u/reynoldsmkatie

My husband (former EA game designer/development lead) and I (former Disney web producer/dev) have been building our passion project, National Park Tycoon, for 8 months now and we just released our trailer and published our Steam page!

It’s a 2D, isometric game very similar in style and gameplay to classic Roller Coaster Tycoon, but:

• instead of building rides, you build hiking trails, campsites, scenic viewpoints, and activities like kayaking and rock climbing.
• instead of hiring handymen to clean guest vomit and mechanics to fix broken rides, you hire park rangers to clear fallen logs from blocked trails and rescue lost visitors.
• instead of walking around with balloons and umbrellas, visitors take out binoculars to watch wildlife and don hiking backpacks they've purchased at the gift shop.

Some similarities our game does have to Roller Coaster Tycoon are:

• you can manage your finances, including revenue from park entrance fees, activity fees, and gift shop sales, as well as expenses from construction, park ranger wages and building maintenance.
• all visitors have attributes like Mood, Hunger, and Excitement, and their scores change depending what things you build in your park, and where you build them.
• there are 3 objectives you need to meet in each park in order to unlock the next park, but you can also just play for fun without ever trying to beat the objectives in Sandbox mode.

The game is loaded with cause-and effect mechanics. For example:

> If you build a fishing activity for your visitors, you can choose whether they can keep the fish they catch, or release them.
> If visitors get to keep their catch, their “Excitement” score will rise as they fish.
> BUT, they will start to deplete the fish from the lakes, and the bears in your park will get hungry.
> If your bears get hungry, they will start invading your trails and stealing food from visitors, which will decrease your park’s “Safety” score.

There are countless scenarios like this. It can be a fun and challenging balancing act to keep everything in check!

If you miss the thrill of roller coaster tycoon and love national parks, we would love if you could wishlist the game on Steam or share the link with someone you know who might enjoy a game like this!

Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4520000/National_Park_Tycoon/

Our social links are on the Steam page if you’d like to follow our progress. We’re hoping to release a demo in about a month and launch by the end of the year.

I'm happy to answer any questions or listen to any suggestions anyone might have about the game :)

We pledge to donate a percentage of profits to the National Park Foundation to aid in the protection and preservation of America's beautiful national parks.

Generative AI Disclosure: AI was used in the initial generation of some assets, but we edited them in Photoshop to adjust proportions and remove any obvious AI Slop.

As this is primarily a management game, we focused heavily on the game mechanics, ensuring the game is bug-free, fun to play, and, dare we say, addicting!

That said, we would love for the art to be more authentic and beautiful. We have an artist under contract who can replace all of the art in the game if the game gets enough traction/wishlists.

We are developing a simulation game similar in feel to Roller Coaster Tycoon but for building and managing national parks. I have these 3 buttons at the top of the screen:

Settings (where you can change audio settings etc)

Save (where you can save and/or exit the game)

Help (where you can access the tutorial and see an index of help topics about everything in the game)

My husband says that we ONLY need the Settings button, and that the Settings panel should also include the Save and Exit options. He said this is industry standard and everyone will know to look for the save and exit options in the Settings menu.

As for the Help button, he says people will hardly use it so we should put it somewhere less prominent.

I want to believe him because he has worked in the gaming industry for many years while I hardly ever play games myself. But it just seems so weird to me that saving and exiting the game would be under the Settings menu.

When I played games as a kid I remember clicking Save constantly because I was afraid of losing my progress, so I thought a Save button should be easily accessible.

Who is right??