Atari Address RollerCoaster Tycoon World Concerns

After vocal concerns arose when the trailer dropped, including some in our own comments section, Atari have taken it to heart.

In a blog post, Atari explain about the graphics, the state of the game and make some promises.

Speaking directly about the trailer:

Let’s start with a bit of an explanation: The game is currently in what we are calling a pre-alpha stage – features and graphics are still being coded. Since the switchover of our development team this past Fall, we have focused on core functionality and “under-the-hood” engine work. This is why there has not been significant visual progress on the title. Engine work is critical to the overall stability of a game, and it requires significant labor and time to get right. We knew in the Fall we still had a lot of work to do to achieve the core engine we wanted – one that could support a game like RCTW. Now, however, we are able to finally continue working on the higher level functionality and visuals.

They explain why they created a trailer using pre-alpha footage:

Our intention in releasing our pre-alpha gameplay as a trailer was to show that there is progress being made. RollerCoaster Tycoon has meant so much to so many people over the years, and it’s entirely your prerogative to feel protective of the franchise, just as it’s ours to assure you that it’s in good hands. Our hope in releasing the trailer in its current state was to offer some reassurance that gameplay and features were coming along.

Then comes word on which engine they will now be using - Unreal 5.

We hope to be able to share the results of the upgrade by this summer. We hope to take full advantage of the many new environmental, lighting, and shadow improvements as well as many other features in our original Unity 4.6-based engine to create a game that looks great. Our early results are extremely promising. We know that today these words must ring hollow, but trust that we are doing everything we can to make the game look excellent.

Finally they talk realism and user-generated content.

In response to requests and comments from our fans, we can confirm that our teams will be adjusting the art in the game to make it not only higher definition (taking advantage of our engine upgrade) but more believable/realistic overall, while still keeping the charm of RCT. We want the rides to feel like they can be found in real life. Even though some of the rides may never actually exist, we want them to look like they could, and are constructed with real materials. Along with this, we are also taking a pass on our Americana theme to make sure those rides are closer to those you may find today when visiting your favorite amusement park. We will let you know as we make progress along this development path. We also know that once our robust user-generated content systems launch you will be able to make the scenery, rides, etc. that you want and we plan to fully support that.

They hope to have word on a release date later this year, but state 

If the game needs to be “put back into the oven,” then we will do it.

We'll bring you more as we learn more.