Planet Zoo

Planet Zoo's beta is kicking off soon, though lamentably only for zookeepers who have preordered Frontier's management game. If you're waiting until November, you can still get a sliver of the beta experience by watching the beta gameplay trailer above. 

The beta will let early birds check out both the career mode, where they'll jump around solving zoo problems and taking on challenges, and the franchise mode, where you get a zoo and run it as you see fit. 

As ever, the stars of the trailer are its animals, from the cute warthogs scratching each other to escaped rhinos terrifying guests. At Gamescom, Andy Kelly also had to deal with an escaped rhino in Planet Zoo,  so check out his preview for some tips.

Frontier is hosting a Reddit AMA on Planet Zoo at 3 pm BST/10 am EST today, so if you've got any burning zoo management questions, throw them into the pile. You might net yourself a copy of the Deluxe Edition if you do. 

Planet Zoo's beta begins on September 24 and runs until October 8, while the full game is due out on November 5.

Planet Zoo - pcrowther
Hello awesome Zookeepers!

The Planet Zoo Beta is coming on 24 September, and everyone who pre-orders the Deluxe Edition will be able to take part! As well as access to the Beta (running from 24 September to 8 October 2019), the Planet Zoo Deluxe Edition also includes three exclusive animals: the Pygmy Hippopotamus, Thomson’s Gazelle, and the Komodo Dragon!

The Pygmy Hippopotamus is only half as tall as the Common Hippopotamus, and is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa.



Living in the Serengeti regions of Tanzania and Kenya in Africa, Thomson’s Gazelle prefers to live in dry grassland - although it can also be found in woodland.



The Komodo Dragon is the largest living species of lizard. They can grow up to 3 metres long and weigh over 300 pounds, as these dominant predators will eat almost anything.



These three animals all come with their own set of habitat and enrichment needs you’ll need to fulfill to ensure they are happy and cared for in their habitats. They are exclusive to the Deluxe Edition of Planet Zoo so be sure to pre-order your copy today!

See you next week!
Planet Zoo - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice Liguori)

Planet Zoo is Frontier’s latest game in with “Planet” in the name. It takes all of what was great about Planet Coaster and replaces the rollercoasters and queues with animals and habitats. It’s cute, it’s fun, and it has had a lot of love poured into it. Myself and Alice Bee got the chance to have some hands-on time with the alpha at this year’s Gamescom, and I had a right good time giving baths to Tapirs and hiring dedicated poo cleaners, as you can see in the video below.

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Planet Zoo

The latest Planet Zoo video discusses the importance of creativity and simulation in Frontier's forthcoming game, and their role in informing features like the ability animals have to climb player-made structures. But fast-forward to 3.16 in that video and you'll see something else pretty neat: Aardvarks.

We know that Planet Zoo is going to feature a wide array of creatures from Brazilian wandering spiders to reticulated giraffes, but aardvarks are a new one for the list. The adorable burrowing mammals are shown in the video to demonstrate how players will need to create habitats that suit specific animals in their zoos, with walls that can be heavy-duty brick or one-way glass, and enrichment items like feeders that make animals work for their meals to prevent boredom.

It all sounds pretty neat, and in-tune with the way modern zoos work. Planet Zoo will be out November 5 on Steam.

Planet Zoo

Swinging the camera over my zoo, I watch throngs of people wander between enclosures, happily cooing at the animals and slurping soda. But then there's a ripple of panic. I see several guests fleeing in terror, and the fear starts to spread. Something is happening in my perfect zoo. I heave the camera into the air and locate the source of the rumble: an escaped rhinoceros.

Rhinos are dangerous animals, but it's lucky for my guests that Planet Zoo is a family friendly game. In Frontier's more monstrous park builder, Jurassic World Evolution, an escaped animal usually leads to people being eaten alive. But here it just makes them upset, which in terms of running and managing a successful (and profitable) zoo is still bad news. So the first job in this, my inaugural hands-on with Planet Zoo, is dealing with a breakout.

My zoo isn't as perfect as I thought it was, because I'm currently experiencing a severe shortage of vets—a vital member of staff whose jobs include tranquillising escaped animals and returning them safely to their enclosures. I bring up the staff menu, click on the veterinarian button, and drop one directly into the park. It's that easy. More experienced vets demand higher wages, which is one of countless management decisions you'll have to make as you play Planet Zoo. I decide to splash out on a pro to get the job done swiftly.

I plop my veteran veterinarian near the escaped rhinoceros and he immediately springs to action. He pulls out a tranq rifle with a scope and launches a dart into the beast's thick hide. She tries to run away, but it's too late. The tranquilliser kicks in and she slumps into a heap on the ground. The vet seals her in a crate, which magically shrinks to a size he can hold, then he automatically drops it off in the enclosure that was previously assigned to the animal. But before I can release her I need to find out how exactly she escaped.

Surveying the enclosure, it's fairly obvious how it happened: there's a gaping hole in the electric fence surrounding it. I click on the existing fencing and I'm able to easily rebuild it by simply dragging my mouse cursor across the gap to fill it. Happy that all the holes have been plugged, I click on the crate and release the rhino back into her enclosure. Disaster averted. The guests, clearly over their trauma, flock to the area to marvel at the newly rehoused rhino.

And I understand why they're so impressed. I double click on the rhino to activate the animal camera, which lets me admire Planet Zoo's remarkable creatures up close. As she lumbers around the enclosure there's a genuine sense of weight and presence. She really feels like a living thing, swinging her tail, flicking her ears, and sniffing the air. Planet Zoo's animators watched thousands of hours of nature documentaries, and it shows. You're gonna spend a lot of time watching your animals with this camera mode.

Alas, I can't spend all day hanging out with the rhinos because I have more problems to solve. I drag the camera over to another enclosure and see a herd  of pronghorn antelope wandering around a lifeless, dusty field. I click on one, a female called Maple, and notice that the 'habitat' meter on her welfare tab is dangerously low. Animal welfare is one of the most important things in Planet Zoo and the quality of their enclosure is a big part of that.

Luckily I can see at a glance what I need to do to make this space more pleasant for the antelope. A series of meters tells me that I have plenty of sand, but I need more grass, soil, and rock to balance it out. Every species in Planet Zoo has a particular type of terrain it feels comfortable in, which you'll have to cater to if you want them to lead long, happy, and fulfilling lives. I click on the terrain painting tool and begin, well, painting the enclosure. I sprinkle some grass here, some rock there, and watch the welfare meter edge up.

Some animals like snow and you can paint it in your enclosure as easily as grass. But in a hot climate it won't stick unless you use a device called a cooler, which stops it from melting. But back to those pronghorn antelope, which seem much happier now that I've improved their enclosure. I activate the animal camera again and spin it around them, admiring their incredibly fluffy butts. The fur technology in Planet Zoo is really impressive up close.

Now I have some tapirs to deal with. Their habitat is fine, with just the right balance of terrain, but they're bored. This is because I haven't placed any enrichment items: toys, feeders, and other distractions designed to keep the animals in your zoo mentally stimulated. I bring up a build menu containing the game's vast collection of enrichment items, but the tapirs will only engage with some of them. Luckily, however, I can filter it by species.

Tapirs are natural foragers, so I drop a foraging box. They can snuffle around in here and dig out food, which will have a positive impact on their well-being. I also drop a barrel feeder, which they can stick their snouts in, and a rubbing pad for them to have a lil scratch on. You can place these objects anywhere, but the best location is always near a viewing platform or window. This means your guests will get some enjoyment out of them too.

I'm not done yet, though. A need specific to some species, including my tapirs, is 'coverage', which is increased by filling an enclosure with plants and trees. Some animals, like the pronghorn antelope from earlier, prefer open spaces, but the tapirs like being surrounded by foliage. Clicking on the nature menu I'm presented with an enormous selection of plant life, and I litter the tapir enclosure with monkey puzzle trees and lobster claw plants: species native to the hot South/Central American climate my zoo is currently situated in.

But there are, of course, more plates to spin. But compared to some management games, such as the frenetic Two Point Hospital, the plates in Planet Zoo spin quite slowly. My next job is cleaning my crocodile's enclosure—specifically the water, which has turned a rather disgusting shade of brown. Not only is this bad for the animal, but it obscures the guests' view. I switch to a heat-map that shows me the water quality, and it's currently blazing a dangerous-looking red, illustrating that sorting this out is a priority.

I select a water treatment facility from the build menu, and it's as easy as dropping it in the vicinity of the water to clean it. But there's a layer of strategy to this, because guests will be unhappy if they see the pumps churning away. So you'll have to place it in a way that's accessible to staff, by being connected to a path, but also hidden away. You could build a wall around it, perhaps. Or just obscure it with a scattering of foliage. Out of sight, out of mind. It doesn't take much to upset the roving herds of guests lining the pathways of Planet Zoo, which means you're constantly battling to keep them happy.

The water clears and my croc goes for a swim. A crowd of guests watch excitedly through the glass, and nearby is a screen that gives them information about what they're seeing. The more research you do, the more info appears here, increasing the educational potential of your zoo. Reflecting modern zoos, Planet Zoo is all about understanding animals and looking after them, rather than just thinking of them as commodities to be exploited.

Finally, I get a taste of what it's like to invite a new animal to the zoo. I spend $15,000 on a magnificent Bengal tiger named Farhan, who I discover is a rescue animal. An animal's upbringing, as well as other factors, will affect their size, longevity, fertility, and immunity to disease. Farhan has a 100% rating for size, but only 33% for immunity, meaning he might get sick easily. But when I drop him into my zoo the guests love him. He's a natural at this.

It's clear this demo was set up to give me a taste of a bunch of different game systems in one sitting, but even in this slightly artificial environment I can tell that I'm going to lose hours of my life to Planet Zoo. It combines the deep, freeform, expressive building of Planet Coaster with some really quite remarkable animals. They move, act, look, and sound just like the real thing, and taking care of them has a lot of interesting, engaging layers of strategy, not to mention managing budgets, building the zoo itself, and more besides. This could be one of Frontier's greatest park builders to date.

Planet Zoo

Players who pre-order the Deluxe Edition of Frontier Developments' upcoming Planet Zoo will get a chance to try it out early. The studio announced the beta and unveiled a new trailer at Gamescom this week.

The early access beta will be available exclusively as a pre-order bonus for the Deluxe Edition, and it's set to run from September 24 to October 8. During that time, players will be able to try out the first Career Mode campaign scenario, and use one biome in Franchise, Planet Zoo's sandbox mode. The beta will provide access to "a selection" of animals from the full game, which Frontier says includes several animals that haven't been revealed to the public yet.

Franchise Mode also lets players hop online to trade animals with other players in order to increase the genetic diversity of their zoos, which is a compelling touch. Once the game launches in November, Franchise Mode will also include daily challenges and community goals, so there's even more incentive to cooperate with other players in store.

The update did not include any information about how to feed guests to the hippopotamuses, but those are details that I'm sure will come in due course.

Planet Zoo launches on Steam November 5.

Planet Zoo

Frontier is returning to the world of zoo sims, and it’s truly a beautiful sight. After the success of Planet Coaster, the studio has moved on to Planet Zoo, a modern take on the classic Zoo Tycoon series. Frontier is putting its best foot forward with Planet Zoo: The animals and environments look gorgeous, and it's encouraging to hear that conservation is a big focus this time around. Just around the corner from release and there's plenty to know about all the animals available in Planet Zoo.

A rhino is on the loose in the latest Planet Zoo gameplay

Frontier showed off new gameplay that simulates a day in the life of a zoo owner, and the many problems that come with it. In the video, the player is challenged by a Rhino that escaped from its habitat and other animals that are unhappy with their current digs. Andy recently went hands-on with this build, so read the full story to see how he dealt with these problems.

Planet Zoo's Gamescom 2019 demo is full of cute tigers

The latest gameplay for Planet Zoo walks viewers through the process of building habitats for a few different animals. It's particularly interesting to consider the balance between a habitat with plenty of vision for guests and privacy areas for animals. Frontier also showed off a chunk of gameplay at E3 2019, which was more of a guided tour than a real example of day-to-day zoo management. It’s a great showcase of what areas Planet Zoo is focusing on: Management, creativity, and conservation.

During E3 2019, Frontier released a video version of the meaty gameplay walkthrough from the show. 

Planet Zoo animal list: every animal in the game so far

Here’s every animal we know of so far in Planet Zoo, according to the game’s Fandom wiki and Reddit

  • African Buffalo
  • African Bush Elephant
  • African Wild Dog
  • Aldabra Giant Tortoise
  • Baird's Tapir
  • Bengal Tiger
  • Black Wildebeest
  • Boa Constrictor
  • Bornean Orangutan
  • Brazilian Wandering Spider
  • Cheetah
  • Common Ostrich
  • Common Warthog
  • Galapagos Giant Tortoise
  • Gemsbok
  • Gharial
  • Giant Forest Scorpion
  • Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula
  • Goliath Frog
  • Green Iguana
  • Grizzly Bear
  • Himalayan Brown Bear
  • Hippopotamus
  • Indian Elephant
  • Indian Peafowl
  • Indian Rhinoceros
  • Lehmann's Poison Dart Frog
  • Lesser Antillean Iguana
  • Mandrill
  • Okapi
  • Plains Zebra
  • Pronghorn Antelope
  • Red Panda
  • Reticulated Giraffe
  • Ring-tailed Lemur
  • Saltwater Crocodile
  • Snow Leopard
  • Timber Wolf
  • Titan Beetle
  • West African Lion
  • Western Chimpanzee
  • Western Lowland Gorilla
  • Yellow Anaconda

There’s also the Pygmy Hippopotamus, Thompson's Gazelle, and the Komodo Dragon, but these animals are exclusive to the Deluxe Edition.

Planet Zoo is about management, but also conservation

Whereas other zoo simulation games, including ones that Frontier developed in the past, treat animal exhibits like products, Planet Zoo is about caring about (and caring for) the animals themselves. Frontier has built systems that encourage players to care equally about animal comfort as they do customer enjoyment.

Andy went hands-on with Planet Zoo in June and was incredibly impressed by the work Frontier has done to make the animals feel alive. “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. Zoom the camera in and you’ll see their noses twitch and their ears flap.”

Husbandry plays a big role too. Building the ideal environments and keeping the animals happy affects their ability to reproduce. Not only does that have financial implications for your zoo, but proper conservation is a built-in goal that requires consideration.

Go behind the scenes on Planet Zoo's complex simulations

Behind the simple presentation of Planet Zoo are complicated simulations that determine an animals needs and comforts in the habitat you build. This delightful developer video goes behind the scenes on those systems, explained by people who really seem to love the game they're making.

In his recent hands-on with the Planet Zoo beta, Fraser found out the hard way that animals won't always like the enclosure you design for them. Through research you can unlock additional enrichment items to keep them happy and adjust the design of the exhibit to give them the right style environment. You'll also handle escape attempts, as Fraser found out with his enormous brood of tiny warthogs.

Planet Zoo has dynamic weather

Depending on the biome you choose to build your zoo in, habitats will need to be designed to protect animals from the elements. Animals will dynamically react to the weather conditions. In the E3 2019 gameplay video above, you can watch chimpanzees retreat under a canopy during rain.

Planet Zoo habitat building is open-ended

One of the most difficult challenges players will face in Planet Zoo is constructing the perfect environment for your animals. Instead of dropping large copy/paste modules in the park, habitats are constructed piece-by-piece. Andy touched on this in his hands-on:

“You have total freedom when it comes to designing your zoo, building habitats, decorating it, and filling it with animals. Like Planet Coaster there’s a vast Lego set of bits-and- pieces to slot together, letting you create any zoo you can imagine.”

Players will have to strike a balance between building the most comfortable habitats and keeping the zoo financially stable. Frontier used elephants as an example. You can spend extra on one-way glass to relieve the animal of the stress of so many prying eyes. This also leads to an improved mood for the elephant, which in turn makes it more likely to have crowd-pleasing behavior like playing with a ball.

Habitat layouts also have to be designed with visitors in mind. The park needs to have a nice flow with clear views of the animals, but visitors also don’t want to see employee buildings and other behind-the-scenes action. Frontier implemented employee paths for this reason, which let you designate areas where only employees can go. With smart planning, your zoo can look like a natural paradise.

Planet Zoo animals will look like their parents

Speaking of husbandry, animal offspring is procedurally generated to look and act different than its parents. Frontier used the example of zebras, who can have vastly different striping depending on the patterns of the parents.

But that’s not the only way Frontier is distinguishing animals. If animals are injured, their wounds will slowly heal and form scars that stay with them for the rest of their life. I love the idea of distinguishing my favorite animals by the details in their fur or blemishes earned over a long life.

Check out some of the props that Planet Zoo developers use to make sound effects

Foley recording rooms where audio engineers use props to make sounds are often one of the silliest and most interesting parts of game development. Checking out what kinds of materials different developers have in their toolkit never gets old. In Planet Zoo, you might have an African Elephant living in a snowy enclosure. In the wild, elephants don't get much snow exposure so making giant snowy footsteps is a bit tricky. Frontier goes over some of the props seen here in more detail as part of its October catch up post. 

Meet Walter, my son

That's Walter

I’d like you to meet Walter, my son. He’s a saltwater crocodile and, despite his numerous sharp teeth, he mostly likes to slither in the water and play "who can stand still the longest." He wins every time.

Planet Zoo’s system requirements are light, but incomplete

Planet Zoo’s system requirements aren't yet set in stone, but here’s the minimum requirements listed on the game’s Steam page.

Minimum

  • OS: Windows 7 (SP1+)/8.1/10 64bit
  • Processor: Intel i5-2500 / AMD FX-6350
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (2GB) / AMD Radeon R9 270X (2GB)
  • Storage: 16 GB available space
Planet Zoo

Frontier has shown off Planet Zoo's E3 demo, previously revealed behind closed doors. The gameplay, narrated by developers, gives us a pretty detailed look at a built up zoo full of animal exhibits, from big enclosures to wee terrariums. Give it a watch above. 

Planet Zoo's easily one of most exciting things we got to see at E3, in no small part to the interesting stuff Frontier's doing with its menagerie. Each of them is unique, apparently, right down to their appearance and traits, some of which they get from their parents. And then each species has its own proclivities, like herding, and needs that determine how you build their habitat. 

The animation is a real high point. You can zoom in close to admire your animals, and Frontier seems to have done an incredible job bringing them to life. Giraffes constantly flick their ears, chimps always look like they're gurning and alligators swim through the water menacingly—it's all been recreated. 

You can build mixed habitats, as some of the animals like living together, and you can fill them with 'enrichment items' that cheer them up. The wildebeest really seem to like being able to rub against stuff for a good scratch, for instance. And like Planet Coaster, you can build your zoos around certain themes. In the demo, the zoo had Serengeti vibes, from the map itself to the buildings and animal selection. 

While animals are the stars, there are also some rides for guests, taking them on trips around the zoo, and finally we can see inside interiors. So you can follow a member of staff around as they go inside the kitchen to prepare food for the animals or hang around the staff room to see what they get up to on their time off. 

It's the most we've seen of the game so far, and it's definitely looking promising, combining the good bits from Jurassic World Evolution with all the great, modular, creative stuff from Planet Coaster.

We'll see more when the beta kicks off this summer, and Planet Zoo is due out on November 5.

Planet Zoo

Frontier has released a 17-minute video showing in-game footage of the promising Planet Zoo.

In the video we see the impressive detail of the animals in the game, not just in terms of their visuals and animations, but their behaviour. And we get a look at how you'll design the zoo itself to make the most of your space, maximise the productivity of your staff and keep your animals happy.

Of note, just before the three minutes mark, we see a giraffe kick about its own poo, confirming Planet Zoo is so detailed it even has poo physics.

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FINAL FANTASY VIII - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dave Irwin)

They just keep coming don’t they? A lot of games were announced at E3 2019, things that we didn’t know about, as well as stuff that’s previously announced, or expansions to already released games. Now, to the casual outsider, what we’re doing might seem absolutely nuts, but we thought we’d put together an alphabetical list of all the PC games that have been confirmed to appear at this year’s E3 show. With well over a hundred of them now in the books, the next year or so looks packed.

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