To add on
@roomraider and
@Nel Iglesias' on point comments,
On a more general scale, I am convinced these additions are the result of
a younger, passionate generation moving up the ranks in
both park management and manufacturers hierarchy. After years of stagnation with little investment (for example Walibi Holland's attendance dropped from 2M in the Six Flags days to about 800 000 prior to Lost Gravity),
upper management at Compagnie des Alpes started to listen to young hotshots with fresh ideas.
One example is Julien S. (he wants to retain anonymity) who has worked as a consultant for Compagnie des Alpes for many years now from my understanding. He's very much an enthusiast, and is one of the founders of
Trips n' Pics, where he and other of his group regularly post TRs in French of their credding around the world - including Asia <3 Founded in 2004, it's basically the loose French equivalent of Richard Bannister's long-running website.
There is also Julien Bertévas who was heavily involved with the scenery of OzIris for the CDA, and still provides them concept arts as a freelance artist. I recommend checking out his
website which displays a lot of cool sketches illustrating his portfolio.
Roomraider and I already mentioned Camiel Bilsen of Intamin (which I interviewed in a
video at this year's EAS) who is also very much an enthusiast, and as such, was instrumental in pushing for bolder and more ambitious designs to compete with RMC, new Vekoma and so on - his answer in said video interview at 4:58 pretty much tells that.
Other manufacturers did the same and started hiring talented youngsters with a passion for the industry and
often years of experience toying with NoLimits 2 and regularly checking/posting on forums such as this one. Alex Tanner was a noted presence on the NL2 scene designing many outstanding rides such as the
Strathmore coaster (often in contention for the title of best NL2 creation) worked as an engineering intern at Premier Rides - and might become a permanent there. AltLenny who was also big on the NL2 forums and created the FVD++ software was hired by Mack...
With fierce and fiercer competition, companies are striving for ideas, and thus are looking to hire such promising enthusiasts to step up their game.
This is probably why the simple "OMG Intamin just straight copied RMC" comment occasionally found on Youtube (ugh.) bothers me a lot. There's a lot more behind the scenes, and many, many youthful and enlightened pros pushing for change, both at manufacturer and park operator levels. In other words,
there is a demand and supply for more audacity.
What a fab time to be an enthusiast, really!
