But as with any toy train set, the soul of the experience is the world you build around it. It's the whole balance of many things that makes the ride fun and makes you want to go back and go on it again. What you go past when you're on it. What it looks like when you're approaching it. Things like theme and scenery.
Landscape design is more significant than it first appears.
Well-placed footpaths can make the difference between a profitable park and one that operates in the red. And public transportation, in the guise of themed choo-choo trains, becomes an important way of ferrying customers between clustered spending opportunities, which substitute for neighborhoods in the urban scheme of an amusement park. There's a lot of urban planning in Roller Coaster Tycoon. But it's the kind of urban planning you find in a shopping mall or any other large, enclosed retail environment. Thoroughfares are arranged to maximize spending opportunities.