Thrillville - Developer Diaries Week Three

To do this, I build the coaster as high as I possibly can, right at the start. I start out with a slow ascent, because the anticipation always makes it better. Once at the top, I drop it all the way down to ground level. Straight down, preferably. This gives the coaster a good boost of initial speed, which is needed up front to carry through the rest of it.

Secondly, I go into the advanced settings on each coaster, and dial up the lift and launch speeds to the max.

Above: The screens used in this article are from the PS2 and Xbox versions of Thrillville. Your mileage may vary on PSP.

The third key to speed is relative motion. If you're going a couple hundred miles an hour over an open desert, you can't tell how fast you're going - at least not until that cactus whips past you at Mach 1.

The key here is getting the coaster track to go as close as it can to anything and everything. I buzz the drink stalls, whip around the Ferris wheel and barnstorm the park guests.

Best of all is getting the track as close to itself as possible. Is there a big loop? I'll turn that sucker around and go right through it, threading the needle.

This is my current favorite coaster trick - check it out when you get the game: Try putting a dozen helix pieces together to create a long spiraling tube that spins the carts around in dizzying circles. Then, at the end, bring that track right back and dive down through the center of the tornado. If your guests aren't sick by the time that's done, then you need to lower the price on greasy food.