CREATURE FEATURE
Alltheanimalsconfirmedsofar“We want these animals to feel
like they’re important to you, that
you do need to look after them and
care for them,” says Piers Jackson.
“And we have seen these attachments
grow. One team member followed
one of his elephants through a full
life cycle, and it was distressing
when it died. That’s a really cool
moment. A real bond. The work of
the team, be it the character
modellers, the animators, or the guys
doing the AI, has come together to
create something that people are
really invested in.”
“When you move the camera
under a ride in Planet Coaster you
can see all the workings and
mechanisms, and we’re taking the
same approach to the creation of the
animals in Planet Zoo,” adds Jonny
Watts. “We always go that extra mile
to achieve a high level of fidelity at
Frontier, and this is no different.
We think Planet Zoo players will
appreciate this.”
But if a management game is going to challenge the
player, there needs to be moments where things go to hell.
You don’t have to worry about guests being eaten by lions
here, though. An escaped animal will cause a panic, but no
blood will be shed, unlike Frontier’s other ‘zoo’ sim,
Jurassic World Evolution. But there’s still plenty that can
go wrong, forcing you to step in and deal with the crisis,
spinning the appropriate plates.
“There’s the welfare of the animals, whether you’re
building the right habitats and if they’re big enough,” says
Piers Jackson. “You also have to be able to breed these
animals effectively to increase their population.
“You have to provide enrichment for them to fight off
boredom, give them the right food, research them,
prevent them from getting diseases.
“In any simulation management game you have to
allow people to do things badly. People have to be allowed
to fail or push the simulation in a way that you didn’t
intend. And there can be consequences to that. Creating a
habitat that isn’t good for an animal will have a negative
impact on its wellbeing and the guests. But I think people
will find ways of creating successful habitats that we
haven’t thought of, and that’s part of the joy of making a
customisable game like this.”
“Running a zoo is all about making sure the animals
are well cared for, and that’s really the core of Planet Zoo,”
says Jonny Watts. “You have to make sure the habitats
have the correct biomes and temperatures. But there’s
also a whole other area called enrichment. This means
things you 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. 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.”OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
Enrichment items include scratching posts, which when
placed near a viewing window will give the guests a
massive satisfaction boost when a lion starts clawing at it.
You can also toss giant footballs into the elephant
enclosure for them to knock around. 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.
Each animal in Planet Zoo will have its own distinctive
personality and temperament. Also, to reinforce the idea
of them being individuals, the patterns on their bodies
will even be different. The stripes on a zebra, for instance,“When it comes to animating the
animals, it’s not just about making
sure they move right, but that we
capture something about them,” says
Chris Marsh, lead animator.
“We took trips to a few zoos and
collected a lot of our own reference
material. I wanted to know how they
feel when they’re in a habitat, and
existing together as a family unit.
“You can make the weight and
animation timing perfect for a single
creature, but when you drop five of
them into an enclosure they need to
interact believably. Even if you don’t
notice these details, you feel it, and
you’d notice its absence. One of the
beautiful things about animation is
that someone won’t be able to
articulate exactly why they’ve
responded to a particular animation.
They’ve just believed in it, and those
little ear flicks and nose twitches add
up to create the feeling that they’re
real animals. Our job is making
people believe and buy into that.”AfricanElephant
GreyWolf
GrizzlyBear
Hippopotamus
PlainsZebra
Reticulated GiraffeRing-tailedLemur
WestAfricanLion
WesternChimpanzee
IndianPeafowl
Brazilian Wandering Spiderf
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