Animals and Features (Updated 6.12.2019) VERY BUSY THIS WEEK BUT I AM GOING TO UPDATE THIS POST NEXT WEEK BUT IN THE MEANTIME ALL NEW INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND IN MY THIS WEEK IN PLANET ZOO NEWSLETTER. LINKS RIGHT BELOW.
I will add to this post as I get more information. Please let me know about mistakes and new information. In the upcoming week my plans are to better organize the information. I also would like to thank all that have helped me with information and corrections.
Links to zoo master plans for more zoo design ideas
Chart of Animals From the Zoo Tycoon games and Known Planet Zoo animals
List of Zoos in the United States for inspiration as you wait for release of Planet Zoo
Links to YouTube videos featuring Planet Zoo
This Week in Planet Zoo: Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, E3 Issue
Cambridge, UK – 24 April 2019. Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV) is proud to announce Planet Zoo. From the makers of Planet Coaster (2016) and Jurassic World Evolution (2018) comes the ultimate zoo simulation, featuring authentic living animals, rich management, and limitless creativity. Build and manage a truly modern zoo where animal welfare and conservation comes first. Simulation runs wild in Planet Zoo, exclusively for PC in Autumn 2019.
Planet Zoo presents the most authentic animals in videogame history. From playful lion cubs to mighty elephants, every animal in Planet Zoo is an individual who thinks, feels and explores the world you build around them. They care about their surroundings and each other, with complex environmental and social needs. Nurture your animals throughout their lives, study and manage every species to see them thrive, and help them raise young to pass their genes onto future generations.
Manage your own zoo in an expressive world that reacts to every choice you make. Focus on the big picture or go hands-on and look after the smallest details. Thrill visitors with prestigious animals and famous exhibits, develop your zoo and research new technologies, and release animals back into the wild to repopulate the planet.
Unleash your creativity with the next evolution of Planet Coaster’s best-in-class creation mechanics. Craft stunning scenery and habitats, dig lakes and rivers, raise hills and mountains, and carve tunnels and caves as you build your own zoo. See your animals and visitors respond to your creative vision, and share your designs with friends in Planet Zoo’s online community. Bring the world’s greatest designs home to your own zoo for your animals and visitors to enjoy.
‘This is the zoo management game we’ve wanted to make for many years,’ said Jonny Watts, Chief Creative Officer of Frontier. ‘We’ve challenged ourselves to build on the games we’ve made before and to carry the great legacy of classics like the Zoo Tycoon series forward. We’re taking everything we’ve learned from our past work and focusing on modern values – incredible authenticity, rich management, limitless creativity and community sharing – to make our best-ever simulation game. We hope you’ll join us when Planet Zoo launches later this year.’
Simulation Runs Wild
Meet a world of incredible animals. From playful lion cubs to mighty elephants, every animal in Planet Zoo is a thinking, feeling individual with a distinctive look and personality of their own. Craft detailed habitats to bring your animals’ natural environments home, research and manage each species to allow them to thrive, and help your animals raise families to pass their genes onto future generations.
Meaningful Management
Manage an amazing living world that responds to every decision you make. Focus on the big picture or go hands-on and control the smallest details. Thrill visitors with iconic exhibits, develop your zoo with new research, and release new generations of your animals back into the wild. Your choices come alive in a world where animal welfare and conservation comes first.
Limitless Creativity
Planet Zoo’s powerful piece-by-piece construction tools let you effortlessly make your zoo unique. Every creative decision you make impacts the lives of your animals and the experience of your visitors. Let your imagination run wild as you dig lakes and rivers, raise hills and mountains, carve paths and caves, and build stunning zoos with a choice of unique themes and hundreds of building components.
Share and Inspire
Join a connected community and share the world’s most creative habitats, scenery and even whole zoos on the Steam Workshop. See your own designs appear in zoos around the world, or discover fresh new content from the Planet Zoo community every day.
Also check out the Planet Zoo Announcement Trailer.
The game is set to release with over 50 animals covering a diverse range of mammals, reptiles, insects and more. But according to tweakers, “Although Frontier does not mention exact numbers yet, it is clear that the game will receive a list of animals. In addition, each animal also has a male, female and young version, which means that each species actually comes back in three ways…are not all identical”
November 5, 2019
Editions
Planet Zoo is available to pre-order now for $44.99 (€44.99, £34.99)
Planet Zoo: Deluxe Edition is available for $54.99 (€54.99, £42.99). Both are available on the Steam online store.
The Deluxe Edition includes Planet Zoo game, plus bonus content:
System Requirement
According to the planet coaster news email: "In the run up to release, we will be sending out a weekly newsletter containing the latest animal reveals, taking a look behind the scenes of development, competitions and much more. The weekly updates will start around the beginning of June, so make sure to sign up to stay in the loop!"
You can sign up for the newsletter at the official Planet Zoo website.
E3
Bo Marit (Lead Community Manager) posted:
Hi everyone,
We hope you've been enjoying some of the Planet Zoo glimpses we've been giving you - from beautiful lion screenshots to Zoopedia facts to our first Developer Journal; we're so thankful you're on this journey with us!
We are also just as excited as you are, and cannot wait to show you even more of what the amazing Frontier team have been working on. That's why we'd like to invite you to join us for Planet Zoo's official gameplay reveal during the PC Gaming Show at E3, on Monday 10 June at 5PM UTC. This year is looking like an amazing line-up of games and developers, and we're thrilled to be a part of it. You can tune in at www.twitch.tv/pcgamer - if you're watching please send our team some support in the chat!
We don't have a public booth at E3 this year, but we will be at the show for the full week. If you're a content creator attending E3 and you're interested in playing the game when it launches on Steam this Fall, please let us know by sending an email to community@frontier.co.uk so we can book an appointment for you. For those who will not be attending the convention, don't worry! Aside from the PC Gaming Show we'll be keeping you in the loop via our social media channels, so be sure to give them a follow and get all of the news from us directly.
Transcript of E3 announcement from Frontier Xtra Episode 4
Bo said:
"We are going to be at E3. We are not going to be at the show floor last year with Jurassic because we launched Jurassic last year at E3. It was a bit different. We will be there. We will have a presence. And in terms of what you can expect, back home, Is Planet Zoo at the PC gaming show. So, PC gaming show is on Monday the 10th of June and it’s a live stream you can tune in on twich.tv/PCgamer. It will be at 5 pm UTC. And we will be revealing the first ever game play trailer for Planet Zoo. You will get to see because of course the announcement trailer was a little bit different, so this is the first sort of look at the actual game. How the animals move, how they look, what your zoo can look like. It’s going to be great. Please tune. 5pm UTC Is the time the live stream starts for PC gaming show, we are part of the show, they are showing a lot of different games. We can’t say exactly when our time slot is but just tune into the show and wait until you see us pop up. We will be on the show for a little bit to see the developers talking there. And throughout E3 we will also be doing loads in terms of keeping you guys up to date on what is happening. We will be doing some behind the scenes stuff, we will be posting lot of things on social channels. Keep an eye on all of those things….Trailer will go live on YouTube channel afterwards."
News on what information we will recieve after that Planet Zoo E3 presentation on Monday.
We found out from some youtubers were invited to the Frontier Studios to see various games, one of which was Planet Zoo.
According to them, after the E3 planet zoo presentation on Monday, their NDA will be lifted and we will be receiving an "info dump" from them on Monday.
As of right now I know of three of them who were there. So keep you eyes out on their channels.
Geekism
Underwater Viewing Areas! | Planet Zoo Update #08
DeLadysinger Tortoise, Peafowl & more | Screenshots Analysis | Planet Zoo | Pictures Update | May 2019
Rudi Rennkamel We can see underwater! PLANET ZOO Update
Now while not being there you can be sure that I will put together an information packed post with all the information I can gather on Monday June 10th. And all my posts will be updated. So excited for Monday.
According to the Planet Zoo’s website they will be providing “powerful piece-by-piece construction tools” to make your zoo unique. Your construction decisions will have an impact on not only the visitors experience but also the lives of your animals. PC Gamer Magazine says: “There's a management tension in the game where you're making sure your habitats are good for the animals, but also making sure the guests can get a good look at them.”
These construction tools allow you to sculpt your terrain to create lakes, rivers, hills, mountains, paths, and caves. The game will provide you a choice of unique themes and hundreds of building components to create the zoo of your dreams. (Planet Zoo Website) "You have to build paths, place attractive features (like rocks or trees), useful features (bins, lookout points), attractions for the punters (restaurants, gift shops), even up to fun ideas like visitor trains, bridges over water features, and themed areas - like African or UK zoos." (Game Watcher) “Players can resize, sculpt and furnish each enclosure to taste, gouging out water holes, adjusting barrier heights and materials (which include one-way glass walls, for those intimate moments with beasts in their lairs) and dusting hillsides with biome-specific vegetation.” (Rock Paper Shotgun)
In order to accomplish this freedom of creation Rock Paper Shotgun states, “This has obliged Frontier to create one of the management genre’s more sophisticated pathing systems, so that zebras can get to water even if you slap a massive deadfall in their way. The developer has also put together a bevy of procedural animation tricks to ensure that, for example, your tiger’s back legs don’t waggle in mid-air when it’s walking up a slope. I was shown a “stress test” enclosure for all this that consisted of a towering marble coliseum, where hapless lions plodded about like the protagonists of early ’90s maze games. Players will be free to erect equally silly structures in the finished game.”
Game watcher mentions that the demo showed the building options that included:
Pathing
PC Gamer Magazine had this to say: “Pathing is also important, because you need to create an efficient network for you keepers to restock food and so on...if they're miles away form an animal, or the path there is too complex, they can go hungry. Your paths also have to offer places for the guests to get a clear view of the animals, as well as effortlessly guiding them between habitats in good time.”
Geekism (Water, Water, Everywhere! | Planet Zoo Update #06) There is variation of path levels (referring to picture that shows path higher than fence so guest could see into the enclosure). While Planet Coaster and Jurassic Park Evolution had set pieces that tell guest where to look, it seems that in Planet Zoo if a path has visual access to an exhibit guests can stop on it and look at the animals.
Fence System
The fence system looks like the system used in Jurassic Park Evolution. (Geekism video Water, Water, Everywhere! | Planet Zoo Update #06)
Foliage
Again from PC Gamer Magazine: “we've put a lot of effort into our foliage,...The planting of trees is really important to the habitat creation, which give the game a realistic, organic feel. But players can still create outlandish things. We still have a full piece-by-piece building set, and we'll have a whole new set of elements for people to create with.”
Water
In his video (Water, Water, Everywhere! | Planet Zoo Update #06) Geekism made the observation that while not completely confirming full dynamic water yet, more is going on with water than in Planet Coaster and Jurassic Park Evolution. He mentioned such things as the depth of the water, shadows going into the water, you can see through the water to the base of the pond, maybe shadow of hippo in water.
Game informer magazine had this to say about water: "Every species has different needs. Elephants and hippos, for example, need more than a shallow pond for drinking: they need a space to swim about in and clean themselves off. You need to construct a pond deep enough to accommodate that. Moreover, you need to clean the pond when it becomes dirty, lest your animals become sick, which means investing in a cleaning unit and the power generators to run it - not to mention the upkeep for all of this."
Describing a picture in the magazine PC Gamer Magazine says: “This water is filthy, which means you either don't have a nearby water purifier, or it's broken down. While some animals don't mind dirty water, your guests wont' be able to see them swimming in it.”
Underwatering Viewing exhibits
Confirmed by picture released on planet zoo Instagram.
Size of Zoos
"All those lofts together yielded a fairly large park. It is too early to say with certainty that the parks in Planet Zoo are larger than those in Jurassic World Evolution, but we got that idea." (tweakers)
Interface
Interface in general
Jeuxvideo states that the interface is almost identical to Planet Coaster.
Construction Interface
Game watcher mentions that the demo showed the building options that included:
Each creature has an information panel displaying their complex set of needs, such as the ideal amount of grass or water required in the exhibit. (eurogamer)
Themes
"So what about personalisation and decoration? When I was a kid, pimping my parks in the Blue Fang Zoo Tycoon games was definitely a highlight, due in part to the wackiness of the designs. Planet Zoo's focus on realism means these are less zany, and so far the two revealed themes for building vignettes are a little predictable (a British-inspired classic theme and an African theme). " (eurogamer)
This is a list of themes that have been confirmed.
Exhibits
Planet Zoo provides hundreds of building components. (Planet Zoo Website) With these you can design the zoo of our dreams. "In Planet Zoo there are hundreds of possibilities available to design the place as we want: plants, fences, toys for animals, gift shops, decorative objects and more." (MeriStation) "You can expect a similar amount of creativity as what you saw in Planet Coaster – we will have shiny new wall sets, props, and decorations for you to decorate your park with, and you will still be able to put everything together just like you would have in Planet Coaster using our piece-by-piece toolkit. With our new themes you’ll be able to dress your zoo up whichever way you like, and our new foliage will also be beautiful either in- or outside of the habitats!" (DJ:CaH)
Some examples of items provided are:
These can be customized. (Game watcher)
PC Gamer Magazine states: “You can build a railway and a tiny steam train to carry visitors around your zoo. This is quicker than walking, but it also provides a happiness boost, because, well, who doesn't enjoy riding on a tiny train?”
Zoo Amenities
Gift shops, Planet Coaster style Restrooms, restaurants. (preview video; MeriStation; Game watcher)
Weather System
There is a weather system in Planet Zoo. It can produce such forms of precipitation as snow and rain. Now this precipitation can be as eurogamer brings out: “partially (or completely) occluded under structures such as trees and caves.” Also, with this weather system temperatures will fluctuate. Therefore, each animal will seek the temperature that fulfills its needs. So, for example “In the midst of a snowstorm, the outdoor areas became cold - but the cave remained warm, thus prompting the animals to move inside to seek out the warmer temperature” (eurogamer)
Of interest is a another quote from eurogramer. It suggests that the game can be played in various locations with different climates. This adds a degree of difficulty to the game. This is what eurogamer says "Managing the temperature requirements apparently becomes even more difficult should your zoo be in a challenging location such as the Arctic."
For an example of the weather system in action look at the picture of the wolf or of the bear on official site where it shows it snowing or raining respectively. I assume the wolf or bear are not being too bothered by the weather. (Planet Zoo Website)
Weather has a affect on how zoos are designed and water puddles can form in the game
"In our case, that single-sided window was in a covered part of the lion's enclosure. The enclosures are not just there, because they protect the animals against rain and snow. You can also create covered zones for your guests, and even cover entire paths. As soon as you place a roof, it is really dry under that roof. That sounds logical, but it is harder for a development studio to make than you think. Certainly if you take into account that the game has objects that give 'partial occlusion', such as trees. Animals will still get a little wet under large trees, but much less than in open areas. In addition, puddles will occur in some places where the water cannot drain easily." (tweakers)
Zoos can be in various climate locations
This is suggested by a eurogamer quote: “Managing the temperature requirements apparently becomes even more difficult should your zoo be in a challenging location such as the Arctic.” Also gameinformer says “Do you have a zoo in the desert? You'll need to build cooling pads beneath the floor of your timberwolves' den (not to mention power generators) to accommodate them.” Tweakers said in the narrative campaign: “you will have parks in moderate climates, but also in more difficult locations, such as in warm or cold areas.”
Game Modes
Narrative campaign
In Planet Zoo there is a campaign mode with a narrative in which you "take us to control various Zoo's located in different locations on the planet." (MeriStation) "Some of the things Planet Coaster established were scenarios that had goals within them, and obviously that's a trope that we will continue to use, but we've wrapped a story around this to guide the player through the whole experience." (eurogamer) According to PCGamesN “you’ll play the role of a junior zookeeper and will work your way up to the top.” This story will take you through the whole game giving you "a reason for why you as a player will enter into the narrative." (eurogamer) According to MeriStation “the campaign mode will help the most novices through an initial tutorial and that the available missions represent a step by step in the management of the Zoo. On the other hand, we must bear in mind that there are different levels of difficulty as we move from one zoo to another, as it happened with the islands of Jurassic World Evolution.” Tweakers adds: “In the version we saw, there were no clues for what that story-driven campaign entails. It is clear, however, that the locations of zoos are part of it. For example, you will have parks in moderate climates, but also in more difficult locations, such as in warm or cold areas. That influences which animals thrive easily and which animals need more attention.”
Sandbox mode
As you would expect Planet Zoo has a Sandbox mode. This mode has the same editing software available in Planet Coaster. (Game watcher) Look at the “Landscaping and construction tools” section of this post for more information on the construction tools.
You can upload creations to steam workshop
As eurogamer brings out players "can create blueprints, export them to Steam, and then import them into their actual zoo".
Zoo develops by research (Planet Zoo Website)
"...objects useful for the development of your animals can be arranged in the pens, with prior research." (jeuxvideo)
DLC
"There are sure to be more on the way, however - likely in the game's final release version and possibly DLC (Jackson mysteriously hinted Frontier has a "history of supporting its games post-release" - make of that what you will)." (eurogamer)
“Although Frontier does not mention exact numbers yet, it is clear that the game will receive a list of animals. In addition, each animal also has a male, female and young version, which means that each species actually comes back in three ways…are not all identical” (tweakers)
Animals animation
Planet Zoo will have “the most realistic animals in any game” states eurogamer. Animated models of a lion, bear, baby elephant, and zebra can be found on the Planet Zoo Website to illustrate how detailed these animals are. Also notice the animation of the Galapagos Tortoise in this tweet.
Source: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1131545530948030464
"The animation rigs that we have on some of our creatures, it’s crazy how detailed they are. They’re too good for any games, really. We have a whole additive partial system to spice up some of the walk cycles for animals, for instance. We will have an additive animation that is on a random trigger. So you’ll never see the same walk cycle twice because the eyes will always be doing something different or the ear flicks and the tail swishes will be different." (PCGamesN)
"A lot of the personality is conveyed through its head and eyes, so we put a lot of work into looking around. Some animals use fast, rapidly changing head movements with a short attention span, while others move with a great sense of weight. Even just walking around, your animals will move their heads to follow other ones, and check on their surroundings. If you look closely, you should be able to pick up differences between the head movements of adults and juveniles!" (DJ: HtMAB)
Various news sites have given examples of how detailed the animals are. says:
There are a variety of animal animations such as swimming, playing, defecating, and moving in herds (Game watcher). Specific examples given are:
How animations are “retargeted”
"It is an animation that can only be used for one specific part of the game, but the animation team has taken a lot of time. This animation is possible thanks to a handy 'retargetting tool' made by Frontier Developments itself. Instead of animating each animal individually in the Mayan animation software, Frontier can load an existing animation and 'copy' it to another animal. Subsequently, all kinds of things can be adjusted, such as the height and angle of the joints and the spine, the length of the neck, the position of the head, and so on. Knowing that it is a goal in itself to have as long a list of animals as possible, and knowing that starting from scratch creating and animating a new animal takes about 70 days, it is clear that this tool was vital for the creators of Planet Zoo. Instead of the tens of hours that it would normally take, the animation set of an animal can now be completed in roughly six days. We saw before our eyes how the animation of a zebra made the animation of a camel. In a few minutes the skeleton and pace of the zebra was adjusted in such a way that there was indeed a very believable camel. There is a bit more to it than that, but the basis of the process became very clear…The time gained is invested in extras that can provide just a little more variation and credibility, with the roaring lions as an example. Also playing animals with objects, the 'fleas' that monkeys do together, and more such animated animations are made possible by that retargetting tool. The idea for that comes loosely from the game Spore, released in 2008, which had a similar system." (tweakers)
For more technical details, PCGamesN has an interesting interview with the animation department.
Animals Behavior, Personality, and Needs
Overview
Every animal in Planet Zoo is a thinking, feeling individual with a distinctive look and personality of their own. (Planet Zoo Website) They are unscripted. (Game watcher) "...these animals have wants, needs, can make decisions (questionable or otherwise), can play around, and according to Frontier, individual animals even have their own unique personalities. While it’s a little too soon to call this for sure, I did see an elephant poop on his own food bowl." (Gamerevoution) Game watcher states: “[Animals] have wants and needs, and supposedly have their own personalities. Similar to Jurassic World Evolution, the animals have landscape, food, space, and company needs - but Planet Zoo goes even further.” For example “the animals also have…specific environment needs - like sand or types of grass…having the right shape and even soil type is really important.” PC Gamer magazine echoes these points: “You have to provide enrichment for them to fight off boredom, give them the right food, research them, prevent them from getting diseases.”
Animals in Planet Zoo are highly responsive and will behave differently depending on their situation. (DJ: HtMAB) Examples:
Benefits of Fullfilling Animal Needs and Desires
Higher welfare animals have the potential to live longer, raise young more successfully, and be more appealing to guests. (DJ:HtMAB)
Negative consequences
There are negative consequences to bad habitat design and not providing animal enrichment (PC Gamer) "Creating a habitat that isn't good for an animal will have a negative impact on its wellbeing and the guests.…You have to make sure the habitats have the correct biomes and temperatures." (PC Gamer) "You aren’t obliged to heed these drives, providing you can compensate for the ensuing discontent and its effect on your ticket sales, and there’s the striking prospect of creatures resolving certain situations without your intervention. If there are two male lions in a pride, for instance, they’ll duke it out till one is driven to the periphery of the area." (Rock Paper Shotgun) "Some animals won’t be happy if they don’t have sand, or water pools to swim in, or long grass, so you have to make them happy along with any other animals also living in the same environment." (Gamerevolution)
How animals display their feelings
"While animals in the real world can be hard to understand, they do provide you with hints as to what they are feeling, and this is also the case in Planet Zoo. If they are sick or injured they will tend to lie down more to rest, whereas animals that are stressed will try to hide away from guests, so keep an eye on their behaviours to make sure they're always content." (DJ:HtMAB)
Animals can fight
“And if an animal gets into a scrap it'll pick up wounds that will, over time, develop into scars and stay there for the rest of their life.” (PC Gamer magazine – June issue) It also added: “Animals won't always get on, and some species won't play nice with others…If you put a load of lions in a habitat with a herd of zebras, you're gonna have a bad time.” (PC Gamer Magazine)
Genes, Animal breeding, Inbreeding, Conservation, Animal release, Animal life cycle
Traits and Gene, No Two Animals Look the Same
Animals have traits that are directly inherited from their parents. As eurogamer comments “The genomes determine an animal's appearance (such as different stripe patterns on zebras), but also their longevity, size, immunity and fertility.”
Therefore, observes PCGamesN “no two animals in Planet Zoo look the same, even within the same species. Each individual has subtle differences in their appearance and personality that have been directly inherited from their parents. The way their stripes pattern, what shade of brown their fur is, if they have a playful nature – all of these traits make each animal unique and give them a sense of authenticity as they crawl about on the screen.”
Animal Life Cycle
As stated, one of the traits an animal inherits is life span. PC Gamer magazine says “An animal will be born and you'll see it grow and reach old age, and you'll definitely feel a sense of ownership there.” In fact this can be very emotional on the player. PC Gamer observed “One team member followed one of his elephants through a full life cycle, and it was distressing when it died.”
Death influences your zoo according to PC Gamer magazine: “You'll have emotional highs and lows. When an animal dies it also affects the economy. Money stops coming in, which is an important gameplay mechanic. It works on two levels, emotional and financial. If a ride breaks down in Planet Coaster you can send the engineers to fix it. But you can't bring a dead animal back to life. That's a beautiful bit of destruction and, from a pure gameplay perspective, a great ingredient for the simulation. And from that you get this emotional ebb and flow.”
Mating System - Who Will Mate with Who
"A vast amount of research has gone into [the mating system]" (DJ:HtMAB) "In real life animals have hugely varied mating habits, ranging from pure monogamy (one-one partnership, sometimes for life) to polygamy and seemingly no mating rules at all! In Planet Zoo we have attempted to match our mating rules to be as close as possible to their real-life counterparts." (DJ:HtMAB) Example:
"Maintaining a diverse gene pool is very important, especially if you want your population to remain healthy. Inbreeding between closely related animals will lead to reduced fertility rates and increased chances of catching nasty diseases, so to maintain a healthy group, you will need to make sure mating does not occur between related animals and may need to periodically introduce new individuals to maintain diversity." (DJ:MtMAB) “[This system] According to director Piers Jackson, this system helps prevent the gameplay from becoming static, and also touches on problems real-life zoos have to navigate.” (eurogamer)
According to jeuxvideo “it will be necessary to ensure that, during insemination, both parents are healthy and compatible so that the offspring does not inherit imperfections or diseases, for the sake of preservation.”
Conservation and welfare of animals
One of the reasons that you breeding animals according to eurogamer "centred around the ideas of welfare and conservation." In fact according to the article "The conservation we touch on is an ongoing part of the game - you're breeding animals for that very reason, and we will show a number of those topics to the player."
Ability to Release Animals back to wild
Another thing breeding and conservation leads to is that of the ability in the game of releasing new generations of animals back to the wild. (Planet Zoo Website)
Different Types of Animals can cohabitate together (Gamerevolution)
"For example, zebras and elephants like to live with other animals around them, but other animal species prefer to live alone. This does not necessarily mean that they have to be alone in their living environment, but that they must have sufficient space to isolate themselves from the rest." (tweakers)
Animal Dung
"Before we go, I don't think we can talk about animal behaviour without talking about dung... it's always a fun aspect to work on (my YouTube recommendations list is now very specific)! We’ve tried to pay special attention to the size, shape, number of ‘boli’ in a pile, and frequency compared to eating rates. We wanted to make sure this vital aspect of zookeeper work is properly represented, and some animals will need extra keepers simply to keep up with the volume of dung (I’m looking at you Elephants!). We know from our conversations with keepers that this less glamourous side of animal care is time consuming, but is absolutely vital to keeping them fit and healthy. By the way, every piece of dung is a physics object that rolls downhill!" (DJ:HtHAB)
Animal sounds
There is an interesting fact about real zoos and sounds. While one would think that animals are the main sound source. That if fact is not the case. Generally, animals are quiet. For example, a running rhinoceros “produces hardly any sound on the soft surface of its environment.” (tweakers) In real life people would accept that but, in a game, if a person couldn’t hear the running rhinoceros, they would consider that a bug. Thus, the developers “provided them with sound, where you really would not hear that.” (tweakers)
Now what you hear in the game will also depend on the player’s position. “The game constantly makes a calculation based on the position of the player, and switches audio sources on or off based on this. Each animal has multiple places that generate audio, and the game determines in real time what you as a player will or will not hear and in which mix. The more you zoom out, the more general this mix.”
Where do the sounds come from? Frontier used many sources. They have an extensive digital library of real animal sounds. (MeriStation) But they also use a technique called foley which is the process of reproducing everyday sound effects. Therefore, according to Rock, Paper, shotgun “...you aren’t hearing hippo noises. You’re hearing audio technicians punching pieces of Xmas tree with boxing gloves to recreate half-ton footfalls, slowed-down human breathing and the artful rumpling of a leather coat…” since according to this article “zoo animals…are inconvenient source material for any audio team”
Sounds for animals may not be specific to that animal for Frontier has created libraries of assets that cover several animals. Jim Croft, head of audio, states: “We don’t do [the sound of] elephant skin, we do leathery skin, or feathery skin, or rough skin, and then the animals that need that get the right skin. And then the footsteps, we do small, medium and large hooves, we do claws.” Therefore, the movement sound of the hippopotamus is in a way that of the rhinoceros or elephant. (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
On the other hand, animals do have calls that are specific to them. In fact, these calls are an important means to provide information to the player. If you are zoomed way out overseeing your zoo you will still be able to here calls to tell you that one of your animals is in distress.
This was based on information from:
Information panel
"Each creature has an information panel with a seriously complex set of needs, such as the ideal amount of grass or water required in the exhibit. This means terrain painting has a direct effect on an animal's wellbeing, so you can't just plop a miniature Mount Everest in the hippo enclosure." (eurogamer)
Zoopedia and Research
The Zoopedia is like a wiki that fills with information over time from staff research and is used by the player and to educate zoo guests. "It is a section within the game that gathers detailed information of each animal species so that players can expand their knowledge about those animals they care for." (MeriStation) "The Department of Biology of the University of Cambridge, who helped them make the Zoopedia." (MeriSation)
To add information to your Zoopedia PCGamesN says “You will employ members of staff and the staff will research the animals and over time they’ll perform research that adds to what we call our Zoopedia.”
What is the Zoopedia for? Well PCGamesN continues: “This educational tool also informs guests on conservation as a whole. Planet Zoo’s educational material addresses topics such as deforestation and global warming. ‘The reason that we took this on board really was because one of the mandates of a real zoo is to educate their guests,’ Jackson explains. ‘So we want to make that part of our management simulation. We’re not going to push this so hard, but it’s there.’”
"Each species has a range of group sizes and gender mixes it is happy with, so dig into the Zoopedia to research and plan your populations over time, and build the habitats to match. The Zoopedia is a fantastic player resource for planning and improving animal welfare. If you aren’t sure how to improve a habitat, or are unfamiliar with a particular species, the Zoopedia is how experts will get their welfare to 100%!" (DJ:HtMAB)
Example of its use taken from DJ:CaH
Zoopedia. Place to find information about the animals preferred habitat. “is invaluable when it comes to planning and building habitats, as it gives you necessary information about what animals need to thrive. It allows you to prepare a space for the arrival of its new inhabitant, and it’s also a great way to learn more about the animals in your zoo!” For example the Lion:
"They’re also affected by the weather…Planet Zoo adds hot and cold temperatures, and even snow, which settles on the ground. You’ll actually have to place bedding for animals under cover so it doesn’t get wet, and give them proper shelter from the elements, otherwise they’ll be unhappy." (Game watcher) "Biomes and weather can have a big impact on your zoo. A Plains Zebra won’t thrive in a cold and rainy biome if they don’t have a well-built habitat that takes their needs into account. Heaters and coolers can help them feel comfortable! If it’s raining, animals will seek shelter, so make sure you’ve got somewhere they can go to escape the elements." (DJ:CaH)
Gaminfomer magazine talked about building shelters so animals could "seek comfort form rain and frost." It continued by saying if your animal loves winter and your zoo is located in a warm area of the world "you must shell out for cooling pads to lay out beneath their pen."
Animals have names
Whether or not you can name them yourself is not stated.
"The individuality of animals also seems to be a major theme for Planet Zoo, with each having their own name, personality and genome." (eurogamer)
Escaping animals will not harm visitors
Animals can escape. According to MeriStation "animals can escape from their enclosures and roam freely at the zoo if their needs are not well covered and their habitat is not well adapted."
"…escaping lions will not be able to eat the tourists. The public will be “unhappy” with having their lives threatened by man-eating cats, but otherwise won’t come to any harm." (Game watcher)
"As Planet Zoo has a family-friendly, educational focus, you cannot (unfortunately) kill the guests - although loose animals will prompt them to become unhappy and leave," (eurogamer)
"Another aspect we only know a little about is what's on the other side of the fence. Guest management currently sounds like it will again build on the foundations of Planet Coaster, but according to Jackson it will "go a bit deeper" and "take an extra step"." (eurogamer)
Consideration paid to guests and staff, having their own needs to attend to but not as much as the animals. (Gamerevolution) "Players are asked to manage simple things like ensuring drinks vendors are near to their park’s guests, that the animals easy to get to (and see), and that the spiders being kept safely in their tanks." (Gamerevolution) Things such as tiredness and happiness. (Game watcher)
Examples from Gamerevolution, Unilad:
In the official preview video and in pictures staff is shown doing various jobs such as taking care of animals and educating guest. (Planet Zoo Website) "...animals rest, fight, play, defecate and maltreat their habitat, it will regularly clean and maintain with competent staff." (jeuxvideo – Google Translated) "There are many ways you can begin to mitigate potential obstacles in your zoos. A good start is to have enough keepers to keep up with the food, water and cleaning demands." (DJ:HtMAB)
Guest Education
Guest management builds on the foundation of Planet Coaster, but according to Jackson will go a bit deeper and take an extra step. This includes “an education bar, as guests will have an education need beyond merely wandering around to look at animals.” (eurogamer) They will enter “the park as blank tablets, thirsty for zoological trivia. Devote staff and resources to research animals, and you can fill out a Zoopedia with choice factoids.” This information will be communicated “by the placing of signs, speakers, and other educational devices near exhibits.” (PCGamesN) “This boosts each guest’s individual education level, with animals that are not native to that zoo’s geographical region objects of particular curiosity; it also raises the education level of your zoo as a whole.” (Rock Paper Shotgun)
Research staff
"You’ll be able to hire members of staff specifically focused on research - which not only helps you as a player to look after the animals better, it will also educate visitors in the park with signs and speakers." (Game watcher)
"Craft detailed habitats to bring your animals’ natural environments home, research and manage each species to allow them to thrive, and help your animals raise families to pass their genes onto future generations." (Planet Zoo Website)
Links to YouTube videos featuring Planet Zoo
Last Edit 6.10.2019 Added new animals and release date, min system requirements, etc.
I will add to this post as I get more information. Please let me know about mistakes and new information. In the upcoming week my plans are to better organize the information. I also would like to thank all that have helped me with information and corrections.
My other posts
Google Sheet - All the animals in Zoo Tycoon games, Wildlife Park games, and Planet ZooLinks to zoo master plans for more zoo design ideas
Chart of Animals From the Zoo Tycoon games and Known Planet Zoo animals
List of Zoos in the United States for inspiration as you wait for release of Planet Zoo
Links to YouTube videos featuring Planet Zoo
This Week in Planet Zoo: Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, E3 Issue
Sources
- Planet Zoo Website
- Game watcher - first impression
- Game watcher - animal list
- eurogamer
- MeriStation – Google Translated
- PCGamesN
- PCGamesN – about animation
- PC Gamer
- PC Gamer Magazine, June Issue
- gameinformer
- Gameinformer magazine, June issue
- Rock Paper Shotgun
- jeuxvideo – Google Translated
- Gamerevolution
- engadget
- GameFront
- Unilad
- tweakers – Google translated, link is to first page of 4 page article
- Geekism Water, Water, Everywhere! | Planet Zoo Update #06
- Planet Zoo Twitter
- Developer Journal: How to Manage Animal Behaviours (abbreviated DJ:HtMAB in this article)
- Developer Journal: Creativity and Habitats (abbreviated DJ:CaH in this article)
Overview Straight from Planet Zoo Website
Official Press ReleaseCambridge, UK – 24 April 2019. Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV) is proud to announce Planet Zoo. From the makers of Planet Coaster (2016) and Jurassic World Evolution (2018) comes the ultimate zoo simulation, featuring authentic living animals, rich management, and limitless creativity. Build and manage a truly modern zoo where animal welfare and conservation comes first. Simulation runs wild in Planet Zoo, exclusively for PC in Autumn 2019.
Planet Zoo presents the most authentic animals in videogame history. From playful lion cubs to mighty elephants, every animal in Planet Zoo is an individual who thinks, feels and explores the world you build around them. They care about their surroundings and each other, with complex environmental and social needs. Nurture your animals throughout their lives, study and manage every species to see them thrive, and help them raise young to pass their genes onto future generations.
Manage your own zoo in an expressive world that reacts to every choice you make. Focus on the big picture or go hands-on and look after the smallest details. Thrill visitors with prestigious animals and famous exhibits, develop your zoo and research new technologies, and release animals back into the wild to repopulate the planet.
Unleash your creativity with the next evolution of Planet Coaster’s best-in-class creation mechanics. Craft stunning scenery and habitats, dig lakes and rivers, raise hills and mountains, and carve tunnels and caves as you build your own zoo. See your animals and visitors respond to your creative vision, and share your designs with friends in Planet Zoo’s online community. Bring the world’s greatest designs home to your own zoo for your animals and visitors to enjoy.
‘This is the zoo management game we’ve wanted to make for many years,’ said Jonny Watts, Chief Creative Officer of Frontier. ‘We’ve challenged ourselves to build on the games we’ve made before and to carry the great legacy of classics like the Zoo Tycoon series forward. We’re taking everything we’ve learned from our past work and focusing on modern values – incredible authenticity, rich management, limitless creativity and community sharing – to make our best-ever simulation game. We hope you’ll join us when Planet Zoo launches later this year.’
Simulation Runs Wild
Meet a world of incredible animals. From playful lion cubs to mighty elephants, every animal in Planet Zoo is a thinking, feeling individual with a distinctive look and personality of their own. Craft detailed habitats to bring your animals’ natural environments home, research and manage each species to allow them to thrive, and help your animals raise families to pass their genes onto future generations.
Meaningful Management
Manage an amazing living world that responds to every decision you make. Focus on the big picture or go hands-on and control the smallest details. Thrill visitors with iconic exhibits, develop your zoo with new research, and release new generations of your animals back into the wild. Your choices come alive in a world where animal welfare and conservation comes first.
Limitless Creativity
Planet Zoo’s powerful piece-by-piece construction tools let you effortlessly make your zoo unique. Every creative decision you make impacts the lives of your animals and the experience of your visitors. Let your imagination run wild as you dig lakes and rivers, raise hills and mountains, carve paths and caves, and build stunning zoos with a choice of unique themes and hundreds of building components.
Share and Inspire
Join a connected community and share the world’s most creative habitats, scenery and even whole zoos on the Steam Workshop. See your own designs appear in zoos around the world, or discover fresh new content from the Planet Zoo community every day.
Also check out the Planet Zoo Announcement Trailer.
The Animals
Google Sheet - All the animals in Zoo Tycoon games, Wildlife Park games, and Planet ZooThe game is set to release with over 50 animals covering a diverse range of mammals, reptiles, insects and more. But according to tweakers, “Although Frontier does not mention exact numbers yet, it is clear that the game will receive a list of animals. In addition, each animal also has a male, female and young version, which means that each species actually comes back in three ways…are not all identical”
- West African Lion (Planet Zoo Website)
- African Elephant (Planet Zoo Website)
- Grey Wolf (Planet Zoo Website)
- Grizzly Bear (Planet Zoo Website)
- Plains Zebra (Planet Zoo Website)
- Hippopotamus (Planet Zoo Website)
- Reticulated Giraffe (Planet Zoo Website)
- Western Chimpanzee (Planet Zoo Website)
- Salt water crocodile (Planet Zoo Website)
- Springbok (Planet Zoo Website)
- African wild dog (Planet Zoo Website)
- Cheetah (Planet Zoo Website)
- Indian Peafowl (Zookeeper Zone reveal)
- Giant Galapagos Tortoise (Planet Zoo Twitter)
- Thomson's gazelles (Bonus Deluxe edition)
- Pygmy hippopotamus (Bonus Deluxe edition)
- Komodo dragon (Bonus Deluxe edition)
- Wildebeest (Geekism saw at Frontier Studios)
- Iguana (Geekism saw at Frontier Studios)
- Ring-tailed Lemur (Planet Zoo Announcement video and Game watcher - animal list)
- Brazilian Wandering Spider (Game watcher, Game watcher - animal list)
- Bactrian Camel (Rock Paper Shotgun; gamerwatcher)
- Tigers (Rock Paper Shotgun)
- Rhinoceros (jeuxvideo)
- Snakes (jeuxvideo)
- Oryx (above the lion’s head in the cover art)
General Information
Release DateNovember 5, 2019
Editions
Planet Zoo is available to pre-order now for $44.99 (€44.99, £34.99)
Planet Zoo: Deluxe Edition is available for $54.99 (€54.99, £42.99). Both are available on the Steam online store.
The Deluxe Edition includes Planet Zoo game, plus bonus content:
- Pre-launch Beta access
- Three exclusive animals: Komodo Dragon, Pygmy Hippopotamus, Thomson's Gazelle
- High-quality wallpapers
- Original Soundtrack by Jim Guthrie and JJ Ipsen
System Requirement
- MINIMUM:
- OS: Windows 7 (SP1+)/8.1/10 64bit
- Processor: Intel i5-2500 / AMD FX-6350
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (2GB) / AMD Radeon R9 270X (2GB)
- Storage: 16 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Minimum specifications may change during development
- Frontier
- Planet Zoo Facebook
- Planet Zoo Twitter
- Planet Zoo Youtube
- Frontier Youtube
- Planet Zoo Instagram
- Jonny Watts – Chief Creative Officer.
- Piers Jackson – Gamer Director.
- Felix Von Wolfersdorf – Producer
- Chris Marsh – Lead Animator.
- Ollie Powell – Principal Programmer.
- Megan Brown - Programmer
- David Bamber - Senior Designer
- Liesa Bauwens – Senior Artist.
- Feam Holborn – Senior Artist.
- Joanne Taylor – Senior Environement Artist
- Emma Rydstrom - Designer
- Jim Croft – Head of Audio.
- Matthew Florianz – Lead Audio Designer
- James Lockett – Gameplay Lead
According to the planet coaster news email: "In the run up to release, we will be sending out a weekly newsletter containing the latest animal reveals, taking a look behind the scenes of development, competitions and much more. The weekly updates will start around the beginning of June, so make sure to sign up to stay in the loop!"
You can sign up for the newsletter at the official Planet Zoo website.
E3
Bo Marit (Lead Community Manager) posted:
Hi everyone,
We hope you've been enjoying some of the Planet Zoo glimpses we've been giving you - from beautiful lion screenshots to Zoopedia facts to our first Developer Journal; we're so thankful you're on this journey with us!
We are also just as excited as you are, and cannot wait to show you even more of what the amazing Frontier team have been working on. That's why we'd like to invite you to join us for Planet Zoo's official gameplay reveal during the PC Gaming Show at E3, on Monday 10 June at 5PM UTC. This year is looking like an amazing line-up of games and developers, and we're thrilled to be a part of it. You can tune in at www.twitch.tv/pcgamer - if you're watching please send our team some support in the chat!
We don't have a public booth at E3 this year, but we will be at the show for the full week. If you're a content creator attending E3 and you're interested in playing the game when it launches on Steam this Fall, please let us know by sending an email to community@frontier.co.uk so we can book an appointment for you. For those who will not be attending the convention, don't worry! Aside from the PC Gaming Show we'll be keeping you in the loop via our social media channels, so be sure to give them a follow and get all of the news from us directly.
Transcript of E3 announcement from Frontier Xtra Episode 4
Bo said:
"We are going to be at E3. We are not going to be at the show floor last year with Jurassic because we launched Jurassic last year at E3. It was a bit different. We will be there. We will have a presence. And in terms of what you can expect, back home, Is Planet Zoo at the PC gaming show. So, PC gaming show is on Monday the 10th of June and it’s a live stream you can tune in on twich.tv/PCgamer. It will be at 5 pm UTC. And we will be revealing the first ever game play trailer for Planet Zoo. You will get to see because of course the announcement trailer was a little bit different, so this is the first sort of look at the actual game. How the animals move, how they look, what your zoo can look like. It’s going to be great. Please tune. 5pm UTC Is the time the live stream starts for PC gaming show, we are part of the show, they are showing a lot of different games. We can’t say exactly when our time slot is but just tune into the show and wait until you see us pop up. We will be on the show for a little bit to see the developers talking there. And throughout E3 we will also be doing loads in terms of keeping you guys up to date on what is happening. We will be doing some behind the scenes stuff, we will be posting lot of things on social channels. Keep an eye on all of those things….Trailer will go live on YouTube channel afterwards."
News on what information we will recieve after that Planet Zoo E3 presentation on Monday.
We found out from some youtubers were invited to the Frontier Studios to see various games, one of which was Planet Zoo.
According to them, after the E3 planet zoo presentation on Monday, their NDA will be lifted and we will be receiving an "info dump" from them on Monday.
As of right now I know of three of them who were there. So keep you eyes out on their channels.
Geekism
Underwater Viewing Areas! | Planet Zoo Update #08DeLadysinger
Tortoise, Peafowl & more | Screenshots Analysis | Planet Zoo | Pictures Update | May 2019Rudi Rennkamel We can see underwater! PLANET ZOO Update
Now while not being there you can be sure that I will put together an information packed post with all the information I can gather on Monday June 10th. And all my posts will be updated. So excited for Monday.
Features
Landscaping and construction toolsAccording to the Planet Zoo’s website they will be providing “powerful piece-by-piece construction tools” to make your zoo unique. Your construction decisions will have an impact on not only the visitors experience but also the lives of your animals. PC Gamer Magazine says: “There's a management tension in the game where you're making sure your habitats are good for the animals, but also making sure the guests can get a good look at them.”
These construction tools allow you to sculpt your terrain to create lakes, rivers, hills, mountains, paths, and caves. The game will provide you a choice of unique themes and hundreds of building components to create the zoo of your dreams. (Planet Zoo Website) "You have to build paths, place attractive features (like rocks or trees), useful features (bins, lookout points), attractions for the punters (restaurants, gift shops), even up to fun ideas like visitor trains, bridges over water features, and themed areas - like African or UK zoos." (Game Watcher) “Players can resize, sculpt and furnish each enclosure to taste, gouging out water holes, adjusting barrier heights and materials (which include one-way glass walls, for those intimate moments with beasts in their lairs) and dusting hillsides with biome-specific vegetation.” (Rock Paper Shotgun)
In order to accomplish this freedom of creation Rock Paper Shotgun states, “This has obliged Frontier to create one of the management genre’s more sophisticated pathing systems, so that zebras can get to water even if you slap a massive deadfall in their way. The developer has also put together a bevy of procedural animation tricks to ensure that, for example, your tiger’s back legs don’t waggle in mid-air when it’s walking up a slope. I was shown a “stress test” enclosure for all this that consisted of a towering marble coliseum, where hapless lions plodded about like the protagonists of early ’90s maze games. Players will be free to erect equally silly structures in the finished game.”
Game watcher mentions that the demo showed the building options that included:
- Barriers
- Habitats
- Nature
- Zoo Facilities
- Construction
Pathing
PC Gamer Magazine had this to say: “Pathing is also important, because you need to create an efficient network for you keepers to restock food and so on...if they're miles away form an animal, or the path there is too complex, they can go hungry. Your paths also have to offer places for the guests to get a clear view of the animals, as well as effortlessly guiding them between habitats in good time.”
Geekism (Water, Water, Everywhere! | Planet Zoo Update #06) There is variation of path levels (referring to picture that shows path higher than fence so guest could see into the enclosure). While Planet Coaster and Jurassic Park Evolution had set pieces that tell guest where to look, it seems that in Planet Zoo if a path has visual access to an exhibit guests can stop on it and look at the animals.
Fence System
The fence system looks like the system used in Jurassic Park Evolution. (Geekism video Water, Water, Everywhere! | Planet Zoo Update #06)
Foliage
Again from PC Gamer Magazine: “we've put a lot of effort into our foliage,...The planting of trees is really important to the habitat creation, which give the game a realistic, organic feel. But players can still create outlandish things. We still have a full piece-by-piece building set, and we'll have a whole new set of elements for people to create with.”
Water
In his video (Water, Water, Everywhere! | Planet Zoo Update #06) Geekism made the observation that while not completely confirming full dynamic water yet, more is going on with water than in Planet Coaster and Jurassic Park Evolution. He mentioned such things as the depth of the water, shadows going into the water, you can see through the water to the base of the pond, maybe shadow of hippo in water.
Game informer magazine had this to say about water: "Every species has different needs. Elephants and hippos, for example, need more than a shallow pond for drinking: they need a space to swim about in and clean themselves off. You need to construct a pond deep enough to accommodate that. Moreover, you need to clean the pond when it becomes dirty, lest your animals become sick, which means investing in a cleaning unit and the power generators to run it - not to mention the upkeep for all of this."
Describing a picture in the magazine PC Gamer Magazine says: “This water is filthy, which means you either don't have a nearby water purifier, or it's broken down. While some animals don't mind dirty water, your guests wont' be able to see them swimming in it.”
Underwatering Viewing exhibits
Confirmed by picture released on planet zoo Instagram.
Size of Zoos
"All those lofts together yielded a fairly large park. It is too early to say with certainty that the parks in Planet Zoo are larger than those in Jurassic World Evolution, but we got that idea." (tweakers)
Interface
Interface in general
Jeuxvideo states that the interface is almost identical to Planet Coaster.
Construction Interface
Game watcher mentions that the demo showed the building options that included:
- Barriers
- Habitats
- Nature
- Zoo Facilities
- Construction
Each creature has an information panel displaying their complex set of needs, such as the ideal amount of grass or water required in the exhibit. (eurogamer)
Themes
"So what about personalisation and decoration? When I was a kid, pimping my parks in the Blue Fang Zoo Tycoon games was definitely a highlight, due in part to the wackiness of the designs. Planet Zoo's focus on realism means these are less zany, and so far the two revealed themes for building vignettes are a little predictable (a British-inspired classic theme and an African theme). " (eurogamer)
This is a list of themes that have been confirmed.
- British Classic (eurogamer)
- African (eurogamer)
Exhibits
- Possible natural boarders for enclosures. (Might be indicated from official pictures and video)
- Glass exhibits for small animals. (eurogamer) “There's a lot in the game I've only seen glimpse of, including glass enclosures that you can house snakes, reptiles and insects in.” (PC Gamer Magazine – June issue)
Planet Zoo provides hundreds of building components. (Planet Zoo Website) With these you can design the zoo of our dreams. "In Planet Zoo there are hundreds of possibilities available to design the place as we want: plants, fences, toys for animals, gift shops, decorative objects and more." (MeriStation) "You can expect a similar amount of creativity as what you saw in Planet Coaster – we will have shiny new wall sets, props, and decorations for you to decorate your park with, and you will still be able to put everything together just like you would have in Planet Coaster using our piece-by-piece toolkit. With our new themes you’ll be able to dress your zoo up whichever way you like, and our new foliage will also be beautiful either in- or outside of the habitats!" (DJ:CaH)
Some examples of items provided are:
- "Flexi-color items" (eurogamer)
- "Custom 2D and 3D backgrounds to glass exhibits for small critters." (eurogamers)
- Plants and trees
- Fences and barriers including glass ones. (jeuxvideo)
- Animal toys, enrichment items – for example the football (soccer) ball in the elephant encloser and the “scratching” pole in the lion’s encloser.
- Decorative objects
- One-way windows so that the animal can approach the visitors without being frightened by them. (Rock Paper Shotgun) “But if you want to protect the animals' privacy, you can spend a little more money on one-way glass. They won't appreciate crowds of people gawking at them all the time and this will help to encourage them to play with an enrichment item.” (PC Gamer magazine – June issue)
- Sprinklers
- Feeding bowls. (seen in the bear encloser)
- Water purifier: “This water is filthy, which means you either don't have a nearby water purifier, or it's broken down. While some animals don't mind dirty water, your guests wont' be able to see them swimming in it.” (PC Gamer Magazine)
- Power generators: “Do you have a zoo in the desert? You'll need to build cooling pads beneath the floor of your timberwolves' den (not to mention power generators) to accommodate them.” (gameinformer)
- Outdoor heaters: "When the weather, dynamic, turns to the storm, the animals rush to their shelters while when the snow covers the park, they will naturally move to the outdoor heaters if you thought to equip the enclosure." (juexvideo)
- Heaters and coolers. (DJ:CaH)
These can be customized. (Game watcher)
PC Gamer Magazine states: “You can build a railway and a tiny steam train to carry visitors around your zoo. This is quicker than walking, but it also provides a happiness boost, because, well, who doesn't enjoy riding on a tiny train?”
Zoo Amenities
Gift shops, Planet Coaster style Restrooms, restaurants. (preview video; MeriStation; Game watcher)
Weather System
There is a weather system in Planet Zoo. It can produce such forms of precipitation as snow and rain. Now this precipitation can be as eurogamer brings out: “partially (or completely) occluded under structures such as trees and caves.” Also, with this weather system temperatures will fluctuate. Therefore, each animal will seek the temperature that fulfills its needs. So, for example “In the midst of a snowstorm, the outdoor areas became cold - but the cave remained warm, thus prompting the animals to move inside to seek out the warmer temperature” (eurogamer)
Of interest is a another quote from eurogramer. It suggests that the game can be played in various locations with different climates. This adds a degree of difficulty to the game. This is what eurogamer says "Managing the temperature requirements apparently becomes even more difficult should your zoo be in a challenging location such as the Arctic."
For an example of the weather system in action look at the picture of the wolf or of the bear on official site where it shows it snowing or raining respectively. I assume the wolf or bear are not being too bothered by the weather. (Planet Zoo Website)
Weather has a affect on how zoos are designed and water puddles can form in the game
"In our case, that single-sided window was in a covered part of the lion's enclosure. The enclosures are not just there, because they protect the animals against rain and snow. You can also create covered zones for your guests, and even cover entire paths. As soon as you place a roof, it is really dry under that roof. That sounds logical, but it is harder for a development studio to make than you think. Certainly if you take into account that the game has objects that give 'partial occlusion', such as trees. Animals will still get a little wet under large trees, but much less than in open areas. In addition, puddles will occur in some places where the water cannot drain easily." (tweakers)
Zoos can be in various climate locations
This is suggested by a eurogamer quote: “Managing the temperature requirements apparently becomes even more difficult should your zoo be in a challenging location such as the Arctic.” Also gameinformer says “Do you have a zoo in the desert? You'll need to build cooling pads beneath the floor of your timberwolves' den (not to mention power generators) to accommodate them.” Tweakers said in the narrative campaign: “you will have parks in moderate climates, but also in more difficult locations, such as in warm or cold areas.”
Game Modes
Narrative campaign
In Planet Zoo there is a campaign mode with a narrative in which you "take us to control various Zoo's located in different locations on the planet." (MeriStation) "Some of the things Planet Coaster established were scenarios that had goals within them, and obviously that's a trope that we will continue to use, but we've wrapped a story around this to guide the player through the whole experience." (eurogamer) According to PCGamesN “you’ll play the role of a junior zookeeper and will work your way up to the top.” This story will take you through the whole game giving you "a reason for why you as a player will enter into the narrative." (eurogamer) According to MeriStation “the campaign mode will help the most novices through an initial tutorial and that the available missions represent a step by step in the management of the Zoo. On the other hand, we must bear in mind that there are different levels of difficulty as we move from one zoo to another, as it happened with the islands of Jurassic World Evolution.” Tweakers adds: “In the version we saw, there were no clues for what that story-driven campaign entails. It is clear, however, that the locations of zoos are part of it. For example, you will have parks in moderate climates, but also in more difficult locations, such as in warm or cold areas. That influences which animals thrive easily and which animals need more attention.”
Sandbox mode
As you would expect Planet Zoo has a Sandbox mode. This mode has the same editing software available in Planet Coaster. (Game watcher) Look at the “Landscaping and construction tools” section of this post for more information on the construction tools.
You can upload creations to steam workshop
As eurogamer brings out players "can create blueprints, export them to Steam, and then import them into their actual zoo".
Zoo develops by research (Planet Zoo Website)
"...objects useful for the development of your animals can be arranged in the pens, with prior research." (jeuxvideo)
DLC
"There are sure to be more on the way, however - likely in the game's final release version and possibly DLC (Jackson mysteriously hinted Frontier has a "history of supporting its games post-release" - make of that what you will)." (eurogamer)
Animal Features
Over 50 animals (Game watcher) covering a diverse range of mammals, reptiles, insects and more. (MeriStation) “Although Frontier does not mention exact numbers yet, it is clear that the game will receive a list of animals. In addition, each animal also has a male, female and young version, which means that each species actually comes back in three ways…are not all identical” (tweakers)
Animals animation
Planet Zoo will have “the most realistic animals in any game” states eurogamer. Animated models of a lion, bear, baby elephant, and zebra can be found on the Planet Zoo Website to illustrate how detailed these animals are. Also notice the animation of the Galapagos Tortoise in this tweet.
Source: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1131545530948030464
"The animation rigs that we have on some of our creatures, it’s crazy how detailed they are. They’re too good for any games, really. We have a whole additive partial system to spice up some of the walk cycles for animals, for instance. We will have an additive animation that is on a random trigger. So you’ll never see the same walk cycle twice because the eyes will always be doing something different or the ear flicks and the tail swishes will be different." (PCGamesN)
"A lot of the personality is conveyed through its head and eyes, so we put a lot of work into looking around. Some animals use fast, rapidly changing head movements with a short attention span, while others move with a great sense of weight. Even just walking around, your animals will move their heads to follow other ones, and check on their surroundings. If you look closely, you should be able to pick up differences between the head movements of adults and juveniles!" (DJ: HtMAB)
Various news sites have given examples of how detailed the animals are. says:
- “Zoom the camera once more and you’ll see this writ large in distinctive markings, proportions and scars (whether from intra-species duels, or because you’ve allowed a predator to slip your clutches and munch on a few antelopes). Zoom even closer, and you’ll see traceries of dirt, fur slicked down by water, the sunlight dancing inside a lion’s iris.” (Rock Paper Shotgun)
- “Although a management sim, Frontier wants players to zoom in to view the micro, perhaps to admire the game's new "fur technology". There are plenty of tiny details here: at one point I even noticed a bear's claws retracting as it swam around.” (Eurogamer)
- “The stars of Planet Zoo are undoubtedly the animals. They're probably the most convincing, lifelike creatures I've seen in a game; with incredible fidelity and nuance of animation. When they move they have weight and presence, and you can see the muscles and bones moving under their skin. Zoo the camera in an you'll see their noses twitch and their ears flap.” (PC Gamer magazine – June Issue)
- “And if an animal gets into a scrap it'll pick up wounds that will, over time, develop into scars and stay there for the rest of their life.” (PC Gamer magazine – June Issue)
- As regard to animal behavior and appearance Gameinformer magazine said they looked at a pack of Zebras that "look convincing and quite detailed" with every Zebra having "minor deviations in individual behavior" and pattern of strips all dependent on their genome. Many of the animals have a pack mentality. It states that wolves "have an alpha whose whims they follow." It sums up the look of the animals by stating "I've rarely seen animals in games come off as realistic as the ones in this demonstration."
There are a variety of animal animations such as swimming, playing, defecating, and moving in herds (Game watcher). Specific examples given are:
- A hippo when coming out of the water to land will spread their feces around with their tail. (Frontier twitch stream)
- Wolves moving in packs. (gameinformer)
- Zebras herding. (Rock Paper Shotgun)
- Elephant pooping on their own bowl. (Gamerevolution)
- Chimps grooming one another. (Rock Paper Shotgun)
- The rough-and-tumble and play-fighting of lion cubs. (Rock Paper Shotgun, PC Gamer Magazine)
- Bear swimming around. (Rock Paper Shotgun)
- What we have to do, as animators, is make sure their health is readable." An example of this it that, when an animal is sick, its body language will change. Its head will droop or its walk cycle will be more labored. (PC Gamer magazine – June Issue)
- Elephants locking tusks. (PC Gamer Magazine – June Issue)
- Roaring lions (tweakers)
- Playing animals with objects (tweakers)
- the 'fleas' that monkeys do together (tweakers)
- Gameinformer magazine said many of the animals have a pack mentality. It states that wolves "have an alpha whose whims they follow."
How animations are “retargeted”
"It is an animation that can only be used for one specific part of the game, but the animation team has taken a lot of time. This animation is possible thanks to a handy 'retargetting tool' made by Frontier Developments itself. Instead of animating each animal individually in the Mayan animation software, Frontier can load an existing animation and 'copy' it to another animal. Subsequently, all kinds of things can be adjusted, such as the height and angle of the joints and the spine, the length of the neck, the position of the head, and so on. Knowing that it is a goal in itself to have as long a list of animals as possible, and knowing that starting from scratch creating and animating a new animal takes about 70 days, it is clear that this tool was vital for the creators of Planet Zoo. Instead of the tens of hours that it would normally take, the animation set of an animal can now be completed in roughly six days. We saw before our eyes how the animation of a zebra made the animation of a camel. In a few minutes the skeleton and pace of the zebra was adjusted in such a way that there was indeed a very believable camel. There is a bit more to it than that, but the basis of the process became very clear…The time gained is invested in extras that can provide just a little more variation and credibility, with the roaring lions as an example. Also playing animals with objects, the 'fleas' that monkeys do together, and more such animated animations are made possible by that retargetting tool. The idea for that comes loosely from the game Spore, released in 2008, which had a similar system." (tweakers)
For more technical details, PCGamesN has an interesting interview with the animation department.
Animals Behavior, Personality, and Needs
Overview
Every animal in Planet Zoo is a thinking, feeling individual with a distinctive look and personality of their own. (Planet Zoo Website) They are unscripted. (Game watcher) "...these animals have wants, needs, can make decisions (questionable or otherwise), can play around, and according to Frontier, individual animals even have their own unique personalities. While it’s a little too soon to call this for sure, I did see an elephant poop on his own food bowl." (Gamerevoution) Game watcher states: “[Animals] have wants and needs, and supposedly have their own personalities. Similar to Jurassic World Evolution, the animals have landscape, food, space, and company needs - but Planet Zoo goes even further.” For example “the animals also have…specific environment needs - like sand or types of grass…having the right shape and even soil type is really important.” PC Gamer magazine echoes these points: “You have to provide enrichment for them to fight off boredom, give them the right food, research them, prevent them from getting diseases.”
Animals in Planet Zoo are highly responsive and will behave differently depending on their situation. (DJ: HtMAB) Examples:
- Lots of social animals in exhibit. Social animals like the Zebras will socialize if multiple of them are in the same habitat just like they do in the wild.
- Stess. If an animal is stressed they will tend to hide.
- Weather - This impacts the zoo. Rain and snow make habitats colder may have positive or negative consequences depending on the animals preferences. if they don't like snow they will want to find shelter until the weather passes, and if no shelter is available this will lower their welfare. But timber (gray) wolves are not bothered by a snow drift or two. (DJ:HtMAB) "Biomes and weather can have a big impact on your zoo. A Plains Zebra won’t thrive in a cold and rainy biome if they don’t have a well-built habitat that takes their needs into account. Heaters and coolers can help them feel comfortable! If it’s raining, animals will seek shelter, so make sure you’ve got somewhere they can go to escape the elements." (DJ:CaH)
Habitat and Terrain. "In order to keep your animals happy they require a habitat well suited to their needs and desires as well as ongoing care and attention." (DJ: HtMAB) "Adding a bit of rock terrain to a habitat is not just a visual, it’s also an actual management feature, because different animals will have different terrains they enjoy!" (DJ:CaH) "Knowing where an animal originally comes from can also help you recreate the perfect environment for it – from rocks and trees that hearken back to their land of origin, to adding scenery that is themed to the animal’s country of origin. I’m sure your guests would love to see your African Elephants making their way through a habitat decorated as if they were right there in the Savannah – and they will feel just that bit more at home surrounded by their natural flora and fauna!" (DJ:CaH)
(1) Need to be spacious enough for the animals they house. (DJ: HtMAB) Hippos need more space than other animals. (DJ:CaH)
(2) Needs to be the correct type of terrain. (DJ: HtMAB)
(3) Needs a place of shelter if the animals dislikes the climate the zoo is located. (DJ: HtMAB)
(4) Even tiny beasts, like Brazilian wandering spiders, have preferences about how many individuals they share a box with together with desired levels of heat, light and foliage. (Rock Paper Shotgun)
(5) Shelters for your lions to hide in during storms. (gameinformer)
(6) The decoration of the environment also plays a role. The zebra loft we saw was initially provided with a lot of sand and little grass, which meant that the striped animals were not overly happy with their environment. However, you can easily adapt the soil type to grass via a handy 'paint' function. Moments later the zebras turned out to be a lot happier. (tweakers)
(7) "It will also be necessary to change the terrain, making it more abrupt for animals accustomed to mountain slopes..." (jeuxvideo)
Shelter and Bedding. Game watcher: "You’ll actually have to place bedding for animals under cover so it doesn’t get wet, and give them proper shelter from the elements, otherwise they’ll be unhappy." Gameinformer magazine talked about building shelters so animals could "seek comfort form rain and frost." It continued by saying if your animal loves winter and your zoo is located in a warm area of the world "you must shell out for cooling pads to lay out beneath their pen."
Space. "Some animals, like Hippos, require more space than others. This is also the time to consider areas for other activities which certain species will need. You should give the animals some areas where they’re able to get away from the hustle and bustle of the park." (DJ:CaH)
Food. Food quality is another thing you'll want to take into account, as it improves the nutritional welfare of your animals. You can research better quality foods for each species, but this will carry an increased cost, so it's up to you to decide if it’s worth it. (DJ:HtMAB)
Water. "Elephants and hippos...need more than a shallow pond for drinking: they need a space to swim about in and clean themselves off. You need to construct a pond deep enough to accommodate that." (Gameinformer magazine, June) Hippos will need deeper ponds than other species so they can swim and bathe, and so on. (gameinfromer)
Enrichment. Animals have entertainment needs. (Game watcher) So the game provides objects “to put into the habitat to stimulate the animals and break up their day, or recreate experiences they would have if they were in the wild.” (PC Gamer)
(1) We have seen elephants playing with footballs (soccer balls).
(2) Enrichment items include scratching post, which when places near a viewing window will give the guests a massive satisfaction boost when a lion starts clawing it. (PC Gamer magazine – June issue)
(3) Other critters, such as lion cubs and monkeys, often have enough entertainment for each other by playing around with each other. (tweakers)
Socialization. If the animals is a social you need to provide other animals for it to socialize with."Even among social animals how often they will want to go and engage with others of their kind will differ." (DJ:HtMAB)
Examples of how animals socialize:
(1) Some are largely solitary, like the Grizzly Bear, and they won’t be happy if you add more than a couple in together. (DJ:HtMAB)
(2) African Elephants and Plains Zebras, actively seek out social interactions and need a reasonable number of same-species animals to fulfill their social needs.(DJ:HtMAB)
(3) Most social of species, like the Zebra, will get unhappy very quickly if it finds itself alone, and will frequently seek out others and move around together as a group.(DJ:HtMAB)
(4) Tigers, meanwhile, prefer to be housed alone or with a single mate. (Rock Paper Shotgun)
(5) Even tiny beasts, like Brazilian wandering spiders, have preferences about how many individuals they share a box with together with desired levels of heat, light and foliage. (Rock Paper Shotgun)
(6) Wolves following a pack mentality (gameinformer)
(7) Zebras and elephants like to live with other animals around them, but other animal species prefer to live alone. This does not necessarily mean that they have to be alone in their living environment, but that they must have sufficient space to isolate themselves from the rest. (tweakers)
(8) The Giant Galapagos Tortoise is happy alone or in a small group, whereas African Elephants prefer a larger herd. (DJ:CaH)
Group Size. "Each species has a range of group sizes...it is happy with" (DJ:HtMAB) "Each species has different requirements for how many of its own kind it wants in a habitat." (DJ:HtMAB)
Various ways animals can be grouped:
(1) Pairs and juveniles. (DJ:HtMAB)
(2) ‘Bachelor’ groups of young males (DJ:HtMAB)
(3) Related family groups (DJ:HtMAB)
Group interaction:
"Another example of this is how West African Lions interact with each other as a group. If you put more than one adult male in with an adult female then those animals are going to fight for dominance, and the winner of that fight will become the Alpha of the lions in that habitat. This grants him the sole rights to mating with the females and producing offspring, so if you want specific creatures to breed you’ll need to keep this in mind." (DJ:HtMAB) "Since they’re the most social of all big cats, they will require a big enough habitat to fit a large group of animals. These groups can consist of an Alpha male and a few females, some males, or some females. Males don’t get along if there are females around, so watch out for that!" (DJ:CaH)
Genders in enclosure. "Each species has a range of...gender mixes it is happy with" (DJ:HtMAB)
Cleanliness. "Moreover, you need to clean the pond when it becomes dirty, lest your animals become sick, which means investing in a cleaning unit and the power generators to run it - not to mention the upkeep for all of this." (Gameinformer magazine, June) Hippos will need deeper ponds than other species so they can swim and bathe, and so on. (gameinfromer) "We wanted to make sure this [dung] vital aspect of zookeeper work is properly represented, and some animals will need extra keepers simply to keep up with the volume of dung (I’m looking at you Elephants!). We know from our conversations with keepers that this less glamourous side of animal care is time consuming, but is absolutely vital to keeping them fit and healthy. (DJ:HtMAb)
Temperature. Do you have a zoo in the desert? You'll need to build cooling pads beneath the floor of your timberwolves' den (not to mention power generators) to accommodate them. (gameinformer) "Although they live in the Savannah, West African Lions can tolerate a large range of temperatures. If the weather gets too cold, however, make sure to give them some heaters so they can warm up." (DJ:CaH)
Privacy. Certain animals "may also become stressed if there are too many guests peering in at them and they have nowhere to go for a moment of peace and some privacy." (DJ:HtMAB) "If your zoo is very popular, you will have to think carefully about how to incorporate shy animals into your plans, as they hide or get stressed when visitors become numerous. To improve the situation, instead of allowing guests to look in all the way around the habitat, just build a few windows into walls at strategic points. Combine these viewing areas with shelter and food locations, to give your guests the best experience of an animal's natural behavior." (DJ:HtMAB) "Stress caused by guests can be minimised by the use of one-way glass, which allows your guests to continue peeking without disturbing the habitat's owners." (DJ:HtMAB) But if you want to protect the animals' privacy, you can spend a little more money on one-way glass. They won't appreciate crowds of people gawking at them all the time and this will help to encourage them to play with an enrichment item. (PC Gamer magazine – June issue) "You should give the animals some areas where they’re able to get away from the hustle and bustle of the park. This could be a shelter or an area hidden behind some rocks or foliage. Consider the terrain and flora in the habitat: animals want to live in an environment that resembles their natural habitats." (DJ:CaH)
Health and disease. Animals have health needs. According to PC Gamer magazine: “You have to…prevent them from getting diseases.” That also add: “What we have to do, as animators, is make sure their health is readable." An example of this it that, when an animal is sick, its body language will change. Its head will droop or its walk cycle will be more labored.” Gameinformer magazine stated: "Moreover, you need to clean the pond when it becomes dirty, lest your animals become sick..."
Foliage. "I’m sure your guests would love to see your African Elephants making their way through a habitat decorated as if they were right there in the Savannah – and they will feel just that bit more at home surrounded by their natural flora and fauna!" (DJ:CaH) "Grizzly Bears love caves but aren’t fans of palm trees" (DJ:CaH)
Benefits of Fullfilling Animal Needs and Desires
Higher welfare animals have the potential to live longer, raise young more successfully, and be more appealing to guests. (DJ:HtMAB)
Negative consequences
There are negative consequences to bad habitat design and not providing animal enrichment (PC Gamer) "Creating a habitat that isn't good for an animal will have a negative impact on its wellbeing and the guests.…You have to make sure the habitats have the correct biomes and temperatures." (PC Gamer) "You aren’t obliged to heed these drives, providing you can compensate for the ensuing discontent and its effect on your ticket sales, and there’s the striking prospect of creatures resolving certain situations without your intervention. If there are two male lions in a pride, for instance, they’ll duke it out till one is driven to the periphery of the area." (Rock Paper Shotgun) "Some animals won’t be happy if they don’t have sand, or water pools to swim in, or long grass, so you have to make them happy along with any other animals also living in the same environment." (Gamerevolution)
How animals display their feelings
"While animals in the real world can be hard to understand, they do provide you with hints as to what they are feeling, and this is also the case in Planet Zoo. If they are sick or injured they will tend to lie down more to rest, whereas animals that are stressed will try to hide away from guests, so keep an eye on their behaviours to make sure they're always content." (DJ:HtMAB)
Animals can fight
“And if an animal gets into a scrap it'll pick up wounds that will, over time, develop into scars and stay there for the rest of their life.” (PC Gamer magazine – June issue) It also added: “Animals won't always get on, and some species won't play nice with others…If you put a load of lions in a habitat with a herd of zebras, you're gonna have a bad time.” (PC Gamer Magazine)
Genes, Animal breeding, Inbreeding, Conservation, Animal release, Animal life cycle
Traits and Gene, No Two Animals Look the Same
Animals have traits that are directly inherited from their parents. As eurogamer comments “The genomes determine an animal's appearance (such as different stripe patterns on zebras), but also their longevity, size, immunity and fertility.”
Therefore, observes PCGamesN “no two animals in Planet Zoo look the same, even within the same species. Each individual has subtle differences in their appearance and personality that have been directly inherited from their parents. The way their stripes pattern, what shade of brown their fur is, if they have a playful nature – all of these traits make each animal unique and give them a sense of authenticity as they crawl about on the screen.”
Animal Life Cycle
As stated, one of the traits an animal inherits is life span. PC Gamer magazine says “An animal will be born and you'll see it grow and reach old age, and you'll definitely feel a sense of ownership there.” In fact this can be very emotional on the player. PC Gamer observed “One team member followed one of his elephants through a full life cycle, and it was distressing when it died.”
Death influences your zoo according to PC Gamer magazine: “You'll have emotional highs and lows. When an animal dies it also affects the economy. Money stops coming in, which is an important gameplay mechanic. It works on two levels, emotional and financial. If a ride breaks down in Planet Coaster you can send the engineers to fix it. But you can't bring a dead animal back to life. That's a beautiful bit of destruction and, from a pure gameplay perspective, a great ingredient for the simulation. And from that you get this emotional ebb and flow.”
Mating System - Who Will Mate with Who
"A vast amount of research has gone into [the mating system]" (DJ:HtMAB) "In real life animals have hugely varied mating habits, ranging from pure monogamy (one-one partnership, sometimes for life) to polygamy and seemingly no mating rules at all! In Planet Zoo we have attempted to match our mating rules to be as close as possible to their real-life counterparts." (DJ:HtMAB) Example:
"West African Lions, only the Alpha male will be allowed to mate with the females in his pride, whereas Reticulated Giraffes will mate with any member of the opposite sex." (DJ:HtMAB)
"Maintaining a diverse gene pool is very important, especially if you want your population to remain healthy. Inbreeding between closely related animals will lead to reduced fertility rates and increased chances of catching nasty diseases, so to maintain a healthy group, you will need to make sure mating does not occur between related animals and may need to periodically introduce new individuals to maintain diversity." (DJ:MtMAB) “[This system] According to director Piers Jackson, this system helps prevent the gameplay from becoming static, and also touches on problems real-life zoos have to navigate.” (eurogamer)
According to jeuxvideo “it will be necessary to ensure that, during insemination, both parents are healthy and compatible so that the offspring does not inherit imperfections or diseases, for the sake of preservation.”
Conservation and welfare of animals
One of the reasons that you breeding animals according to eurogamer "centred around the ideas of welfare and conservation." In fact according to the article "The conservation we touch on is an ongoing part of the game - you're breeding animals for that very reason, and we will show a number of those topics to the player."
Ability to Release Animals back to wild
Another thing breeding and conservation leads to is that of the ability in the game of releasing new generations of animals back to the wild. (Planet Zoo Website)
Different Types of Animals can cohabitate together (Gamerevolution)
"For example, zebras and elephants like to live with other animals around them, but other animal species prefer to live alone. This does not necessarily mean that they have to be alone in their living environment, but that they must have sufficient space to isolate themselves from the rest." (tweakers)
Animal Dung
"Before we go, I don't think we can talk about animal behaviour without talking about dung... it's always a fun aspect to work on (my YouTube recommendations list is now very specific)! We’ve tried to pay special attention to the size, shape, number of ‘boli’ in a pile, and frequency compared to eating rates. We wanted to make sure this vital aspect of zookeeper work is properly represented, and some animals will need extra keepers simply to keep up with the volume of dung (I’m looking at you Elephants!). We know from our conversations with keepers that this less glamourous side of animal care is time consuming, but is absolutely vital to keeping them fit and healthy. By the way, every piece of dung is a physics object that rolls downhill!" (DJ:HtHAB)
Animal sounds
There is an interesting fact about real zoos and sounds. While one would think that animals are the main sound source. That if fact is not the case. Generally, animals are quiet. For example, a running rhinoceros “produces hardly any sound on the soft surface of its environment.” (tweakers) In real life people would accept that but, in a game, if a person couldn’t hear the running rhinoceros, they would consider that a bug. Thus, the developers “provided them with sound, where you really would not hear that.” (tweakers)
Now what you hear in the game will also depend on the player’s position. “The game constantly makes a calculation based on the position of the player, and switches audio sources on or off based on this. Each animal has multiple places that generate audio, and the game determines in real time what you as a player will or will not hear and in which mix. The more you zoom out, the more general this mix.”
Where do the sounds come from? Frontier used many sources. They have an extensive digital library of real animal sounds. (MeriStation) But they also use a technique called foley which is the process of reproducing everyday sound effects. Therefore, according to Rock, Paper, shotgun “...you aren’t hearing hippo noises. You’re hearing audio technicians punching pieces of Xmas tree with boxing gloves to recreate half-ton footfalls, slowed-down human breathing and the artful rumpling of a leather coat…” since according to this article “zoo animals…are inconvenient source material for any audio team”
Sounds for animals may not be specific to that animal for Frontier has created libraries of assets that cover several animals. Jim Croft, head of audio, states: “We don’t do [the sound of] elephant skin, we do leathery skin, or feathery skin, or rough skin, and then the animals that need that get the right skin. And then the footsteps, we do small, medium and large hooves, we do claws.” Therefore, the movement sound of the hippopotamus is in a way that of the rhinoceros or elephant. (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
On the other hand, animals do have calls that are specific to them. In fact, these calls are an important means to provide information to the player. If you are zoomed way out overseeing your zoo you will still be able to here calls to tell you that one of your animals is in distress.
This was based on information from:
- tweakers – Google translated, link is to first page of 4 page article
- Rock Paper Shotgun
- MeriStation – Google Translated
Information panel
"Each creature has an information panel with a seriously complex set of needs, such as the ideal amount of grass or water required in the exhibit. This means terrain painting has a direct effect on an animal's wellbeing, so you can't just plop a miniature Mount Everest in the hippo enclosure." (eurogamer)
Zoopedia and Research
The Zoopedia is like a wiki that fills with information over time from staff research and is used by the player and to educate zoo guests. "It is a section within the game that gathers detailed information of each animal species so that players can expand their knowledge about those animals they care for." (MeriStation) "The Department of Biology of the University of Cambridge, who helped them make the Zoopedia." (MeriSation)
To add information to your Zoopedia PCGamesN says “You will employ members of staff and the staff will research the animals and over time they’ll perform research that adds to what we call our Zoopedia.”
What is the Zoopedia for? Well PCGamesN continues: “This educational tool also informs guests on conservation as a whole. Planet Zoo’s educational material addresses topics such as deforestation and global warming. ‘The reason that we took this on board really was because one of the mandates of a real zoo is to educate their guests,’ Jackson explains. ‘So we want to make that part of our management simulation. We’re not going to push this so hard, but it’s there.’”
"Each species has a range of group sizes and gender mixes it is happy with, so dig into the Zoopedia to research and plan your populations over time, and build the habitats to match. The Zoopedia is a fantastic player resource for planning and improving animal welfare. If you aren’t sure how to improve a habitat, or are unfamiliar with a particular species, the Zoopedia is how experts will get their welfare to 100%!" (DJ:HtMAB)
Example of its use taken from DJ:CaH
Zoopedia. Place to find information about the animals preferred habitat. “is invaluable when it comes to planning and building habitats, as it gives you necessary information about what animals need to thrive. It allows you to prepare a space for the arrival of its new inhabitant, and it’s also a great way to learn more about the animals in your zoo!” For example the Lion:
- Lion. Is a social cat thus is requires a big habitat for multiple animals.
- Lions groups. Can be alpha male with a few females, some males, or some females.
- Male lions. If females around males don't get along.
- Strong fences. Needed for lions.
- Lions and temperature. Lions tolerate large range of temperatures. But if too cold they need heaters.
"They’re also affected by the weather…Planet Zoo adds hot and cold temperatures, and even snow, which settles on the ground. You’ll actually have to place bedding for animals under cover so it doesn’t get wet, and give them proper shelter from the elements, otherwise they’ll be unhappy." (Game watcher) "Biomes and weather can have a big impact on your zoo. A Plains Zebra won’t thrive in a cold and rainy biome if they don’t have a well-built habitat that takes their needs into account. Heaters and coolers can help them feel comfortable! If it’s raining, animals will seek shelter, so make sure you’ve got somewhere they can go to escape the elements." (DJ:CaH)
Gaminfomer magazine talked about building shelters so animals could "seek comfort form rain and frost." It continued by saying if your animal loves winter and your zoo is located in a warm area of the world "you must shell out for cooling pads to lay out beneath their pen."
Animals have names
Whether or not you can name them yourself is not stated.
"The individuality of animals also seems to be a major theme for Planet Zoo, with each having their own name, personality and genome." (eurogamer)
Escaping animals will not harm visitors
Animals can escape. According to MeriStation "animals can escape from their enclosures and roam freely at the zoo if their needs are not well covered and their habitat is not well adapted."
"…escaping lions will not be able to eat the tourists. The public will be “unhappy” with having their lives threatened by man-eating cats, but otherwise won’t come to any harm." (Game watcher)
"As Planet Zoo has a family-friendly, educational focus, you cannot (unfortunately) kill the guests - although loose animals will prompt them to become unhappy and leave," (eurogamer)
Staff and Zoo Visitors Features
Staff and visitors have their own needs."Another aspect we only know a little about is what's on the other side of the fence. Guest management currently sounds like it will again build on the foundations of Planet Coaster, but according to Jackson it will "go a bit deeper" and "take an extra step"." (eurogamer)
Consideration paid to guests and staff, having their own needs to attend to but not as much as the animals. (Gamerevolution) "Players are asked to manage simple things like ensuring drinks vendors are near to their park’s guests, that the animals easy to get to (and see), and that the spiders being kept safely in their tanks." (Gamerevolution) Things such as tiredness and happiness. (Game watcher)
Examples from Gamerevolution, Unilad:
- Drink vendors near guests
- Animals easy to see and get to
- Spiders safely in their tanks
- Guests have somewhere to go to the bathroom
- Zoo layout: “Zoo layout and design is also key, not only for the happiness of guests as in Planet Coaster, but also because your Zoo Keepers will need fast access to the various enclosures - a massive jam of people would cause major issues potentially.” (GameFront)
- Creative decision: Every creative decision you make impacts the lives of your animals and the experience of your visitors. (Planet Zoo Website) For example: “Enrichment items include scratching post, which when places near a viewing window will give the guests a massive satisfaction boost when a lion starts clawing it.” (PC Gamer magazine – June Issue)
In the official preview video and in pictures staff is shown doing various jobs such as taking care of animals and educating guest. (Planet Zoo Website) "...animals rest, fight, play, defecate and maltreat their habitat, it will regularly clean and maintain with competent staff." (jeuxvideo – Google Translated) "There are many ways you can begin to mitigate potential obstacles in your zoos. A good start is to have enough keepers to keep up with the food, water and cleaning demands." (DJ:HtMAB)
Guest Education
Guest management builds on the foundation of Planet Coaster, but according to Jackson will go a bit deeper and take an extra step. This includes “an education bar, as guests will have an education need beyond merely wandering around to look at animals.” (eurogamer) They will enter “the park as blank tablets, thirsty for zoological trivia. Devote staff and resources to research animals, and you can fill out a Zoopedia with choice factoids.” This information will be communicated “by the placing of signs, speakers, and other educational devices near exhibits.” (PCGamesN) “This boosts each guest’s individual education level, with animals that are not native to that zoo’s geographical region objects of particular curiosity; it also raises the education level of your zoo as a whole.” (Rock Paper Shotgun)
Research staff
"You’ll be able to hire members of staff specifically focused on research - which not only helps you as a player to look after the animals better, it will also educate visitors in the park with signs and speakers." (Game watcher)
"Craft detailed habitats to bring your animals’ natural environments home, research and manage each species to allow them to thrive, and help your animals raise families to pass their genes onto future generations." (Planet Zoo Website)
YouTube Planet Zoo Videos
For a list of most of the YouTube videos in English about Planet Zoo. See this reddit post:Links to YouTube videos featuring Planet Zoo
Thank You for Your Help
hotredpepper1, DeneralGegenerate (several times), artfulguy63, mjmannella (several times), MrBellcaptain, Tobart188 (several times), BestInSlotYoutube, kylachanelle. If I missed you let me know.Last Edit 6.10.2019 Added new animals and release date, min system requirements, etc.
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