Planet Zoo - More Beta Information! 🦓

Bo Marit

Lead Community Manager
Frontier
Hello Zookeepers!

We are less than one week away from the Planet Zoo Beta, and we've just released a brand new trailer to celebrate:




As you all know, the Planet Zoo Beta runs from 24 September to 8 October 2019 for those who have purchased the Planet Zoo Deluxe Edition. Today we want to give you some additional information so you know what to expect, what activities you can take part in, and where to go if you get stuck.


When is it available to play?
We aim to have the Planet Zoo Beta live by 4PM BST on 24 September, and it is expected to run until 5PM BST on 8 October.
Whilst we cannot support pre-loading the Beta at this time, the download size will be a relatively small 10GB. Hopefully that should let you jump into the game quickly!


What's available to play?
The Planet Zoo Beta will feature the following:
  • Scenario 1 of Career Mode (no additional Scenarios as we do not want to spoil the story ahead of launch!)
    This features the first part of the tutorial within the Temperate biome, several objectives, and has free play after the objectives are completed.
  • Franchise Mode
    This features a full economy within the Savannah biome and will not contain any narrative or objectives, so you will start with an empty map and develop your zoo from there.
    The Animal Market will be available (online play only).
    Please note you can only have one Franchise per player, but your Franchise can feature multiple zoos.
  • A host of previously announced animals, as well as some new species to discover!
  • Various Staff types and Buildings;
  • Various Themes and Rides;
  • Research Options and the in-game Zoopedia;
  • Habitat Blueprints;
    We've made an upgrade to the blueprints you may know from Planet Coaster! When you select your blueprint, it will now also include any terrain you've put around it!
  • And a massive host of enrichment, habitat, building, scenery, and foliage pieces!
The Planet Zoo Steam Workshop will be activated during the Beta, which means you can upload and share any in-game blueprints you create! However, please note that we cannot guarantee to support your Beta blueprints upon launch, as we may need to wipe your blueprints if we discover something post-Beta that invalidates them.
The Beta will be localised in all available in-game languages (please check here for the full list).


What's NOT available to play?
  • Sandbox Mode (however, you can replay both maps as often as you like, with the available in-game mechanics and economies).
  • Saved Games; you can save your progress at any time during the Beta, but all saved games will be invalidated upon launch.
  • None of the Deluxe Animals (Komodo Dragon, Pygmy Hippopotamus, Thomson's Gazelle) as well as some other already announced animals; Planet Zoo Beta focuses on a wide selection of animals, with the rest being available upon launch.
  • Full Career Mode (you only have access to Scenario 1).
Of course all of the above things WILL be available upon launch!


Fun Activities to Join
Of course we're not letting you play by yourself; we'll be right there with you! Here's a few activities we've organised to keep you entertained.
  • Creative Forum Competition // on 25 September we will kick off our first creative building competition on our forums. You'll have the full two weeks to participate and have the opportunity to win some excellent prizes!
  • Beta Community Goal // a special challenge running from 26 September 12PM BST until 3 October 12PM BST. Whilst there is no unlock reward at the end, taking part in this community challenge will give you a good idea of what's to come upon launch.
  • Twitchcon Streams // whilst the team is away at Twitchcon between 27 - 29 September, some of your favourite content creators will be streaming the Beta live from the show floor! So even if you can't play yourself, you'll be able to be in their chat and ask questions. We will post the schedule as soon as it's finalised.
  • World Animal Day // 4 October is World Animal Day, and we've got some exciting things planned for you! Be sure to check in on our social channels for a bunch of fabulous reveals and celebrations!
  • Wild About Wildlife - Special Streams // On 5 and 6 October from 4PM to 7PM we will be streaming the game live from our Frontier office. Join your community team and some developer guests for an interactive let's play of the Beta content, and a chance to chat to the people who created the game. More info in the October Streaming Schedule (soon)!
  • Giveaways! // Of course there will be several opportunities throughout these two weeks for you to win amazing prizes! Aside from the above, there will be social competitions, livestream giveaways, and exclusive newsletter prizes.

This all sounds great, but...
Yes, we know - we're still working with a special Beta build of the game, and this is the first time lots of players gets their hands on Planet Zoo; what could go wrong?!

In case you do run into trouble, anything from game crashes to bugs, we urge you to log all your findings via the Issue Tracker. This way we can keep an eye on what's going on with everyone's games and jump in with critical fixes where needed. Of course we are also available on the official forums and via our Customer Support team, but you can help us react quickly by reporting diligently. We will have to prioritise issues when they come in, so do bear with us during Beta time - but of course our main goal is for everyone to have an amazing Planet Zoo experience, so thank you in advance for all of your valuable feedback.

We will also post a Known Issues thread on 24 September.

If you have any more questions, feel free to pop them in the thread below and we will do our best to answer them. We hope you're looking forward to playing Planet Zoo really soon!

the Planet Zoo team.
 
Wow - this is all great news! It's going to be an exciting week to be sure. So much going on! Thank you, Bo!

I just have one question - will Scenario 1 of Career Mode be enough of a tutorial to learn to play the game?
 
None of the Deluxe Animals (Komodo Dragon, Pygmy Hippopotamus, Thomson's Gazelle) as well as some other already announced animals; Planet Zoo Beta focuses on a wide selection of animals, with the rest being available upon launch.

Hello Bo, thanks for amazing post! I understand the deluxe animals however, could we get a little bit more information about this statement? As I remember in the one of the official gameplay videos you have mentioned we will be able to play with all of the animals/content revealed so far :)
 

Chante Goodman

Community Manager
Frontier
Hello Bo, thanks for amazing post! I understand the deluxe animals however, could we get a little bit more information about this statement? As I remember in the one of the official gameplay videos you have mentioned we will be able to play with all of the animals/content revealed so far :)
The developers are still working on some animal models, so they won't be available in time of the beta, but will be available at launch. The beta still has a long list of available animals to keep everyone busy! :)
 
Top Bottom