Linthe: Performance and memory optimisation are paramount for a game as deep as Planet Zoo, but in addition to this, one of our biggest challenges was of course ensuring that the player interaction that was originally designed for a PC mouse and keyboard, also feels intuitive using a controller. ![]() What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome when trying to ensure that Planet Zoo feels fun and easy to play on consoles without losing any of its complexity? We’ve learned a lot about translating a complex management sim to feel easy to use with a controller, and are excited to deliver the limitless creativity experience of Planet Zoo to consoles. James Lockett (Engineering Lead): The success of the Jurassic World Evolution games and Planet Coaster: Console Edition certainly helped drive and inform our decisions for implementing the game on console. Everyone used their experience to help shape the wealth of content available to the players and it shows. The team’s passion and experience made the whole process so much easier, and fun. These include accessing time controls, uploading blueprints to the workshop to share with other players, using quick shortcuts via the radial menu, and viewing all the data on their zoos. It shares many common features with Planet Zoo, and so we had a good idea of how we’d make it intuitive for players. Planet Coaster: Console Edition stands out for us especially. Linthe: The Jurassic World Evolution games were both well received on consoles, and we did learn a lot during their development, however Frontier’s experience of amazing console games in general helped us immensely in bringing the fun and joy of Planet Zoo to new players. Was the decision to bring Planet Zoo to consoles prompted in any way by seeing how well the Jurassic World games play even when the player isn’t using a mouse and keyboard? Does Planet Zoo’s console version borrow any ideas from the Jurassic World games? James: We’ve had so many requests from players to bring the game to consoles, and while working on free updates and content for Planet Zoo on PC we’ve also been able to make optimisations that would take us towards that goal, so it felt like the right time.įrontier Developments obviously has experience with solid console versions of management sims, especially with the Jurassic World Evolution games. Seeing the community’s desire for us to bring the game consoles got us very excited to get to work so even more players can enjoy Planet Zoo. Thomas Linthe (Head of UI): The ongoing success of Planet Zoo, and the stellar work the team has done in the past on Planet Coaster: Console Edition, made this an easy decision. This long from launch, what motivated the decision to finally bring it to additional platforms? It’s been over four years since Planet Zoo first launched for PC. ![]() "Seeing the community’s desire for us to bring the game consoles got us very excited to get to work so even more players can enjoy Planet Zoo." NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to Planet Zoo: Console Edition’s release. Below, you can read our interview with Thomas Linthe (Head of UI), James Locket (Engineering Lead), Chris Cox (Principal Render Programmer), and Ged Keaveney (Principal Programmer). Planet Zoo: Console Edition has launched for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and we recently had the chance to speak with its developers at Frontier about the port’s development, what changes it makes from the PC version, and more. Now, Frontier is ready to open the gates for an even larger audience to jump into the game’s offerings. The Zoo Tycoon spiritual successor launched for PC close to five years ago, and has garnered a sizeable and dedicated fanbase in the years since then (thanks in no small part to the substantial post-launch support it has received). Not many developers have the sort of mastery over construction and management sims the way Frontier Developments is, and Planet Zoo is perhaps the game that exemplifies that better than most.
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