Ride Development

[jom222]

Does anyone know where ride development for Thorpe Park takes place?

[Graeme]

You know the entrance bridge over to the dome? If you look under that, there is a floating office, in which lives a troll.Staff at Thorpe give said troll random drugs that are confiscated by security and in return the troll draws up plans.

[Sheepie]

Does anyone know where ride development for Thorpe Park takes place?

In an effort to make an intelligent reply ( Graeme) to your post, it really does depend on what you mean. I think you're talking about how new rides are developed, from concept, to design, to construction and ultimately, to opening? It's not really an easy question to answer and there is no definitive, quick or simple phrase.Various park managers, including marketing directors, the divisional director and head of engineering (also other department heads such as rides managers) first sit down and have a meeting about future development. They may come up with a vague, blue sky thinking concept or just come up with the very generic basics of what they want the ride to be (coaster, flat, thrilling ect).There are various people that have to get involved and processes that need to happen, such as funding for an attraction, which on my very limited knowlege, can only happen once Merlin Headquarters have approved the plans and concept (who also, don't forget, are borrowing money from Blackstone).Before that though, there will be various meetings with Merlin Studios about what the park want; the type of experience they're after, the concept theme. They will do concept art and continue to have meetings with the park. Once the park are happy, a manufacturer needs to be brought in to see if they are happy to be a part of the project. So, the Studios will contact B&M, Intamin... whoever and present them with their brief for what they want.For a coaster for example, the Studios and Park work very closely with the manufactuer as to what layout they would like. There may be specific features that the park want; such as Swarm's first drop/ inversion. So there will be many ideas brought to the table from both the manufacturer and the studios/ park.Once a layout is decided upon, the studios draw up plans for the ride that will be submitted to Merlin for approval and also potential planning permission. I'm unaware of who exactly draws technical drawings of track- whether it's the manufacturer or the studios. However, all scenic elements, including any buildings will have to be drawn to scale with colours and materials all shown with a key, this is carried out by the Studios and are the plans you see when viewing the application online, such as The Swarm.Concepts will be presented to Merlin for approval, this will likely contain more concept art and the basic premise of the attraction. Marketing will likely be a part of the presentation as they will most likely want to outline how they're going to market the attraction to the public; remember, Nick Varney is a massive believer in Marketing.The develpoment gets approved ( ) and an agreed budget is set for the project. The Studios then mostly outsource a lot of the work to freelance companies and third parties who specialise in a particular thing. For example, a special effects company will be employed for any effects (take Swarms water splash for example) and specialist scenic design companies will make big scenic elements for the attraction. Very recently I have discovered that the Studios are run very much as a separate company to the attractions. Quite simply, the reason they outsource a lot of the creative work is because it is cheaper than the company that is supposed to be affiated with them and they often do better work. There are exceptions to this, but on the whole that is the case. I do wonder if this is likely to change, with Merlin's recent new structuring of "Merlin Magic Making". This is outlined on the recent Merlin half-annual report and also on the careers website. Perhaps we could see more emphasis on this in the future.Meanwhile, a specialist construction company will follow the project through, from groundwork, to track completion. So many peolpe will be involved, from electircians to programmers. The park will be busy too, as they will likely be affected by the construction of the ride, such as closing the area off, providing access to the site, facilities for the staff, compiling a schedule for all people involved, marketing will be busy on their strategy (which has a massive detailed process of its own) and everything will just be hunky dorey.Eventually the ride is launched, the ride makes loads of money for the park, enthusiasts debate about it and blame all sorts of people if they hate it and likewise when praising it (even a wiff of John Wardley being involved and his name is used as though he was the soul designer, even though he provides minimum input on new Merlin Attractions). Ultimately, Merlin will take all of the credit for it, including Miss Candy Holland (Creative Director for the Studios) and the process shall begin again for their next development.I'd just like to add- this is a very brief account based on my own, sometimes uneducated knowlege about the process, having spent 11 years following the theme park industry online, I'd like to think I have a decent amount of knowlege but obviously you can't know everything. I could be totally wrong! Hopefully it wasn't too boring and that it answers your question.