Let's Build A Zoo is a great zoo tycoon management game in a brilliant pixel art style. Besides putting together enclosures and players paving an adventure around their zoo, the game goes a lot deeper as it opens up the possibility of mixing and matching the animals' genetics together to make all new creatures.
Many players that are new to the game may feel overwhelmed with the large plot of land they are given to fill in with their zoo. Therefore, these are the best ways to set the layout of a player's zoo, while always having more room to expand.
8 Preplan The Size Of Enclosures
Players may feel the need to jump straight into owning animals for their zoo, especially as this is what the visitors have traveled all the way to see on the buses. However, if players provide too little space for their animals it can have terrible consequences in the future.
Certain adopted animals will require more space than others, this is seen quite early on when purchasing rabbits, which can survive in smaller enclosures versus pigs which will require a lot more space. Players then also need to consider the space needed for breeding these animals as the population will quickly begin to expand.
7 Set Up Multiple Routes Around
This may seem obvious to some players though it should still be reminded. Players should make the most of the cheap path options to help better lay out their zoo. By pre-planning where a player wants to put their enclosures or other services then they are more likely to have an organized organization for visitors to explore.
Not only this but by providing multiple routes around a player's zoo, a player expands the amount of satisfaction and money they will receive as customers will have multiple chances around the zoo to purchase gifts or food.
6 Visitors Need To Eat Like The Animals
Keeping Visitors in the zoo as long as possible is the main way players will make more money while trying to run a successful business. So like the animals that the player will also be looking after, making sure there are plenty of places for visitors to eat is crucial for keeping them in the zoo.
An easy way to do this is by setting up designated eating sections around the zoo, by using paths players can create an area with an assortment of different food vendors that customers can decide to eat from. It is important to have a couple of these as visitors are sure to get hungry quickly.
5 Having Space To Decorate Is Vital
Another issue that surprisingly bothers visitors of the zoo is the lack of any sort of decoration. Players should be aware that the visitors of the zoo will leave for multiple reasons. While the most common ones are usually it getting dark or a lack of food, they will also be paying attention to how decorated the establishment is.
Making sure there is space outside the enclosures to put benches, flowers, and trees is essential for increasing the decoration. Although players should also include decorating the inside of enclosures also to not only increase the visitor's opinions of the zoo but also the happiness of the animals.
4 Vending Machines Can Be Also Useful
Although it may not largely influence the layout of the zoo, players may wish to place a couple of cheap vending machines around the zoo alongside their designated eating areas. Besides the possible quests players will receive that require them to be placed down, they can also be a great way for visitors to have a quick pick-me-up.
Alongside these vending machines should always be trash bins. Forgetting bins can break a zoo as the litter will pile up quickly. A load of litter that a janitor can't deal with is far more likely to ruin the aesthetic of a zoo than the placement of a bin.
3 Decide The Morals Of The Zoo Early
What sets Let's Build A Zoo from other tycoons in the same theme, is its moral feature. Players can decide if they want to focus on creating an eco-friendly zoo that hopes to release endangered species back into the wild, or instead use their animals for more sinister means like factories for making glue.
Players should decide early on which direction they wish to take their business as it is unlikely that this can be balanced, especially as later upgrades expect players to be deep into a moral high or a moral low.
2 The Larger The Zoo The More Transport Needed
Besides buying more transport for visitors so that players can earn even more money through ticket sales, as players purchase more chunks of land to expand their zoo, traveling around the entire business can get very difficult and time-consuming.
Walk time between enclosures for both visitors and the zoo staff can be cut down significantly by investing in subways for the player's zoo. By having these a member of staff can quickly travel from one side of the map to the other. Therefore, always have one next to the Store Room where animal keepers tend to visit.
1 Always Leave The Edges Of The Zoo Open
It may seem like the most obvious tip of all, but allowing the paths to lead to the edges of the maps and therefore leaving them open is vital for allowing the player's zoo to expand naturally and easily. Players should work towards filling an entire section of their zoo before purchasing more land.
This can then be used to either create more enclosures or even an area designated to what the player's moral choices allow them to build such as creating farmlands to grow their own food sources for their animals.
Let's Build A Zoo is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.