Goldport Mesa Express
Making of
Disney
Most people confuse the Goldport Mesa Express with the Big Thunder Mountain. Fun Fact: there actually are some differences between them. We’ll tell you all about the differences, details and processes which make this ride as it is!
Sketch & Build
The most striking thing about the ride is the similarity with Big Thunder Mountain. Both rides have a Canyon looking scenery with a mining corporation. Big Thunder Mountain also has 3 lifthills with the same effects and a splash. There are many more similarities, but because we wanted to add custom details to the ride, we chose not to call it Big Thunder Mountain to not confuse people of the added effects to experience the original storyline. The old Goldport Mesa Express, the first version, didn’t have these looks. It was more inspired by Disney’s Expedition Everest. The mountain was more brown and because of many issues like a track which had 90° curves instead of smooth ones.
For version 2, the current version, we began with the track layout and after that the caves and mountain itself. We use a known method in which we build with wool blocks, which we later replace with the actual blocks. This made it very easy to create the Canyon looking layers in the rocks. In the last phase we added the station and the Goldport Mining Corporation. Even these buildings contain some small details.
Models & Textures
The overall look is inspired by Disney’s Big Thunder Mountain, the back of the trains are inspired by Expedition Everest. Instead of having the locomotive in the front, this train has the engine in its back. The color of the trains is inspired by Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, which have a green wood-like texture. The old version of Goldport Mesa Express had the same shape, but because its style was outdated we decided to replace the model with the same shape, but with our current “small amount of cubes” style.
Inside the ride there are some more models which aren’t used outside the caves. Can you spot them?
Development
The amount of development work in this ride isn’t that much compared to Vogelrok or Phantom Manor, but there are some effects in the ride we wanted to be perfect which took some time either way. One of these effects is the particle trail. We could have used a method using a path, but we specifically wanted to have the particles stick to the blocks to make it feel more natural in Minecraft.
Last updated: 08 August 2023 11:11:47
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