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.
Dark Forest Concepts
When Dark Forest
was being proposed many types of coaster were considered for the
area before settling on Thirteen, 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 the graveyard section of Thirteen.
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 in action!
Rock Blasting and
Robots
Many other themes were included in
the public surveys the park did before deciding on Dark Forest
including Rock Blasting as seen in the first concept board here
and Robots as seen in the second concept board.
Roboarms
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, one of the other proposed themes.
Dark Forest in X Sector?
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 Blackhole 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 Blackhole tent
