A LETTER TO THE DEVELOPERS (from the Jurassic World Evolution Community)
Dear Jurassic World Evolution Developers,
I really enjoyed the gameplay videos and I have to congratulate you for this awesome job! But I have some constructive feedback that I would like to share with you! I’m writing not only on my behalf but also on behalf of many members of the community after reading and discussing during hours about the game. My 3 main divisions, for you, are Creativity, Complexity, and Immersion. So like in your game, I ask you to choose several contracts for these 3 divisions and try to keep a nice balance between them!
Ok, let me explain: JWE is a tycoon-type/simulation game, so keep it under this perspective. In this type of games, creativity is what will keep the player attached to the game, is what will make the player stay hours and hours playing. It is like painting. Nobody wants to paint the some picture all the time. Everybody likes to have its creativity challenged to some degree. It what makes the player want to play the same savegame during hours and hours, day after day, even if only to contemplate its creation, like a painting. It will be what will bring the player to ask: In which different way I will build a JW today? Complexity is when a game pulls the player to be constantly paying attention to the game itself. If we have a game that is so basic that we can abandon it running alone and nothing happens it will be a boring game. And finally, immersion: Yes, the player wants to feel itself inside of the game! Like if it was there!
And then, have a couple of points that I would like to address:
- First I think that a lot of fans and players were expecting a game strongly similar to Planet Coaster since is the same video game company producing JWE. This elevated the expectations of the average player, expecting to see many of the features of PlanetCoaster (PLC) present in JWE. Planet coaster is really more guest focused and all about building a unique customized amusement park. We all know that! And that's why that game is so full of unlimited options to create unique parks. This leads to my first concern. I feel that many players will get easily tired of JWE if the game doesn´t allow some degree of customization. Nobody wants to build the same buildings and the same objects all the time, nobody wants to build 10 Jurassic Worlds that look all the same. You must give some sort of variation, like building thematic enclosures with thematic objects, or kind of changing the look of the environment of the park. Different benches, restaurants, building eating plazas, relaxation areas, gardens, rocks, fountains, statues, museums... We all understood that JWE is all about dinosaurs and management, but. Why not building thematic areas that really look different from all the other places in our park? Like the Tendaguru safari or Jurassic Portugal exhibition? We like to challenge our own creativity.
- The lack of objects is strongly related with what I said before: rocks, logs, waterfalls (maybe in terraforming), extinct plants (and greenhouses as attraction), skeletons, street lamps, decorative walls, and fences. All of these to help to enrich the environment of the animals and the guests.
- Another aspect that I wouldn´t like to see neglected is the employees of the park, the staff! I think, as CEO, you must be in charge of managing your park's staff (since the game is so focused on that), decide the number of rangers to hire, the amount of scientists... and the possibility to hire other employees like guides or entertainers (since there is a whole division on entertainment this would make sense). Maybe the 3 different divisions can also play a lot with this feature (e.g. your entertainment division will mainly want to hire more and more guides and entertainers and support a cut on the budget for scientist and rangers, the security division will support a bigger number of rangers...). And of course, You must be aware if you have enough amount of employees to make sure your park is running without any issues, you should manage the wages of your staff, train them and make them feel happy! Imagine the potential of such system: If your staff dies in a disaster, is eaten by a dinosaur, is bribed or is a spy infiltrated, or they just get in strike, you must be ready to solve these problems and have a nice payment check in your hands if you don´t want to ruin the park of your dreams. Having a park is also all about having a team that is professional, efficient and loyal to you. (We have seen in the movies the role that the staff takes in the parks). This resembles to the complexity that I mentioned before! It makes the game more complex and fun!
- The guests need some improvement as well. Each guest needs to have a unique opinion on what he/she thinks about the park. I also would like to see kids in the park (ok, I know, just make them immune to dinosaur attacks) and more variety of behaviors on the guests. Make them part of the simulation, not only a minor feature.
- We need more attractions. We just don´t want to get bored we also want to make sure our guests don’t get bored! If the game will be limited to viewing platforms and gyrospheres, then the game will be really boring. We need jeep safaris, balloon trips, feeding exhibitions, boat rides... all the stuff that you can see in the movies and more! Imagine building an all JW only visitable by boat through a system of rivers and canals and boat rides? You get my point. And of course, control over these attractions, like prices, vehicles, look... Another positive point would be the possibility to have a guest experience like, riding the attractions, see what they see from a viewing platform...It will be like if you were a guest in your own park, like many of us have dreamed to be since 1993! The available room to build is being a concern to many fans. I hope the bigger islands are really big enough to build really big parks. I also would like to build a harbor and see the guests arriving by boat than having a monorail coming from a mountain as park entrance. Where is the iconic JP/JW main gate?? Monorail must work mainly as transportation throughout the park or even as an attraction. Even better an open island to just realize dinosaurs and see them acting like in a real ecosystem. All of this increases the Creativity, Complexity, and Immersion of the game!
- The dinos are awesome!! I just would like to see the dinosaur AI improved about alert behaviors! I have seen a Ceratosaurus capturing a Struthiomimus that didn´t even run away! small herbivores must run away just for listening to a carnivore roaring. And they must run away from a jeep at high speed too! And your dinosaurs must eat and/or attack jeeps and rangers!! That's why the training of your staff is so important. To avoid them to be eaten. And, why only herbivores have social needs? And the social predators like velociraptors? I understand that many carnivores are solitary, but a bunch of they weren´t. I also think that anybody wouldn´t mind seeing baby dinosaurs or even dinosaur reproduction (maybe something that the science or the entertainment divisions would exploit)
- Think about some immersive features: like Day and night cycle. Ok maybe not at the launch but soon add a patch with this feature. Everybody wants it! More dynamic background environment and music. Like relaxing JP music when you're building and action/terror music when a dino breaks out.
- Some sort of modding support is important. We see that nowadays the most successful games of this type are strongly modding open! As I said, stimulate the players' creativity is the success of the game. And you have a big community following your work!
Thank all for reading my letter and I hope you see it as constructive feedback and as a proof that you have a passionate community out there that wants this game to become the biggest success of the last 65Ma! We trust you!