Mag-log in bilang miyembro
Nakipag-usap kami sa direktor ng laro na si Gareth Hughes, lahat upang matuto nang higit pa tungkol sa paparating na sumunod na pangyayari ng simulation at kung paano pinalawak at binabago ng koponan ng pag-unlad ang pormula na sinasamba ng maraming mga tagahanga.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to Gamereactor. Today we have a really exciting interview for you because I'm here with Gareth Hughes from Frontier Developments, also known as the Game Director on the very recently announced Planet Zoo 2."
"And naturally that is the game that we're going to be talking about in droves today.
So Gareth, first of all, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.
I'm assuming that in the middle of this Summer Game Fest week and all the other news that you're going to share with Planet Zoo 2 that you're very, very busy."
"So thank you for taking the time to speak with me.
I want to begin by talking a little bit about the game, because we sort of teased this a minute ago in a little bit of conversation before we started.
Planet Zoo 1 came out quite a few years ago at this point."
"I think it's been about seven years since Planet Zoo 1 officially launched.
So why is now the right time for Planet Zoo 2?
And what does this mean for the continued support of Planet Zoo 1?
So hello, everybody, first of all."
"Yes, so we feel that now is the perfect time to announce and eventually release Planet Zoo 2.
Really, because there's been several things, several things have kind of converged, really.
We've been avidly watching all the feedback from the community in from Planet Zoo, seeing what people like, what they don't like, what they want added to the game."
"And, you know, looking at all of the technological advances that we've made here at Frontier across our spectrum of different games.
And obviously, we've got our own internal ideas about how we wanted, what we would want to do for a sequel.
And being able to kind of bring all those strands together and work out, cool, we've got this piece of tech that's going to allow us to do this thing."
"We can see that the community really want this aspect delivered. Brilliant.
And being able to converge all that together really was like, yeah, now is the time.
And obviously, I'm not talking about now, when we started, you know, work on the sequel was quite some time ago.
So we've been looking and planning this for a long time."
"But yeah, so this is the culmination of all of that work, really.
Wonderful. And the Planet Games, obviously, Frontier, it's not just Planet Zoo, it's Planet Coaster.
And I know that you guys, you have sort of separate teams that handle these different games.
But I bring it up because Planet Coaster recently got a sequel."
"So when you look at the evolution that Coaster went from one to two, how did you look at that evolution and say, with what we're doing with Planet Zoo, you know, we can potentially learn from something they've done.
Maybe we can do a little bit better or maybe we should, you know, iterate in a different way.
What was the sort of learnings that you took from the way that they elevated from Planet Coaster 1 to Planet Coaster 2?
That's a really good question. So I think the guys on the Planet Coaster team did a fantastic job."
"And they really pushed on a lot of the aspects in Planet Coaster.
You know, they added the pools, they renewed the path system. That is not to be underestimated, by the way.
So we've kind of had, you know, the advantage really of watching how Planet Coaster 2 developed.
You know, the things that work, the things that perhaps didn't work quite so well."
"And we've been able to take those learnings across into Planet Zoo 2.
Alongside, obviously, any of the tech that makes sense for us to bring across.
I've already just referenced the path system. I think it's a great example.
You know, it's a significant improvement on the original Planet Zoo path system."
"It has a lot more function and features to it.
But again, I kind of refer back to us being very community focused in terms of how we've looked at the features and content that we want to incorporate into Planet Zoo 2.
I think another area that, you know, has been really important to us is the interaction of the player with the game.
So we want to make that as smooth and as seamless and as enjoyable as possible."
"So really, you know, I'm talking about things like the creative tools, the UI, how it feels to actually play.
There's been an awful lot of us being able to learn from the other games what's worked and what's not.
So, again, that's been really instructive for us as we've developed Planet Zoo 2.
One of the things I noticed when I got to see the gameplay presentation and, you know, all these bits of additional gameplay that a lot of people are probably going to see for themselves later this week is just how beautiful it is."
"It seems like you've really doubled down on the fidelity, on the visuals of the game.
And naturally, that involves the animals.
So when you were going about improving these animals, you know, what was the sort of process for making them look even more realistic and lifelike than they did previously?
What techniques did you use there? Did you just scan them?
Did you get animals into the frontier grounds and scan them on land?
What was the situation?
No, I don't think, I'm not sure that that would be acceptable to bring live animals into the studio."
"But, yeah, you're right. Right. Across the board, there's been, I think, an incredible jump in fidelity is a good way of putting it.
So, you know, our move to a new version of our internal Cobra engine has really facilitated us to look at all sorts of things.
So it's not just the animals. It's the context that they sit in. It's the environmental improvements."
"It's the lighting improvements. There's so many factors that go into making the game look the way that it does.
In terms of the animals specifically, across the board, they have had, you know, improved modelling, improved shader work and texturing.
I mean, some of the work that that team has done, the character team is incredible, I think.
We've moved over onto a new animation system."
"So that gives us a lot more freedom and makes movement look a lot more natural.
And we've looked at the animal, what we call the animal brain, which is how they interpret the world around them.
The decisions they make and how that manifests in behaviour.
And it's really the culmination. Again, it's my favourite word for today."
"It's those things coming together that I think makes those animals that you saw in the trailer look so amazing.
It's no one thing. One thing that you didn't really get too much of from the trailer that is also incredible is the audio.
I think that's always been a really strong thing here at Frontier, particularly in Planet Zoo.
And we've really pushed that on as well."
"And when it comes to animals, obviously, two of the areas that you've really expanded in Planet Zoo, too, is the inclusion of aquariums and aviaries.
And obviously that brings different kinds of animals that perhaps people were unfamiliar with.
And they're acting completely differently in different mediums, water, sky, all these different things."
"When you add in these animals and these enclosures, what sort of added difficulties did they bring to the table when you were introducing them?
How did it really sort of ramp up the task at hand of making Planet Zoo, too?
Good question. So the inclusion of avian and fully aquatic species has been a really significant challenge, actually.
One that I feel that we've risen to. But I think the thing that we've really had to understand is how these animals move."
"They're not terrestrial animals. They're moving in 3D space, whether that's in water or whether it's in the air.
And obviously, one part of that is how do they navigate that space?
The second and complementary part of that is how do they look while they're doing it?
The acceleration and deceleration of movement. How do they look as they're coming into land or swimming off quickly?
That stuff is really hard to get right."
"And I think that's why in the trailer, when you look at our animals, they look so real and believable.
It's because we're not cheating, right? It is full 3D navigation.
And yeah, when you couple that with the behaviours and the beautiful character work, I think that's really what's bringing those animals to life.
And let's talk a little bit, let's stick on the animal topic for a minute."
"Another part of the area that you're really focusing on in Planet Zoo, too, is conservation.
Bringing these nature reserves that people can re-home these animals, let them loose in the wild again.
Why is it important to have such a focus on conservation?
And why is it important to bring these nature reserves to Planet Zoo, too?
Well, I like to think that Planet Zoo and now Planet Zoo, too, primarily entertains, but also helps educate just a little bit."
"Having things like the Zoopedia in the game where people can find out a lot of detail about the animals, where they live in the world and the ecosystems that they like and the species that they live alongside.
I think that aspect of being able to give our audience that information is really cool.
And for me, the wildlife reserves are really an extension of that core theme that already existed in Planet Zoo."
"We never really had the chance in that game to fully manifest it into a real gameplay experience.
Obviously, there's the welfare within the zoos and we're maintaining and building upon that.
But the wildlife reserves offer a completely new experience for the player in terms of how they see conservation working in the real world and how it works in game."
"So, as an example, these wildlife reserves are not just about releasing animals.
They're about creating a real natural home and habitat for those animals to live in.
So there's the rewilding, the restoration aspects of the environment that then allows the release to wild of those animals from your zoos.
And I think, again, helping people connect the dots around conservation and ecology about how these intricate webs work between animals and environment is, well, for me, I find it really, really interesting."
"And we want to kind of share that passion and being able to deliver it in this beautiful looking package of wildlife reserves in the game, I think it's amazing.
And I noticed in the sort of preview session you were offering, we got to see, I think it was the Great Basin in Africa, but there was an entire world.
So how do you decide which nature reserves you want to feature in Planet Zoo 2?
You know, what's the sort of criteria there?
Yes, really interesting question."
"So I guess we look at it from several different aspects.
One is, you know, to make these work, we kind of need enough animals that can cohabit together.
So we're looking at, you know, when we're identifying an area that would make a good wildlife reserve for us in Planet Zoo 2, it needs to be able to support a wide variety of different animals."
"Really, we want to be able to release aquatics, avian and terrestrial animals together into those areas.
So, you know, that's one filter, if you like, of how we choose.
The other is looking around at real world conservation projects and trying to mirror some of those in game so that people can have that.
Oh, yeah, I've seen this on the TV, right, in that amazing documentary that I saw recently."
"I can kind of recreate some of that.
So, yeah, I think those two things really are what's driving our choices.
And Planet Zoo 1, one of the things that was so fascinating about it is that Frontier, they supported it for so many years and there is so much content, so much DLC content available for that game.
What's your sort of philosophy with the sort of post launch support you have in mind for Planet Zoo 2?
You know, are you looking for like a similar sort of length of support?
So I'm going to have to disappoint you in that we are 100 percent focused on making Planet Zoo 2 and getting it ready to launch."
"You know, we're not really in a place where we're going to discuss DLC plans at the moment.
Naturally. Right. Let's talk quickly then.
Obviously, buzzword, but I figured it's quite an interesting one because you have a lot of animals that sort of act dynamically these days.
So I'm assuming that you use the technology to some degree."
"But what is Frontier's stance on using artificial intelligence?
And how have you incorporated it, if at all, into Planet Zoo 2?
So the short answer is we haven't. There is no AI generated content in the game at all.
It's not something that we're considering for Planet Zoo 2."
"It's just not part of our plans or the game that we're going to release.
Lovely. Lovely. Another quickfire one, I guess.
Planet Zoo 1 obviously came to quite a lot of different platforms and Planet Zoo 2 is going to be launching on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S in October.
Have you looked at Nintendo Switch at all?
And I bring that up because obviously the Switch 2 is now here and it's a little bit more powerful than the Switch 1."
"So, again, you know, at the moment we've announced the platforms that we're going to release on and we don't have any further news on that right now.
Well, as a final question, Gareth, a little bit of an open ended one, but obviously people won't be able to get their hands on the game for a little while.
So this is probably a little bit speculative in a way."
"But what is one part of Planet Zoo 2 that you're particularly excited for fans to experience for themselves?
So I guess it would have to be the wildlife reserves.
I think they feel so fresh, so new and different, but so well integrated into the game.
And they just... I'll give you an example."
"We were playing one in a review the other day and the environment and the amount of animals that we had in there, it was almost an emotional... well, it was.
It was an emotional moment for the team seeing all these things come together.
So outside of just the gameplay loops and how it feels as a game feature, there's an emotional element to it."
"And I think players are really going to love seeing the animals that they already have these relationships with in this new natural environment.
It feels different. It hits different.
And I think that's super cool.
Lovely. Well, for more on Planet Zoo 2, you know where to find it all on your local Game Reactor region."
"The game itself is getting closer.
It's going to come in that very busy October window, October 13th on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.
And I'm sure, Gareth, I'm sure you'll have plenty more to share about the game as we get closer to that date.
But until then, thank you so much for speaking to me and thank you for joining us and watching this interview."
