RollerCoaster Tycoon World will look at least 0.4% better at launch

If you saw this trailer for RollerCoaster Tycoon World, you may have had less than charitable thoughts on the game’s appearance. Gamers lamented that the upcoming title from Atari looked suspiciously similar to the 11-year-old RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. Many of the assets in the video appeared to be a direct grab from the older game with no improvements. Developer Area 52 Games says that the trailer is showing a “pre-alpha” version of the game and that it will improve visually when they finish working on the underlying code and concentrate on graphics.

Regarding the current state of game graphics, we have been exploring prototypes for a while and are happy to announce we will be upgrading to the Unity 5 Engine. 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.

Area 52 also vowed that if the game needs more time, they won’t launch until its ready. We won’t find out until release whether or not they’re being sincere, but the developer seems to be doing what they can to assure fans of the franchise that this won’t be a repeat of RollerCoaster Tycoon 4.