Hello all. Im currently in the works of an app. It would be a set of tools for theme parks around the USA (and possible Canada, etc) to get directions, food, hotels, and even store all of your passes inside the app. Would anyone use this? And does anyone have ideas for features?

What's it gonna cost?

That's a MAJOR factor.

Cost for me to make, or cost for people to buy? I plan on making it free with ads and then a 99 cent version to remove them

As long as the ads arn't intrusive and pop up every time you tap something. Then I'll enjoy it and probably buy the ad free one. I hate apps that have ads every 5 seconds basically.

I wouldn't put intrusive ads in. I myself hate them as well. They'd be small ads at the bottom of the home screen and possible other places but no pop up ads or anything. Would you be interested in submitting ride times through the app as well?

Yeah. It would be an app I'd use and buy as long as the ads are not annoying. Ironic that I would buy an app for ads that don't bother me but I'd rather support developers who are not in it for the money only

Agreed. I wouldn't put in annoying ads. So this app would be useful and would benefit people even not at the Kings Island park. Does anyone have any features they'd like to see in the app that i haven't mentioned?

Question : What would be the advantages of this app compared to the official ones offered by the parks?

A must have feature for me would have to be the ability to store my pass inside the app (which you mentioned), and have a way to load it up quickly. 

 

I know for the iOS version of the KI app, I can save my pass to my Wallet and load it up as a QR code. (was this functionality in the app last year? If it was, I completely missed it.) Taking that a step further, since my Wallet replicates from my iPhone to my Apple Watch, I can pull up my scannable pass with a few taps to the wrist. I was extremely happy when I figured out I could set this up. It makes every moment in the park I'm NOT riding coasters so much easier. Not to mention one less card to potentially lose.

Question : What would be the advantages of this app compared to the official ones offered by the parks?

The advantage to this one, other than the ones offered by parks, would be that you would only need this one to use to store all passes, get wait times for all parks, and even directions, etc. It wouldn't require several apps for many parks. And yes, the pass would be able to be stored in the app for several different parks. Potential other features would be tracking the amount of times you ride a certain coaster, see how much time you spend in the park, and then the app would gather info on the best time to go to the parks based on user submitted wait times.

I personally love the idea of having it store your passes. I'm surprised parks haven't come out with electronic passes themselves.

 

Potential other features would be tracking the amount of times you ride a certain coaster, see how much time you spend in the park, and then the app would gather info on the best time to go to the parks based on user submitted wait times.

 

I see a huge potential here for coaster enthusiasts in particular. Using things like geofencing, data aggregation, phone accelerometer, and similar methods, you could build a set of "coaster tools" for things as simple as tracking how many times you have ridden coaster x, how many total minutes/hours you have spent on coaster x, etc. You could link the app to social media to tweet or share when you have taken your 100th ride, 200th ride..all customizeable of course. Link out to weather sites to check if those dark clouds overhead really do mean a thunderstorm warning is about to be issued and rides are about to go down. Just a few ideas here. If you're planning somewhat of an "all-inclusive" app as you state, then the sky's the limit tbh. I'd use the heck out of it.

I think this app is a great idea. Seems to have the features that everyone is looking for. It would be worth the money to get it ad free. Plus, I'm sure you'll think of some cool features to add in the future making it even better. Good luck. Also, beginning this summer and moving forward, my son and I plan on making trips to visit new parks annually, so I would definitely get the app and buy it to be ad free.

What Haru-Kun said. I love the idea of having coaster number-tracking built in. If not automatic, just having an easy way to mark rides as you take them would be excellent. I know I could set up my own database in an app, but one that keeps a listing of the rides in whatever park you're in, and has a dedicated system of databasing your own stats, would be lovely.

Well based on all of the positive feedback it seems like a lot of people would want the app. Ill get working on it tonight and let you know what I come up with. I'll make sure to have it done before the end of May (When the theme parks are all open throughout the week). If anyone else has any other suggestions let me know!

I've got a question, what will you be using to create this app?

I've got a question, what will you be using to create this app?

I currently code my apps using an HTML5 codebase (for cross-platform implementation). But its strictly code. I would use Android studio and xCode but to do two separate apps for me as one person would be a great deal of work.

How would you get the wait times via users? How often would these be available to update? 

A potential problem I see is that someone may update the wait time for Diamondback at 45-60 minutes and someone may report it after that as 0 minutes. If someone were to go there and see that's not the case, I could see some folks getting mad. 

Good luck with doing this.

Two ways to get around this: one, have verified users who are allowed to submit wait times, or two, write code that will reason out the times. If every ride has a long wait time but someone submits a 0min time, then it'll desigard it. But the verified users is easier.

How do you verify users? 

Unfortunately anyone can state they're good for the info, but they can turn around and bite you in the butt.

I never find ride wait times to be fairly accurate because no matter where you are in line there are so many factors that can make your wait time shorter or longer. Having worked in rides, I can tell you most of the ride wait times we posted or told people were based off of guesses. 

It could be people who use the app for a certain amount of time. It wouldn't be exact wait times per ride, but an average wait time. So it would say "average wait for all rides: 30min" so someone can tell if the park is busy or not. Another way would be to see how many people check into the park that day and then tell whether or not it's busy.

Gotcha. 

How do you plan on getting this app out there to park goers? 

(FYI, I'm supporting you, just asking questions)  

Evy0311, have you though about iOS support? I can help!! I was gonna just develop an app so you can see wait times outside the park but I'd love to help with development.

It's A Small World, After All!

I plan on getting the app out through social media, forums, etc. Also, I have thought about iOS, however I was planning on doing it cross-platform. One HTML5 app made to work on both iOS and Android.

Update: So I have the basic UI for the app done. Need to add in all of the features now/(store passes, etc). It'll be done before summer season.

Update: So I have the basic UI for the app done. Need to add in all of the features now/(store passes, etc). It'll be done before summer season.