Ngl third place will be more exciting
1 and 2 are pretty much a coin toss
1 and 2 are pretty much a coin toss
The Zoolympic Games
- Thread starter Villanelle
- Start date
The results for Round 6 are in
Big thanks to everyone for scoring and providing feedback!
The Winner is...
@Marvinb 's Zoo Mariasiel’s Seal Rescue Center
Feedback:
Runner-Up!
@Annie_konik 's Madagascar House
Feedback:
Fan Favourite
@Xrystal 's Java to Komodo
People recognise your development and loved the combo of creativity and realism in your build
Feedback:
Best Zookeeper (looking after animal and guest needs) is:
@Purple_Possum 's Three Islands Boat Tour
Feedback:
There was no clear winner for speediest build this time around as everyone who submitted their timings were around ~30 hours
Honorable mentions
@Frogstrich 's Te Paradise A Te Manu
Feedback:
@KönigDerKaffeebohnen 's Islands of Indonesia
Feedback:
@Mr-Hyrax 2 's Japan Islands
Feedback:
Full Results Table:
11 scorers so max total score this round = 495
Big thanks to everyone for scoring and providing feedback!
The Winner is...
@Marvinb 's Zoo Mariasiel’s Seal Rescue Center
Feedback:
Great stuff, love all those birds  |
| I love the atmosphere and the realism! Amazing details! It could totally be a real place. The custom mural is stunning! The place reminds me of Zeehondencentrum Pieterburen I love the spoonbills, yay! |
| A classic Marvinb-esque build, such a superb level of detail which brings all marvinb builds to life, a true inspiration and masterclass for realism every time, Wadden sea build included. |
| I love the story and the details are the best! |
| The details leave me speechless, insanely good work! |
| Gorgeous just gorgeous, it looks like its plucked right from a little town at the North Seas shores! The detailing is fantastic, theres so much care and patience in this build, the mural is just beautiful and the pure creativity of building a seal rescue center is also top notch. Just an all around stunning build |
| I mean…blown away again, of course! Your attention to realistic detail is unsurpassed. But I also really love this different take on the concept. I felt like this is a place you are very familiar with and knew how to capture. I’d hope that in real life the seals have access to more naturalistic habitats and more space to swim at speed to help them regain the strength to go back to the wild. That's not a criticism of your build, just a comment about the place! If anything it's a compliment that you captured something that inspires emotion and questions! |
Runner-Up!
@Annie_konik 's Madagascar House
Feedback:
| Totally original and detailed design, excellent architectural inspiration and creativity. Great architecture enhances the whole build. Detailed, decorative and realistic, a truly awesome 1 of a kind build |
| It looks like an exhibit I'd love to visit in real life! I love how you thought so much about fun things like gifts shops. |
| I'm a big fan of Madagascar's animals, so I am also a big fan of this building. It's so huge and well put together. |
| This one looks great and really goes all out for making a madagascar section that makes use of all animals in the game and even some implied ones. Its super ambitious and large, but it manages to keep up a very high level of thought and detail throughout the entire build while also just being very pretty and cheerfull to look at! Each screenshot, especally those of the guest areas are brimming with life and many cool idears both big and small and its really visible that Annie really tried to put their all into this and id say it succeeds with lots of heart. Wonderfull build thats just overflowing with creativity and care, love it! |
| Great stuff, but that seems to be only one island instead of 3 |
| WOW Annie, so cool so cool! That first bird's eye view image made me gasp! Such a cool and original design and layout |
Fan Favourite
@Xrystal 's Java to Komodo
People recognise your development and loved the combo of creativity and realism in your build
Feedback:
| Cool stuff |
| I love how the shape of zoo islands reflect the real islands! Amazing idea! I would love to visit this place |
| Fantastic build, great combination of realism and original creativity. Actually a cool design for real life. Love the way the picnic areas look + view of staff areas across the water, great flora details |
| I love how vast these exhibits are. They look fun to explore! |
| Great concept. I like the islands and animals you chose. Everything is so nicely spacious but I think the habitats could have get one or two more details |
| Great work! Following you from the start of this competition I must say I really think you are developing your skills, especially in the realism of your terraforming and habitat design. Love the komodo island with multiple fences and barriers. |
Best Zookeeper (looking after animal and guest needs) is:
@Purple_Possum 's Three Islands Boat Tour
Feedback:
| Love the concept, wonderful stuff |
| I loved the boat tour, what a perfect way to see all the islands |
| A very realistic landscaping build! |
| Such a great idea to build everything around a boat trip. I like it very much. |
| The boat tour around 3 islands is a very cute idear and especally the dock looks nice |
| Having been on a boat tour in Borneo, this had to be my favourite! This was a really fun concept for the challenge and I love the variety of species you chose. Great experience for guests! Fun, tropical vibes. |
There was no clear winner for speediest build this time around as everyone who submitted their timings were around ~30 hours
Honorable mentions
@Frogstrich 's Te Paradise A Te Manu
Feedback:
| Love the variety but there only seems to be two islands, unless if I am missing something |
| Wow, it's an entire zoo! so many animals, aviaries, farm animals, it's a lovely zoo! I love seals pool, fantastic work! The animals look happy in your zoo |
| very interesting designs throughout this build with unusual and creative ideas. Great use of space and neatness |
| I like the diversity of these habitats! It is an interesting collection. |
| There are some really cool ideas and habitats in this build. But I didn't completely get the islands you chose? Just New Zealand or overall Oceania? Some kind of explanation would have been helpful |
| An overview pic to understand the scale would be nice. Im honest im not really sure what i am looking at, it seems to be about the islands around oceania and im sure there are idears here but without accompanying text the build struggles to communicate to me what it is about. I suspect that its mostly about invasive animals while also featuring 2 zoo tycoon 1 styled block pools with aquatics and semi aquatics and lots of domestics. Im sure there are some nice idears here, but the lack of text and at times rahter confusing screenshots like the walkthrough butterfly habitats in an open square of dirt just confuse me. |
| Ooh, the title is Māori? Cool! Some really beautiful work here Frogstrich! I think you’re making progress I didn’t know what all the animals were in each habitat, I would have loved some labels or written details on your entry form. Great rockwork and water features! |
@KönigDerKaffeebohnen 's Islands of Indonesia
Feedback:
| Love all the detail |
| It looks great already and I'm sure it's going to be absolutely phantastic when finished. I love how you planned it, and I love the background story, it adds extra dimension to your creation. Very inspiring! |
| This build has a great vibe of realism, lots of details that add new dimensions making it an interesting place. Some lovely views across the different water features. A great build |
| the foliage and architecture are beautiful |
| What a pity you couldn't finish it but I get what you planned for and really, really like it. |
| Love the idea of repurosed enclosure. Love to see that irl aswell as implied ones in PZ |
@Mr-Hyrax 2 's Japan Islands
Feedback:
| Very pretty! The atmosphere is so nice with all those cherry trees and bridges. It's also great to see the animals have so much space |
| Really enjoyed the flow of this entry, looks like a calm place. Really like the bamboo wall surrounding, great idea and looked very cool. Cool rocky shore, this was awesome + realistic! |
| The animals look happy. |
| I love that you chose Japan as a topic, really cool. I love that every island has its own style, really well thought. |
| A very large build and propaply the one most alligned with the original spirit of the round, but its size also brings its downfall. Due to the large size the detailing is lacking and things like good guest view suffer. Still big credit for the ambition to go this large and actually fullfill the original prompt, especally the islands actually being shaped like Honshu and Hokaido is a really cool detail! |
| Love the idea of a "miniature" japan |
| So many great ideas here Mr Hyrax. I love Japan as the inspiration and it really came across with the mini Mt Fuji, cherry blossom trees and architectural details. Some of the images actually reminded me of some temple islands I visited in Vietnam. |
Full Results Table:
11 scorers so max total score this round = 495
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Yay congratulations Marvin! 
So well deserved, I love this seal rescue so much
And thanks so much everyone, I'm happy you liked my building too! Thanks for the nice comments and placing
So well deserved, I love this seal rescue so much
And thanks so much everyone, I'm happy you liked my building too! Thanks for the nice comments and placing
Congratulations Marvinb for winning, and for everyone else for trying so hard, and thanks for the comments, I do agree I made it way to big, oh well. my sister forced me to put a beaver in my winter build so we will see how that goes. Great job everyone.
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Thank you guys for the nice comments, i also hoped to finish in time but sometimes life does what it does best and gets in the way if things.
Perhaps when it someday be finished Ill create a new Google doc to show how it would have looked like if i had the time
Perhaps when it someday be finished Ill create a new Google doc to show how it would have looked like if i had the time
Grats guys and thanks for the feedback. It was a challenging one ..
My Arctic Zone one is proving more challenging ( probably because I tried a different starting route ... ) Everything was working well until I opened the zoo rofl. Tanking -200k a year and only managing to stay in the green due to the 9 butterfly exhibits ( 6 being stored until I sell them manually rofl ).
I was hoping to get away from research and education but alas, they are connected to the guests happiness .. and happy guests spend money .. no point having a gazillion stores if no one wants to spend money there....
Then throw in the fact that the arctic circle in the dead of winter ... had .. no ... snow
If I end up starting over I'll post up the end result of this one. But fingers crossed I can get the guests spending more to offset the staff wages and animal food rofl.
My Arctic Zone one is proving more challenging ( probably because I tried a different starting route ... ) Everything was working well until I opened the zoo rofl. Tanking -200k a year and only managing to stay in the green due to the 9 butterfly exhibits ( 6 being stored until I sell them manually rofl ).
I was hoping to get away from research and education but alas, they are connected to the guests happiness .. and happy guests spend money .. no point having a gazillion stores if no one wants to spend money there....
Then throw in the fact that the arctic circle in the dead of winter ... had .. no ... snow
If I end up starting over I'll post up the end result of this one. But fingers crossed I can get the guests spending more to offset the staff wages and animal food rofl.
Also forgot to answer the question about the seals having bigger, more natural enclosures. And no, in my own experience visiting places like this and from what i saw online while looking for references thats not really the case, for various reasons as i understand it.The results for Round 6 are in
Big thanks to everyone for scoring and providing feedback!
The Winner is...
@Marvinb 's Zoo Mariasiel’s Seal Rescue Center
Feedback:
Great stuff, love all those birds I love the atmosphere and the realism! Amazing details! It could totally be a real place. The custom mural is stunning! The place reminds me of Zeehondencentrum Pieterburen A classic Marvinb-esque build, such a superb level of detail which brings all marvinb builds to life, a true inspiration and masterclass for realism every time, Wadden sea build included. I love the story and the details are the best! The details leave me speechless, insanely good work! Gorgeous just gorgeous, it looks like its plucked right from a little town at the North Seas shores! The detailing is fantastic, theres so much care and patience in this build, the mural is just beautiful and the pure creativity of building a seal rescue center is also top notch. Just an all around stunning build I mean…blown away again, of course! Your attention to realistic detail is unsurpassed. But I also really love this different take on the concept. I felt like this is a place you are very familiar with and knew how to capture. I’d hope that in real life the seals have access to more naturalistic habitats and more space to swim at speed to help them regain the strength to go back to the wild. That's not a criticism of your build, just a comment about the place! If anything it's a compliment that you captured something that inspires emotion and questions!
Runner-Up!
@Annie_konik 's Madagascar House
Feedback:
Totally original and detailed design, excellent architectural inspiration and creativity. Great architecture enhances the whole build. Detailed, decorative and realistic, a truly awesome 1 of a kind build It looks like an exhibit I'd love to visit in real life! I love how you thought so much about fun things like gifts shops. I'm a big fan of Madagascar's animals, so I am also a big fan of this building. It's so huge and well put together. This one looks great and really goes all out for making a madagascar section that makes use of all animals in the game and even some implied ones. Its super ambitious and large, but it manages to keep up a very high level of thought and detail throughout the entire build while also just being very pretty and cheerfull to look at! Each screenshot, especally those of the guest areas are brimming with life and many cool idears both big and small and its really visible that Annie really tried to put their all into this and id say it succeeds with lots of heart. Wonderfull build thats just overflowing with creativity and care, love it! Great stuff, but that seems to be only one island instead of 3 WOW Annie, so cool so cool! That first bird's eye view image made me gasp! Such a cool and original design and layout
Fan Favourite
@Xrystal 's Java to Komodo
People recognise your development and loved the combo of creativity and realism in your build
Feedback:
Cool stuff I love how the shape of zoo islands reflect the real islands! Amazing idea! I would love to visit this place Fantastic build, great combination of realism and original creativity. Actually a cool design for real life. Love the way the picnic areas look + view of staff areas across the water, great flora details I love how vast these exhibits are. They look fun to explore! Great concept. I like the islands and animals you chose. Everything is so nicely spacious but I think the habitats could have get one or two more details Great work! Following you from the start of this competition I must say I really think you are developing your skills, especially in the realism of your terraforming and habitat design. Love the komodo island with multiple fences and barriers.
Best Zookeeper (looking after animal and guest needs) is:
@Purple_Possum 's Three Islands Boat Tour
Feedback:
Love the concept, wonderful stuff I loved the boat tour, what a perfect way to see all the islands A very realistic landscaping build! Such a great idea to build everything around a boat trip. I like it very much. The boat tour around 3 islands is a very cute idear and especally the dock looks nice Having been on a boat tour in Borneo, this had to be my favourite! This was a really fun concept for the challenge and I love the variety of species you chose. Great experience for guests! Fun, tropical vibes.
There was no clear winner for speediest build this time around as everyone who submitted their timings were around ~30 hours
Honorable mentions
@Frogstrich 's Te Paradise A Te Manu
Feedback:
Love the variety but there only seems to be two islands, unless if I am missing something Wow, it's an entire zoo! so many animals, aviaries, farm animals, it's a lovely zoo! I love seals pool, fantastic work! The animals look happy in your zoo very interesting designs throughout this build with unusual and creative ideas. Great use of space and neatness I like the diversity of these habitats! It is an interesting collection. There are some really cool ideas and habitats in this build. But I didn't completely get the islands you chose? Just New Zealand or overall Oceania? Some kind of explanation would have been helpful An overview pic to understand the scale would be nice. Im honest im not really sure what i am looking at, it seems to be about the islands around oceania and im sure there are idears here but without accompanying text the build struggles to communicate to me what it is about. I suspect that its mostly about invasive animals while also featuring 2 zoo tycoon 1 styled block pools with aquatics and semi aquatics and lots of domestics. Im sure there are some nice idears here, but the lack of text and at times rahter confusing screenshots like the walkthrough butterfly habitats in an open square of dirt just confuse me. Ooh, the title is Māori? Cool! Some really beautiful work here Frogstrich! I think you’re making progress
@KönigDerKaffeebohnen 's Islands of Indonesia
Feedback:
Love all the detail It looks great already and I'm sure it's going to be absolutely phantastic when finished. I love how you planned it, and I love the background story, it adds extra dimension to your creation. Very inspiring! This build has a great vibe of realism, lots of details that add new dimensions making it an interesting place. Some lovely views across the different water features. A great build the foliage and architecture are beautiful What a pity you couldn't finish it but I get what you planned for and really, really like it. Love the idea of repurosed enclosure. Love to see that irl aswell as implied ones in PZ
@Mr-Hyrax 2 's Japan Islands
Feedback:
Very pretty! The atmosphere is so nice with all those cherry trees and bridges. It's also great to see the animals have so much space Really enjoyed the flow of this entry, looks like a calm place. Really like the bamboo wall surrounding, great idea and looked very cool. Cool rocky shore, this was awesome + realistic! The animals look happy. I love that you chose Japan as a topic, really cool. I love that every island has its own style, really well thought. A very large build and propaply the one most alligned with the original spirit of the round, but its size also brings its downfall. Due to the large size the detailing is lacking and things like good guest view suffer. Still big credit for the ambition to go this large and actually fullfill the original prompt, especally the islands actually being shaped like Honshu and Hokaido is a really cool detail! Love the idea of a "miniature" japan So many great ideas here Mr Hyrax. I love Japan as the inspiration and it really came across with the mini Mt Fuji, cherry blossom trees and architectural details. Some of the images actually reminded me of some temple islands I visited in Vietnam.
Full Results Table:
11 scorers so max total score this round = 495
Firstly, this is essentially a hospital so you need everything to be easy and quick to clean, having big, natural enclosures would take alot more time to clean and increase the risk of wounds getting infected by getting sand or dirt into them. And secondly these types of institutions are usually not funded by the government, city or something and rely mostly on donations, sponsors and voluntary workers, so the ressources these places have are usually limited which only increases the need for everything to be rather utilitarian. That seals are probably one of the more expensive animals to maintain probably doesnt help either.
Some places do have enclosures for permant or long term residents which are a little nicer, but they are still on the simpler side (atleast those that ive seen) since those seals usually have some sort of disability that prevents them from being able to be released back to the wild.
Grats guys and thanks for the feedback. It was a challenging one ..
My Arctic Zone one is proving more challenging ( probably because I tried a different starting route ... ) Everything was working well until I opened the zoo rofl. Tanking -200k a year and only managing to stay in the green due to the 9 butterfly exhibits ( 6 being stored until I sell them manually rofl ).
I was hoping to get away from research and education but alas, they are connected to the guests happiness .. and happy guests spend money .. no point having a gazillion stores if no one wants to spend money there....
Then throw in the fact that the arctic circle in the dead of winter ... had .. no ... snow
If I end up starting over I'll post up the end result of this one. But fingers crossed I can get the guests spending more to offset the staff wages and animal food rofl.
As I suspected, it just isn't going to work out .. so time to start again. The premise was sound, too spread out from the start, which always messes me up, but I thought opening the zoo with everything in place would work ... which of course might have worked if everything included research and education rofl.
Anyhow, without showing too much detail, here's what attempt one ended up with before I closed its doors rofl.
Attachments
I want to add some things to this because I did an internship in a seal rescue center a few years ago, so I was lucky enough to see all of the backstage areas as well. You are totally right about the reasons for the bare looking enclosures in these institutions.
In this rescue center (and I assume it's not much different in other centers) there were three different kind of enclosures, basically for different stages of rehabiliation.
The first one, which was backstage, is the quarantine area. Those are very tiny, roofed enclosures for the seal pups (even smaller than those you have in your build) that just got there and are still very weak. They are usually kept alone there for a couple of weeks to have a better way to control their health status. They just have a bit of concrete land area to just turn around and very shallow water to take a bath. It's important that the water area is not too large and deep in this stage as weak pups (which they usually are) can drown. Also every single pup has to be hand fed in this stage, so keeping them alone is much more handy.
When they gained some weight and strength, they are moved to the second type of eclosure which just look like those you built and which are usually open to the public. They have a bit more space, a bit deeper water to dive a bit and other seals to interact with. But for hygiene and surveillance reasons those enclosures have to be bare and easy to clean as well.
Then for the final stage the seal pups are moved to a kind of release enclosure. But they have to be able to eat fish by themselves and have to reach a certain weight. This enclosure is very large, with a deep pool and a natural land area with sand. At least in this center it's backstage again to limit the human contact. There is no surveillance of the seals anymore, human contact is limited to feeding once or twice a day (and there is no hand feeding anymore). The seals can practice diving and "hunting" in this enclosure and then are released back into the wild after another couple of weeks.
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OT: I'm late sorry!
Hamsters are ground dwellers, Syrian hamsters must not fall deeper than 10-15cm. They can climb, but they do not have a good sense of depth and can injure themselves really badly. Therefore, you should avoid anything that could potentially cause them to pull themself up and fall. But on a small scale this is certainly possible. I want to fill the enclosure with coconut fibers, for example, which already looks a lot like soil.
Can I decide spontaneously whether I want to take part or not? - I just think the topic is so good, I love Christmas. But I don't know if I can manage it or find the time for it. (I haven't played since my last post in "wdydipzt"Announcing...
Round 7: Winter Wonderland! Holiday special
1st December - 5th January
No rules or parameters for this round - interpret the theme in any way you wish! Total flexibility
It can be as small as a single decoration or as large as a whole zoo...it's entirely up to you!
(ps northern hemisphere winter = southern hemisphere summer...you can go there if you want to!)
Here's a little inspiration from when I visited London Zoo a couple weeks ago...
View attachment 410306
Rules recap:
- Please submit your entry using this template link and (make sure it's shareable so I can download it)
- Please join in the scoring when the round finishes
- Some blueprints are now allowed: animals, plants, custom fonts and signs. No blueprints of buildings, transport and other decorations.
- Time extensions are possible - post in the thread so that we know to wait for you
The themes sheet will be back for round 8 in January - vote here
Little Tip
You might like to bookmark this post using the little bookmark button at the top right ^
If the thread fills up with chat it will be easier to find!
)Or is that too stupid for you?
Ah okay yeah that makes senseOT: I'm late sorry!
Hamsters are ground dwellers, Syrian hamsters must not fall deeper than 10-15cm. They can climb, but they do not have a good sense of depth and can injure themselves really badly. Therefore, you should avoid anything that could potentially cause them to pull themself up and fall. But on a small scale this is certainly possible. I want to fill the enclosure with coconut fibers, for example, which already looks a lot like soil.
Can I decide spontaneously whether I want to take part or not? - I just think the topic is so good, I love Christmas. But I don't know if I can manage it or find the time for it. (I haven't played since my last post in "wdydipzt"
Or is that too stupid for you?
Yeah you can deceide spontaneously, there is no requirement to register as a participant before
Sorry for slow reply Fini, it's been a mad week! Yes of course, join anytime and no need to declare. If the deadline is getting close and you need an extension, then its good to let me know here, so that I don't release the scoring forms before you're ready. Otherwise you can submit here whenever you want toOT: I'm late sorry!
Hamsters are ground dwellers, Syrian hamsters must not fall deeper than 10-15cm. They can climb, but they do not have a good sense of depth and can injure themselves really badly. Therefore, you should avoid anything that could potentially cause them to pull themself up and fall. But on a small scale this is certainly possible. I want to fill the enclosure with coconut fibers, for example, which already looks a lot like soil.
Can I decide spontaneously whether I want to take part or not? - I just think the topic is so good, I love Christmas. But I don't know if I can manage it or find the time for it. (I haven't played since my last post in "wdydipzt"
Or is that too stupid for you?
YeySorry for slow reply Fini, it's been a mad week! Yes of course, join anytime and no need to declare. If the deadline is getting close and you need an extension, then its good to let me know here, so that I don't release the scoring forms before you're ready. Otherwise you can submit here whenever you want to
So how long do we have on this competition
To 5th January .. or an extension if needed.
Oh okay then thanks