Eltanin Casciani
Community Manager
Hayo Zookeepers!
We're thrilled to be bringing you the next DLC in the Planet Zoo franchise, the Africa Pack! Since this pack comes with a whopping 181 scenery pieces, we thought we'd get you excited by digging down deep with two of the development team and sharing some insight into their creative process. There's a lot of hard work and love that goes into each and every piece, from research to polish, and what better way to learn about it than from the creators themselves?
So, without further ado, please welcome Berni Pardue, the Sub-Lead, and Marc Cox, the Art Director!
First off, can you introduce your role on the Team, and tell us how you contributed to the Africa Pack?
Berni:
Hello, I am Sub-Lead on the Planet Zoo team! I help the art team make the best assets they possibly can!
Primarily this is by directing the art team on their day-to-day things with creating assets for Planet Zoo, assisting with problem-solving issues they come across, and helping organise the bigger picture so that everyone can concentrate on creating. I was able to make a handful of assets for this pack too, such as the giant Meerkat Sculpture which I was pretty excited about!!
Marc:
I am the Art Director and my role is to work with all aspects of art and animation, feeding inspiration for the visual themes and supporting the goal of maintaining the Planet Zoo style.
What research do you do when determining the scenery that will be added to a pack/ what is the research process?
Marc:
In most cases, the roster of animals denotes a location on the planet where we can draw inspiration from indigenous human cultures and architecture. We delve deeply into the history of human settlements in those regions, selecting familiar and often surprising elements of design that complement and extend the base game scenery assets. We take great care in representing native art and styles with suitable checks and sensitivity to cultural appropriation through Frontierās own dedicated department.
For the Australia DLC we engaged with Queensland based artist and cultural ambassador John Smith Gumbala, who guided us on representing indigenous art respectfully. His own talents can be seen included in the pack and his original designs have lent an authentic beauty to the theme that captures the raw energy of the land and its people.
While we rely heavily on web searches for regional landscape and architecture ideas, the research path essentially involves hours trawling through any appropriate materials including nature documentaries, books, and conducting round table discussions where the teams own knowledge can play a big part. Another strong vein of inspiration comes directly from contributions on the forums which we do follow with great interest. Our community of players and creators have such a wealth of brilliant ideas which give us new thoughts and are quite often, encouragingly, in line with our own.
Once we have cleared any concerns over cultural sensitivity we begin a process of selecting the key features that will give a strong identity to the theme. From an architectural point of view, that visual identity could come from the use of specific building materials (such as plaster), adopting a set of traditional archway shapes, venting indentations, and wall top features as seen in the latest Africa DLC. Combined with a set of traditional plaster wall decorations, we have assembled a wealth of new options for the player to experiment with that donāt require extensive knowledge of the region but still make it easy to create authentic-looking scenery in their games.
Was there anything surprising or interesting that came out of your research for the Africa Pack?
Marc:
One fascinating aspect of Egyptian architecture is the development of the column as a structural mainstay. We tend to think of the Greeks and Romans as the purveyors of classical architectural orders, but in fact, the inhabitants of North Africa were way ahead of them.
Berni:
If I had to pinpoint anything, it would have to be the wide breadth of variety in architecture across the continent! There was so much and such variation that we had to narrow it, so we concentrated on a couple of key architectural styles over the pack - for example, the Moroccan inspired assets that use the mosaic tiles. The use of colour was really important in this pack, so we used flexi colour a lot in all the assets, and we even have our first flexi colour stained glass asset too!
How do you decide what to focus on within a set theme for a pack? For instance, Africa is such a huge area! How did you narrow it down?
Marc:
At the core of any asset list is the importance of providing the player with as many options as possible. Ideally, each asset should be visually appealing and versatile in its use. With the exception of unique items, like statues, there are usually many ways that you can use an object to enhance the design you have in mind.
North Africa contains a wealth of diverse architectural influences, from the ancient Nile delta to the Arabesque Moroccan coast. Even within that, you can find similar patterns and use of things like decorated archways and vented walls. We picked out some key ceramic designs for the more ornate buildings and drew on the influences of Hausa plasterwork to reflect the more organic tribal dwellings.
What's the most important thing to consider when selecting what to create?
Marc:
Functionality is still one of the guiding principles for deciding what to build, whether you are providing for a guest eating area or a habitat dwelling for large mammals. The idea of appropriate space and proportion is the base canvas for any design considerations, but it has to look great too, of course.
Berni:
We consider a lot of factors when selecting assets, besides what looks good and would function well within a Zoo. We always try to provide players with a variety of fun and functional assets in each pack.
Of course, we also have to consider a lot of "behind the scenes" aspects, such as how long each asset will take to create, and what support we'll need from other teams to make it. This might happen if the asset has to be rigged, or how many animations the animation team might need to create if an animal were to interact with an enrichment item, or if we need to have VFX artists add special effects to an asset, such as water or sparks.
Sometimes as many as 4~ people can be required to finish a single asset off, but itās so worth it once we see the assets working in-game!
Can you talk us through your process for creating scenery?
Berni:
Once we create an asset list of things we would like to create, our concept artists are tasked with coming up with the ideas and look of the asset.
From there, we take the 2D concepts and recreate them in 3D. We start with basic grey block-outs, where we check the assets scale and add in any functionality the asset may need. For example, the enrichment items have complex setups to ensure the physics and/or rigs work with the animals we intend to use them for!
Once the asset has gone through rigorous checks and been approved by one of us, the artists will go through adding textures; whether thatās creating high-poly models from sculpts, or working with our materials artists to make some tillable Substance magic.
After everyone is happy with how the final asset looks, we will add LODās (Levels of Detail) to help with the game optimisation.
A lot of love and time goes into each individual asset, no matter how big or small!
What's your favourite piece of scenery from the Africa Pack?
Berni:
My favourite asset in this pack is all of the column assets we have added. There is a lot of diversity, and I know that players are going to love using them to create some grand palace courtyards or to line a sunset lit plaza. We have tried to utilise the flexi-colour system throughout the pack as much as possible to really highlight the array of colour in the architecture from this part of the world ā and this column set really showcases this!
Marc:
For me, my favourite piece of scenery in the Africa Pack is the Fever Tree. It has such a unique but distinct bark colour, and its huge, elegant canopy really makes it a beautiful feature of any African vista.
What's your favourite animal from the Africa Pack?
Berni:
It has to be the Meerkat, I love them so much! We have added some of their really typical and amazing behaviours to the game. I love watching the Meerkats digging down into holes and popping up somewhere else in the habitat! Itās so adorable!
Marc:
The Dung Beetle (Sacred Scarab) is by far my favourite, and not just because it has some cute animations. Itās a keystone species for the life cycle of its natural habitat and the importance of these small creatures in nature cannot be overstated.
Do you have anything more you'd like to share with the community?
Berni:
I really love the diversity of assets we have added this time around. We have captured many of the different forms of architecture you can find around this culture-rich part of the world. I canāt wait for players to use them in their zoos!
Marc:
This has probably been the cutest pack I have ever worked on and I am really looking forward to seeing what the talented community come up with when using the new scenery set.
And that's all folks! We hope you enjoyed this insight, and as always, thank you for your enthusiasm and continued support. What are you going to build first with the Africa Pack scenery?
We're thrilled to be bringing you the next DLC in the Planet Zoo franchise, the Africa Pack! Since this pack comes with a whopping 181 scenery pieces, we thought we'd get you excited by digging down deep with two of the development team and sharing some insight into their creative process. There's a lot of hard work and love that goes into each and every piece, from research to polish, and what better way to learn about it than from the creators themselves?
So, without further ado, please welcome Berni Pardue, the Sub-Lead, and Marc Cox, the Art Director!
First off, can you introduce your role on the Team, and tell us how you contributed to the Africa Pack?
Berni:
Hello, I am Sub-Lead on the Planet Zoo team! I help the art team make the best assets they possibly can!
Primarily this is by directing the art team on their day-to-day things with creating assets for Planet Zoo, assisting with problem-solving issues they come across, and helping organise the bigger picture so that everyone can concentrate on creating. I was able to make a handful of assets for this pack too, such as the giant Meerkat Sculpture which I was pretty excited about!!
Marc:
I am the Art Director and my role is to work with all aspects of art and animation, feeding inspiration for the visual themes and supporting the goal of maintaining the Planet Zoo style.
What research do you do when determining the scenery that will be added to a pack/ what is the research process?
Marc:
In most cases, the roster of animals denotes a location on the planet where we can draw inspiration from indigenous human cultures and architecture. We delve deeply into the history of human settlements in those regions, selecting familiar and often surprising elements of design that complement and extend the base game scenery assets. We take great care in representing native art and styles with suitable checks and sensitivity to cultural appropriation through Frontierās own dedicated department.
For the Australia DLC we engaged with Queensland based artist and cultural ambassador John Smith Gumbala, who guided us on representing indigenous art respectfully. His own talents can be seen included in the pack and his original designs have lent an authentic beauty to the theme that captures the raw energy of the land and its people.
While we rely heavily on web searches for regional landscape and architecture ideas, the research path essentially involves hours trawling through any appropriate materials including nature documentaries, books, and conducting round table discussions where the teams own knowledge can play a big part. Another strong vein of inspiration comes directly from contributions on the forums which we do follow with great interest. Our community of players and creators have such a wealth of brilliant ideas which give us new thoughts and are quite often, encouragingly, in line with our own.
Once we have cleared any concerns over cultural sensitivity we begin a process of selecting the key features that will give a strong identity to the theme. From an architectural point of view, that visual identity could come from the use of specific building materials (such as plaster), adopting a set of traditional archway shapes, venting indentations, and wall top features as seen in the latest Africa DLC. Combined with a set of traditional plaster wall decorations, we have assembled a wealth of new options for the player to experiment with that donāt require extensive knowledge of the region but still make it easy to create authentic-looking scenery in their games.
Was there anything surprising or interesting that came out of your research for the Africa Pack?
Marc:
One fascinating aspect of Egyptian architecture is the development of the column as a structural mainstay. We tend to think of the Greeks and Romans as the purveyors of classical architectural orders, but in fact, the inhabitants of North Africa were way ahead of them.
Berni:
If I had to pinpoint anything, it would have to be the wide breadth of variety in architecture across the continent! There was so much and such variation that we had to narrow it, so we concentrated on a couple of key architectural styles over the pack - for example, the Moroccan inspired assets that use the mosaic tiles. The use of colour was really important in this pack, so we used flexi colour a lot in all the assets, and we even have our first flexi colour stained glass asset too!
How do you decide what to focus on within a set theme for a pack? For instance, Africa is such a huge area! How did you narrow it down?
Marc:
At the core of any asset list is the importance of providing the player with as many options as possible. Ideally, each asset should be visually appealing and versatile in its use. With the exception of unique items, like statues, there are usually many ways that you can use an object to enhance the design you have in mind.
North Africa contains a wealth of diverse architectural influences, from the ancient Nile delta to the Arabesque Moroccan coast. Even within that, you can find similar patterns and use of things like decorated archways and vented walls. We picked out some key ceramic designs for the more ornate buildings and drew on the influences of Hausa plasterwork to reflect the more organic tribal dwellings.
What's the most important thing to consider when selecting what to create?
Marc:
Functionality is still one of the guiding principles for deciding what to build, whether you are providing for a guest eating area or a habitat dwelling for large mammals. The idea of appropriate space and proportion is the base canvas for any design considerations, but it has to look great too, of course.
Berni:
We consider a lot of factors when selecting assets, besides what looks good and would function well within a Zoo. We always try to provide players with a variety of fun and functional assets in each pack.
Of course, we also have to consider a lot of "behind the scenes" aspects, such as how long each asset will take to create, and what support we'll need from other teams to make it. This might happen if the asset has to be rigged, or how many animations the animation team might need to create if an animal were to interact with an enrichment item, or if we need to have VFX artists add special effects to an asset, such as water or sparks.
Sometimes as many as 4~ people can be required to finish a single asset off, but itās so worth it once we see the assets working in-game!
Can you talk us through your process for creating scenery?
Berni:
Once we create an asset list of things we would like to create, our concept artists are tasked with coming up with the ideas and look of the asset.
From there, we take the 2D concepts and recreate them in 3D. We start with basic grey block-outs, where we check the assets scale and add in any functionality the asset may need. For example, the enrichment items have complex setups to ensure the physics and/or rigs work with the animals we intend to use them for!
Once the asset has gone through rigorous checks and been approved by one of us, the artists will go through adding textures; whether thatās creating high-poly models from sculpts, or working with our materials artists to make some tillable Substance magic.
After everyone is happy with how the final asset looks, we will add LODās (Levels of Detail) to help with the game optimisation.
A lot of love and time goes into each individual asset, no matter how big or small!
What's your favourite piece of scenery from the Africa Pack?
Berni:
My favourite asset in this pack is all of the column assets we have added. There is a lot of diversity, and I know that players are going to love using them to create some grand palace courtyards or to line a sunset lit plaza. We have tried to utilise the flexi-colour system throughout the pack as much as possible to really highlight the array of colour in the architecture from this part of the world ā and this column set really showcases this!
Marc:
For me, my favourite piece of scenery in the Africa Pack is the Fever Tree. It has such a unique but distinct bark colour, and its huge, elegant canopy really makes it a beautiful feature of any African vista.
What's your favourite animal from the Africa Pack?
Berni:
It has to be the Meerkat, I love them so much! We have added some of their really typical and amazing behaviours to the game. I love watching the Meerkats digging down into holes and popping up somewhere else in the habitat! Itās so adorable!
Marc:
The Dung Beetle (Sacred Scarab) is by far my favourite, and not just because it has some cute animations. Itās a keystone species for the life cycle of its natural habitat and the importance of these small creatures in nature cannot be overstated.
Do you have anything more you'd like to share with the community?
Berni:
I really love the diversity of assets we have added this time around. We have captured many of the different forms of architecture you can find around this culture-rich part of the world. I canāt wait for players to use them in their zoos!
Marc:
This has probably been the cutest pack I have ever worked on and I am really looking forward to seeing what the talented community come up with when using the new scenery set.
And that's all folks! We hope you enjoyed this insight, and as always, thank you for your enthusiasm and continued support. What are you going to build first with the Africa Pack scenery?
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I really do think this pack is gorgeous!
Those pillars look a-maz-ing 
