Welcome to Issue 4 of
May 26-31
May 26-31
In this edition of This Week in Planet Zoo we will discuss
- The new animal reveal of the Indian Peafowl
- What will be presented at E3
- A new animal poll that included a new animal animation of the wolf
- An in depth analyze of the Developer Journal: How to Manage Animal Behaviours
- A look at some community discussion and YouTube videos
- Feature spotlight: what has been revealed about animal animations
- And in the zoo spotlight we look at the Burgers’ Zoo
PLANET ZOO ANIMAL REVEAL – INDIAN PEAFOWL
This week In Zookeeper Zone email newsletter they revealed a animal we knew was going to be in the game but now we have a picture of what it looks like in game. It stated “We’re excited to announce that the Indian Peafowl will be making its way to Planet Zoo this Fall! Those beautiful tail feathers are sure to stun your zoo guests when they come visit. Did you know there’s a direct link between the amount of spots on their tail-fan, and its success in finding a mate?"Top Picture: Planet Zoo Indian Peafowl, Bottom Left: Indian Peacock, Bottom Right: Indian Peahen
Now there was some discussion about the quality of the picture. This is what Bo had to say on the Planet Zoo reddit "Good job spotting the Indian Peafowl in our Zookeeper Zone yesterday! Some of you might have noticed the quality, and it was indeed a low-res shot that went out as it was a newsletter exclusive - apologies for that! With regards to the beautiful creature itself, I'd just like to remind you that the game is currently in development, and not all shots you see are final! The authenticity of all animals in Planet Zoo is incredibly important to us and this model is still being worked on - thank you for your continued feedback, we are always listening and taking it on board, and helps feed into the development of the game."
Here are some facts about the Indian peafowl.
- Common Name: Indian peafowl or blue peafowl
- Scientific Name: Pavo cristatus
- Lifespan: up to 23 years in captivity, c. 15 years in the wild
- Body Length: 39 inch – 45 inch (From bill to tail, Male)
- Weight: 6.17 pound – 8.82 pound (Female) · 8.82 pound – 13 pound (Male)
- IUCN Status: Least Concern
The males display in courtship by raising the upper-tail coverts into an arched fan. The wings are held half open and drooped and it periodically vibrates the long feathers producing a ruffling sound. The faces the hen initially and struts and prances around and sometimes turns around to display the tail. Males may also freeze over food to invite a female in a form of courtship feeding. Males may display even in the absence of females.
The nest is a shallow scrape in the ground lined with leaves, sticks and other debris. The clutch consists of 4–8 fawn to buff white eggs which are incubated only by the female. The eggs take about 28 days to hatch. The chicks follow the mother around after hatching. Downy young may sometimes climb on their mothers' back and the female may carry them in flight to a safe tree branch
So what animals will be revealed next? What do you think?
E3 NEWS
Transcript of E3 announcement on Frontier Xtra Episode 4. Bo said:“We are going to be at E3. We are not going to be at the show floor like 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 in. 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.”
TWEETS FROM PLANET ZOO TWITTER
Sunday a tweet to sign up for Zookeeper Zone email newsletter was released. Now there has been some discussion about its graphics and icons used, if they are a teaser to animals in Planet Zoo. See Community Discussion section below for more information.Source: https://twitter.com/PlanetZooGame/status/1132835829871652865
Tuesday we received our second issue of the Developer Journal: How to Manage Animal Behvaviours. Look in the Developer Posts from the Official Forums section below for an in depth look at this post.
Source: https://twitter.com/PlanetZooGame/status/1133399695139721216
New ZoopediaFacts animal poll was released Wednesday with it we see the Timber Wolf (Grey wolf) being animated. Also watch that tortoise roar
.Source: https://twitter.com/PlanetZooGame/status/1133777830838509568
Thursday PlanetZoo tweeted a question.
Source: https://twitter.com/PlanetZooGame/status/1134053602832658432
Friday we received our new ZoopediaFact of the week about the wolf.
Source: https://twitter.com/PlanetZooGame/status/1134459712634798080
DEVELOPER POSTS FROM THE OFFICIAL FORUMS
1) As stated above in the twitter section a new Developer Journal was released.It was a pleasant surprise to receive new information in this post. What follows is the items I found to be interesting:
- Animals get stressed. In the Journal many references were made to animals getting stressed. The example given was of certain animals stressing when too many people were watching them, they seek privacy by hiding. In order to alleviate the stress, it talked about the game providing one-way glass so that the guess can watch the animal without stressing it. Thus, it is necessary to take the animals personality into consideration when designing your exhibit.
- Animals display their feelings. Examples given were that of lying down more if sick or hiding when stressed.
- Animals have desired group size and gender mixes.
- Animals seem to have preferred social groups. You can build habitats for pairs and juveniles, bachelor groups, or related family groups.
- Zoopedia. It referred to this player resource as a means to plane your exhibits and improve your animal welfare.
Some may ask what is this Zoopedia? Here is a overview:
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.’”
- You can research better foods. This can help to increase animal happiness.
- There are benefits for caring for your animals. Examples, longer life, raising young more successfully, animals more appealing to guests.
- Mating rules. Examples given, “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.”
- Animals can fight. It refers to lions fighting for dominance and mating rights.
- Snow drifts. – They were mentioned. What the really means we will see. Maybe that the snows just accumulates.
- Animal dung. – Every piece of dung is a physics object that rolls downhill.
COMMUNITY DISCUSSIONS AND POSTS
1) Will some animals be able to freely roam your zoo? Some think the new Indian Peafowl picture may indicate this. What do you think?
Best in Slot made some interesting observations: "This peafowl is clearly standing in the park itself. It doesn't look like its an exhibit. There is a fountain to the left along with a glass building of some form and low bushes that it would easily be able to escape from. What this suggests and remember the pink salt is just like in most modern zoos the peafowls may in deed be able to wonder around without our guests freaking out." To listen to more watch his video. The link is in the YouTube section below.
2) While we know we will be getting the popular zoo animals this raises a question. What obscure animals could be in the game? To discuss this an interesting post discussing what “obscure animals” you would like to see in Planet Zoo was posted.
Lots of interesting animals were suggested, with many having their pictures posted of them. Go check it out.
3) Do the graphics form the email newsletter Zookeeper Zone hint at animals not revealed? This was discussed in the following posts.YOUTUBE VIDEOS DISCUSSING PLANET ZOO
1) Gamer Empire released his fifth in his series of Predictions and Wishlist. Very well made video, take time to watch and support this fine youtuber.2) BeyondDrewTV discussed this weeks peafowl reveal.
3) On Friday BestnSlot released a new video discussing many things that happened this week and last in Planet Zoo.
4) Also Friday HallowsWright95 released a video discussing news from Planet Zoo during the months of April and May.
FEATURE SPOTLIGHT – ANIMAL ANIMATION
What follows are excerpts from various news articles discussing what the animation of the animals of Planet Zoo is like.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!" (Developer Journal: How to Manage Animal Behaviours)
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."
Now these highly detailed models only go so far. If you want to see the sex of an animal by looking at its genitals your out of luck. Rock Paper Shotgun reports that animals do not have genitals.
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 – Google translated, link is to first page of 4 page article)
ZOO SPOTLIGHT – BURGERS’ ZOO
Opened March 31, 1913 as Faisanterie Buitenlust. Burgers’ Zoo is home to over 500 species of animals covering an area of 45 ha or 110 acres. Located in Arnhem, Netherlands it is one of the biggest zoos in the country. According to Wikipedia “the zoo is popular with both Dutch and German people and receives about 1.5 million visitors annually.”The Burgers’ Zoo maintains a frequently updated YouTube channel filled with lots of videos from the zoo. Here is an example of one of the well made videos of the zoos cats.
If you want to see a overview of the zoo here is a video from Zander and his tour of the zoo.
The park has 8 theme sites:
- Burgers' Dierenpark (the original zoo).
- Burgers' Safari (a safari park).
- Burgers' Bush is a 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) indoor tropical rainforest.
- Burgers' Mangrove (a mangrove swamp). since July 2017: new 3,000 square meter mangrove hall
- Burgers' Desert is a 0.75-hectare (1.9-acre) indoor desert (focusing on the Sonoran Desert).
- Burgers' Ocean is a 8,000,000-litre (2,100,000 US gal) seawater aquarium. Two of the main tanks are the 3,000,000-litre (790,000 US gal) ocean with sharks and other fish, and the 750,000-litre (200,000 US gal) coral reef with tropical fish, living corals and other invertebrates.
- Burgers' Avonturenland (the zoo's playground), opened in 2002).
- Burgers' Rimba (opened in 2008). The Rimba gives visitors an impression of a Southeast Asian rainforest. The animals in this display include Sumatran tigers, sun bears, binturongs, golden-cheeked gibbons, dusky leaf monkeys, Sri Lankan leopards, golden jackals, banteng, muntjac, hog deer, Eld's deer, siamang, pig-tailed macaque, reticulated python, and water monitor.
- Burgers' Kids Jungle (Indoor playground in the theme of a South-American village, opened in 2012)
THE SECOND ZOOKEEPER ZONE
It contained the Indian Peafowl reveal and links to Frontier Xtra and Developer Journal.LINKS TO MY OTHER POSTS.
- Animals and Features (A post were I gather all the information we know about Planet Zoo)
- Links to YouTube videos featuring Planet Zoo
- 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
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