Video games and theme parks are both often designed as experiences that immerse people into another world, and as such there is a lot of overlap in the theory used to create them. As such, I wanted to design a park within Planet Coaster 2 that applies the principles of video game worlds.

Pegasus Islands is based on what I would consider "fantastical realism", where the rides obey the impossible physics that dictate this divine land. Roller coasters are designed around the shapes of the islands they're on, with loops sometimes completely wrapping around them requiring unconventional support structures to hold them up. The infrastructure is also rather unorthodox, utilising the ingame cable car rides to connect far away island archipels with eachother through the sky.

The world is divided into three large realms belonging to the ancient Greek gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Each realm has its own biome, architecture and ride selection. While the park has a non-linear approach in its layout, there is also a progression in tension between the realms. Zeus' Realm offers a relatively peaceful but also imposing experience, with lush vegetation and a lot of golden accents. This area still offers many mild rides, but also offers some more intense experiences in the form of a flying rollercoaster and large droptower, the latter of which has a statue of Zeus on top protecting the realm from the adjacent Hades' Realm.

The next progression however is intended to be Poseidon's Realm first. Offering a tropical environment with three iconic cascades flowing from the sky, this area is home to a waterpark offering both relaxing pools and thrilling water slides that can be accessed from shrines. These slides are intricately placed to cross over eachother in a small space, with long segments suspended in the air only held up by support beams connected to tiny islands. The use of many glass tunnels further enhances the feeling of sliding through the air.

The park reaches its climax in Hades' Realm, serving as an end-game area featuring the most intense rides as well as a huge flying creature inspired by Typhon from Greek mythology. The largest coaster of the park is found here, and also interacts with Typhon in what resembles a final boss battle. The realm is anchored by a volcano spewing out blue fire, and being the realm of the underworld the environment here mostly consists of dead foliage, rockwork and ruins. To help with the vibe of the underworld within the sky, the volcano can also be entered for an underground area leading to the signature coaster.

For the design of the world I took inspiration from different parks and video games, such as Disneyland, Efteling, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and more. I've analyzed the techniques used by these experiences to make their visitors feel immersed, and applied them to my own park in a way that very much resembles designing game worlds. This includes principles such as sightlines, forced perspective, signposting, landmarks and more.

The rides have also been designed as themed experiences, all while still abiding by the physics these attractions would need to follow within the context of this world. For this, I researched real-world examples of each ride type and observed trends in different installations of them. I also considered realism features like maintenance, staff access and guest experience while designing the park layout.

This project might seem like an outlier among all my other games that I've worked on myself, but I believe it shows a lot about me as a world designer. My passion for theme parks has taught me many principles about immersion that are directly applicable to video games. I'm very happy with how the park has turned out in the end, and proud of how I managed to create a fantasy world within the confines of Planet Coaster 2.