Matt Raithel, professor of practice of game design, is riding a wave of triumph with his newest creation, RollerCoaster Tycoon Story.
Matt Raithel, professor of practice of game design, is riding a wave of triumph with his newest creation, RollerCoaster Tycoon Story.
Students pursuing a game design concentration within Maryville’s Interactive Design Program learn real-world skills from an industry leader.
Matt Raithel, professor of practice of game design, is also the owner and studio director of Graphite Lab, a St. Louis-based company that develops video games for brands like Hasbro, Disney, Cartoon Network and, now, Atari.
Raithel and team’s latest creation, RollerCoaster Tycoon Story, is based on the beloved franchise. The videogame, whose objective is to rebuild a decrepit theme park, was recently featured as “Game of the Day” in over 140 countries in Apple’s app store. But had Raithel not understood the importance of being both persistent and flexible early on, his company Graphite Lab might never have achieved this level of success.
After graduating from Missouri State in 2004, Raithel began applying for internships and positions with game design companies. “Everybody was like, ‘no, no, no,’” Raithel said. So Raithel and some business partners started their own company.
When they began pitching their concepts to game publishers, it was a similar story; no one wanted their ideas. But then they asked if Raithel and his partners could work on their game idea. He didn’t hesitate before saying yes. “I’ve had to be scrappy and resourceful,” Raithel said.
Even while developing others’ ideas, Raithel pursued his own game concepts. One of the commercially successful games developed by Graphite Lab includes “Hive Jump,” released last year on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. And a few years ago, Raithel pitched another original idea to Atari. “Once again, we were told, ‘No,’” Raithel said. “But then they said, ‘If you want to work on this rollercoaster game, it’s available.’”
RollerCoaster Tycoon Story, released in January for Apple and Android devices, is inspired by a 1999 franchise called RollerCoaster Tycoon. Players must restore the Eagleland theme park one project at a time by matching brightly colored game pieces on a board, a visual experience not unlike the popular Candy Crush Saga.
Players can purchase boosters or powerups — including one called Screechin’ Eagle — to help them solve puzzles faster and move through the game more quickly. “The reference to Six Flags’ Screamin’ Eagle is an homage to the St. Louis rollercoaster,” Raithel said.
Sixteen Graphite Lab employees — story writers, artists, programmers, designers and sound and music engineers — worked on the family-friendly RollerCoaster Tycoon Story for a year before its release. Two Maryville interns assisted in its development, arranging flowerbeds and other scenery and helping with testing and feedback.
“Students are mostly exposed to shorter-term projects,” Raithel said. “This exposed them to something on a larger scale, and to longer-term collaborations.”
Michael Treis, a former Graphite Lab intern, worked on RollerCoaster Tycoon Story professionally in the areas of programming and visual design. As Raithel’s student, Treis, took to heart his teacher’s mantra, “Test early and test often,” which he followed in creating the video game that was his senior capstone project.
“As a result, all the stuff I added onto my game moved it forward,” Treis said. “There wasn’t a lot of backtracking and fixing things.”
Teaching Treis and his many other students has similarities to playing a video game, according to Raithel. “Teaching is also interactive,” Raithel said. “And it’s like, ‘Is the student learning the content and the skills? Can they move up to the next level?’”
In the gaming world, designers keep adding more levels to their video games. Some former Maryville students have reached out to Raithel over social media to let him know they’ve completed all 600 existing levels of RollerCoaster Tycoon Story — and are ready for more. This kind of feedback is just another part of what Raithel loves about his work.
“Being a game designer is very much like having a construction company, where people get paid to build a hotel or similar project,” Raithel said. “But I get paid to build video games.”
Raithel also incorporates industry best practices he learned in the process into his game design curriculum. These skills are particularly useful when Maryville students are putting together their portfolios and speaking with potential employers, he said.
As a result, Maryville’s game design concentration has grown substantially since its launch in 2016. In 2018, the University celebrated its first graduates from the program, with many more on the way.