Welcome back to another Devlog! ːsteamhappyː
Big one this time. I added multiplayer to Roller Coaster Park Simulator!
You can now build and run your park together with friends, 1-8 players per park. There's no "builder" and "watcher" split - whoever joins can do anything the host can do. Build rides, hire and manage staff, clean up dirty rides with the Power Washer, walk around in first-person, whatever. Everyone has full access, so you can genuinely split the work (or step on each other's toes, no judgment).
Your friends walk around your park as their own characters (with nameplates, so you know exactly who to blame), and they can actually help:
- Build together - friends can place rides and shops, demolish, and buy new land, all from the shared park wallet
- Run the park together - one of you sells tickets at the entrance while another flips hot dogs and pours sodas for guests
- Split the chores - hand a friend the power washer and let them deal with the dirty rides for once
- Test rides together - when someone sends a test run, anyone can hop into the onboard camera and ride along
- Drive the kei truck - yes, your friends can drive it. Yes, they will run over your guests. The guests remember. (Their happiness score definitely does.)
Under the hood this meant reworking a good chunk of the systems I'd already built (NPCs, employees, the cleaning system, day/night) so they all sync properly across clients instead of assuming a single local player. Took a while, but the foundation should make it much easier to keep adding features without multiplayer breaking every time.
Still ironing out some edge cases, so expect some jank early on - but the core loop of building and running a park together is working now.
If you're enjoying the updates so far, please consider wishlisting the game - it really helps and keeps development moving!
Thanks again for following the development! Next update coming soon.