Park Beyond was announced earlier today at Gamescom 2021’s Opening Night Live, and the trailer introduced us to the idea of “impossification”. But what exactly does that mean? IGN sat down with the developers at Limbic Entertainment to find out more about Park Beyond’s larger-than-life roller coasters.
“Impossification for us means to push things beyond boundaries and make the impossible actually possible,” said Stephan Winter, CEO at Limbic. “You will meet it in all parts of our gameplay.”
So far, we’ve seen how impossification applies to ride and roller coaster designs. The trailer shows off a carousel ride that is multi-tiered, like a mechanical spinning wedding cake. Then there’s a kraken; a huge animatronic sea monster tossing visitors around like juggling balls. “We simply had the idea to dream really big,” said Winter. “Let’s be the guy who pushes beyond the limits of nowadays, defies a bit of reality and gravity, and does something truly amazing.”
Winter also offered a description of another ride we can expect to see, in which visitors are slingshotted into the sky and then caught and rolled into a tunnel. “It looks so crazy,” he said. “100% no way we’re ever going to see this in real life, but it’s one of the coolest, crazy rides.”
Park Beyond appears to be heavily focused on allowing players to create rides that are simply beyond the capabilities of real-life engineering. The team at Limbic want these creations to be within reach of everyone, no matter your creative abilities.
“All of the pieces are totally modular, so you can create exactly what you are envisioning,” said Park Beyond’s Game Director, Johannes Reithmann. “You can build your coaster around the environment, looping it around bridges, building it around other rides. All these modules, and as many as you like.
“There are also prefabs [pre-built rides], which support and help you to get going faster at the beginning. But as you get more and more experienced with the editor, you open up more and more freedom and opportunities to build the coaster you always wanted to.”
Building the park is just one side of Park Beyond, though. Like the genre original, Theme Park, or more recent games like Planet Coaster, managing the park and its staff is as important as creating the rides. But Limbic recognises that some players will be more adept at the creativity layers, while others will want to focus more on the financial management. As such, there are assists to help both types of players.
“You go all-in on creativity, or you can fully enjoy the deep management systems, and it’s up to you to decide what you want to mainly use,” said Winter. “So if you are more a creative person, you let the assistance system take over everything financial and management related. If you are more of a management player, then just use the prefabs we build for you, and easy-to place rides and coasters.”
Park Beyond is planned to release sometime in 2022 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Until then, for more from this year’s big summer games event, be sure to check out our Gamescom 2021 schedule.
Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.
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“Impossification for us means to push things beyond boundaries and make the impossible actually possible,” said Stephan Winter, CEO at Limbic. “You will meet it in all parts of our gameplay.”
So far, we’ve seen how impossification applies to ride and roller coaster designs. The trailer shows off a carousel ride that is multi-tiered, like a mechanical spinning wedding cake. Then there’s a kraken; a huge animatronic sea monster tossing visitors around like juggling balls. “We simply had the idea to dream really big,” said Winter. “Let’s be the guy who pushes beyond the limits of nowadays, defies a bit of reality and gravity, and does something truly amazing.”
Winter also offered a description of another ride we can expect to see, in which visitors are slingshotted into the sky and then caught and rolled into a tunnel. “It looks so crazy,” he said. “100% no way we’re ever going to see this in real life, but it’s one of the coolest, crazy rides.”
Park Beyond appears to be heavily focused on allowing players to create rides that are simply beyond the capabilities of real-life engineering. The team at Limbic want these creations to be within reach of everyone, no matter your creative abilities.
“All of the pieces are totally modular, so you can create exactly what you are envisioning,” said Park Beyond’s Game Director, Johannes Reithmann. “You can build your coaster around the environment, looping it around bridges, building it around other rides. All these modules, and as many as you like.
“There are also prefabs [pre-built rides], which support and help you to get going faster at the beginning. But as you get more and more experienced with the editor, you open up more and more freedom and opportunities to build the coaster you always wanted to.”
Building the park is just one side of Park Beyond, though. Like the genre original, Theme Park, or more recent games like Planet Coaster, managing the park and its staff is as important as creating the rides. But Limbic recognises that some players will be more adept at the creativity layers, while others will want to focus more on the financial management. As such, there are assists to help both types of players.
“You go all-in on creativity, or you can fully enjoy the deep management systems, and it’s up to you to decide what you want to mainly use,” said Winter. “So if you are more a creative person, you let the assistance system take over everything financial and management related. If you are more of a management player, then just use the prefabs we build for you, and easy-to place rides and coasters.”
Park Beyond is planned to release sometime in 2022 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Until then, for more from this year’s big summer games event, be sure to check out our Gamescom 2021 schedule.
Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Continue reading...