Dev Diary: May 2024
Welcome to the May Development Update!
In this blog post, we’ll be detailing our current progress on Update 11 and talking about our plans for the next few updates.
Plateosaurus AND staff will be coming to the Update 11 PTB soon!
The next PTB release will include access to an early version of staff gameplay - featuring laborers and keepers! Their visuals are still a heavy work in progress, featuring non-final animations and materials, but their gameplay is mechanically functional.
Although we explained how staff and logistics work in a previous dev diary, we’ll quickly go through it again here with new in-game screenshots and gifs.
Update 11: Staff & Logistics
THE LOADING BAY
It all begins with the Loading Bay - a module that imports resources for animals and guests. This building can only hold a small amount of items, relying on staff to distribute supplies throughout the park.
When resources have been collected by staff, a truck will depart to replace your missing inventory, returning later in the month. Downtime between deliveries can be improved by purchasing up to two additional trucks per Loading Bay.
STORAGE
Since the Loading Bay can run out of room, you’ll need to eventually expand your storage. Storage modules for goods and produce can be strategically placed around the park to shorten delivery times in the long term.
In Prehistoric Kingdom, this is a physical process. Laborers will walk from the Loading Bay to storage modules, transporting the required goods. There is no global “park-wide” resource pool, each storage building has its own internal stock and demands physical interaction from a Laborer or Keeper in order to retrieve a resource.
Players can selectively block certain resource types when selecting a storage module, allowing you to flexibly customize how things are stored without having to clinically micro-manage everything. Blocking a resource that’s already in storage will have it removed by a Laborer.
LABORERS
The Laborer’s primary role is to transport resources around the zoo, taking meals and merch from the Loading Bay or Goods Storage in order to restock kiosks, restaurants and gift shops so that visitors have products to buy.
As mentioned, these staff members also take the responsibility for moving resources between storage modules. They like to move it, move it!
KEEPERS
Keepers take produce from the Loading Bay, storage modules or Produce Stations. They’ll enter habitats via the new Staff Gates and restock feeders, providing your animals with food.
You can see a work in progress refill below! We intend to make Keepers push wheelbarrows once it’s all finished.
Seeing staff running around exhibits really gives us an appreciation for how big these animals were (and highlights how massive these feeders are!).
Of course, after animals have eaten, they’ll also poop! Keepers ensure habitats stay clean by taking dung to the nearest Compost Heap for conversion into compost.
PRODUCE STATIONS
Compost is delivered to Produce Stations by Laborers. It’s with these modules that players can grow their own food supply, converting compost into edible plants, fruit, meat, fish or insects for the animals.
Without compost, Produce Stations will continue to generate food, but will do so at a heavily reduced rate. You’ll need a decent amount of poop to keep these things going, but the gains are worth it!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Once staff go live on the PTB, we’ll be taking notes on balance while development continues on Update 11. We aren’t expecting to have them absolutely perfect out the gate, and there’s a lot of work still to be done on guiding players through this entire system.
One of the funny quirks that staff currently have is that they’ll freely navigate wherever they want. They’ll always take the quickest path to their destination, even if it means going off-road. This is something that we’d obviously like to improve, but regardless, they’ll get the job done even if it means wandering through a desert for now.
Another thing we’d like to quickly draw attention to are the staff gates! These are modular objects that can be used anywhere, they are not exclusive to fences. This means that you can create functioning staff-only areas which can be essential for maintaining high park beauty.
On that note, we absolutely love seeing staff move about the zoo. It completely changes how we build and makes us want to spend more time constructing backstage areas.
Update 11: Improved Modular Group UI
As part of our ongoing UI improvements, we’ve completely revamped the interface for selecting modular groups and items. It’s refreshed, minimalized and highly contextual to the group’s contents or selected pieces.
Clicking on a group now shows all the module information inside, allowing players to easily view things like Loading Bay contents, storage modules or change an animal information sign. You can collapse each widget individually or hold the shift key to collapse all the widgets at once.
These widgets will show up while editing a group, too! Simply select the item you want to view and the widget will appear, exactly like on the group menu. No more jumping back and forth.
When selecting a group with lights, you’ll be able to access a brand new lighting tab. From here, players will have the option to permanently toggle their lights on, regardless of the time of day. Indoor exhibit builders, rejoice!
Update 11: Paleopedia
Since the last dev diary, we’ve added the Paleopedia to the PTB. This can be accessed at any time from the left side of the screen, making it perfect for habitat construction or learning more about your creatures.
From the home page, players can filter the search results by biome, time period, continent, diet and even animal size.
In the future, we will be expanding the Paleopedia to include articles for dig sites and eventually paleobotany! It’s important to learn more about our prehistoric world and we hope the Paleopedia can be a resource for that with time.
Update 11: Animal Detail Maps
As a small improvement to the animal visuals, we’ve added detail maps to almost every species. This is a subtle layer of bumpy skin and scratches that sit on top of the existing art assets. It’s not noticeable at a distance, but helps greatly when observing animals up close.
Update 11: What’s Left?
Beyond the expected polish needed for staff, there’s a few things we’d like to do. For one, we’ll need to do a lot of work on funneling/teaching players about the new mechanics. We’ve been designing a new help menu with updated articles to detail how everything in the game works and will also be revamping the game’s notification system to be more helpful, providing suggestions and better information about what’s wrong.
In terms of staff, we still need to implement cashiers and then focus on balance until we’re out of PTB. Keep your eyes on our socials to find out when Update 11 will be ready!
The Future
Update 12
Update 12 will be a content focused release, acting as a development buffer while we work on Update 13. It’s going to include a new map, building theme and include three animals: Apatosaurus, Brontosaurus and Hell Creek’s very own armored tank, Ankylosaurus!
This update will have a focus on making visitors smarter and properly utilize our suite of new animations to make guests feel more lively. We’ve had to upgrade our animation tech for Update 11, so it’ll be great to properly stretch its muscles here.
As a continuation of staff management, we’ll be adding another new mechanic - messages! Through this menu, players will be able to negotiate employee salaries, try to keep staff onboard and interact with the administration team. We feel that this’ll be a great way to humanize staff and make their lives more than just a UI element. Check out the concept art below!
Update 13
Like Update 11, this will be a large mechanical update focused on the animals! We’re aiming to improve their AI and behaviors with awareness, sociality and herding. There’s not too much else to say at this stage but we can’t wait to share more.
Created by Incog
Created by luci257
Created by f95_mo
Thank you for reading May’s dev diary!
We cannot wait to finish Update 11 as even in its current state, you can see it coming together. The team especially feels that with the next few major updates, the game will really begin to feel cohesive thanks to ongoing UI revamps and continued development into management mechanics.
- The PK Team
