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New Zoo game speculation and ideas
Topic Started: Sep 13 2016, 03:16 PM (5,488 Views)
HENDRIX
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-retired-

This list shows the most popular animals in European zoos: http://zootierliste.de/en/?org=10
Albeit only in German, it is an excellent guideline for creating a realistic zoo game.
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tigris115
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I referenced that, especially for the reptiles, passerines, and the fish.
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Jannick
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Papua merdeka!

HENDRIX
Sep 17 2016, 02:44 AM
This list shows the most popular animals in European zoos: http://zootierliste.de/en/?org=10
Albeit only in German, it is an excellent guideline for creating a realistic zoo game.
The problem with that list is that, while useful as a general guideline, it is really biased towards species that are very easy to obtain and keep. If you just take the top 30 animals on the list, for example, you'd be creating an excellent Petting Zoo Tycoon rather than an actual zoo game :P
I think the original games overall had a reasonably good idea of a basic animal list, barring some poor choices of species or subspecies (emperor penguin, mountain gorilla) with only a few animals that really should have been replaced with something different. It all depends on how large you want to make the list, though.

EDIT: Also, I think we're a little stuck in the old ZT2 mentality with the building sets, at least as far as walls etc. go. Wouldn't it be more parsimonious to use a Sims-like system where you just build a wall (or maybe select one of a few different options that vary in thickness or shape) and then choose a texture to smack on it afterwards?
Edited by Jannick, Sep 17 2016, 09:07 AM.
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tigris115
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Personally, I wanna make this game something that even Noah would bow to me for, but I'm aware that you can't have that at first. Maybe just a representation of the stock species would do for the first few.
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HENDRIX
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Yeah, it's not like you have to work this list off from the top obviously, but it gives you a good idea of what is really common in zoos. ZT2 had an incredible bias for large mammals, while this list is dominated by smaller species and has not that many mammals.
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Jannick
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Papua merdeka!

Yeah, but ultimately I think zoos do tend to focus on large mammals since they draw the crowds, so I think the 'basic' large mammals would be a logical base, after which you can start adding different and smaller species as you start expanding the list.
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tigris115
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We'll also need to worry about things like marketing and testing. Do people want a new zoo game besides us?
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HENDRIX
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That used to be completely true in the past, but today especially smaller zoos have to focus on fewer and smaller species, with few big species. Obviously there's a gradient from things like small bird parks to medium sized zoos to really huge zoos, and the species also tend to be bigger simply due to space restrictions.

Oh yes I absolutely agree about the sims mechanics.
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Zoo Tycooner FR
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#Lithopédion

^ This is completely right , take for example Tierpark Donnersberg (Rockenhausen) , 74 (and a lot of them are mammals) species but practically none are considered to be ''large'' .
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EsserWarrior
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EsserWarrior

Yeah, in a zoo today, a collection of 100 species isn't considered huge if you count all different kinds of animals.
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tigris115
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I may be skating thin ice, but should there be realistic mating and birth? I think we're all grown-ups here but I'd like a second opinion.
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Imperator Furiosa
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Chaos Theory

Ehh...As far as births are concerned I'd be fine with a Sims-style birth for animals (baby appears in a shower of sparkles/confetti and the mother immediately loses her pregnancy belly), actual birth can be pretty gory and would definitely drive the ESRB rating out of the E and E-10 range, not to mention it may be difficult to animate. As for mating I'm really not sure which would be better, I wouldn't mind that extra bit of realism but it may be too much for younger players.

I do think realistic pregnancy is a must, perhaps even include pre-natal exams and ultrasounds. Eggs could be incubated as well. For both an approximate due-date would be a very helpful feature.

I was also thinking a bit about staff, specifically how there could be a few different categories. You could have paid employees that you're only able to hire a limited number of (curators, directors, scientists, vets, etc), paid employees that you can hire an unlimited number of (zookeepers, restaurant/food stand vendors, retail employees), and unpaid "volunteer" employees (groundskeepers, educators, tour guides). You could also provide job training so employees can perform tasks faster or more effectively. This goes into the whole management vs building sim debate but I think most of these features could still be applicable to both.
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Jannick
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Papua merdeka!

Well, if you turn this into a full-on management sim you wont need to worry about the appropriateness of mating animals, since very few children will be interested in a hyperrealistic zoo game which forces you to worry about more than just the "fun" parts :P I'm personally not completely sure about straying so far into management territory that the player has to concern themselves with ultrasounds and such. If you have a zookeeping sim, where the objective is to be a good zookeeper and you take care of a few animals, that would be fine. If you have a zoobuilding sim, where as your zoo grows bigger and bigger you will ultimately have several hundred animals to take close care of, this becomes a problem, as it becomes extremely time-consuming and really limits creativity.
It's important to set boundaries around what you're trying to do :P
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EsserWarrior
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EsserWarrior

Carrying on what Imperator said about the staff, I think if you train more zookeepers with internships and stuff, you'll get more popularity and such. Also I don't know if they'd make it so the college or something will pay you for the internship or not.
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Michael
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Your benevolent ruler

Jannick
Sep 17 2016, 04:12 PM
I'm personally not completely sure about straying so far into management territory that the player has to concern themselves with ultrasounds and such. If you have a zookeeping sim, where the objective is to be a good zookeeper and you take care of a few animals, that would be fine. If you have a zoobuilding sim, where as your zoo grows bigger and bigger you will ultimately have several hundred animals to take close care of, this becomes a problem, as it becomes extremely time-consuming and really limits creativity.
It's important to set boundaries around what you're trying to do :P
Well the route ZT2 went could also be taken in that you can do it yourself as the player until you don't want to or it becomes too big a job, then you hire someone else to do it for you (I.E. Zookeeper, Verterinarian, etc...). I'm also a fan of the thought of hiring staff to get bonuses or something like say you get a really well trained curator and it becomes easier for you to acquire certain animals.
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