In 2008 the park conducted a series of customer surveys regarding new themes and attractions they were considering bringing to the park for 2010. One of the themes which featured heavily was that of Dark Forest, which caught people’s imaginations and, as they say, the rest was history.
When Dark Forest was being proposed, many types of coaster were considered for the area before settling on TH13TEEN, including another inverted coaster and a tilt coaster. One feature seen here that did make it into the final design is the switch track in the first image, which features in TH13TEEN’s graveyard section near the end of the ride. Also below is a modified version of one of Oblivion’s advertising pictures, used to mock up what a Vertical Launch Coaster might look like in Dark Forest, along with concept board showing a Vertical Launch Coaster (Wicked at Lagoon Amusement Park, Utah) in action!
Many other themes were included in the public surveys the park did before deciding on Dark Forest. These included Rock Blasting, as seen in the first concept board here, and Robots, as seen in the second concept board. One of the most enduring ideas proposed as part of the Dark Forest scheme was the idea of bringing Roboarms to the park. Below can be seen the Roboarms concept for the Rock Blasting and Robot themes as well as Monsters, another of the proposed themes.
When the park was planning Dark Forest, more then one location was considered for the new area. X Sector was also a prime candidate to have a makeover. Here we can see a rather interesting Roboarm scheme proposed for the Black Hole tent. ‘Duelling Deadstars’ was another suggestion of a potential new flat ride for the area in the Robots theme. Reading the description of the ride, this also seems to be a concept considered to go in the Black Hole tent.
