The new “Happiest Place on Earth” can now be found – and created – on your iPhone.
Beeline Studios, a company working with Capcom, let me take a peek at their upcoming amusement park creation game “Dream Park.”
Dream Park starts you out with a barren plot of land, and has you choose from a few basic park themes such as Sci-Fi or Island. From there you get to pick what kind of attractions you wish to build in your park, whether they be rides, concession stands, or simply decorations. Initially, there are only a few basic rides and stands to choose from, such as a Merry-Go-Round and Hot Dog stand, but new objects are unlocked as you progress in the game. Beeline promises at least 40 rides and buildings at launch, not including the aesthetic vanity items such as balloons, statues, and garbage cans – after all, what’s an amusement park without some awesome garbage cans?
Once you build your initial structures, the basic resource management begins. Much like popular casual games such as Farmville, you choose something to build, pick a spot for it, and wait for it to be constructed. Basic structures may take a few minutes, whereas the more complex structures could take over a day. Of course, there is “premium currency” in the form of carnival tickets, that you can use to construct things instantly.
Each ride or vendor periodically produces either money, which can be used to construct new buildings, or happiness, which determines how much experience you earn and how fast you level up. Each attraction also has a slider bar in which you can increase the happiness or money earned, which will consequently lower the opposite resource. The game is a constant balance between earning enough money to build, repair, or upgrade buildings, and generating enough happiness to level up and earn new buildings.
Dream Park also plans on including a few social features with the release. Friends will be able to visit each others parks, share each others crowds, and “gift” items to each other. There’s even talk of a “hub system” in which parks can be connected together as subsections of each other… perfect if you want to make your Western themed park link up to your friends Sci-Fi park. Cowboys and Aliens anyone? No? Ok.
The game is simply about checking in a couple times a day, keeping your rides going, upgrading or changing the attractions around, and keeping your patrons happy. The animation is pretty cute, and there’s definitely a certain feeling of satisfaction to be had from watching your little crowd wander around. It’s perfect for casual gamers, but I can also see many of you OCD players pouring countless hours into this.
Watch for Dream Park to come out around Q3 this year.
