Name: Linda Currie
Title: Lead Designer
Responsible For: Overall design, economy

Name: Shawn Stone
Title: Game Designer
Responsible For: Animal AI design, animal selection, animal AI implementation


Questions:

How did you select “Endangered Animals” as the theme for the first expansion pack?

(Linda)
The theme for this expansion was a direct result of brainstorming meetings held both internally and with our publisher, Microsoft. We did approach this one a little bit differently in that we first spent a lot of time discussing what core game features would make a great first expansion. We then sought to encapsulate those features, and the new animals that came with it, into a definable entity. This gave birth to the Endangered Species theme. From there we took a step back to take another look at the features and the animals and made some additional tweaks and adjustments to better suit the Endangered Species theme… sort of like coming full circle.

What were your goals for this expansion?

(Linda)
The primary goal was to provide content and game play that we knew to be high on the “wishlist” of Zoo Tycoon players. We had feedback from new Zoo Tycoon 2 players as well as players going back to the original Zoo Tycoon and we really wanted to introduce those things that we knew players have been wanting. In addition to more animals, we knew are fans wanted more building tools and game features, so we added things like elevated paths and vehicle tours which allow players to build totally new types of Zoos with this expansion.

We get a lot of satisfaction from knowing that players will get content and features in this expansion that they’ve long asked for.

Were other options were considered?

(Linda)
Yes, absolutely. Some of those other themes or concepts are still represented in the Endangered Animals expansion, sometimes to a lesser (or greater) extent than was applicable to the context that we originally talked about it in. Many of the ideas that didn’t make their way into Endangered Species have been added to our “war chest” and let’s just say that the odds are good that players will get to experience some of those concepts somewhere down the road as well.

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