Hello lovely zookeepers!



Welcome to another Planet Zoo Developer Journal! This brings us up to 18 since we first announced Planet Zoo. Time flies! In this Developer Journal, we will be talking about the South America Pack.

Please welcome Designer Emma Rydstrom and Programmer Peter Munn.



(Please excuse the fact there's no photo for this Developer Journal, it is because the team are working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)



Hayo all! We're excited to talk about all the great things coming to Planet Zoo with the South America Pack!



Emma :

The community have so much to be excited about, from the five amazing new animals, to the vibrant new scenery pieces, to new features that will be really useful and valuable when managing your zoos! As a Game Designer, I primarily focused on the new features and mechanics in the free Update 1.2, such as developing the new Education Management Screen alongside the UI team and designing how decreasing the negative influence radius of Staff Facilities would work. In the South America Pack, I worked on the new animals alongside fellow Designer Dave Bamber, balancing their behaviours and needs to make them as realistic as possible.



When it came to creating the pack, we knew we wanted to venture into South America and meet some of the animals there! We also thought about how the new building pieces go with the new and existing animals to make interesting habitats and environments. Creativity and flexibility is really important too, so we considered how players may want to use scenery pieces to build. We also created lush plants and vines to allow players to make beautiful, natural environments.



Peter :

Yes, with Update 1.2, which is going out alongside the South America Pack, we made a lot of changes thanks to feedback from our community. We’ve made some big changes to the Guest Information Panel, which will now better reflect the way the underlying guest simulation works, particularly with the balancing changes that have been made to the guests. There is now a “Guest History” tab which will give you a rundown on how a guest felt about their zoo stay, giving an idea of where the zoo can be improved or why a guest is unhappy. We’ve also added a visit progress bar that estimates when a guest is likely to leave the zoo! Not only that, but we've introduced the ability to use scenery to help reduce the impact staff facilities have on guest happiness, making it possible to place these closer to where guests wander than previously possible.



Going back to the South America Pack, we've added over 250 new scenery pieces including temple architecture and jungle foliage. The goal was to allow the players to create lost civilisations in the depths of an overgrown jungle, or expand their existing zoos with new themed areas. The new scenery reminds me of something out of an adventure film, and we've even got some treasures like the golden Llama statue, that was teased on social, among other golden decorations. I really like the new stone temple building pieces. I've always really liked that style of architecture, so it's going to be great seeing our community use them to create amazing blueprints! It's going to be really cool to see what the players are able to do with them, especially once they mix them with the existing scenery and building pieces.



Emma :

We're really looking forward to you all getting your hands on the animals included. They're amazing new additions to Planet Zoo. The Llamas are so cool and sassy, and the Capuchin Monkeys are really funny! All the new animals had different challenges and requirements. For the Jaguars, the biggest challenge was getting them to swim and climb the right amount, whereas for the Llamas, I spent a lot of time making sure they herd and graze enough. For me, the Giant Anteater was the hardest to add in! They're the animal I knew the least about before working on this Pack, whereas with all the other animals I already had a fairly good idea of how they behave. However, with the Giant Anteater, I had to do more research to figure out how to make them feel like real, living animals. The Giant Anteater has to be my favourite animal in the Pack now! They're so cute, and I really like their weird and funny tongues. They were also one of my favourite animals when I played Zoo Tycoon as a child, so it's great to see them in a game I'm working on!



Peter :

That's awesome; my favourite is the Capuchin Monkey! They're also cute, and a lot of fun to watch. Certainly, the trickiest thing to do was getting the Giant Anteater's tail right! The Character Artists and Animators worked really hard to make sure the tail looked fluffy enough, and moved convincingly. They've done a fantastic job!



Emma :

I love the new bin and bench too! They're so colourful and bright, and I love all the detail that has gone into making them. Another new addition I really like, which is actually free so will be included in Update 1.2, is the new golden path. It's so nice and reflective, which I think is really cool! I'm so excited about everyone seeing all the hard work that has gone into developing the South America Pack, and Update 1.2. I think the team have done an amazing job bringing everything to life.



Peter :

Same here, I really love all the amazing buildings that the community make, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with the new scenery pieces. Also, since I had a particular focus on it, I’m also hoping you find the changes we’ve made to guests in Update 1.2 convenient and much more enjoyable.