Underpay your staff and overcharge customers in Planet Coaster

If modern AAA game publishers owned a theme park…

It’s almost November and that means it’s almost time to see who will emerge victorious in the great debate, and all the discussion will end (because people just never shut up about these two). That’s right, soon we’ll finally see if Planet Coaster or Roller Coaster Tycoon World will be the superior theme park simulator!

Roller Coaster Tycoon World, the newest official title in the popular Roller Coaster Tycoon series, has been in early access since June with continuing updates. That means it’s not quite finished, but plenty of people have given it a go and it is not winning many people over with a 5/10 score on Steam. Perhaps that’s because the people who make the previous games, Frontier, are working on RCTW‘s competitor and perhaps true successor to the series, Planet Coaster.

Planet Coaster has been in alpha for a while, but with release just around the corner on November 17, a beta will be available on November 9. The beta will feature two new scenarios that “test your park design and entrepreneurial skill.” These skills were detailed in a post that went up along side the fifth Developer Diary video, likely the last before launch.

Previous Developer Diaries have focused on park construction and coaster design, however number five dives into the artificial psychology of the guinea pigs valued customers, who have different interest levels in certain rides and who will employ various means of transport to get to them. 

You can open and close the park manually, provide fast passes, charge for entrance only or for each individual ride (or both), have tickets priced differently for individuals and families, and target “specific groups” and ages. Can I charge individual men far higher than couples? Refuse entry to anyone wearing a yellow shirt?

It would cool to also section off certain areas and charge for entrance in to those areas, making a smaller and darker version of Disney World. Charge for entrance to park, charge for entrance to special area, then extra for the one ride that lasts 20 seconds. Hey, I got what it takes to work in the AAA gaming world! Put me in coach!

As far as the peons indispensable staff goes, you can choose how much to train them if at all, decide their pay, and manage their workload. I can see it now: 18 hour shifts, $1 per hour, and no one leaves. Slackers and union members will be put on faulty coaster testing duty indefinitely.

Management Matters [Planet Coaster forums]