Hayo Zookeepers!
Welcome to December's Catch Up! This forum post will be us taking a look at the past month together, and we'll update you on anything you may have missed!
First things first: Happy Holidays all! We hope you had a wonderful Holiday period, and we wish you a Happy New Year!
However, you likely know the first thing we're going to talk about: Planet Zoo: Arctic Pack. The Arctic Pack launched alongside free Update 1.1.0, which included the Slow Animal Aging, new Heat Maps, the Aurora Borealis, animal pack behaviour, and more! The Arctic Pack introduced four new animals: the Arctic Wolf, the Dall Sheep, the Reindeer and the Polar Bear, and also included two new Scenarios and over 200 new building, scenery and foliage pieces. Here's the launch trailer:
Have you gotten your paws on the Arctic Pack? Which new animal were you most excited to meet? We think the Dall Sheep is the unsung hero; Polar Bear seems to be a community favourite!
To highlight the new, majestic animals that arrived in the Arctic Pack, between the announcement and launch of the Pack we shared animal showcases on our social channels. If you haven't seen them yet, get up close and personal with the four animals that have just arrived in Planet Zoo!
Reindeer shed their antlers every year so new ones can grow. Males shed their antlers at the end of the mating season and females shed their after they have given birth.
All Arctic Wolf pups are born with blue eyes, which turn orange or yellow between 4 - 8 weeks old. However, very occasionally, a Wolf may retain their blue eyes to adulthood.
The age of a Dall Sheep can be estimated based on the growth rings on their horns.
Polar Bears are insulated by 10 centimetres (around 4 inches) of fat tissue under their skin to keep them warm; they will overheat in temperatures over 10°C.
We also spoke to Senior Artist Chris Martin and Artist Jack Griffin in an Arctic Pack Developer Journal, where they explained how they found inspiration for the new building and scenery pieces. Here's quote from Jack: 'The building pieces were inspired by Nordic architecture, which has really given us the freedom to create unique, authentic feeling building pieces. We looked at wooden Norwegian houses and Scandinavian maritime heritage. We've tried to introduce this sea faring history in a subtle way through the kinds of shapes we used to design the scenery. You'll see throughout the pieces a lot of curved shapes, especially a curved triangle shape which we've incorporated to give the feeling of a ship. We've also looked at the types of materials used by these cultures, such as weathered wood which is a common material used in this set. We've brought in carved wood patterns often seen on and inside Scandinavian buildings to bring added interest to certain areas.' Read the full journal here.
However, we don't just want to highlight the Arctic Pack in this monthly catch-up! To celebrate all of the Planet Zoo achievements this year, we decided it was high-time we had a Planet Party! On Wednesday, 18 December, Community Manager Chanté had Senior Artist Liesa, San Diego Zoo's Spokesperson and Ambassador Rick Schwartz, Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster all together for one evening of fun with our PlanZo/Co Fam! If you didn't manage to catch it live, you can watch it here:
On 4 December, we raised awareness for World Wildlife Conservation Day. A day that is really important to the message of Planet Zoo; wildlife conservation is imperative to the global welfare of the animal kingdom. We think it's important to highlight all the good that conservation does for the planet, especially when it comes to species of animals that are on the brink of extinction. Do you have an animal cause that is close to your heart?
Planet Zoo is full of scenery and building pieces that have been inspired by real life architecture and history. Our Artists mix creativity, culture and animal native to countries all of the world, and display them in a way that honours their heritage and fits an in-game theme. Here's a concept art image that works to combine an aesthetic with images of animals we have in Planet Zoo! Finding a way to depict an animal in a way that seems native to its home countries while allowing our Artists to be creative is always an interesting challenge for them. Creating assets in-game is a good way to delve into how different cultures and places think about animals, what their importance to their cultures is and what that means in how they're represented. Our Artists spend time working on how to honour an animal that is true to their spirit and culture, but also how to showcase these animals in different themes, such as New World which is a modern theme.
Since we launched Planet Zoo on 5 November, our community have been up to all sorts in-game! Using 30 days of player data, check out this infographic that's full of community statistics:
Also this month, we picked a winner of our Think Inside the Box competition! Congratulations to Copper Pixel, who made this incredible Snake House blueprint! You can download this from the Steam Workshop:
That's not the only competition this month! We're currently running our Winter Sanctuary, where we ask you to build a habitat in the Tundra biome! Send it to us at community@frontier.co.uk by Friday 10 January, 2020 to take part.
To finish off this Monthly Catch-Up, we're going to re-share all the Zoopedia facts we posted on social this month! Here they are:
Welcome to December's Catch Up! This forum post will be us taking a look at the past month together, and we'll update you on anything you may have missed!
First things first: Happy Holidays all! We hope you had a wonderful Holiday period, and we wish you a Happy New Year!
However, you likely know the first thing we're going to talk about: Planet Zoo: Arctic Pack. The Arctic Pack launched alongside free Update 1.1.0, which included the Slow Animal Aging, new Heat Maps, the Aurora Borealis, animal pack behaviour, and more! The Arctic Pack introduced four new animals: the Arctic Wolf, the Dall Sheep, the Reindeer and the Polar Bear, and also included two new Scenarios and over 200 new building, scenery and foliage pieces. Here's the launch trailer:
Have you gotten your paws on the Arctic Pack? Which new animal were you most excited to meet? We think the Dall Sheep is the unsung hero; Polar Bear seems to be a community favourite!
To highlight the new, majestic animals that arrived in the Arctic Pack, between the announcement and launch of the Pack we shared animal showcases on our social channels. If you haven't seen them yet, get up close and personal with the four animals that have just arrived in Planet Zoo!
Reindeer shed their antlers every year so new ones can grow. Males shed their antlers at the end of the mating season and females shed their after they have given birth.
All Arctic Wolf pups are born with blue eyes, which turn orange or yellow between 4 - 8 weeks old. However, very occasionally, a Wolf may retain their blue eyes to adulthood.
The age of a Dall Sheep can be estimated based on the growth rings on their horns.
Polar Bears are insulated by 10 centimetres (around 4 inches) of fat tissue under their skin to keep them warm; they will overheat in temperatures over 10°C.
We also spoke to Senior Artist Chris Martin and Artist Jack Griffin in an Arctic Pack Developer Journal, where they explained how they found inspiration for the new building and scenery pieces. Here's quote from Jack: 'The building pieces were inspired by Nordic architecture, which has really given us the freedom to create unique, authentic feeling building pieces. We looked at wooden Norwegian houses and Scandinavian maritime heritage. We've tried to introduce this sea faring history in a subtle way through the kinds of shapes we used to design the scenery. You'll see throughout the pieces a lot of curved shapes, especially a curved triangle shape which we've incorporated to give the feeling of a ship. We've also looked at the types of materials used by these cultures, such as weathered wood which is a common material used in this set. We've brought in carved wood patterns often seen on and inside Scandinavian buildings to bring added interest to certain areas.' Read the full journal here.
However, we don't just want to highlight the Arctic Pack in this monthly catch-up! To celebrate all of the Planet Zoo achievements this year, we decided it was high-time we had a Planet Party! On Wednesday, 18 December, Community Manager Chanté had Senior Artist Liesa, San Diego Zoo's Spokesperson and Ambassador Rick Schwartz, Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster all together for one evening of fun with our PlanZo/Co Fam! If you didn't manage to catch it live, you can watch it here:
On 4 December, we raised awareness for World Wildlife Conservation Day. A day that is really important to the message of Planet Zoo; wildlife conservation is imperative to the global welfare of the animal kingdom. We think it's important to highlight all the good that conservation does for the planet, especially when it comes to species of animals that are on the brink of extinction. Do you have an animal cause that is close to your heart?
Planet Zoo is full of scenery and building pieces that have been inspired by real life architecture and history. Our Artists mix creativity, culture and animal native to countries all of the world, and display them in a way that honours their heritage and fits an in-game theme. Here's a concept art image that works to combine an aesthetic with images of animals we have in Planet Zoo! Finding a way to depict an animal in a way that seems native to its home countries while allowing our Artists to be creative is always an interesting challenge for them. Creating assets in-game is a good way to delve into how different cultures and places think about animals, what their importance to their cultures is and what that means in how they're represented. Our Artists spend time working on how to honour an animal that is true to their spirit and culture, but also how to showcase these animals in different themes, such as New World which is a modern theme.
Since we launched Planet Zoo on 5 November, our community have been up to all sorts in-game! Using 30 days of player data, check out this infographic that's full of community statistics:
Also this month, we picked a winner of our Think Inside the Box competition! Congratulations to Copper Pixel, who made this incredible Snake House blueprint! You can download this from the Steam Workshop:
That's not the only competition this month! We're currently running our Winter Sanctuary, where we ask you to build a habitat in the Tundra biome! Send it to us at community@frontier.co.uk by Friday 10 January, 2020 to take part.
To finish off this Monthly Catch-Up, we're going to re-share all the Zoopedia facts we posted on social this month! Here they are:
- Japanese Macaques have been seen washing sand and dirt off sweet potatoes prior to eating them.
- The North American Reindeer (Caribou) migrates up to 500k kilometres, the furthest of any land mammal.
- Polar Bears have small bumps called papillae on the pads of their feet to stop them from slipping on ice.
- During the winter months, Dall Sheep feed on frozen sedges in the snow and lichen from rocks.
