Developer Texel Raptor's superb theme park management sim Parkitect is set to receive its most ambitious update yet, introducing 8-player co-operative multiplayer on 8th December.

Parkitect is already a gloriously designed thing, successfully managing to deliver a soothing nostalgia fix for Rollercoaster Tycoon fans, while still introducing some wonderfully impactful innovations at the same time - including powerful construction tools and smart gameplay additions such as a focus on intra-park delivery infrastructure - that breathe new life into the classic building and management formula.

Texel Raptor's latest addition, however - which follows on from two paid DLC expansions - is the game's most significant endeavour yet, offering the kind of collaborative multiplayer building experience that's frequently requested by fans but rarely seen in the genre.

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Developer Texel Raptor's superb theme park management sim Parkitect is upgrading its guest experience for the autumn season; from tomorrow, 2nd September, its newly announced Booms & Blooms expansion will bring fireworks sequencing, new rides, fancier flora, and more.

Booms & Blooms marks the second dollop of paid DLC to come to Parkitect, following on from last year's Taste of Adventure expansion, and introduces a range of customisation options enabling players to create parks with even greater degrees of personalisation.

Budding theme park moguls will, for instance, have the option to play their own music through a new speaker tool, or trigger their own sounds via the effects controller. Additionally, special effects can be synchronised to trigger in tandem with rides and it'll even be possible to create and sequence fireworks display to light up the night, as seen in the announcement trailer.

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Developer Texel Raptor will be expanding on its already superb theme park sim, Parkitect, next week, with the arrival of the game's first paid DLC. It's called Taste of Adventure and launches on Wednesday, 20th November, alongside a big free update for all existing owners.

Taste of Adventure's big eye-catchers are the two new themed building and object sets, intended to add more variety to your burgeoning tourist attractions. Adventure features all the bits you'll need to craft a world of pulpy Indiana-Jones-esque thrills, complete with temples and an on-track jeep ride, while Candyland offers the tools to build a land of treats and sweets.

Joining the new scenery sets are a whole heap of new rides; there's the aforementioned jeep attraction (officially known as the Safari Ride), River Rapids - which includes freely placeable bumpers, rapids, and waterfalls - a Swinging Coaster, Vertical Spinning Coaster, Inverting Spinning Coaster, Inverting Wooden Coaster, plus two new flat rides - Experience and Clockwork. You'll find more information, plus images, in Texel Raptor's announcement post.

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A significant chunk of my formative years can be defined by the heave and splat of hundreds of tiny computer people retching violently onto the floor. Maybe not the most melodious sound, but for me it's a noise tinged with nostalgia, conjuring memories of wonder as I, new to the world of PC sims, unleashed my newfound powers on the denizens of Bullfrog's Theme Park for the very first time.

Theme Park is, of course, rightly considered a classic, a masterfully implemented, joyous game of pure wish fulfilment - after all, what child hasn't dreamed of running their own amusement park? Five years later, RollerCoaster Tycoon refined, and some might argue, perfected the formula, proving no less delightful for its added depth and rather more serious, business-minded outlook.

Since then, we've had sequels in both franchises, but as they've continued to evolve, most recently with Atari's execrable RollerCoaster Tycoon World, and Frontier's impressive, but ultimately rather hollow, Planet Coaster, a spiritual successor to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, some of that early magic has dissipated. With developer Texel Raptor's Parkitect, however, the ageing formula has regained something of its heart.

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Developer Texel Raptor has announced that its superb theme park management sim, Parkitect, will finally be leaving Early Access, and launching for real, on November 29th.

Parkitect, which first entered Steam Early Access development back in 2016 (and has been almost four years in the making), is something like a modern day reimagining of the beloved Rollercoaster Tycoon series, right down to the isometric perspective. As Texel Raptor puts it, Parkitect has been designed to "[bring] back the best of classic theme park games with many new features and content on top".

Of course, if you've played any theme park sim before, you'll largely know what to expect here. In sandbox mode, you can go wild building the park of your dreams - designing coasters, setting down shops, adjusting stock, managing staff, and generally making sure your punters are having the time of their lives so the cash keeps rolling in. Parkitect 1.0 will also introduce a campaign mode, featuring 26 campaign parks unlocked via a branching world map.

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