Be Successful in Rollercoaster Tycoon Games

In Roller coaster Tycoon 1, 2, and 3, you get to manage your own theme park complete with all kinds of rides and attractions. In different scenarios, goals are different, but they have one thing in common: you have to raise some amount of money and have some number of guests by the end of a certain time period.

This guide will help you create the best theme park from scratch in Rollercoaster Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

Steps

  1. Pick a scenario where you have to build your theme park from scratch. For example, choose Forest Frontiers in RCT 1, Roller Coaster Heaven in RCT 2,and Cosmic Craggs in RCT3. The park doesn't have to be closed. In RCT1 and 2, you cannot build while paused, but in RCT3, the game can be played whether or not you are paused.
  2. Click the money amount on the bottom left and increase your loan as much as needed to build enough rides. You can always pay it off later. (Note: Sandbox Mode has unlimited money)
  3. Click the build icon. Choose "Gentle Rides" and pick something small, like a ferris wheel or a carousel. Place the ride near the entrance of the park, but not too close to the road. Face the entrance and exit toward the main path. Now, click path icon and build a queue line path from the entrance to the pathway. Keep in mind that your ride may require a long line. Repeat this step with another gentle ride.
  4. When your entrance area looks full, build something bigger. Click the build icon and choose "Thrill Rides". Try to pick something small, like a swinging ship, or a spinning twist. Place it next to the gentle rides. Don't build the queue lines yet because you do not have a pathway leading to the ride yet. You can repeat this step if necessary.
  5. Now that you have the entrance filled up, it's time to move to the big area of the park. Click the build icon and choose "Roller Coasters". Pick "Wooden Roller Coaster" and build something fairly large, but not oversized. Place it by the edge of the park, so you still have space in the middle to install pathways. Put the entrance as close to the station as possible. Also, keep in mind that you have to build pathways that connect all the rides. Do not repeat this step.
  6. Now, again, pick "Gentle Rides" and build a car ride not too far from the roller coaster. Try to keep it small, but not as small as ferris wheel, or merry-go-round.
  7. If it is past April in your game, click the build icon, choose "Water Rides," and build whatever ride they have. Position it close to the edge of the park, but also close to the entrance. If you build the boat ride, you must dig a lake and fill it with water.
  8. Now it's time to move on to the pathways. Build a path from the entrance to the water ride. Try to make the path as straight as possible, and yet reaching all the rides easily. Now, build queue line paths from entrances. If you need a queue line to be longer for more popular rides such as roller coasters, turn it like a maze. When you have the queue lines down, build exit paths. Building the paths in that order will prevent queue lines from accidentally attaching to a path you might not want it on. Exit paths can't be queue paths, or your guests will think they are in line for another ride and get confused. This keeps your park rating up.
  9. Now that you have a basic sketch of your park, it's time to move on to even bigger rides. Click build icon and roller coasters again. Pick anything you want - anything really big - and build it in near the water ride and the first roller coaster. Don't put it close to the entrance and be sure to keep the pathways in mind. Do not build on the far side of the park until the entrance, both edges, and the middle is filled up, because guests don't like walking far. That's it for the rides!
  10. Add the other attractions that keep your guests going. Click on the Build icon and choose "Food". Build Burger Bar, or Pizza Stall. Position it in the center of the attractions. Build a drink stall right next to the food stall, and finally, add a bathroom.
  11. Now, click on "landscaping/decorations" icon and choose "path decorations". Click on trash can and place it around the paths. Put it near food stalls and on the exits of the rides. That's going to sound little gross, but people throw up sometimes when they get off rides. Repeat, but choose benches instead of trash cans. Sometimes when people get sick, they just want to sit down. You can also add in some decorations, like fountains.
  12. Now that your park looks more like an actual park, it's time to go into business. Make sure all of the rides are open individually. Open the park. To do that, just click the park entrance and change the red sign to green.
  13. Now just sit back and watch your park population grow. Be sure to check on specific rides and see what people think. Make a few adjustments if necessary. Pay attention to the announcements. A month in, hire a handyman or two to empty trash cans and clean up vomit. If a ride breaks down, hire a mechanic. If there are complaints about vandalism, hire a security guard. Also, be sure to increase park admission price after about a month, but don't make the price change too dramatic or no one will come.
  14. Click the money again and choose the very last tab. You will see all the advertisement options there. Advertise your park for two to three weeks - a lot more guests will come. Also, observe all the rides. If a particular ride does not get as many people as you want it to get, go back to the advertisements, but this time pick "advertise particular ride".
  15. Now relax for a minute and look at the amount of money. See how much it's increasing. After you have gained enough money, open up the money control again and decrease the loan as much as you can. Your goal is not to have any loans at all.

Tips

  • When building your park, leave the back side (the farthest from the entrance) empty, so you can build other rides there later.
  • If all of your land is filled up, buy some more. This can be done by clicking park entrance and then clicking buy land icon.
  • If your park is big, build a lot of food and drink stalls and bathrooms. Also build an information kiosk - umbrellas sell like crazy when it rains. You can raise the price when you hear thunder.
  • After a couple virtual months of your park being open, hire a few entertainers.
  • Don't just have one pathway connecting all the rides. Build side paths to disperse the crowd.
  • Don't build food stalls right near a big roller coaster like Titan. The guests are more likely to throw up after going on the rollercoaster.
  • If your park is too big, build a monorail (not a train, because monorail can be elevated, so you don't have to worry about pathways and other rides) that has several stations and goes around the park. If you used up all 4 stations and the monorail is not a complete circle, change it to a one-way-shuttle mode instead of continuous circuit mode.
  • If a guest is REALLY angry and has a red face, make a path that is separate from the others, and place a bench there. Move that guest there and he will break it. That will make him happy again!
  • If you find a guest saying that a ride is too intense or too gentle for him, pick him up and place him in the queue of a more suitable ride. Whee! You can occupy your time like this instead of just watching people scream.
  • Be sure to listen to all of your guests' comments and make adjustments. Build more rides, more food vendors, trees for shade, etc.
  • Be sure to build new rides when they become available.
  • Don't forget to run a lot of advertising campaigns.
  • When you build a ride, test it immediately. Look at the test results, and base the price on the excitement rating. It's best to put it just below the excitement rating. If the excitement rating is 3.2, for example, then charge about £3/$3/€3.
  • If you have lots of money and your park is really disgusting and dirty, you may consider deleting all the dirty paths and placing new ones down. This is much quicker than hiring many more janitors/handymen.
    • Hire entertainers. Whenever a guest passes an entertainer, his/her happiness level increases. Place entertainers near the front gate to dissuade leaving guests from exiting. Also put entertainers in the queue lines, because after waiting a long time in line, guests get angry.
    • Keep your queue lines small. When guests think "I've been standing in line for [ride] for ages" their happiness drops. Some may leave the line if they wait too long.
    • Hunger, thirst, their need to use the bathroom, and nausea also affect the guests' happiness. Here are some things that might cause one of those things to increase/decrease:
      • Guests' hunger increases over-time. Since eating food also increases nausea level, place the food stalls away from nauseating rides.
      • Guests' thirst increases mostly when he/she eats food. The thirst level also increases with the nausea level. After drinking a drink, usually the guest's thirst level and nausea level decrease while the bathroom level increases. The best places to put drink stalls are near a food stall and near the exit of a nauseating ride.
      • It will also be a good idea to place bathrooms all over the park. Guests' bathroom level increases when he/she drinks a drink or eats.
      • Guests' nausea mostly increases when he/she rides a ride that has a high nausea rating. Nausea is also increased (a tiny bit) by eating food. If the nausea level is too high, the guest will throw up. Usually vomiting decreases the guest's nausea level. Nausea level is also decreased when the guest sits down or drinks a drink.
    • If a guest's happiness is desperately low, you can rename him/her to Melanie Warn. This will boost guest's happiness and energy to maximum.
  • You can put "Do Not Enter" signs at the beginning of the ride's exit path to keep people from going hitting a dead-end.
  • Keep your guests happy. There are numerous things that make guests happier, while certain other things cause their happiness levels to decrease. If a guest's happiness level is low enough, he will turn into a vandal and break benches and lamps in your park, which in turn will affect other guests' happiness level. Sometimes it is not easy to keep the guests happy, but if you follow these tips you will have an idea on how to manipulate your guests' happiness.
    • Guests don't like things that are too expensive. So, if you see people thinking "I'm not paying that much to go on/buy [insert object here]," decrease the price at the attraction immediately. If your price is good, you will see guests thinking "[Attraction] is a really great value".
    • Make your park look nice. Things like Scenery and Theming cause guests to think "The scenery here is wonderful" which boosts their happiness. Also, be sure to put music on some rides. This also makes guests happier. However, in the third Roller Coaster Tycoon game, guests sometimes avoid certain rides because they don't like the music. Try to stay away from music if you have the third Roller Coaster Tycoon game, but if you have the second or the first, adding music to your rides is a good idea.
    • Be sure to hire handymen, especially if you find guests thinking "This path is disgusting." Assign specific areas for the handymen to patrol and guests will then think "This park is really clean and tidy," which boosts their happiness.
  • If your repairman is taking a long time to get to the broken down ride, don't be afraid to pick him up & bring him there yourself. You may need to call him back to the broken ride though.
  • On Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, if you run extremely low on money, or in the negatives, name a park guest "John D. Rockefeller". This gives you a boost in money, and you can name as many guests "John D. Rockefeller" as you like.
  • To get a lot of money, build some shops close to the entrance of your park.
  • When a lot of guests start coming in, trap them by getting rid of the road behind them. You should put a bathroom in front of them, and surround them with concession stands, keeping the prices as high as you can.
  • Some of your park guests might not "live" close to your park in their virtual life, so they will need to use the bathroom. Click on a bathroom, and increase all of the bathroom fees in your park to 10 cents. That means that the guests will have to pay a dime to use the restroom. Especially if you have a large park, this is a good way to make money. In version 3 some guest won't go to those restrooms. If the park is making lots of money, you do not need to charge the guests.
    • Having rides near water will make guest happy. Making the guests close to (almost touching) the water will help your park even more!
  • If you intend to build a moderate or large park build a monorail at the entrance of your park. This will help you disperse people, allowing you to utilize more of your land.

Warnings

  • Test all your custom-built rides before you open them to find out if they are safe.
  • Some parks start automatically open and cannot be closed. In this case, build all ride paths immediately and open all rides as soon as they are finished.
  • When building your own rides, be sure to pay attention to how extreme the ride is. Don't make the drop too high. Don't make five loops in one ride. If you do that, few will want to ride the ride. However, in some parks guests prefer more intense rides than others.
  • Never leave the game running and go away for more than five minutes. You might think things are going great, but if you leave, something (like a coaster crash) might happen. If you are not there, your business empire will come crashing down. Remember, there is always a save option.
  • Do NOT waste all of your money. If you are below $2000, stop spending for a while. Remember, one of your final goals is to pay off all of the loans so that if you're in a crisis you can get more loans.
  • Always be alert in RCT3 when you have a VIP in the park.
  • In some parks, the entrance fee must be free. In others, all rides must be free.
  • If a guest's face is red, that means that he is very angry.

Things You'll Need

  • A Computer
  • A Keyboard
  • A Mouse
  • One of the Roller Coaster Tycoon Games

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