Rollercoaster Tycoon World Is On Its Third Developer, But Finally Has A Release Date
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The current inhabitants of the Atari skinsuit have finally stuck a release date on their latest attempt to revive beloved management sim/construction toyRollercoaster Tycoon. Series creator Chris Sawyer is sadly not involved in Rollercoaster Tycoon World [official site], which is the fourth game in the main series, and rather worryingly the project has been through three different developers since its announcement last year.
Obviously all the fingers I've got are crossed that it meets the series' previous high standards, but its apparently messy gestation, the... unevenness of latter-day Atari projects and the kick in the teeth that was last year's freemium mobile version keep many of us from blind faith in this particular ride. But at least we'll find out whether it's Magic Mountain or Bedrock City in December.
Rollercoaster Tycoon world apparently moved to Unity 5 during development, following grumbles that it wasn't looking pretty enough prior to that. Has it worked? You watch the latest trailer and tell me, bud:
Release date, originally billed as the start of this year, is now December 10, and pre-orders (also via Steam) are available for people who have enough money to speculatively throw it at unknown quantities. There's to be a Standard Version for $49.99 and Deluxe Edition for $59.99. The latter adds "two unique building maps, terrain additions, a digital art book, and the classic Panda mascot." Classic panda, man. Classic panda.
Development for RTW's final mile has been handled by Nvizzio Creations, a Montreal studio set up by Funcom veterans. Pipeworks Software and Area 52 Games were previously at the wheel. Oh, but rollercoasters don't have wheels, I guess.