Hello internet. It's Zeg. Alright, backstory...

I make videos with a friend more or less fortnightly and upload them to a Youtube channel no-one watches. We made one for Planet Coaster around launch, then I played the game a bunch and beat all of career mode. I kinda wanted to make more videos of playing challenge mode, but while we usually record videos on my friends PC, mine is now getting a bit old and probably incapable of recording Planet Coaster in any sane fashion. So instead, I took a bunch of screenshots and intend to string them into some text. This might turn out dry and boring, or maybe someone can learn something from this.

So, starting challenge mode. I put it into 'hard' difficulty because honestly Planet Coaster is super easy, but all hard mode really does is make the early game very slow due to low starting money and no loans. It also does make guests a little more whiny and your rides break down a little more, but again, super easy.

Starting things off, we have a choice of two rides: the slow and generic Venetian Carousel, and the more exciting but lower capacity Wild Blue. Wild Blue is also slightly more expensive and I already know the real trick to making money. It's not the rides, it's the drinks (probably just like real life). So here's what $2000 will buy:

I've also refrained from hiring a Janitor and I'm just adding new bins as they get full. We'll need more bins around the park later, so it's still an investment. Adding queue scenery increases the amount people are willing to pay for a ride, so throwing in some cheap bushes will help get cash flow up a little faster. Then comes the long wait. This tiny park does make profit even if people aren't happy and don't stick around long. The other advantage to picking the carousel over Wild Blue is that family rides tend to break down less frequently, so I could avoid hiring a Mechanic for longer too.

A year and a half later, things have expanded slightly:

It turns out the carousel and Wild Blue make very similar monthly profit. Ticket prices can be higher on Wild Blue due to the higher excitement, but its capacity is low and ride time long, so it more or less evens out. I spent some money researching the first new Thrill ride, Insanity, because I know that it is always a big money maker with it's high capacity and excitement. I also built toilets, which charge $1 and make more money than their operating cost monthly even with this small a park.

Some time later I added the first researched Family ride, the Simlish pirate shanty noisebox of Whirly Rig. I also added the first Chief Beef shop, now that people are spending long enough in the park to get hungry, and fancied up the shops a bit with a basic building. Buildings also count for queue scenery, so Whirly Rig gets a decent bonus.

Since all we're building right now are 'flat' rides, here's a tip: Entrance and Exit positioning are more important than you might think.

• People exiting a ride walk slowly, so try and get the Exit near where people disembark to get them out of the way quicker and let new people in.
• But Mechanics servicing or inspecting rides also come in via the exit, so also try and get it close to the operators box (where the mechanical work happens). This two sided choice is most evident on Wild Blue, where the operators box is stuck way out and not very near the disembark point.
• The Entrance is somewhat less important, since people excitedly run to board rides, but still getting it closer to the load point saves a little time.

This all also comes into play (probably even more so) with Coasters, which we'll get to in part 2.

To finish up part 1:

I researched and added the Teacups and buffed the scenery on all the queues a little more. As shown in the upper left, profit is up to $3000 a month when I'm not running research.

In the ride profit list, you can see that Insanity is indeed the big money maker. Wild Blue barely keeps up with the larger family rides...

... and barely keeps up with food and drink stalls. Even in this small park, Cosmic Cow can get up over $1000 a month, though this month was less since thirst tends to come in waves with this small population. Remember to train your serving staff too! Even with such low population, level 4 or even 5 can be needed to keep up with demand.

Next time in part 2, the whole park gets torn down and moved inland, setting the stage for an actually planned park layout with themes and the first roller coaster.