Parkasaurus
Parkasaurus is a dinosaur park management game that offers great graphics and interface deign. The tutorial mission is designed, showing you the majority of the game mechanics. It does however falls short when it comes to a potentially great story line. The game also suffers from noticeable bugs, while the interface navigation could be better optimized. All in all, its a fun and vibrant management game that just needs to sort out its bugs and find direction in its storyline
PROS
- Great Graphics & Audio
- Unique Excavation Mechanics
- Good Price
CONS
- Interface & Graphical Bugs
- Confusing Story
- Tedious Interface at times
Release Date: 25 September 2018 | Developer: Washbear Studio
Parkasaurus is a dinosaur management game, similar to Rollercoaster tycoon but with a splash of Planet Zoo. As the seemingly owner of this dino sanctuary, you are in charge of building exhibits/enclosures for the dinos to stay in while running the park for visitors to some and experience the creatures.
Like the majority of other park management games, you will need to manage both the dino’s happiness and needs, as well as your guests with all the regular park management elements such as food, toilets, merchandise (balloons, hats etc) and seating. Keeping your guests happy means more money to enhance your park.
Parkasaurus is by no means as in depth as Planet Zoo, but it does have some unique features, so let’s take a look at the game play.
The game does however start to fall apart as to how the story line ties into all of the above, as well as some game breaking bugs.
With that said, let’s dive deeper into this Parkasaurus review and find out why.
Parkasaurus Gameplay
Parkasaurus has a great intro tutorial level, which smoothly guides you through the interface in an educative and non annoying/boring way that many other games fail at doing, so this is very nice to see.
After the brief story (see more below) you are tasked with some basic mouse and camera movements before instructed to build your first enclosure and biome for you very first dinosaur egg to hatch in.
There are three Biomes in the game namely RainForest, Taiga and Forest. Every dino in the game fits into one of these three Biomes based on their specific breed and needs, which is influenced by the ground cover Tiles, Wetness (amount of water tiles), Ruggedness (Terrain height), rocks and plants.
Privacy is easily solved by placing enough trees, rocks or shelters in each enclosure, while your Vets fill up the feeding trays, based on there being enough daily food coming into the sanctuary.
This is where Parkasaurus starts to become slightly unique from other park management games. You actually visit a separate tab called “Town” where you go shopping for all your park and dino’s needs.
Here you can visit the local farmers shop to manually buy food for your herbivore dinos, or use the daily delivery option for them to drop however much you choose off at the park every morning for you. The same applies to the adjacent meat shop for your carnivorous dinos.
In the same tab is also a Barn where you get chicken to lay your dino eggs (yes I know it’s weird), once you have collected enough fossils.
Fossils are found from excavations using the Portal tab. After a few minutes you will have to “dig” by using each employee’s dedicated Tetris like shapes, to uncover the tiles of the grid. It’s difficult to explain, but my gameplay videos show how it works, it’s pretty simple.
Here you will either find bone or footprints. These are the currency you require to breed more eggs together with a gem.
Gems can be bought from the Gem shop back in the Town tab using Science Points or Hearts.
Science points are acquired after building a research centre and assigning a scientist to it. These points are also used in a skill tree to unlock more buildings, furniture and goodies for the part, while the Hearts do the same thing just for Dino specific goodies such as toys, shelters, and more food options.
The last tab is the Office tab, where you can read up on all the Dinos as well as gather information on your park. This also where you look through resumes to hire staff.
Parkasaurus does have a nice amount of campaign missions to follow after the initial tutorial, which I really like to see in games like this, as some just leave you with Sandbox mods. Naturally the game does also have a Sandbox mode for those that want to start from scratch.
That is pretty much the game in a nutshell, it’s nothing too complex in the realm of management games and is something that I think needs more attention as the game develops. If you are looking for something more in depth, then Planet Zoo is by far superior, but also more expensive.
Parkasaurus is currently still in “Early Release” stage (although it has been so since 2018), but the devs are very actively adding to it, so I definitely see more coming from it in the future.
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Parkasaurus Graphics
Parkasaurus has fantastic interface graphics. The child-like drawing and cartoonish theme is amazing, and fit very well into the game’s 3D low-poly graphics.
Due to its low resolution graphical theme, the game also runs very smoothly on even a low end PC.
I like the way the rocks and trees automatically randomize when created, giving a nice natural feel to the environment without having to manually select different tree shapes.
I think they could provide more accurate shadow settings for those with higher end PC’s, as the current “highest” results in very low detailed shadows.
You are also able to customize the colors of your buildings walls, roof and trip which is a nice aesthetic touch for those wanting to carry through a particular theme to their park.
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Parkasaurus Audio
Background audio fits the theme very well, and has a nice soothing feel and pace to it. Perfect for a zoo management game that you spend hours in, that will eventually lead to you listening to the same tracks at some point. The tracks are handled very subtly and thus cause you to subconsciously listen to them and not be in your face, thereby never noticing a repeat.
Sound effects are also on point with every interface button sporting its specific click or pop effect. When creating elements such as water, there is a nice splash sound to it, which really immerses you into the game very well.
No complaints in the audio department, except that there are no voice overs. Much like Planet Zoo, I would like to see some voices overs for the storyline and campaign further down the development pipeline.
I know this would cost a lot of money to hire actors and a recording studio, which for a small indie team is not top priority when managing your budgets, so it’s really not serious. More of a nice to have in the future.
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Parkasaurus Storyline
While there is an attempt at a storyline using some of the cool looking kid drawings, it was very confusing to me though.
The story tells you that talking dinosaurs came from space and landed on earth, meeting humans for the first time. But, at the same time you are building a dino park where you keep them in enclosures?
Why would intellectual dinosaurs from space ask humans to put them into rudimentary zoo enclosures, as though they suddenly lost all their intelligence? Except they didn’t, because the dinosaurs are instructing you how to build the zoo?
While I like the initial concept, it’s all very confusing and simply doesn’t make sense.
The developers need to first clear up the story line.
Either the dinosaurs are building a zoo for their offspring, or the humans captured them and are putting them into enclosures.
- If the humans are helping them, then the story should be that the dinosaurs crash landed on earth after their planet was destroyed. They did however manage to save a few eggs before they jumped into a rocket and escaped their planet. After landing on earth they now need the help of the humans to nurture and hatch their last remaining eggs, in order to save their species.
- If they are being captured by the humans (which I really would like to see as our race already does so much harm and killing so many real world animals on our earth as it is) then the tutorial should be explained from a human’s perspective and not a dino.
The first story scenario is by far the better as I am totally against cruelty to animals, whether they are fantasy, extinct or real. It should never be in any game as it teaches kids and encourages people that it’s alright to do, when it’s totally not.
The devs are definitely going with the first option, as we can see a girl caring for a baby dinosaur in the cover art 🙂 This just needs to tie in better with their space travels and be better explained.
They should again look at how Planet Zoo tells their narrative with each mission and how one mission flows into the next as a larger story line. The base story behind the missions I played in Parkasaurus aren’t bad, but they need more elaboration while also tying into one another, as they are currently all totally unrelated.
In “Toronto” you are trying to upgrade a park, while in “Abandoned” you are trying to save the starving dinos. But why are there abandoned dinos to begin with, how did they get there and how is it related to Toronto?
Introducing a human villain who possibly captured some other dinosaurs that landed on earth on another spaceship would be a good start.
His original dilapidated base of operations could have been Toronto for example, which you now need to convert into something more visitor and dino friendly.
Is this a zoo or not?
This again needs to also tie into why we are putting dinos into enclosures to begin with.
Are they less intelligent beings that we are putting in a zoo just to be viewed, or are they space traveling, talking dinos?
It makes no sense why they are asking us to put them into pens for human viewing entertainment.
The line here is very blurry to say the least.
My suggestion would be to keep them talking and intellectual space traveling dinos as it’s a great concept, but reinforce this plot, as why we are building the enclosures for them.
The enclosures should be more of an upbringing/schooling environment than just a rural picket fence enclosure for human viewing.
I like how you need to create the right Biome for each species and their young as eggs or infants, as well as the social aspect, but I don’t understand why these dinos are non-intellectual animals, while the others are able to talk to us.
To bridge this gap in the narrative, I think that once the dinos reach a certain age, a kindergarten education system should be introduced, where the dinos will start talking and will need a school building for example, to increase their learning abilities. Once they reach a certain age and/or intellect level, they could become staff members of the park to help grow the species back.
Talking about staff, I also find it weird why there is only human staff in the park?
Surely the space traveling dinos are able to help with research, exploration and such. Make them part of the staff so that there is a reason for the park, which is to help them find and genetically engineer more of their kind from long lost bones.
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Parkasaurus Bugs & Annoyances
This is where Parkasaurus unfortunately falls short for me, as there are many glaring bugs that really shouldn’t be in a game that has been in development for 3 years already.
I was able to identify them within 2 hours of play, so the devs should really be picking up on these things sooner and fix them. Some of these are bugs, while others are more gameplay mechanics that could be enhanced for a more streamlined experience.
Let’s start with the bugs, which mostly occurred on the ‘Toronto” campaign mission after I played the Tutorial mission:
Park not allowing visitors to enter
The entrance booth of the park is very bugged. Even though the park was open, it refused to let anyone into the park. I couldn’t understand why my cash flow was dropping, when I had all the necessary food and dinosaur exhibits in the park.
Park Cue Line backwards
The cue area outside the booth is also bugged. Probably tied into the above issue, but the guests would just queue and not come into the park. This became even worse as they all queued in the wrong direction, facing away from the booth.
Park Cue Line backwards
Some staff members such as the scientist are bugged, causing them to walk to the edge of the map and just stand there for no reason, doing nothing. I had to manually pick them up and put them back into the park.
Clipping Grass Mesh
The default grass meshes don’t get removed when buildings are placed over them, causing clipping through the buildings.
Now let’s cover some areas of the game, that I feel could be more streamlined
Daily Summary
The daily summary after the park closes everyday is a nice feature, but it becomes very jarring due to it loading an entire new screen over your gameplay.
The major issue with this is that it totally disrupts anything you are busy doing at the time, such as laying out a new exhibit or customizing building. The daily summary will reset you back to the centre of the park every single time, which becomes very annoying very quickly and breaks form the immersion.
I really don’t need to see these stats everyday, as there is a button I can simply press to see it at any time. Just how every other management game handles this.
Even with the “Skip Summary” option ticked, it still wipes the screen, to tell you a new day has started.
There is no need to wipe the screen and disturb whatever task I am currently busy with. Simply give a small popup on the right side, telling me a new day has started, allowing me to click if I want to see more details.
Scientists and Research
The scientists you hire only really have one job which is to research in the “Research Station” so why do I need to manually assign them to doing so? If this is their sole purpose, then it should just be auto assigned like the janitors are to cleaning the park and vets are to caring for the dinosaurs.
Terrain Tools
The terrain tools need more work, as they are tedious to use, either creating too much elevation or too little.
They are also restricted to one block at a time which makes it a much longer process than it needs to be, especially due to the camera angle. If one block is really high you cannot see any blocks behind it without rotating the camera, which is just more unnecessary steps you need to take to do a simple height adjustment.
There should be more of a circular paint brush feature, covering an area with a feather on the outer region, much like most other terrain software tools or how games like Planet Zoo do it.
More Quick Bar Shortcuts
While I like the “Town Tab” area, it does take quite a few clicks to get there, for even the most basic task such as buying some food. I would really like a shortcut area on your main game window, for your daily food orders, such as the bottom right menu (which is currently empty) allowing you to quickly increase or decrease your food deliveries or hatch a new egg.
Chickens laying Dino Eggs with Gems
I find the requirement of a gem to lay an egg really silly.
It doesn’t offer me anything in terms of fun gameplay, other than having to again tediously leave the Barn tab, go to the main Town Tab, then go into the Gem tab, then convert Science Point or Hearts to Gems, then go back to the Town tab, then go back in the Barn Tab and then only can I finally lay my egg.
It’s a pointless procedure with WAY too many clicks. As with any web or game design. Clicks should ALWAYS be minimized to the lowest possible amount.
The gem store should just be removed (unless it serves some purpose I have yet to see), as it serves no real purpose. If you are laying an egg and require Science Points or Hearts as a currency for it, then simply put them in there in the Barn tab and be done with it.
Simply and efficient.
I also don’t understand why chickens are laying dino eggs or in a barn to begin with, it makes no sense, again breaks any form of story narrative. This should be more of an archaeologist research lab, where the bones found in the Portal Excavations are scientifically used to genetically re-engineer the dinosaur back into existence using DNA.
These are some of the issues I experienced in my 2 hour gameplay and sure there are more out there, should I have played longer.
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Parkasaurus Review Conclusion
Parkasaurus is a very eye pleasing game that features a great looking low-poly art style, combined with a very well designed interface that resembles child-like scribbles/drawings. The game has some unique features that set it apart from other management games such as the excavation of dinosaur bones and footprints in order to create more dinosaurs.
This is however where it also falls short in comparison to other management games, as well as its own narrative story.
While the concept of space traveling dinosaurs landing on earth is a great concept, the devs fail to take advantage of this. This story simply fades away in its existence after you finish the tutorial mission, leaving it nowhere to be seen in the other campaign missions, or their continued attempt at a storyline.
The story also makes very little sense as to why these intellectual beings are now asking humans to put them into cages enclosed for our viewing pleasure? Who runs the park and where is all the profit going?
It is to help fund the research and space travel for the dinos, so that they can travel back home and/or find more of their burred ancestral bones, or is it simply another human run theme park where we are putting dinos into cages to be viewed for a fee?
The devs seem very undecided on what they wanted here, causing the game to just be a zoo for dinosaurs, when it could be a lot more.
The game does also have a fair share of bugs and a few tedious interface navigation issues, which need to also be addressed.
Parkasaurus is however a game with a lot of potential, but the devs need to look at the above issues first. If done properly, this game will certainly be on the top of my best management games list.
Well guys, that’s it from me.
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Happy Gaming
Ozarc (¬‿¬)
The Review
Parkasaurus
Parkasaurus is a dinosaur park management game that offers great graphics and interface deign. The tutorial mission is designed, showing you the majority of the game mechanics. It does however falls short when it comes to a potentially great story line. The game also suffers from noticeable bugs, while the interface navigation could be better optimized. All in all, its a fun and vibrant management game that just needs to sort out its bugs and find direction in its storyline
PROS
- Great Graphics & Audio
- Unique Excavation Mechanics
- Good Price
CONS
- Interface & Graphical Bugs
- Confusing Story
- Tedious Interface at times