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[Nautilus]

I have been recently imagining how cool it is that we finally got a Nintendo theme park, and playing through GOW Ragnarok right now, how a Sony theme park could also work pretty well.

Thinking what Sony IPs could translate well into an attraction, and how it could be translated, it struck me: A cool idea for an attraction based on the Horizon IP would be the equivalent of a Light Gun game: You would have your "Bow" in a cart(That would guide you through a path, shaking and moving as it actually moves through an actual rail) and you would have to use it to defend yourselfs against the Robot Dinosaurs that gets in your way, and the climax of the ride would culminate in a boss fight.

The catch of this ride would be that your cart(That would ideally be composed of a group up to 4 people, to be more of a social experience since this is a theme park after all) would have HP, and that the robot dinnosaurs could actually "damage" it. If you took too much damage, you would "die" and your ride would be cut short(You wouldn't see 100% of what it offers).That way, not only the ride would give you the usual adreneline that these kind of attractions usually have, but it also would have actual stakes in it, knowing that you would have to perform well, put effort into it to "win", making the payoff at the end of the ride way more satisfying.(And since this is a videogame adaptation, it would make sense regarding the source material)

Obviously it must not be hard to "beat" the ride, and it would need to be designed in a way that at least 50% of the ride could be enjoyed before you "died", so that for even the people that suck at it would enjoy the ride, but I feel like that would be a very unique idea for a theme park attraction that people would really enjoy and find really refreshing.

So what do you think about it? Would it be a good idea, or just a straight horrible one?

 

[nush]

So the ride will be more than half empty while people that don't "die" are still playing? That's not an efficient way to get through long queues of people. Also shit idea.

 

[Kilau]

After waiting in line for 2 hours it would be fantastic to only see half the ride because the other people in the cart didn’t understand what was happening.

Awesome idea to make theme parks worse.

 

[Nautilus]

So the ride will be more than half empty while people that don't "die" are still playing? That's not an efficient way to get through long queues of people. Also shit idea.

No, it would be like the Hogwarts ride: Everyone goes one after the another with a space between them. And the ride would be divided in several "rooms", just like the Hogwarts ride is(Each "room" in the hogwarts ride lasts 5 to 10 seconds, if I'm not mistaken). The cart would keep track of your health and if you lose, you would be diverted from the main path(The ride) after the room ends.

That way, several dozen carts can ride in the attraction at once, and people wouldn't be waiting 3 or 4 minutes for a single cart to finish its ride.

 

[Nautilus]

After waiting in line for 2 hours it would be fantastic to only see half the ride because the other people in the cart didn’t understand what was happening.

Awesome idea to make theme parks worse.

The idea is for the ride not be passive and actually something active, that need the riders input, like a videogame. So it would be easy, something that most people would be able to complete on its first try.

And in several places through the line, there would be "demos" giving a hands on approach on how the ride works. Hell, many attractions nowadays have a brief thematic room before the actual ride explaining how the attraction works. Not to mention that there already exist attractions that are basically on rail shooters without a fail state, like the Man in Black one.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Would be a tough sell.

People do rides to chill out without thinking about it. I dont think anyone wants to do a theme ride or interactive roller coaster worrying about ride length or achieving enough stats to win. And defintiely not wanting that being put in a cart of randoms.

Skill based games are for the arcade or redemption games tent where people pay money and try to beat the game to win ticket points or a stuffed animal.

 

[Nautilus]

Would be a tough sell.

People do rides to chill out without thinking about it. I dont think anyone wants to do a theme ride or interactive roller coaster worrying about ride length or achieving enough stats to win. And defintiely not wanting that being put in a cart of randoms.

Skill based games are for the arcade or redemption games tent where people pay money and try to beat the game to win ticket points or a stuffed animal.

Fair point. I dont agree,as in my experience most people go in groups to theme parks, and the ride could be build in a way that its difficulty is adjusted(to some extent) to the number of the people in the cart. And while you are tru about the chill part, there are rides that are more interactive, like the Men in Black and a Toy Story ride.

I like the idea of having a bit of stake in it, and honestly would be something entirely different compared to what theme parks offer. And honestly, I feel like theme parks need more innovation nowadays, much like the interactive bracelet Nintendo does with its park.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Fair point. I dont agree,as in my experience most people go in groups to theme parks, and the ride could be build in a way that its difficulty is adjusted(to some extent) to the number of the people in the cart. And while you are tru about the chill part, there are rides that are more interactive, like the Men in Black and a Toy Story ride.

I like the idea of having a bit of stake in it, and honestly would be something entirely different compared to what theme parks offer. And honestly, I feel like theme parks need more innovation nowadays, much like the interactive bracelet Nintendo does with its park.

Something pretty new to my area is this place. It's not amusement park rides, but it's team based games where you score points and the better you do the longer you play. Its fun. I've done it. Some rooms have player vs player too.

Activate | An Active Gaming Experience

Activate is a state of the art facility with a variety of active games. Complete physical and mental challenges while hanging out with friends.

activate.ca

 

[Nautilus]

Something pretty new to my area is this place. It's not amusement park rides, but it's team based games where you score points and the better you do the longer you play. Its fun. I've done it. Some rooms have player vs player too.

Activate | An Active Gaming Experience

Activate is a state of the art facility with a variety of active games. Complete physical and mental challenges while hanging out with friends.

activate.ca

Thats freaking awesome. Honestly, this is what the theme park companies should be looking into. Not this exactly, but leveraging new technology to give new experiences such as this, and not relying entirely on nostalgia for known IPs and adrenaline inducing rides.

I honestly miss that feeling of seeing something mind bongling that you could only find in theme parks. I watn different, new types of experiences.

 

[Davesky]

Have you tried visiting the Golden Saucer.

 

[Husky]

I think it sounds fun, but that the fail state should be different. Rather than lose out on seeing half the ride, maybe at the end their total points could affect their ending. So if we're, say, using laser guns to shoot outside the cart, and we earned too few points, then when we get to the end we find out that Skynet won the war and now the Lincoln Memorial has a statue of an ape. Or if we earned enough points, Simon Belmont doesn't die at the end. People might even replay to earn the different endings.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Thats freaking awesome. Honestly, this is what the theme park companies should be looking into. Not this exactly, but leveraging new technology to give new experiences such as this, and not relying entirely on nostalgia for known IPs and adrenaline inducing rides.

I honestly miss that feeling of seeing something mind bongling that you could only find in theme parks. I watn different, new types of experiences.

And they track your stats on their website including leaderboards. You make a user ID when you play for the first time and include your email address. That is your login so it's super simple. It tracks all your stats per game. And when you play, the more point you get, the better the prize. Granted, it's shit stuff like plastic cups and tshirts but still something.

 

[Nautilus]

Have you tried visiting the Golden Saucer.

It would be awesome if they replicated that in a them park, to be honest.

 

[Nautilus]

I think it sounds fun, but that the fail state should be different. Rather than lose out on seeing half the ride, maybe at the end their total points could affect their ending. So if we're, say, using laser guns to shoot outside the cart, and we earned too few points, then when we get to the end we find out that Skynet won the war and now the Lincoln Memorial has a statue of an ape. Or if we earned enough points, Simon Belmont doesn't die at the end. People might even replay to earn the different endings.

Ohhhhh, that could also be a great option! I actually like this idea a lot. Using your example, we could have three diferent endings: The good one where you win, a bad one where you "lose", and a secret ending, that would be attainable if you perform certain specific actions on the ride. That way it would also incentivize repeated goings to the ride.

 

[Lasha]

Making an attraction simplistic enough to be beaten by a group of random novices on their first time defeats the purpose of introducing a fail state at all. The handful of unlucky visitors who do reach the fail state are going to be pissed over spending thousands of dollars to come to the park and potentially waiting hours in line only to not fully experience a ride because of somebody else's ignorance or incompetence.

Concepts like you suggest are better suited to things like VR arcades rather than theme parks.

 

[InterMusketeer]

OP's plan is neat but just not viable.

They would have to build a second track for the losers and multiple exits that connect to it. Then this track would have to feed back into the loading area. That takes a lot of space, which is at a premium in theme parks.

And what do these guests do when they have lost? There needs to be some sort of theming or they're gonna be stuck in a cart with nothing to see or do. This theming needs to be interesting but also comprehensible to guests who lost at a later time. Virtually impossible.

Even if they did succeed at this theming, it would encourage guests to line up twice. Mixed groups are gonna get frustrated when strangers in their vehicle do(n't) want to win to see the other track.

It's much more effective to build one longer ride that everyone gets to experience fully. You get to tell a better story and present more scenes. It doesn't require cutting edge technology either and you'll be able to entertain all guests.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

The Millennium Falcon ride at Disney World has a health bar, but I don't know what would happen if you actually lost all of it. It's probably designed so that you would be very far into the ride before you can "lose," that is if you can even lose in the first place.

 

[jason10mm]

Variable ending rides are a thing. Star Tours of course has a dozen (more now, for sure) segments that get stitched together for a semi-unique, but unpredictable, ride experience. They used to have one (Horizons, IIRC) in EPCOT where the folks in the car could vote on an ending (space, underwater, and...desert I think?) segment. So having a group influence the ride can be done, it would just depend on how the ride itself is structured to allow it. In a 100% digital VR experience with a static shaking car it would be pretty simple to implement, but in a moving physical ride having different paths that are not pre-assigned for rider volume would be VERY hard to implement (i.e. if too many "lose" would that path get backed up?)

I think, in general, ride designers want EVERYONE to feel like a winner, especially if there are younger kids on the ride. I know my kids would pitch a fit if they "lost", especially if they could blame a sibling or a defective piece of equipment. Hell, the scorecard from the Toy Story or Buzz lightyear rides is fight inducing enough

 

[Trogdor1123]

Theme park games are already rigged… not sure we need another way to help them

 

[Mikado]

Glib Answer:
What you have described is an arcade. We already had those. They're dead now.

More Elaborate Answer:
At GDC 2001 one of the Disney devs (edit: it was Jesse Schell!) who worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride spoke extensively about this and all of the failsafes they had to add to keep people feeling like they're doing something while also preventing them from sabotaging their own fun because they're idiots.

I can't find the lecture video off-hand but the write-up is here:

GDC 2001: Interactive Theme Park Rides

Interactive theme park rides are an unusual breed of entertainment experience. Half video game, half dark ride, interactive rides have their own unique rules about what makes a good show. Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean - Battle for the Buccaneer Gold now at Disney Quest has been called "the...

www.gamedeveloper.com

 

[March Climber]

OP your plan sounds perfect...

Spoiler

...for an arcade