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

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.

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