Ride Technician Overview

What is Ride Technician?

Ride Technician is a simulator horror game. You play as a new hire technician for a theme park that does maintenance overnight. As the nights progress, more and more things start to change, warp, and become creepy as you continue to work on the attractions. The goal is to survive each night while completing your tasks, with the incentive being that you get paid more money to purchase tools that make your job easier and allowing you to complete your tasks more quickly. In some cases the task will change depending on the situation.

Where does this Game Take Place?

The game takes place in a theme park located in an old deserted town over multiple nights. The town had a lot of mysterious deaths which caused ot to be deserted. A theme park agency decided to buy up the land not knowing that it was haunted or contained a demonic presence. The company could also have been involved in the deaths in some way. Looking for a corrupt cover up story type of company.

Why Create this Game?

With the advent of indie horror games and the popularity of "Mascot Horror," Ride Technician is aiming to take a unique take on the horror genre. While the setting is set in what would be considered a Mascot Horror setting, the focus is more on completing tasks than killing or, vanquishing the monsters (albeit the player can get rid of the monsters if they choose). The hope and goal is to provide players with a unique experience that combines simulation, horror, and a narrative that the player can discover.

What Makes Ride Technician Different?

Having to complete an everyday job while trying to survive seems both unique and kinda funny. The goal isn’t to kill the bad guy, or escape the predator, the goal is to complete your tasks at all costs. This gives the player a clear goal that is easy to understand, and it is how the horror aspects try to prevent the player from accomplishing those goals that  make it difficult. In addition there can be multiple endings depending on what the player does during their nights. If the player only focuses on completing their tasks and not uncovering the mysteries that could be one ending.. If the player only ever hides and never does their tasks that would be another, if the player manages to somehow get rid of the creature each night then that can be a different ending. If they do or don’t upgrade their gear, etc. The player can even completely avoid the horror aspect of the game if they fail to trigger the horror aspects for each night. This creates a multitude of gameplay opportunities that will not be made apparent to the player. This can provide the player with a simple simulator game, or challenging horror experience.

What Inspired this Game?

This game comes from Neil's personal experiences working at a theme park as a ride attendant. While he doesn't service the rides, He does operate them. The horror aspect came about after talking with his co-wokers to see what would make them want to play it. While a lot of ideas were given in jest or hyperbole, some were good ideas, hence making it a horror game instead of a straight up simulator game.