequel, we added things like the scaling. So now you can scale objects, something that you couldn't do in the original game. So you can take those scenery pieces, scale them up, scale them down. What are our players going to do with that feature as well as breadth of new content, new themes? And that was a really key thing. We overhauled the path system as well, tried to make that as flexible as possible to allow you to build those big plaza areas that you see at Thought Park and you see at Alton Towers and theme parks around the world. That was one of the things that I noticed as soon as we went to Alton, I was like, there's lots of big open areas here. We should be having our path system allow that as well. And that was something that led into the pool creation as well. They're very similar tools. It allows you to build those big areas. So that was a really key part for me. And as you say, management, how do water parks, how do you manage a water park? Well, you need to make sure your guests have access to pool passes, making sure they're getting changed. Where are your changing rooms? Can they access them before they get in the water? Do you even put them down? Or did you forget? There's a lot of management aspect that Waterpark added to that day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute running of a theme park in a successful way, ensuring they're having a good time, your guests, and ensuring that you're making lots of money as well and continue to expand that park. So just keep building upon that incredible foundation we had with the original game.
Simon:And there was a lot of learnings that come from Jurassic World Evolution that some of that you brought over to Planet Coaster 2. What was the process like for you to sit down as a team and go, right, we've learned this, we've been able to adapt this, and now we're going to bring it and also improve on it for Planet Coaster 2?
Adam:I mean, exactly. The fact that we've got the ability to tap into that experience, myself and Rich were on, Jurassic World Evolution 2. Rich was also on the original one, Jurassic World Evolution 1 and Planet Coaster as well. And a lot of people that we worked with on Jurassic World Evolution 2 are part of the team here on Planet Coaster as well. So we're building up those relationships. We're building up the dad puns and the jokes and the sings and the songs that I give out to all the people here at the office, whether they like it or not. And continuing building that, that energy then goes into the game. But not only looking back to just Jurassic World Evolution, you also then go, well, what happened to Planet Zoo? You know, the restaurants. Okay, let's take the restaurants idea, but how do we improve it a little bit more, enhance it even further in the modular souvenir shops as part of Update 6? It's sort of using that knowledge and expertise, but then just giving a little extra enhancement ready for the next round as well. And I mean, there's people here that have worked on... really original games as well. Rollercoaster Cycling 3, you know, that expertise is still here at Frontier. My first project I joined when I was, I first joined here 18 years ago now was Thrillville off the rails in QA when I first joined as my first position. So, you know, there's lots of experience here that we can just tap into and, you know, all the lessons we learned. And tying that in with our personal sort of love for theme parks and water parks and dinosaurs and all these sorts of things then you pair it with our game engine and suddenly you're getting these incredible worlds that people are building creations beyond beyond my wildest imaginations and Far better than I can as well, I'm afraid.
Simon:When you think of a water park, you automatically think of that bright sunny day, ice cream, inflatables, log flumes, huge pools with wave machines. Did the team achieve everything it wanted to when it came to adding the water park feature into the game?
Rich:Yeah, I think the team had done an incredible job in envisioning that feeling, that visual you have with water parks in real life in the game. We had a lot of great creative options and customization on things like the Flumes when the game came out in November. And we've been building on that with the update since then. We overhauled some of the visuals of the Flumes and the physics and the way that they Behaviour Update 3, we've been adding more creativity and options for customisation. Now you can change the inflatable colour, which is a small detail but really matters a lot for the way people want to visualise their parks. And as you say, it's that bright sunny day, having that big pool with the big wave machine going and seeing those cascades is a great visual. So that was something that we really wanted to get across as we were building the game and I think they've done an incredible job achieving that.
Simon:Yeah, absolutely. And there's a level of detail to your that players need to pay attention to now. You've mentioned it and already touched upon it earlier. Not only have you got to build your favourite looking water park, but you've got to get log flume staff, you've got to get lifeguards changing room places for your tower. What are some of the favourite inclusions to Planet Coaster 2 and the water park side of the management aspect of the game?
Adam:I think for me, it's sort of the correlation of how you... build a flume versus how you would build a coaster. We've tried, we try to look at how the two sort of systems sort of work. What I mean by that is you built a coaster. Everyone knows how to build a coaster. You've played planet coaster. Then how do we sort of bring some of that knowledge into planet coast two when building flume? So there's lots of similarities in how you piece by piece construct a flume. Um, and I think that goes across all the other parts. So you have to manage your ride. You have to manage, um, you know, breakdowns, wear downs. What do we do with flumes? We have to make sure they're clean. So that's why we made sure that we added in the water filtration systems. You know, that's another thing you have to balance and manage because that's what you do in real life. And it's got similarities with the sort of theme park side of the game as well. And yeah, lifeguards, it's the sort of management side of having a lifeguard, having a staff. But then when you get down to the detail and look at what the lifeguard does and how it interacts and, And it's that level of detail from right down to first-person mode all the way up to your more classic sim overview, which had to work with water parks as well. That's what I'm most pleased with, how it all comes together like that. It feels like you can move between the two really seamlessly, or build a water park on its own as well.
Rich:I think for me, it was things like the lifeguards. I hadn't touched on them, but you need them to make sure your guests are safe and having the pools and making sure they're having a great time. But it was also the level of fun and kind of the tone that we have with Planet, that the art and the animation team put into something like the lifeguards. And that detail of being that more traditional sim overview, I've got lots of things going on, but going down and being at a guest level and seeing the fun they're having, seeing them splash about in the pool, seeing your lifeguard jump in when there's someone in trouble. For me, it was that inclusion of getting across a fun day and getting that playful tone out from all of the guests and the staff that we're putting in game. I love a flume. That's one thing I will enjoy because I can swim. I can control that one. So I'd love a water park is all I've had. So seeing the flumes and seeing guests come out of the bottom and into the water, that's been one of my favorite moments. I've seen that combination of the moment of the guests coming through, but also the visual aspect of making that feel like water, look like water, and react like water when the guests go in. I think for me, when that kind of first– started to crystallize in the game. That's when I knew we were into a really good place for Pinecoaster 2.
Simon:Whilst we're touching on this subject, it's probably worth us mentioning the incredible work that the art department has done for the game. The design work is remarkable. Everything is brighter, smarter, and well-designed. Something that you and the team must be so proud of.
Rich:Yeah, the team have been incredible. Adding the... water parks as well as developing re-enhancements to the coasters and flight rides that we have in planet coaster 2 but also nailing the the tone that we we wanted to target with planet of it's fun it's not too whimsy it's a management game but it's not too serious and trying to get that nice balance of bright colors guests that look good guests are having a great time having a play great day out we always wanted to be the best day out have so allowing players to have new themes that allow them to explore their creativity and make it look really good for a sequel. And I think that they've done an incredible job from all of the content teams. There's art, animation, audio. They've done an incredible job in bringing that to life for the players.
Adam:Yeah, it's all the teams, isn't it? Code, the rendering, the... the effort that went into the water and I still spend a lot of time with the camera half submerged just to see the waterline I absolutely you know I get really excited about those kind of that level of detail that we go to we don't have to but that's what people expect from a planet game and that's what we expect from a planet game ourselves that attention to detail so just the entire team working with these guys is every day it's inspiring and myself and Richard are very lucky that we get to sort of do a lot of the press and a lot of sort of public speaking for the team and i just wish i could sort of bowl them all up and just bring them with me everywhere we go so they can they can feel the admiration that i get when i speak to players and fans and press as well and just how much people appreciate what hard effort they put into they are very clever people across the board that we work with here so it's um it's uh It's quite, you know, overwhelming at times when it's a lot of me kind of talking to all these very, really, really intelligent people.
Simon:What else I find inspiring about the studio is that you've always been well known for listening to the community. And over the last six, seven months, you've been giving us free updates, new themes, rides, optimizations, tools to improve the overall experience of Planet Coaster 2. Update six, many said was a game changer. We got ride photos, modular souvenir shops, as you've mentioned, and so much more. Talk to us about the strategy on bringing all of these updates to the players. It seems like it's been a lot of work for the studio, but it's come through and it really has made for an overall better experience.
Rich:Yeah, when you release a game, there's always that aspect of how our players are going to respond to it. And when we did it in November, we released an update around Christmas time to keep you know, to support the deal PDLC that we had out in December time. And then after Christmas, we came back and right. What's our strategy for planet coast to do? What do our players want? What do they want to be? Once is to target. And as Adam says, we've historically at front, he'd been quite lucky that we are able to have the time post launch to, to, review, consolidate, and identify what our next step's going to be. Do we want to move forward with PDLC as a focus, or do we want to focus more on bigger free updates or smaller ones and get that balance right? So after Christmas, we came back and we went, right, how are we going to move forward with Planet Coaster 2 this year? We're going to move forward with a spring roadmap. We're going to get that out to our players so they're aware of what we're working on so that they can be part of that journey and feel that we are listening to them and taking their feedback on board. And which parts of the game did they feel are really good? Which parts of the game did they think, because they know us, they know Frontier, a lot of them have been playing our games for a while, that we will go and update and improve those things. So looking at what we want to do in updates two, three, four, and five. So we planned five updates today. Four updates to begin with. Working through those monthly, you go, right, we want to get a good cadence, get this out to players as soon as possible, high quality as well. So really pushing the team on, getting that quality high, getting it out as quick as possible, but as good as possible. And focusing on things like custom billboards. All of our players want a lot more creativity on the billboards. That was one of the first things we targeted. moving forward through the updates are going right what's the more ambitious features we want to give players right restaurants people really want to have restaurants in in planet coaster 2 and as soon as how planet zoo doing this that's a it's not it's a tangentially in the same franchise in a weird way it's not a sequel we're kind of so how are they doing it okay we want to have players our players will probably want to experience similar to that but How do we build upon what the restaurants and planets do? How do we want to make it fit what we're doing in Planet Coaster 2? We have a different path system. How is it going to interact with that? How is it going to interact with our guest experiences? So moving forward with that, okay, we had feedback that we'd like some of the original themes from the original Planet Coaster. So we had all of our new themes, but they would like to have more of the original ones. Okay, so we'll start working on how we can remake those for the sequel. There's a different set of production tool chains and a lot of... process we have to go through with those to make them fit the improvements that we've done in Planet Coaster 2 on the engine side. How do we get those out to players as quick as possible, as feasible as possible? So working our way through those original themes and thankfully we managed to really finesse that process so we could do two themes at once in Update 6 and go from, hey, here's one theme to actually go, oh, here's two themes. Here you go, guys. How much content do you want? Here's even more. And then moving from what the players were giving us feedback that they felt should be in the game to what we wanted to add to the game. On-ride photos in Update 6 was a really important feature for me because it was something that we really wanted to do ourselves and go, right, we want to make that on-ride. Have photos. That's something that Lots of theme parks have. We'll add that as part of this update. Connecting that then with an opportunity to modular souvenir shops, which again was like a feature and a management aspect that Planet Zoo have. Those are two great ways of doing it. In a theme park, you get your photo taken, you come out the exit, you get sold your photo. Those two features then connected really well, had a really great synergy. So update six, having those big features, a lot of content and kind of was the addition to the spring roadmap we set out to because we felt it was a great opportunity to really put a full stop in that spring roadmap and go, right, here, guys, we're going to move away from monthly updates. This is the last one. There you go.
Adam:Let's celebrate all the hard work. Here's a brand new feature that hasn't really, you know, it wasn't in Planet Coaster. It featured in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, but it's obviously been implemented in a very different way this time as well. Quite a lot of that creativity was, in terms of where you're placing it and how you want to place it. But then it feeds into the management. If you don't get a good photo out of it, guests are less likely to want to buy it. So it feeds into that, it feeds into the economy. So there's always those sorts of strands we're looking at and thinking of when we're adding features. And I'm particularly impressed. I said it before, I'm impressed by the team every day anyway. But the online photos, I think, is a particularly impressive achievement for the team.
Simon:It's an incredible feature and one that I think the whole, speaking on part of the community as well here, it was a welcome addition, a very exciting one as well. And I know there's an extension to that original question I asked there, which the community had dined to hear about. So we'll get to that in a little while. Let's get out the water and dry off before we head for the theme park. What do you feel... you did to capture the true magic of building your dream theme park this time around. We have brand new themes, returning ones now, thanks to those updates that you've been giving us, which you just mentioned, and a lot of new rides to play with as well, Adam.
Adam:I think really it's going back to what I was saying before. It's tapping into our experience. It's tapping into our legacy as a studio. And a lot of those people, as I said, have been here for a very long time and have been on those original games. And that comes from a place of passion for them as well. That's where it all started. People, you know, the people that have been here, Johnny Watts, our CEO, absolutely adores theme parks and is really, really intrigued and invested in the magic that a theme park gives you. And that feeling, it's quite hard to describe, isn't it? When you walk through the gates of any theme park, really, there's always something there for you. You could just kind of go, wow, this is, I'm in a different land. I'm, I'm in Main Street of Disneyland or I'm in the spooky forest of Alton Towers and you're there. You're in that world. So there's a lot of that passion that runs through the entirety of Frontier. And that's it. That's what I feel we've tapped into. Then that makes the game what it is. That attention to detail. You zoom in on a coaster car or its trolleys or its wheels and you go, okay, all sort of like works like inspiration of the coasters it's based on is you know that you can see that from that level all the way up to then just this sprawling theme park where people then start building car parks and their entrance and stuff because that's what it means to them so I think that's what we've really tapped into our personal experience and our company expertise in this area you know we're all theme park fans Basically.
Rich:Yeah, I agree. It's, there's a lot of passion. There's a lot of experience. We, I just wanted to, that feeling you have at a theme park, the potential of where am I going to have the best experience today? Which one do I want to go on first? That looks great. I want to go on that. That's that feeling I wanted to have. when people play Pike Coaster 2, when they're downloading someone's Park Off Frontier workshop and seeing what they've created and they go, right, I want to go on this roller coaster you've built. You're clearly a really good coaster builder, which is a skill in itself. I want to go experience that in this game, at my desk, on my couch. I wanted that to be in Planet Coaster 2 of you can never fully recreate that feeling of being in Alton Towers and being slightly terrified but slightly excited at the same time but how can we actually do that with a video game to the best of our knowledge and our experience and our passion as well and I think that was something that I didn't need to push with the team they just knew it they knew exactly that that's the thing that we wanted and it was innate in all of them From the visuals, the content, the code, how do we support that feeling? And when it comes to things like theme direction for the new themes or the content that we want to include from the original Planet Coaster, what's the best way to maximize that as much as possible? So I think that's where I think the team has done an incredible job.
Adam:The downside to this is that I now go off to, I was very lucky to go to Florida early in the year for my year-long birthday celebrations and I went to SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. I'm looking around going, Oh, that would be quite fun. Oh, I see what they've done there. Maybe we could do that. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh no, switch off. Come on. Let's just, let's get on the roller coasters.
Simon:We have something in common because I go to Florida in 61 days. And every time we go to a theme park, my girlfriend is like, are you getting ideas for Planet Coast? Because I'm stood there watching, dissecting everything, come home and attempt to build it, never pull it off at all. But I do try. And as I was saying earlier, perfect segue here, when you mentioned the themes there, you can create almost anything. anything with the current themes in the game, whether it be Viking, aquatic mythology, resort, western sci-fi, pirate and nature themes, which is already more than the base game of the original when it comes to themes. I'm going to drop you both on the spot here. With how much variety there is in Planet Coaster 2, what are your favourite themes and why? Rich, I'll go with you first.
Rich:Oh, you want me first? That's not fair. I am going to go with Viking. I think Viking was my favourite one. I've always had a soft spot for that kind of Norse feel. I love that kind of aesthetic. So Viking for me is a really good theme. I love it. I love the aesthetic of the wood, the shields, the potential that it has in that kind of law that it always has. But I like Viking because the themes in Planet Coaster 2 I tried to make sure were kind of sympathetic or not sympathetic kind of work well with water so viking and that aspect of okay these guys come on their boats across the sea i felt was a really great connection to water and okay people are going to build water parks that's the kind of feeling that they might want to build in parts of their park so viking for me that that wood surface you know where they chisel off the end of those mixed those points and that's a nice fence it's just pointy wood but i just love that aesthetic so so for me it was viking I hope it wasn't Adam's because then I've stolen his.
Adam:I think, well, you're asking me to pick my favourite child, Simon. That's very true. Sorry,
Simon:I
Adam:apologise. I think for me, it's probably mythology. And weirdly, I think Modja's Souvenir Shop's actually just bumped it up to the top because of the plushies, Peggy. Pegasus. Now we've got the lovely little plushie of the Pegasus statue. I loved her in the first place because she was this lovely flamboyant horse ready to go on your statues and stuff. And then we turned her into a plushie as well. And it's just lovely. I think also it's got some of the concepts that came out of that theme. We sort of build these overarching hero pieces to kind of set the tone and then the concept guys start to run off with that theme. And there was some really lovely hype elevation changes in that with the idea of the greek mythology and you know althena and all of that kind of um lore and fantasy behind it there was lots of clouds and that that sense of grandeur i think we've done a really good job with that theme pieces and then when you apply it to some of the scenario levels i think that's uh it's a wonderful sort of holistic feeling of a theme
Simon:Couldn't agree more. And I do apologize, Rich, but my favorite is also mythology. That's
Rich:fine. Nothing wrong with that. We have so many options. And they appeal to different people. It's fine. I think that's the great thing now where Planet Coaster 2 is. As you say, we have nine different themes of scenery and content for players to build those wonderful themed areas of their park. I'll use them in ways that I cannot... imagined at this point, but there's so much creativity across the community. So it's great to see what they come up
Simon:with. You've got a rich history of making theme park games now from Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Thrillville, the original Planet Coast game. What has it been like for you to witness the evolution of a genre the team has so much passion about?
Rich:It's incredible. Adam's been here 18 years. I've been here nearly 17 years. So watching Frontier move and develop over time in all the different games and seen that development of games being from RCT3 to Thrillville to the original Planet Coaster to Planet Coaster 2 and the potential that we have making games and increasing that visual fidelity and improving the creative options and things like that I think have been incredible to witness and be part of and be part of that journey through the studio's timeline I think as Adam says Johnny our CEO is a massive theme park fan which is partly probably why we do a lot of theme park games. So it's great to see his passion that he then, it bleeds into us, into myself and Adam, as well as our own experiences. It's something that you get part of and then you keep trickling that down to the team as well. So I think it's great to see our experiences looking back and going, hey, we did this kind of thing in RCT3. Here's how it works in the original Planet Coaster, that innate knowledge that the team have. You can never recreate that or replace that And it's great to see that with other people on the team that have been here as long as myself and Adam, or longer, and they still have that passion. I think as the games develop over time, there's different challenges of different ways of inputs and how do we make a game that now works on PC and console at the same time. So there's... There's challenges, but they become opportunities as well. How can we now get this to a broader... We've got a lot of opportunity to get a broader audience. How do we get these kind of experiences to new theme park fans over time as well? So it's great to see that genre develop, not just at Frontier, but across the industry as well. There's lots of different ways for you to experience theme parks now. And I think it's been great to see over time.
Adam:I think it's really interesting as well, what Rich was talking about there. I'm probably going to make myself feel really old by saying this, but... We've got such a long history and expertise and many, many years combined of being in the industry and being at Frontier as well. But we're now seeing people joining us because they play Planet Coaster and they're now joining the studio or getting into games and they've put hundreds and thousands of hours into Planet Coaster and now they're here working on their next game as well. So it's sort of tapping into new experience and new expertise fresh out of... out of university or fresh into the industry as well, you know, which is, it's, it's totally, totally amazing.
Rich:Yeah. It reinvigorates you as well. You have the, you have people join the studio because of a thing that you, you felt you made like last year, but it's actually like eight years ago and it, it ages you with some of the, the, but they, they bring that enthusiasm from their own passion as well. And it continues to push you because they're next to you going, Hey, we should, we can, can we make this better? Let's keep going. Like, because they, They play it or have played it themselves way more. And they don't have that. They have that passion. They might not have that separation that we might have not realized we've given ourselves over time between work and play. But they're bringing that play into their work and making sure that you're authentic and providing creativity and being part of the community or that zeitgeist of original Planet Coaster or Planet Games in general and going, how can we make this more fun? And just getting that more passion into you and You don't realize you did it, but sometimes you can like, oh. yes, we can keep, let's keep going. Let's, let's make this fun. This community loving it. Why let's keep going. So it's been, it's been great with the updates to have that as well.
Simon:I think that speaks on the level of passion and quality that you produce as a studio as well, that some of these new people that are coming that remember this game eight years ago are going, man, that's still a part of my life. That's still a part of my gaming catalog. And now I get to, you know, work on the next one and, and, be a part of that journey, it speaks so much on behalf of the hard work the studio does.
Rich:Yeah, I think we all increasingly get into the games industry because of our love of games. It's a thing that we experience in our free time, and we then get the opportunity to do it as a job. That's the dream, right? Your job is something you love to do, and a lot of us are doing this job because we love video games. And they... bring that raw that's because they're new then you were there once and you might have forgotten that you were there now you're jaded and old like myself and adam um but gray beard coming along yeah with our great gray beards and our hairlines slowly proceeding but but they bring it raw that because they're there it's their first few years in the industry so it's It's great to see that. And as you say, they bring it to not just games in general, but the games that you have made in the past. And because we've been here for so long and the studio's been around for so long, it's great to see that directly where they can bring that as well. They don't have any sense of awe either. They just come in and be like, hey, yeah, I love the original Planet Coaster. I know you worked on it, but I'm going to tell you here's how it could have been better. And you're like, great. I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
Simon:I mentioned earlier, and this is the one everyone has been waiting for this question. I don't think for a second that I'm going to get a different answer than what you gave on Frontier Unlocked here, but I'm going to try anyway because we're all wondering what's next. We have seen all these amazing updates you've been giving us, but you did say on Frontier Unlocked that you're going to now go away, eat some pizza, chill out and maybe work on a few things. What does that mean for Planet Coaster 2 and where do we go from here?
Rich:Yeah, I think you're completely within your right to ask, Siren. We know how this works. We've been doing these kind of things once. But yeah, we... We did the last of our monthly updates and on Unlocked, we said we were going to go away and we'll be back in the future, but we're not going away and having, we're not going to get to chill out and sit eating pizza or by the pool. Myself, Adam and the team, we are working on some really exciting new content. Adam and I move from that couch, we go back to our desk, we go to the team, right? Let's work on some new exciting things that our community and our players have been asking about. And we wanted to make sure that that those monthly updates, as I say, had that final full stop and hey, this is the last one. Here's a ton of features, ton of content so that we can start moving forward with the kind of things that are new and new experiences. So we're working on that and I'm sure that we'll be able to talk about that really soon, Simon, don't worry.
Adam:Rest assured, we are working. We are working on brand new content coming up and there will be... It was amusing to
Rich:see people going, oh, Adam and Richard, the whole team get a month off. They probably deserve it. And we're like, that's not what we meant.
Adam:We just meant... They are in ears. I do have my summer holidays. So I've got like a week off to take the kids away. So there is a small amount of break in there that we will take some time for sure. Keep nice and healthy and reinvigorated.
Rich:Yeah, it is great because the team, to see what the team are working on. I think it's going to go down really well with our community.
Simon:If nothing else, the community now has clarity that you're not sitting by a pool eating pizza. I'd love to. We would love to, but no. Gents, this has been fantastic, both professionally and personally. I'm a massive Frontier fan and I love everything that you've done over the last how many years. So it's great to see that you're continuously growing and evolving and also growing giving those experiences to the community myself. I've put hundreds and hundreds of hours into your games and I continue to do so. What I like to do on this show is I like to give my guests the final word. You can choose to do that with what you will. So I will leave the floor with you, but thank you both for taking the time out of your busy schedules to join us. And I really appreciate your time to join us here on Gone Gone.
Rich:Thank you very much, Simon. It's great to hear that you're such a fan of Frontier and the games with me. That's amazing. It's amazing to it never gets boring listen to someone show that passion it never gets old and I think it's really a pleasure to provide those kind of experiences to yourself and our community and I think for me it's just showing my appreciation for your time that you and your community put in these games and then giving us that feedback and wanting to to be part of as improving those over time and having those extra experiences features and content in the game and allowing us a platform to keep doing that because that's something that we want to do too and we can't do that without that positive support from you and the community of wanting that experience
Adam:and I just want to give a very quick shout out we did it in the middle of the interview but a massive shout out to everyone that works on Planet Coaster 2 here at Frontier it is an absolute labour of love and these guys put their heart and soul into this project And all of our projects, as you said, Simon, you know, we all have a very high expected level of quality. So everyone here at Frontier is the same. But of course, I'm going to pick my favorite children and pick my Planet Coaster 2 team. But a big shout out to those if they're listening. Thank you so much for your hard work.
Simon:Wow. Just so much fun. That was... An incredible conversation with a very passionate team. Great to have the lead executive producer and game director on Planet Coaster 2. Thank you to both Adam and Richard for giving up their time. You can tell with Frontier Developments with the team behind Planet Coaster 2. They're really passionate about this game and the sequel has been fantastic. It's now the best time to play it, so go and grab it. And I'm also very excited to see where Planet Coaster 2 goes now. I know we're all speculating, me included, over the next few months we'll get to see something very special from the team at Planet Coaster and I can't wait to see what that will be. Right. Thank you to everyone who has stayed with us throughout this episode. So much fun, so many funny stories, great insights into the game. And next week is going to be another great episode that you won't want to miss. Trust me. This one is going to be very, very special. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever your chosen platform is, don't forget to leave this episode a little rating. Even drop a review. That'll help us climb the rankings and it'll work with the algorithm within the podcast world and push us up the charts and it'll get us into the charts in your area, which is exactly where we want to be. Also, don't forget to follow Gone gold show on twitter or x tiktok and instagram you'll get video footage of these interviews on those platforms alongside guest announcements and so much more cool content that's the end of another fascinating episode here on gone gold we'll be back next week you know what to do until then keep it gone gold
