ScreamRide: Giving theme park fans the chaos they always wanted

Frontier Developments found success in a niche market with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 , delivering the idea of theme-park simulation to a wider cross-section of fans in the mainstream than previous games. With ScreamRide moving so far away from the foundations RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 laid down, however, we’re curious to see what strands of DNA can be found in Frontier’s newest project.

“RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 fans generally had fun with ‘peep torture’ by crashing coasters,” explains executive producer Gerard Huke. “It was a logical progression to focus on this aspect. Coaster and scenery building has also evolved from the roots we put down in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 into the modular and fully destructible system we have today in ScreamRide.”

The game came from humble beginnings; where the team at Frontier was considering what more could be done to innovate within the creative sandbox space. “We wanted to focus on the kind of sandbox destruction that was a tantalising possibility from traditional theme-park sims, but never the main focus,” details Huke. “The absurdity grew and grew as we watched things like 'The Centrifuge Brain Project' and we pushed the limits of what was possible with the rides and the level of destruction until it felt suitably epic.” ScreamRide’s new elements serve more than just a cosmetic role the game is striving to move away from the genre’s deep affiliation with the PC.

 Discarding the old theme-park-builder game, Frontier has instead moved onto a construction and management simulator, taking the genre to its logical conclusion.

ScreamRide is, after all, a console-exclusive game. “ ScreamRide is very different compared to a traditional PC park sim it has much more action gameplay in addition to park creation,” explains Huke.

“The campaign mode has three different career paths: ScreamRider, Demolitions Expert and Engineer. The first two are very action-oriented you actually pilot coasters and launch amusement rides into buildings respectively. The Engineer path is more puzzle-based with construction and destruction challenges that need more consideration. Whether you play Campaign mode or create your own experiences in the built-in Level Maker, the game is a great console experience from the ground up.”

Between Campaign mode and the Level Editor, you’re given access to exactly the same tools the developers themselves used to build the game. Huke reveals, “We felt that was important to give players the same power as the developers to realise their creative visions. Players can share their levels on Xbox One with the rest of the community so we hope the creators, the fans who love to build cool stuff, will make awesome levels that feed the people who just like to play.”