Platform Masters development (Apr 7, 2011) - Carnivalesta's final remake

Since Carnivalesta is key to Platform Masters' story, I went into great detail designing it, taking 2 1/2 weeks. From the barker and food stands up close to the theme park rides (including one that is broken) and 525-foot-tall roller coaster track, out to the hills and mountains beyond, Carnivalesta has the most detail for any of the game's worlds. Even the very design of each of the food and barker stands has gone into great detail. This video covers it all. In fact, pretty much the entire video is nothing more than explaining what each food and barker stand are and the level of detail I went into for designing these. I keep the motion going constantly so, if you're not interested in a particular part, you can watch the rides, the clouds drifting above, or skip forward a little bit. I've ordered everything from closest to furthest for convenience - the later in the video you go, the further out into the scene I am.

Food and barker stands make up the closest visible part of the area. During this, you'll learn of the game's monetary unit - the Egan. 50 Egani is approximately one US dollar in today's times, making it easy to compare the actual costs of the stands to real world conditions. Prices at carnivals are almost always far higher than that of what you'd find elsewhere, like a grocery store. There are 6 layers' worth of stands. Thrown in are a few shops and also an info center (since I was running out of ideas). That unrecalled flavor is grape.

Rides are further beyond. The Hero Wheel is now much bigger (nearly 400 feet high), constantly rotates, and is fully animated, themed on the color wheel. The High Runner is much like the Yoyo ride, only higher and faster. I'm unsure how to determine the needed rotation speed to get a certain angle, as explained in the video. Explorer is like the 1001 Nachts ride, with a scene of the Sentus Mountains from high up being behind it. These are the animated rides. One called "Spring Bouncer" is out of order, hinted at by the way the passenger part looks and the broken rope on the right. The others are not animated.

The "Island Glider" roller coaster is beyond. It basically simulates gliding from one island to another (giving a new meaning to "island hopping"). This roller coaster, in the far back, gets up to 525 feet high. There are no cars because they're so tiny at this great distance, especially at the far end of the track. It's also very complicated to animate (High Runner took 5 hours to animate through the programming, 2 days to make the frames). The roller coaster marks the far end of the carnival grounds.

Beyond lies darkness. It's night at Carnivalesta. Thus, where the lights are absent, it gets dark. There is an extra part a little past the carnival grounds that is still fully lit. This is where the 600-room, 8-story hotel is, and a massive parking lot. The light fading effect and pavement parking lot are thanks to the ground decal system. If you look closely enough, you can see that the shape of the lit area forms a near-perfect circle. It also replicates the darkening effect seen with great height above the ground exactly.

After some grass, hills and mountains are beyond. Carnivalesta is located at the southern foothills of the Sentus Mountains. On one of these mountains is a city that covers 2 3/4 miles (4.4 kilometers). This city emits a lot of light so, if you look closely enough, you can actually see the sky glow (screenshot 158 shows it with enhanced contrast). Why are the mountains directly to the left and right not lit? They're in front of the city and thus, no light from it reaches them, much like the layers of hills that are closer.

After this, you'll get a quick look as to what Carnivalesta looked like before these changes (of which was recorded 3 days before the main part). Compared to this, or especially screenshot 23, Carnivalesta is extremely rich in detail. The sudden horizontal boost was actually from that cyan-colored platform near the goal platform (I had to view the video frame by frame to see it).

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• Carnivalesta
• carnival
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[omgitsaoe]

How large are the popcorn sizes...?

[ulillillia]

It doesn't matter. It's part of the background scenery. Converting dollars to Egani, and accounting for a 150% inflation over the course of 61 years, something costing 100 Egani is the same as $2. Find your typical fair or festival that sells popcorn at that kind of price and that's the size it is, probably a 2 oz bag.

[CarryLarry]

Oh goodness, I watched this video and I got very hungry and also I want to play ring toss

[ulillillia]

There is another change/adjustment that I can foresee in this world - adding tables for eating at (placed between the stands), adding more stands out to 650 or 700 feet out and more from 900 to 950 through 1450 to 1500 (there is some uncertainty as to the distance allowed to the various rides). Stands will just be duplicated as needed. It's probably the easiest and best way to do it. It'll at least make the place much more lively and active.

[Makron5]

Do they sell corndogs at this carnival? What about gyros and such?

[ulillillia]

There is a hot dog and a corn dog stand (the latter being in the most distant row).

[Direwolf56]

"There no limit to..." Kabam!

[damazywlodarczyk]

carnivalesta i suppose it's like... festivus?

[Makron5]

I want this game when it is released.

[ulillillia]

The pretzel itself is not actually 5 feet wide. That's the length of the string if it was all spread out in one long line. I don't know the actual ratios between string size and the resulting pretzel size, but it's still a good 18 to 24 inches I'd say, easily doable with pizza ovens.