Indoorlands is a park management simulator by Pixelsplit that offers a simple, challenging and mostly addictive gameplay setting.
Indoorlands is made by Pixelsplit, which is an indie game studio. They were founded in 2017 in Germany and have two other popular games: Virtual Rides and Deadly Days. Indoorlands is a simulation video game that requires patience and strategy. Being patient with this addictive game comes easily, but strategic skills progress over time. I would say I did decently as I first started, but there are some mistakes I made, such as placing toilets for convenience over elegance.
Many of you may see Indoorlands and immediately think of the old RollerCoaster Tycoon classic. I have not had the opportunity to play RCT since the early 2000s, nor have I tried the remastered version. So, I will not be adding that into here for comparison at all. I also feel like it is fair to say that while the game style is similar, this is an entirely different entity on its own.
Indoorlands allows players to build an entire indoor theme park. What I found interesting was I had to build my own rollercoaster for my first rollercoaster ride hall. I created a simple coaster, put it through testing, and learned that I was able to adjust the speed throughout the ride. This was extremely cool to do and quite rewarding to see the product be successful. The customers loved it!
My favorite feature in Indoorlands has to be the ability to seek feedback. You can look at customer feedback and even click on individual customers to see how they feel about every detail of the park. This is where you learn that perhaps you do not have enough water available, or they request more experiences with prizes. This way, you can take those customer suggestions to bring additions that raise overall happiness.
Another feature that makes this game unique is having research labs that are placed around the park. These labs study the customers about the theme park, and with enough research, you can unlock more experiences to add for the customers. The bigger the park becomes, the more labs are needed.
Something truly special about Indoorlands is that while you can play with money as the focus, which is rewarding through strategy and achievements, you can also play in a different mode called “Sandbox.” In this other mode, you have an unlimited amount of money and can start big. However, there are still achievements to be made to unlock more experiences.
Because of this, it is still a rewarding experience, but without worrying about being tight on cash. When it comes to positive rewards that keep you motivated to continue playing Indoorlands, there are a few angles that Pixelsplit brought to the table. There is the generation of revenue, a satisfaction scale for customers, upgrades to buildings over time, a research lab generating experience upgrades, and more. There are a ton of exciting gains that keep you glued to the game to see what more you can accomplish.
There is a great balance in this game. I was able to sit and watch the money stack, but it also kept me engaged by having to repair buildings as well as add more decorations to the ride halls as requested by customers. I have a great repair team, but even then, some breakdowns need intervention.
I was able to use a map that showed aesthetic rates around the park. Some areas were green and rated high for aesthetically pleasing, while other areas were red to represent how ugly it was to my customers because of toilets or maintenance buildings. Using that, I revamped some areas to make them more enjoyable. I think this is a realistic approach because there will be that kind of feedback at a real park.
You are essentially able to create more work for yourself or reduce work for yourself by choosing what kind of upgrades you want or the number of repair buildings around the park. This is an excellent feature because it further allows you to manipulate the game to your own favored experience.
Also, if you are emetophobic, then you will be happy to learn Indoorlands is a friendly game where Pixelsplit recognized that not adding -you know what- in a visual manner will not take away from the game at all. I am making sure to be courteous of any readers that may fall into this category by not going into detail. You’re welcome!
This also means your cleaning crew does not need to be micromanaged, and I love being able to focus on other aspects of the game. If you want a very clean park, you have the ability to look over the areas with a heat map exposing any dirty spots and use a brush to clean them yourself. With this heat map, you can see how fast filth is created, but also how fast your cleaning crew will clean it up.
There are certain strategies I still want to go back and try by starting over to see if it makes much of a difference. Which means happily and easily clocking in 40+ more hours. I wonder if it would be any different if I changed up my spending strategies and altered the way that I bought plots and attractions. Comparatively, now that I have hindsight, I feel like I have smarter methods to tackle this game, and I am sure I will spend much of my life mastering it.
The land cost goes up from $100,000 to $300,000 after the first purchase, and that threw me off for a moment. I learned fast that every time you expand the park, the value of the land market goes up. The point is that everything is expensive, and costs go up quickly. What is the best way to make the most of this? I am determined to find out.
Overall, I love how simple Indoorlands’ layout is and how I am not overwhelmed with things to manage. I like being able to earn cash, but I also like that I can almost free-play without the cash. I love the personal customer feedback and being able to click on a park-goer to see what they are thinking. I experienced certain glitches, which I am sure the developers will smooth out over time.
Sadly, however, while there are a lot of floor colors to choose from, there are only a handful of patterns and not enough objects to decorate with (ponds, grass, statues). Pixelsplit has already added more rides since creating the game, and so hopefully they plan to continue adding more. Especially a couple of extras for the early selection when just beginning.
The Pixelsplit put much thought into this game. They made it simple enough for players while still challenging. I feel like they did a wonderful job. I enjoy that there are two different play modes, making this more enjoyable for different players.
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