CayPlay Studios, a developer cofounded by YouTuber Caylus, has announced its first project: Waterpark Simulator, a first-person game where you build and run your own waterpark. You'll design the slides, manage your employees, and ultimately customize and grow your park. Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.
CayPlay describes Waterpark Simulator like this: "Guests can slip, fall, rage, laugh, or go flying off one of your poorly designed slides. You can spray them with oversized water guns, pelt them with water balloons, or launch them through the air. Your park rating rises (or falls) based on how well you serve your guests, how clean and fun the park feels, and how satisfied people are with their experience. Earn money, expand your space, and unlock upgrades through a full skill tree system that lets you shape your management style."
A playable demo will be released on Steam on June 6. Wishlist Waterpark Simulator on Steam if you're interested.
Update: in response to community feedback, CayPlay CEO Travis Richardson issued IGN the following statement: "Leading up to our Steam page submission deadline for June Next Fest, we were under tight timing to get our page approved before the April 30th cutoff. At that point, our artist was still finalizing the official artwork, so I had used temporary placeholder images to represent the visual direction while the final assets were being completed.
"On April 29th, I sent IGN a drive link prematurely. I was excited that IGN had agreed to post our game and wanted to get the IGN team everything as fast as I could. At the time, I hadn't yet removed the placeholder images from the folder. My plan was to update the drive with the finished art once it came in, but it ended up taking a few more days than expected and I didn't want to rush our artist. Truthfully, once it came in I had forgotten to go back and update the folder before IGN accessed it. That was a major slip-up on my part and I take full responsibility.
"These placeholders were never meant to be used externally. To be absolutely clear: there is no AI used in our game or official marketing materials. Everything released publicly on our steam page, and social channels has been handcrafted by our artists and creative team.
"On May 9th when the game was announced, the final art was already live across all our official platforms. It wouldn't have made sense for us to intentionally provide IGN with anything else. Once I noticed what had happened I messaged the IGN team to request a thumbnail update and noted that I had accidentally sent over concept placeholder art instead of the finished materials.
"As a creator-first indie studio, we care deeply about transparency and staying true to our values. We are listening to the community and want to reassure everyone that no AI was used in the making of our game or its official marketing. This project is built by real people with real passion, and I wouldn't want my mistake to reflect on the team, who have poured their hearts and souls into bringing it to life."
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
