Zoo Keeper

Inspiration

A distant relative passes away and you inherit a zoo. There's only one catch: there are no animals!

You do have some helpers, however, who will stick around to help you get your zoo set up and running. Hire veterinarians, build exhibits, purchase animals, and more in this game as a Zoo Keeper!

What it does

It is a world building game where you get to build and populate your zoo. Build exhibits for your animals, purchase and name each one, and watch the visitors (and money!) come flooding in! There is also a mini-game to balance the books and earn a boost of income!

Things featured:

1) 118 Unique Animals! All of them come with sound effects, facts, images, and some even include videos! 2) A complete game design for world building at your own pace! 3) Helpers, Attractions, Money, Special Currency, Exhibits, and so much more!

How I built it

I designed out the system and then stacked pieces on top of each other from the ground up! My goal was to build something fun and unique where you were in control of the zoo you were building.

Challenges I ran into

I ran into countless challenges of adopting and implementing the new conversations system. The largest of which was that anytime you purchased an animal the system would fail on the next call to buy another animal. I had to work directly with the team to resolve this issue and make it possible to chain together multiple animal purchases. I also had a lot of fun building out other systems and getting the numbers to work right.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm really proud of how the tutorial system turned out and what I was able to do with the game. There is a lot to do here and I wanted to make sure the users weren't overwhelmed by any of it. I also wanted to make sure it worked with voice first and that the APL and APLA were extra pieces to enhance the system and not a requirement of being able to play. I was also able to work a LOT into the APL and still keep it responsive and fresh. There are background zoo ambience tracks, videos of animals frolicking, and tons of other cool sound effects and visuals to keep the game fun and vibrant.

What I learned

I learned a lot about designing games like this where you have to continually grow and expand your zoo. I also wanted for there to be competitive aspects to the game so I added a leaderboard and some other cool things to play around with.

What's next for Zoo Keeper

More features! I'm going to add new animals, more sound effects, new ambience and background music, and just more!

Built With

• alexa
• apl
• apla
• conversations