NE 20th Anniversary / Portfoliesta - reminisce and enjoy

Screw it, I'm going for triples.

 

Josh- God dude. One of NE's finest parkmakers for sure. There's such a unique style that radiates in your work no matter what environment you tackle; Namibian sand dunes, cruise terminals in Hong Kong, or a janky Everglades waterpark. There's just so much personality in everything you make, whether it be authentic and crunchy detail or little pops of humor. What I think really stands out about you, though, is how enthusiastic you are about up-and-coming parkmakers and the ones who aren't pumping out spotlights but stick around and keep posting regardless. Just look at the first two picks on AC. That attitude is how you build a community.

 

You ever open a park and end up so spellbound you just have to make a title sequence of it immediately?

Yeah, Ombezi. Legitimately some of the best landscaping in the game.

 

 

Instead of doing one of my own parks, I'm just gonna do everyone else's because I cannot stop myself from going goo-goo over what we can do with a 20 year old theme park management game where you charge $20 for umbrellas and bathrooms.

 

Cocoa: There have only been two times where I audibly reacted to a RCT2 park, and the first was the Dynamite Dunes introduction with the exploding landblocks. Unreal.

wheres_walto: Up until you started working on The Child's Dream, I was convinced hardly any of us could achieve surreal, dreamlike magic in RCT2 outside of some Koreans and another parkmaker I will go absolutely ballistic over very soon. This and your current cinema project are literally everything I love about RCT2 fantasy. Best parkmaker in recent times and best comeback in NE history.

Lurker: Wheel of Sacrifice is easily your best work yet. Everything you make has so much charm and whimsy to it.

Liampie: Rajasthan has the honor of being the only RCT2 park to genuinely piss me off with how well it's made. You and Andrew absolutely annihilated it.

Scoop: Legitimately one of the best views in Head-2-Head 9 is looking directly at Rio Maldito's drop. Absolutely insane glowup.

Xtreme97: Ever since the Reddit days with Ching Shih I knew you were a beast. How the hell does anyone come up with aesthetics as unique as Ascension? Admittedly dickish honorable mention goes to Destiny just for the story that would build from it. 10.38% design score to best non-parkmaker to leading the charge in H2H9 semifinals, farming building challenges, and becoming a NE admin over the course of a decade. Never give up!

WhosLeon: Freak. Absolute freak. Freak with a freak brain doing freak things literally no one else does. Acqua Alta 1896 is still insane and hits this specific aesthetic that just makes me go brrrrrrr. You had me genuinely convinced it was an AVC park.

Terry: I can go goo-goo over Yerka Daylight Time but Obeah and the Cursed River stunned me as a NCSO fan and is still some of the best NCSO out there. Honorable mention goes to Raspberry Acres for really showing off what you can do with base game scenery.

Otter: Grand Central my beloved. You, Jappy, Ida, and roygbiv made what I can genuinely call one of my favorite RCT2 parks ever. That aesthetic is just second to none and I really wish it got more recognition.

dr dirt: Oddball pick but I honestly really like the way you and Camcorder22 nailed the janky Cuban amusement park feel in Parque de La Habana.

Ulvenwood: One of the best DKMP imports on NE. Skeleton Reef genuinely blew me away with both the classic DKMP sculpturework and the waterpark essentials you made functional.

Mulpje: Super super underrated. You already have a really distinct feel in your DKMP work that also permeates your recent CSO stuff. I always thought Dude Park with Bear was crazy.

Splitvision: Remember when I said Dynamite Dunes was one of two RCT2 parks to make me audibly react? The second was opening the suspects' favorite rides in Gangland and findind out you used hidden rides as hints! Absolutely genius through and through. HM goes to your Nobel Bikes advertisement for blowing my ass out of the water in the building challenge. Trust me, in a bit our little special something is gonna make Gangland look boring.

Ge-Ride: Admittedly I'm not familiar with your work, but Geon is a sick-ass micro with the planet in the center. I've had ideas like that for Micro Madness myself.

BSG: One of the first NE parks to really enthrall me was Mario Kart: All-Cup Tour. I always liked the DK Mountain area with Donkey Kong's face built into the mountain. HM goes to the Papilio Valley entrance because hello.

hoobaroo: If I posted right after you, my write-up on you would have been the same House By The Sea shot you posted with a bunch of incomprehensible keymashing. It's extremely unfortunate how it had to be released, but that one angle may be the single most spellbinding view in a RCT2 park. Amazing writeup too; now I feel bad for gushing over House so much. HM goes to literally everything else you've ever released because oh my god.

Ethan: Watching you appear out of thin air and immediately score a gold with Hoshi En was inspiring. There's so much love and detail in your work but also an air of emotion which is so uniquely Ethan. Super excited to see what you do next!

G Force: Some of the earliest NE parks that really showed me what RCT2 could be were Westwinds and Worlds of Fun. I would put Patriot here, but I'm not gonna show my love to the big daddy of Dirty American Realism with a Pacificoaster layout. Instead, I'm gonna highlight All Coasters Go To Heaven because it was one of my favorite H2H8 parks and I love seeing what realistic parkmakers can do in the fantasy realm. Must have been a blast making a park which is all huge iconic layouts.

Jappy: I can look at one of your screens without knowing who posted it and immediately tell it's a Jappy screen from the clean yet comforting aura you can feel in every one. Everland Discovery Kingdom has this in spades and Fireworks Express is, appropriately enough, an absolutely dynamite layout. The duels and interactions are second to none and the theming is so unique.

V1: Like Ge-Ride I'm not super familiar with your stuff, but I really liked how you took advantage of quarter-tile scenery to create a diroama in Burg Barenfels. Definitely stood out to me when it released.

CHE: The second German in a row whose work I haven't seen a ton of, but you and the three parkmakers alongside you really made something special with Frontier's Keep. You four created an almost cartoonish aesthetic which I adore and a wonderful theme alongside it. One of the most underrated H2H9 parks for sure.

FredD: Sort my downloaded parks in chronological order and FredD's Ultimate Coaster Kingdom isn't even in the double digits. Good ol' FUCK. One of my earliest inspirations as a parkmaker and still a super underrated release. The theming in the shot I attached is just incredible.

Jaguar: You have this thing where you make RCT2 look like a completely different game. You tap into daring aesthetics using objects other parkmakers see as uncanny or unusable. The Multitiles building challenge was practically made for you. Look at this! Who thinks of this?

alex: I don't know how many other parkmakers have thoroughly excelled at every single aspect of RCT; LL, NCSO, and CSO; as quickly as you have. Evergreen Gardens won my heart unlike many other full-scale releases in recent times for its atmosphere. Even as detailed as it is, it's just so undoubtedly RCT2 in the end. 

SSSammy: Wasn't familiar with your portfolio until now, but you're a very multifaceted parkmaker with a diverse selection across both LL and RCT2. Love this mansion in Elizabeth Dale; really gives me vibes of the above Evergreen Gardens.

Faas: There is this undying charm that permeates your work no matter what it tackles such as your recent Sawyer Springs. However, I'm gonna go for a deeper cut and nominate Romon U-Park. Legitimately some of my favorite interior work ever. and proof that indoor parks can be handled as effortlessly as outdoor in RCT2.
Turtle: Oh no. Oh no. Gustav has to talk about one of the dudes who made Le Reve Parapluie. Brace yourselves. As I said in my AVC writeup, this changed the way I saw RCT2 as a whole. It would have never occurred to me that you could open RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 For Your Personal Computer and make something that makes you feel things. Still a fantasy masterclass to this day as it approaches the double digits.

Fisch: And I'm ending this with the man who made my favorite RCT2 park of all time, Riverland. Spellbound from the first time I opened the MP server to the initial release to the full timeline release and all the way to today. Some of the most masterful theming in RCT2 history. HM of course goes to your H2H9 work; some of the most stunning RCT2 in recent times.

 

I probably yammered for so long that someone else posted by now so feel free to skip over me. Just wanted to give this a shot.

Gustav, what a great thing to do. Very much appreciated, thanks for all the kind words. I have to be honest and say that I don't know your work yet, so i've just had a look at your screens. One thing that's jumping out to me is your creative vision. You've got such a wide variety of ideas that you've already put down into RCT, which is honestly the hardest thing that most people struggle with. Please please keep at it, your execution will get much better with time but you're already making your own thing in your own way, which takes most people years to develop.

I appreciate the kind words. I honestly see it as the opposite though; it's one thing to have the ideas but it's another to really make them shine. I could have an incredible idea on my hands and turn it into something really clunky and awkward. I don't plan to stop any time soon though; I really do feel like all I really need to shine is more time invested in this game.

 

@Turtle, I think this screen you posted like 2009 or so in the Dump place and it's one of the few screens that really burnt into my memory. There is something about the composition here that makes it magical. That octagonal tower is beautiful. All your work has this calm atmosphere that carries you away, like, I don't need any peeps here, they would eventually just act as nuisance. When I joined the site I always looked up to you cause this was the style that I wanted to achieve (and probably never did, maybe Above the Canopy goes into that direction).

 

Since I haven't posted something I'm proud of last time, I do it now.

 

 

It's the mansion from Mobray's, there is also significant work by Camcorder and Saxman in the screen, but the building is mostly by me. This park was really a struggle to bring to the finish line and I did this building like during 2 days or so right before the DL weekend. I'm proud of how it turned out and I think with this park I also got a breakthrough in my architectural skills. I'm also a big fan of how the duelers wind around it with their contrasty colours.

Well, Tolsimir. 

That shouldn't be too hard.

 

Look at this screen right here.

This is what inspired the thought that not only I am not done with RCT when I saw it - but also that RCT in general was not done. Who could have imagined to build like THIS back when the game released? You are pushing the boundaries and I commend you for that.

 

 

 

 

As for myself, I have chosen a screen that represents my own RCT resurgence. The first thing I built in the then brand-new multiplayer of Open. Like... What? Real multiplayer RCT? Everything is possible, then.

 

@Gustav: I did about everything except the indoor stuff for Romon-U, but thanks anyway .