Park Beyond is a theme park sim from the Tropico devs

Tropico 6 developer Limbic Entertainment is taking a break from El Presidente and satirising political corruption, switching gears to the slightly more wholesome Park Beyond, a theme park management affair that's coming next year.

At first glance, Park Beyond looks quite a bit like Frontier's Planet Coaster, but like the Transformers there's more to this sim than meets the eye.

Park Beyond's trick can be found in its 'impossification' system, which turns mundane rides and theme park services into altogether more fanciful things. You'll start with familiar, plain rides and coasters, but with some help from the R&D boffins you can start to add extra modules to them, putting together increasingly bizarre creations. Even a boring Ferris wheel is pretty exciting when you chuck a whole bunch of extra wheels onto it.

Naturally, you'll be able to unleash your creative juices in a sandbox mode, but there's also a story-driven campaign where you'll need to help a failing business and work with and against a cast of theme park-obsessed NPCs. The announcement trailer introduces Phil, an enthusiastic and creative park owner, and Izzy, his more grounded COO. Together, they represent the creative and business sides of running a theme park empire.

To ensure your parks are successful, you'll be able to dig into a giant pile of data that will help you balance your budget and find out what guests really want. The sim promises "extensive monitoring tools" that will inform you about trends and help you figure out how to design shops and rides to attract people looking to spend big.

I love me some theme park shenanigans, but it's really the impossification system—despite the terrible name—that's piqued my interest. I'm already imagining the weird inventions I'll be plonking down in my park.

Keep an eye out for our preview of Park Beyond tomorrow.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.