Screenshot / #fbf: Bijou Magique (2004)

11 Comments

  • Comment System%s's Photo
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  • Richie%s's Photo

    I miss parks like this. I made the logo for this park all them years ago =)

  • Cocoa%s's Photo
    One of my least favorite turtle parks, but i probably should check it out again
  • PBJ%s's Photo

    this where the glory days of RCT2. Turtle, Steve, JKay, KUmba, Ect... loved the times of non realistic parcs with lots of great stuff! 

  • Liampie%s's Photo

    One of my least favorite turtle parks, but i probably should check it out again


    You should. At first I didn't like it all that much either, it didn't strike me as a very Turtle-esque park. It seemed like a really stretched out Busch Gardens Europe to me, but less colourful and playful. I didn't change my mind on the flaws on this park, but after being familiarised with Turtle's style through his later work, I started to see this park in a different light. The same thing happened with Isole Calabria, although I loved that one from the start; recognizing the Turtle traits added an extra dimension to the park to appreciate. In retrospect, Bijou Magique is very much a Turtle park. The serene beauty, the awkward object choices and shapes, the imperfections, the fantastic ride compositions, it's all here. In this screen it's the little things like the weird vines hanging from the roofs, the asian queue cover at the top and the statue in the bow of the ship that make this park a Turtle park. The splash boat turns embracing the double drop are also impressive, of course. The buildings looked like some weak oversized Corkscrewed architecture at first, but now I think it's a lovely composition of surreal buildings with loads of character and subtle variations.
  • Turtle%s's Photo

    I haven't seen this park for ages. Lots of it is ripped off if i remember correctly... 

     

    The dueling SLCs are ripped from Lichfield, the greek woodie is ripped from whoever was making good terrain woodies at the time, maybe Toon? The tiny egyptian area is an awful rip off of Posix or someone.. I don't even know who the pirate area is ripped off from, but the repetition of the pirate walls is killing me now. The mayan area is ripped from... I can't remember actually. Maybe Foozy? Twisted? Think someone did a similar area and coaster in LL. 

     

    Anyway, it's much too big and repetitive, but this was the first park when I began to explore my own style a little bit, once I could recreate someone else's style and make everything look pretty and cohesive. There are little glimpses of my own ideas, and I think lots of those theming ideas have carried over years later into my other work. And the rides are all pretty good actually. 

  • nin%s's Photo

    I'd love to build a park like this.

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    I think many people would love it if you did just that, nin.

    Turtle, I think it's only natural that you rip off people at some point early into your 'career' (for the lack of a better word). How many spotlights are 100% stylistically independent? I can't really speak for how original this park was, I guess I had to be there to know that for certain. But your words do make me realise that Bijou Magique is as worthy of spotlight as Faceman's Paradise Island and perhaps, more recent, G Force's Westwinds. Skillfully ripped off parks. We should make a new accolade category for those, like super-super-runner-up. Nah.
  • PBJ%s's Photo

    where the fuck is egghead? His work was great too!

  • Turtle%s's Photo

    Yeah Liam, I think most people need to get to the point where they can complete a whole park, even if it's stylistically not completely their own. Completing a park is a skill unto itself. Then you can start to develop style in smaller projects without the uneasiness of not being able to finish them. 

     

    Don't get me wrong, I still think this park deserved spotlight, because it was very nicely put together even though it wasn't 100% unique. Also it is plenty large enough. It's hard now to remember the situation when this park was released, it was a different time. 

     

    Anyway thankyou very much for the flashback screen! Other pieces of my work I would like to look back upon are Red River Delta, Starflight, the invert in Myst, and the Chinese area or the woodie in Isole Calabria.

  • Cocoa%s's Photo

    I think I definitely would like to make a larger, simpler map. I need a good bench though, as I find strict ncso a little limiting in terms of theme options, and I lost interest. Any recommendations? or just wait for nincso to be released :p

  • nin%s's Photo

    or just wait for nincso to be released :p
     Sounds like a solid plan.

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