Thomas Gale, Artist (and very recently 1/2 designer) at Blue Fang Games, answers a few questions about himself and the building objects in Zoo Tycoon 2.

What are you responsible for?

Gale: A lot of work overlaps with other team members, but I have been involved in the concept development and creation of the following features: buildings, scenery, trees, rocks, water, terrain, sky, fences, paths, lights, FX, and plenty of XML data tweaks. I have also contributed to lots of miscellaneous features and prototyping too.

How’s a day in your life?

Gale: I begin the day with my commute to work through the back roads, where the drive is a little more scenic than the highway. I leave for work after morning rush hour and leave for home after evening rush hour. Nice. Our office building is very large and reminiscent of a cruise ship from the look of the architecture. The building is shared with corporate businesses and Blue Fang's corner suite is just one of many.

We "gamers" appear quite casual in contrast to the well-dressed white collars that we intercept in the common halls. Once inside the Blue Fang suite, you will see that it is filled with cubicles and personal offices. There is a kitchen, meeting rooms, and a relaxation/console gaming room. Desktop computers dominate the landscape. The office is decorated with nice framed prints of animals and various pop culture posters. People's cubicles are typically personalized with kitsch and clutter.

We each have a coordinated schedule that helps us stay on track with production. There are various phases in a long development project such as Zoo Tycoon 2. Early on there are concepting and prototyping phases; then the production phase begins in earnest; and finally features get wrapped up as we enter a major debugging and tweaking phase. A typical day for an artist is mostly spent in 3DstudioMax animating, modeling, or texturing.

All of the game assets are stored in a virtual repository. When somebody works on something they "check it out" and then "check it back in" when they are done. This is done so we don't step on each other's toes and so that all of our work is backed up. Sometimes we decide to revert to a previous version of a particular part of the game in order to debug. Specialized exporters, text editors, preview tools, and Adobe Photoshop are also applications you might glimpse running on a hard working artist's computer if you were to walk by. It's important to see your work in the game context, so we also run the game in its current state to test what we're working on at the time. A big part of development is communication, so internal email is usually running constantly. Any remaining time is usually spent in meetings (big or small, official or unofficial) where the details come to life and decisions get made.

When lunchtime arrives we may head down to the common cafeteria, drive out to a restaurant, or race down to the mall to pick up the latest game. In the mid-afternoon some folks like to take a stroll in the parking lot around the "cruise ship" building. At the end of the day we try to play intra-office multiplayer games or maybe take a spin on one of the consoles … or I could also skip down to the gym if I was ever needing a workout. Nah.

What are building objects?

Gale: Objects in Zoo Tycoon 2 include everything that the player can place on the virtual terrain. Zoo Tycoon 2 carries over most of the standard buildings and objects from the original Zoo Tycoon such as benches, trashcans, food stands, and bathrooms; but there are also numerous improvements and greatly expanded categories of objects. There are guest-related objects, such as donation boxes, educator podiums, and viewing binoculars that add to gameplay depth and allow for more variety of guest activity. There are animal enrichment objects, such as climbing bars, balls, painting easels, and scratching posts that enliven and improve animal exhibits. There are also several stylized themes for certain buildings and objects that allow the player to blend and match structures to the surrounding natural environment. Overall, Zoo Tycoon 2 offers a greater range of control and variety when players construct their virtual zoos.

What was the inspiration behind these objects?

Gale: Several team members visited various zoos and theme parks around the United States, taking pictures for reference. We also used reference books, the Internet and our own imagination in creating the unique look for each themed object. The idea of adding themes came about from the downloadable assets of the original Zoo Tycoon. We started Zoo Tycoon 2 development with a default modern-contemporary theme, a safari theme, and a jungle theme. We wanted the mood and style to be bright and happy, without becoming overly plastic and synthetic.

How did you settle on, create, and implement the objects?

Gale: We began the process with a brainstorm list of objects and buildings. The best of these were added to the Design Guide with a brief description of their in-game function. Most objects were sketched on paper or directly onto the computer with a tablet using Adobe Photoshop or Painter. Some sketches were then colorized. Once the schedule was created and production began in earnest, artists used 3DStudioMax to model and texture the objects in 3D. Because the entire game is 3D (i.e. we weren't rendering the models to flat sprites like in Zoo Tycoon) we had to be wary of high polygon count, which can hinder the performance of the game. Each object also needed "levels of detail" (LOD for short) that would automatically change the number of polygons used for each object, depending on a formula that combines distance from the in-game camera and the speed of the player's computer. After an object was exported from MAX into a special compressed format and the accompanying textures were tucked away in the appropriate places, the object was ready for use in the game engine. Every object had an accompanying AI file that described how it would be used in game. This AI file would include such details as the purchase price, placement limitations, tooltip info, and a whole slew of other attributes and properties.

How many objects do players have at their disposal?

Gale: A player starts off with the basic buildings such as food stands, bathrooms, snack carts, benches, lamp posts and such. As the player progresses through the game, they will unlock additional structures through research. Buildings and objects can also have different themes and different contents. For example, a player can build a regular ice cream snack cart or a pretzel snack cart or a safari-themed pretzel snack cart, and so on. If you add up all the combinations of themes, and contents, there are about 50 buildings, 50 scenery objects, 65 types of foliage, 35 enrichment items, 20 shelters, 35 rocks, eight paths, 25 fences, 60 food items, and 65 other objects. In addition to all these objects, we are planning to make even more content available for download.

How do these objects affect gameplay?

Gale: Zoo Tycoon 2 is designed to be much more immersive than the original Zoo Tycoon. Whereas previously the player was limited to the sky cam view, now you can walk around in Guest mode you have a chance to notice detail and texture up close. Players can now meander down the path that they built and saunter past their own buildings, flowerbeds, benches, fences and experience their own personal customized zoo. The variety of perspectives and themes and objects improves the overall gameplay by delivering a strong sense of immersion in a customized dynamic, virtual world.