Planet Coaster 2 Interview: Devs Talk Queen Splash As The Representation Of Real Life Water Parks, Guest Happiness, And More

King Coaster is one of many beloved mascot entertainers in Planet Coaster, Frontier Developments’ iconic amusement park-themed game where players create and manage their coaster parks. However, there’s a brand-new mascot in town with the recent announcement of Planet Coaster 2, the next installment of the renowned theme park franchise. In addition to introducing players to one of its brand-new entertainers, Queen Coaster, Planet Coaster 2 includes pools, slides, and much more in bringing water parks to players for the first time.

Game Rant recently sat down with Planet Coaster 2‘s Game Director Richard Newbold and Senior Executive Producer Adam Woods to learn more about Queen Splash as the representation of water parks. Newbold and Woods also spoke more about Planet Coaster 2‘s diverse cast of guests, how guests’ emotions are core to the experience, and much more. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Queen Splash In Planet Coaster 2 And Thoughts On Returning With A Sequel

Q:How does it feel returning with a Planet Coaster sequel after nearly eight years and bringing water parks to players for the first time?

Newbold: Yeah, it’s really exciting to bring those community-requested water parks to Planet Coaster 2. The game looks amazing. It’s always full of whimsy and joy, and it’s great to see that. It’s been amazing to work on the game.

Woods: It was the start of my career here at Frontier. I worked on Thrillville: Off the Rails, so it’s lovely to bring the next installment to Planet Coaster as well.

Q: Could you tell us more about the new mascot entertainer, Queen Splash?

Newbold: Yeah, she’s one of a selection of new entertainers we have, Queen Splash. We had King Coaster in Planet Coaster in the original one. We wanted somebody that was kind of the representation of water parks and that’s what Queen Splash is. She’s there for entertaining your guests in your water park areas, or anywhere you want, really, but she’s that manifestation of that for our guests.

Woods: Yeah, she is lovely.

I like the rubber ring around her.

Woods: Her splash crown as well.

Newbold: Yeah, the concept of creating her was great. We wanted to incorporate those water elements in her outfit the same way that King Coaster has that track that goes around him. As you say, the crown that she has is a water splash, and then just bringing that element in of that’s what she represents.

Woods: It’s lovely seeing those concepts and the ideas that the guys here on the team have; you can’t help but smile. You look at it and just go, “I have all of them, please, I have all of those options. Thanks so much.”

Inspirations For Planet Coaster 2

Q: You mentioned that authenticity is important to both games and you were inspired by real-life water parks. Could you talk a bit more about your specific inspirations for the sequel?

Woods: Well, mine is that I go on summer holidays with my family to a place in Greece and there are a couple of water parks there, so that’s my inspiration. I’ve spent many years doing that. I really enjoy water parks and theme parks, so being able to then combine them and bring them into Planet Coaster 2—it’s just like, yeah, I can see my summer holidays. I can build the summer holiday theme park for myself, you know. That was a strong inspiration for being able to tie the two things together.

Newbold: For me, the flumes are great and all their different special pieces, but having a pool to go to—and the inspiration for me was going to one of these water parks. Buying my pool pass. Going right, we’re going to lounge in the pool for a while, we’re going to hang out, have some water fights, you know, splash fights, and we’re going to need a lilo, we’re going to need a noodle for that. Just in bringing those real-life experiences we have at water parks to Planet Coaster 2.

Woods: Yeah.

Q: You mentioned the pools can have custom and classic shapes. Could you talk about the new pool construction tool?

Newbold: Pools in life have different shapes. Some of them are geometric—they have that rectangular style. They also have that curved nature to them as well. In Planet Coaster 2, we have a tool that allows you to stamp down those geometric shapes, the squares and rectangles, but also have more fidelity and control over that more natural shape if you desire, as well. To have that authenticity what you might see in different water parks. Sometimes they’re more geometric and sometimes they’re not.

Woods: Yeah, I think it also speaks a little bit to how you can approach it if you’re sort of new to Planet Coaster or Planet Coaster 2. Maybe you’ll just use those geometric shapes that you can put down quite quickly. Then, as you develop your skills, you start to move into the more advanced tools and things across all the other creative tools as well. Perhaps you’ll start to build them a little bit there. It’s options for the player to build a water park that they want to see.

Q: Could you expand a little bit on the flume construction and design side of things?

Newbold: We have a number of different flume types. We have the raft flume and our inner-tube flames and body flumes as an example. The construction for those is just like going on a roller coaster in the original Planet Coaster and Planet Coaster 2. It’s piece by piece. It’s building those flume sections how you want and choosing which angle, what kind of curve, your streets, changing whether you want your transparency.

Also on your body flume. Choosing the different colors of that repeating pattern. If you desire that kind of classical striped nature that you see in water parks on the flumes and having a way to build them that was similar to coaster building. Because then it’s the same way to build both. If you want to have those special pieces, putting one of those in as well.

Riding Flumes And Walking Around The Park As A Guest In Planet Coaster 2

Q: Awesome. I was curious, can players actually ride the flumes or walk around the park as a guest?

Woods: They can, yeah. You’ll be able to go into a sort of guest cam and experience it. As we saw at the beginning of the first mode, that was the kind of guest cam that I was using at that point. We saw riding the roller coaster at the end, but you can also ride your flumes as well, so it’s really important to be able to experience your park from that mode.

Is that like walking around the park as well?

Newbold: Yes.

Woods: Yeah, experiencing that guest cam level, yeah.

Newbold: You’ll probably spend a lot of time in Planet Coaster in that high-level view building those big constructions, but we wanted to have a way for you to see what your guests are experiencing and seeing how that translates. Make sure your vistas are right and how you guess they’re going to see roller coasters in certain areas. You have that in real life as well of how awe-inspiring those things are when you first get there and where you are in the parks.

Park Design Options In Planet Coaster 2

Q: That’s amazing. You obviously showed us a combined water park and coaster park. Do players have the option to make just a water park or coaster park if they wish, or is it always combining the two?

Newbold: No, you’ll have the choice. If you want to have a water park that caters to guests—and guests like different preferences. But if you just want to have a water park and just have pools and flumes, you can do that. You can have just a roller coaster one if you want. It’s about having the choice of either of those or putting them together however you want to run your parks.

Woods: Yeah, the sandbox gives you the creative freedom to really sort of go wild with your creations. The career or the campaign mode—there may be some more leanings towards one or the other to give that kind of challenge, that good challenge to go through the career, but yeah, the sandbox gives you the ultimate creative freedom.

Pool Cleanliness And Ride Power Maintenance In Planet Coaster 2

Q:You talked about the new management features like power maintenance and keeping the pools clean. Could you expand on that a bit?

Newbold: Yeah, in Planet Coaster 2 we have the new power system. You have to ensure you have generators of power and distributors of power in your park in the right places to ensure that your rides—which will need power, your facilities will need it and your coasters—have enough power so they stay open.

The water system has been great to add because of the water parks. It’s a great opportunity to make sure your guests are happy. No one wants to go into a pool that is not clean and it’s a real-life thing. It was bringing a real-life and authentic thing to management systems as well, making sure that your water stays nice and clean. Because if your pools aren’t clean, your guests aren’t going to be happy. At its core, Planet Coaster 2 is about your guests; it’s about their happiness, making sure they’re having a great time.

You want them to spend money and have a great experience, so you can keep building your park and bringing those new management features in. We’ll have more management features that we’ll be talking about in the next few months as well.

Planet Coaster 2’s Game Modes, Guest Emotions, And Ride Customization

Q: What type of game modes can people expect? Do any of those maybe include co-op?

Woods: We will have a career mode, sandbox mode, and a franchise mode as well. Details on some of the other modes will be coming very shortly. We’ll talk more about them in the near future.

Q: You mentioned guests being really important and seeing their emotions. In the preview, you mentioned how it’s a bit easier to see the guests’ emotions and how the guests are more diverse. Could you talk a bit more about that?

Newbold: We wanted to have the guests be kind of a representation of how well your parks are being run. Of giving you that feedback of, “I need more toilets in this area because I can see that in the behaviors that they’re showing.” In Planet Coaster 2, that’s what it’s about. It’s about the guests showing you that feedback.

Woods: It’s important to be able to see that in the world, but also be able to use the interface to actually look at it. Selecting a pool, seeing the safety coverage, selecting a lifeguard chair, seeing what’s actually going on there, so you can really drill down into that detail and understand what’s going on in your park.

Q: Of all the exciting things coming up—there’s a lot—could you pinpoint anything that you’re most looking forward to players seeing?

Newbold: For me, it’s attaching scenery to rides and customizing your rides because, for Planet Coaster 2, you’re changing the pattern and new things. Attaching scenery directly onto rides, having it move with the rides as we saw with the teacups pedestal. Because I have unlimited creativity, I’m going to accept that’s a weakness of mine. I can be creative, but our community has so much potential for combining the pieces of the scenery things we’re giving.

The new object scaling that you can now do with them. Attaching them to the coaster cars and rides and, just for me, that’s the most exciting thing is to see the potential of all that amazing stuff.

Woods: Yeah, and for me, it’s the water park side. As I mentioned before, I spend quite a bit of time at water parks in the summer with my children, so being able to sort of build the water park that we maybe go and visit and try and build that in the game with my son and my daughter. That’ll be a good experience.

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Planet Coaster 2 is due for release in Fall 2024.