John Wardley

This poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "John Wardley" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

John Richard Wardley (born 6 June 1950) is a British developer for theme parks in the UK and Europe: an innovator of special effects, dark rides and roller coasters in the themed attraction industry.

Career

Wardley started his career as a

Continuing as a development director of the Tussauds Group, John produced roller coasters such as Nemesis, Oblivion and Air at Alton Towers. He also produced several rides at Thorpe Park after its acquisition by Tussauds in 1998.

One of his other projects at this time was producing the Mystique show at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, with leisure developer Geoffrey Thompson, which ran for nearly 20 years.^{[citation needed]}

Wardley also worked with Chris Sawyer and Frontier Developments for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, a game about amusement park management. His name is also a secret cheat code in the game – when visitor's title is named after him all height restrictions are removed, alluding to the severe height restrictions that his most well-known work at Alton Towers was required to comply with.^{[citation needed]}

Having completed Air in 2002, Wardley left Tussauds due to its acquisition by Charterhouse. However,

On 22 January 2013, Wardley announced his retirement.^[1] In April 2013, he published an autobiography entitled Creating My Own Nemesis.

Despite retirement, he consulted on the design for Flug Der Dämonen at Heide Park in 2014 and the Wicker Man at Alton Towers in 2017, among others. As of 2023, he remains a consultant exclusively for Alton Towers Resort.

Video games

• RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 – consultation
• NoLimits Coaster 2 – technical adviser

Publishing history

• Creating My Own Nemesis – print edition (April 2013) – author
• Creating My Own Nemesis – audiobook (December 2017) – author & narrator
• Creating My Own Nemesis – kindle edition (December 2017) – author & narrator
• Life After Nemesis – print edition (April 2024) – author

Attraction projects

Further reading

• Interview with John Wardley ahead of his retirement
• Interview with John Wardley in Park World magazine

References

This poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "John Wardley" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

External links

• Official website
• John Wardley at
  IMDb