In this development update video you can see two brand new monsters you can have in your zoo: So, a few more ways there for your zoo to go accidentally very badly wrong! Also in that update is the addition of flowers and flower beds. Not as eye-catching or as life-threatening as
In this development update video you can see two brand new monsters you can have in your zoo:
So, a few more ways there for your zoo to go accidentally very badly wrong!
Also in that update is the addition of flowers and flower beds.
Not as eye-catching or as life-threatening as two new monsters, but you'll be able to decorate and add nice little areas to your zoo as you see fit. They'll take the edge of being surrounded by eldritch creatures all the time! Maybe. No guarantees.
The Abaddon is a new monster, and it's very strange. Because it kinda needs to be seen in motion, here's the new development video: The Abaddon is an underground monster, it shifts the entire terrain above it, but every now and then it rises to the surface and munches on meat. Ve
The Abaddon is a new monster, and it's very strange.
Because it kinda needs to be seen in motion, here's the new development video:
The Abaddon is an underground monster, it shifts the entire terrain above it, but every now and then it rises to the surface and munches on meat. Very destructive even when it's not meaning to be, you'll need to invest in the new drillbit fences that dig deep into the earth's crust to keep the Abaddon caged, any other attempts will leave a trail of devestation behind it.
It's a pricey monster to buy and even more so to adequately house, but it's also one of the biggest and strangest monsters in the game so far.
Another development update showing off some more WIP features! Have a watch of the video: A mug of piping hot tree bile, who can forget its taste. You will not be able to. It is memorable . I know, these days people say that you can "just get it in a can" and that it's "just as g
Another development update showing off some more WIP features! Have a watch of the video:
A mug of piping hot tree bile, who can forget its taste. You will not be able to. It is memorable. I know, these days people say that you can "just get it in a can" and that it's "just as good as straight from the tree stumps disgusting mouth." Those people are liars and they are scoundrels. You've got to drink it straight from the source:
Mmm. There's nothing quite like it.
Aside from building new shops that will placate the thirst of your zoo visitors in the middle of winter, winter itself is looking very pretty these days:
Snow falls and builds up all around, the zoo visitors come bundled in coats, hats and scarfs, and so on. It looks really nice at 60fps.
Here's a brand new update about The Eldritch Zookeeper's development: There's a brand new electricity grid system in The Eldritch Zookeeper: See those yellow lines? Those are electric power lines running between all the lampposts and all the electric buildables in your zoo. Where
Here's a brand new update about The Eldritch Zookeeper's development:
There's a brand new electricity grid system in The Eldritch Zookeeper:
See those yellow lines? Those are electric power lines running between all the lampposts and all the electric buildables in your zoo.
Where does the power come from?
All those happy zoo visitors are now a non-polluting power source for your zoo expansion! Congratulations to each and every one of them. Whenever they walk beneath the statue's open hand, their joy is turned into useful charge, and will zip about your electrical grid to wherever it needs to go.
The Electric Chair is the first new powered device that needs a strong electrical input. Recharge your staff automatons in what we really, really hope is a non-painful way of getting them busy after depleting their battery. There's no reliable evidence that the automatons feel pain and there's certainly no way they can complain about it if they do, so it's fine.
The automatons can also hold scythes and cut the grass for you! How helpful of them.
Check out that video for more info! More updates on the way, stay tuned... - Matt
Here's a brand new update about The Eldritch Zookeeper's development: Stone paths! At long last. And they look so gooood. It's taken a lot of tweaking to get the construction of the stone paths feeling right. You sort of 'paint' the path onto the ground as you run about, and that
Here's a brand new update about The Eldritch Zookeeper's development:
Stone paths! At long last. And they look so gooood.
It's taken a lot of tweaking to get the construction of the stone paths feeling right. You sort of 'paint' the path onto the ground as you run about, and that looks and sounds really satisfying. I'd like to add a few different path variations that you can choose between, and will change the look of your zoo pretty drastically.
Grass that grows is the other Big New Thing, and if you let your zoo get a bit out of control in that regard, it's a bit of a mess:
So you've got to invest in a scythe - a new item! - and get cutting, or else the visitors are going to start complaining at the state of your zoo. And if you happen to scythe a visitor or two on the way? Well, this is The Eldritch Zoo, not The Safety Zoo, what do you expect?
Check out that video to see all of that in motion! More updates on the way, stay tuned... - Matt
Doo doo doo doo (that's the sound I think it makes to itself as it runs along.) I've added staff you can hire to help you with your zookeeping, they're these big battery-with-legs-and-arms-and-a-lantern-as-a-head things, and they're pretty helpful: The gameplay issue I allude to
Doo doo doo doo (that's the sound I think it makes to itself as it runs along.)
I've added staff you can hire to help you with your zookeeping, they're these big battery-with-legs-and-arms-and-a-lantern-as-a-head things, and they're pretty helpful:
The gameplay issue I allude to that video is that maintaining big zoos was increasingly difficult, the larger they got. It wasn't hard to build a big zoo, it was keeping it going that was challenging. At a certain point there were just too many monsters needing food, too many litter bins needing emptying, just too many jobs for one player to manage. Because, remember, if a monster goes hungry, after a little while they get agitated, then angry, and they start breaking stuff and killing everything they can get their teeth/claws/tentacles into.
But with staff to do all the busywork for you, you can keep expanding and building, and investing in new monsters and redesigning your zoo without having to do a full-zoo circuit to keep everything going. Of course, you have to invest in these staff first and scale up the right way, but the automatons are already really helping.
As I say in the video, there's a few more things I think these automatons can help with, and I'd like to make them upgradable and more efficient. But it's a good start!
Another development update, as I keep working on the game every day. Last time, you may recall, I showed off the shiny, new Mad Science Research Lab . Even though there was a decent selection of items available to research, I definitely knew I needed to flesh out the tech-tree an
Another development update, as I keep working on the game every day. Last time, you may recall, I showed off the shiny, new Mad Science Research Lab. Even though there was a decent selection of items available to research, I definitely knew I needed to flesh out the tech-tree and put some more meat on the bones of inquiry.
To start that process I've added five new items to the Research Technology Tree, and they are all things you can build in the zoo, check out the update video:
New stuff to build is always fun! It's just the start though, lots more needed to fill out both the research options menu and the build options menu. Best get to work!
I talk through how the guild website works, how you can claim your exclsuive character, Kristof (and I also talk a little bit about the closed beta I've got going on right now sshhh, that's a secret.)
Who doesn't want to be a cursed zookeeper? Answer: 100% of all cursed zookeepers. But that's the beauty of a cursing someone; personal choice doesn't come into it! In The Eldritch Zookeeper you run a zoo packed with unsettling, otherworldly monsters. Deceived by a particularly we
Who doesn't want to be a cursed zookeeper? Answer: 100% of all cursed zookeepers. But that's the beauty of a cursing someone; personal choice doesn't come into it!
In The Eldritch Zookeeper you run a zoo packed with unsettling, otherworldly monsters.
Deceived by a particularly well-dressed skeleton, a cursed zookeeper is forced to manage a zoo full of eldritch abominations, ideally with as little bloodshed as possible. Can our unfortunate zookeeper break his curse? Running a zoo filled with terrifying creatures that must be cared for isn't easy - construct enclosures and keep the monsters fed and reasonably content, and build amenities for the zoo visitors! A Happy Monster Zoo™ is when a creature's teeth/claws/exploding-tendencies are far, far away from the guest's vital organs. They need those! Monster rampages are discouraged.
Taking a mixture of inspiration from classic Bullfrog games (Theme Park World, Dungeon Keeper) and modern survival games, The Eldritch Zookeeper is coming to a variety of platforms very soon!
Matt, the developer of The Eldritch Zookeeper, will be streaming live gameplay, taking questions, maybe even accepting the occasional request to feed a zoo visitor to a monster. Come and join in, and say hello! Live On The Steam Store Page!
Matt, the developer of The Eldritch Zookeeper, will be streaming live gameplay, taking questions, maybe even accepting the occasional request to feed a zoo visitor to a monster. Come and join in, and say hello!
Our friendly Discord server will be open for any questions about The Eldritch Zookeeper. (The Discord always open, but still, it'll be especially open.) Or just come say hello! The Discord Server Is Right Here!
Our friendly Discord server will be open for any questions about The Eldritch Zookeeper. (The Discord always open, but still, it'll be especially open.) Or just come say hello!
Science. Sure, it's been around since the enlightenment, but that was ages ago. If you're bored of physics, chemistry - and who isn't? Who wants to study rocks and rock-adjacent stuff? - Then perhaps it's time to look to the fringes? Alchemical Black Science! That's the really ex
Science.
Sure, it's been around since the enlightenment, but that was ages ago. If you're bored of physics, chemistry - and who isn't? Who wants to study rocks and rock-adjacent stuff? - Then perhaps it's time to look to the fringes? Alchemical Black Science! That's the really exciting stuff, and it's even more exciting because it's forbidden.
The bonus is you don't have to worry about all that pesky 'ethics board' nonsense. Watch the update video all about the new research lab:
Brains floating in a jar do all the work for us, how kind of them.
Adding a tech-tree full of research options has been a long time coming, and now the cackling mad scientist has arrived at last, I can continue to fill it up with all sorts of interesting additions, and 'New Stuff'. My plan is to first make the research tree of options broad (as in, at the very start of any game you can choose a wide array of ) and then deep (some research items need to be unlocked before others, and these can be chained together.) Do you 'go deep' on one particularly promising looking vein of research? Or do you instead dabble here and there in the shallow end?
Whatever you research; new monsters, new shops, upgrades and enhancements, they're going to improve your Zoo's Visitor Satisfaction Rating that we talked about last time.
One advantage of having a broad tech-tree is that you can start off a zoo in a very different way. There's no 'best build order', or at least, there'll be quite a number of viable options.
Guild of Cursed Zookeepers May Only Bonus!
Are you a member of the Guild Of Cursed Zookeepers? That's where you go to https://cranktrain.com/guild/ and link your Steam account to your Discount account for a free character named Kristof:
For the month of May only I'm also giving away 'Izsak's Skullish Mask':
It's a hat! Like in Team Fortress 2 or one of those games, just a fun bonus, and it exists as a Steam Inventory Item. If you head to the guild website and claim it now, you'll get it when the game comes out.
If it's something people (like you!) enjoy, perhaps we could have a free bonus gift like this every month? Let me know!
What makes a zoo good? What makes a zoo bad? Obviously, when it comes to monster zoos, having some sort of fence-like-structure between zoo visitors and the terrible creatures is a good start, but what about the rest of the zoo? How important are litter bins, and illumination, an
What makes a zoo good? What makes a zoo bad? Obviously, when it comes to monster zoos, having some sort of fence-like-structure between zoo visitors and the terrible creatures is a good start, but what about the rest of the zoo? How important are litter bins, and illumination, and having enough food and drink shops, and bathroom cleanliness, and queue lengths for all these services? Well, they are important! Cutting corners is frowned upon for most zookeepers, and surely even more for cursed ones.
I hope you enjoy what is my longest and most in-depth development video yet! I think it gives the start of a good overview of what will make The Eldritch Zookeeper a deep, rich and super-rewarding game to play.
Game Design Philosophy Time:
Here's an opinion I have about certain management/tycoon games: sometimes, they're not really very deep or challenging.
Let me explain: there are some games where you build a Thing (a theme park, a hospital, a school, or whatever else) where all you do as a player is to build some things, wait for money to accumulate, maybe research some new things, build those things with the money, and repeat until there's nothing more to build. Don't get me wrong; lots of games with that sort of 'gameplay loop' are entertaining and relaxing, and it's satisfying to build a Thing the way you want to.
Still, something I want to accomplish in The Eldritch Zookeeper is to have the zoo simulation push back on you in different ways. I want there to be situations where certain aspects of the zoo you're building get stressed, or have more weight put on them, to test whether the zoo can handle them. The Zoo Satisfaction Rating system I talk through in the video is how I'm measuring where a zoo is at, where it's struggling and whether it's improving or floundering.
One nice aspect to the Zoo Satisfaction Rating is the way it looks at everything you do as a zookeeper. An important part of the Management/Tycoon subgenre is just letting the player build their Thing - in this case, a monster zoo - however they want. That sort of freedom and creative expression is something I want to encourage, and not squash by enforcing a certain Build Order, or 'Way You Have To Do Things'. If you want to focus on having lots of different, interesting monsters, the Zoo Satisfaction Rating system will reward you for that. If you want to focus on decorating your zoo nicely and making sure visitors get what they need, the rating system will do the same. Whatever you invest in will be rewarded, and at the same time there are the levers behind the scenes that can be tweaked to help you create a well-rounded zoo. And achieving that well-rounded zoo is, I hope, going to be a fun little puzzle for future players (like you!) to solve.
(Oh, and it's worth mentioning: if the player just wants to build for fun, in a relaxing way, without the game simulation seriously challenging the player, I absolutely want to allow the player to do that in a Free Build mode.)
Thanks for watching the video, I hope it makes you anticipate the game! Don't forget to wishlist the game, and if you want to join The Guild of Cursed Zookeepers simply visit: https://cranktrain.com/guild/ and follow the instructions. It's free! And in return you'll get Kristof, an exclusive playable zookeeper, as a Steam inventory item:
Thanks for watching and reading, I'll see you again soon! - Matt
Only a week since the last development update and here's another one! Take a look and watch the video below: Keeping your zoo clean is going to have a big impact on whether or not your zoo is successful and whether or not your visitors stay happy. If there's no incentive to build
Only a week since the last development update and here's another one! Take a look and watch the video below:
Keeping your zoo clean is going to have a big impact on whether or not your zoo is successful and whether or not your visitors stay happy. If there's no incentive to build litter bins, why would you? But, of course, rubbish lying everywhere does not bode well for happy guests to your zoo - and reputation is important when it's directly linked to buying food for your monsters.
The user interface improvements shown in the video are just the start, part of how I'm reorganising the layout of what's-on-the-screen is also to make room for new display elements that I'll be talking about real soon...
Just like last week: if you want to get access to an exclusive and free new zookeeper character, Kristof, join the Guild of Cursed Zookeepers. It's quick and easy, and an excellent way to be involved in the development of the game. If I do a private beta for the game, it'll be rolled out to Guild members first (and, probably, no further than that) so, it's a good place to be.
The first development update of the year! Here we go... As the video above goes into, I've really expanded the roster of different zookeepers that you can play as. My favourite is still Poppy: She's just happy to be here, you know? Kristof is exciting though, Kristof is a freely
The first development update of the year! Here we go...
As the video above goes into, I've really expanded the roster of different zookeepers that you can play as. My favourite is still Poppy:
She's just happy to be here, you know?
Kristof is exciting though, Kristof is a freely available zookeeper that is exclusive to The Guild of Cursed Zookeepers!
For everyone who visits the Guild website and links their Steam account, and joins the Discord server, they'll receive the Kristof, for free, when they get the game on release!
This is just a fun, extra little thing for people (like you!) who are following the game as it's being made, I certainly want to support and plug into the Steam community and ecosystem as much as I can. Things like Cloud Saves, Achievements, Trading Cards, and all that good stuff, are on my todo list, and if you have any requests or things that you like that other games do, I'm all ears. Free steam Inventory items is a good start though, I think.
More updates very soon! If you haven't added The Eldritch Zookeeper to your Steam Wishlist, please do! And, one more time, here's the link to join The Guild of Cursed Zookeepers: https://cranktrain.com/guild/
Another game update for you! I've made another video and you can watch it here: In summary: • Smoothie Shops! After having Ice Cream shops in the game, now it's not just food, there's drinks too • Bathrooms! If there's both food and drink in the game, it makes sense the visitors
Another game update for you! I've made another video and you can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAi662Ehc1Q In summary:
• Smoothie Shops! After having Ice Cream shops in the game, now it's not just food, there's drinks too
• Bathrooms! If there's both food and drink in the game, it makes sense the visitors will need something else, right?
I think a next step of mine is to let the player know exactly how well they are doing with meeting the needs of the zoo guests. Some kind of global Visitor Satisfaction Rating that runs from 0 to 100, and perhaps some way of breaking that down into specific needs as well. How well you're doing with satisfying visitor's desires is going to correlate with how popular your zoo is... which of course leads to how many new visitors are going to turn up, which in turn powers your economic engine that lets you keep expanding and feeding your existing monsters so they don't go absolutely mad and kill everyone. <- This is the Game Loop, as they call it.
That's it for now! Join us on our Discord for a closer look at development: https://discord.gg/cranktrain
Another big ol' game update for you! Watch it here: In summary: • Bins! Litter can become a big problem and lead to dissatisfied or even angry visitors. You'll have to build them at appropriate points all around the zoo, and keep them empty. • Ticket Booth! A new visitor flow for
Another big ol' game update for you! Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fvjXmE8rgw In summary:
• Bins! Litter can become a big problem and lead to dissatisfied or even angry visitors. You'll have to build them at appropriate points all around the zoo, and keep them empty.
• Ticket Booth! A new visitor flow for entering and exiting the zoo, centring around buying tickets for the waistcoated, friendly helper near the entrance. Don't mind the mask, it's got a smile on it! That counts for something, right? Right?
• Benches! The metal bench can seat three visitors, letting them rest and keeping them happy. If they don't have seating, visitors are going to be quicker to leave and go home, but if they're in your zoo they can spend their money! Like bins, they have to be positioned all around the zoo, for easy access.
That's it for now! Join us on our Discord for a closer look at development: https://discord.gg/cranktrain
Hello! I've been working on a load of secret stuff that I can't quite show you yet (sooon), but I've decided to do another little update video with some improvements I can show you: • One thing I forgot to mention in that video - the day-and-night cycle looks waaay better! The ni
Hello! I've been working on a load of secret stuff that I can't quite show you yet (sooon), but I've decided to do another little update video with some improvements I can show you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F9Dp2N_oBc • One thing I forgot to mention in that video - the day-and-night cycle looks waaay better! The nights are darker, making building lampposts (and future illumination structures that I'm working on) way more important to build. Visually, the game is more interesting as the colours and shadows and light level changes every few minutes as time progresses.
• The User Interface additions are really helpful. They work at different resolutions and aspect ratios and, compared with how it appeared before, look great. Buying stuff, changing your build options, setting up your shop configurations, it's stuff you do all the time, so it should be carefully designed. That's what I reckon, anyway.
More fun stuff coming soon! Here's a question for you: have you joined the Discord server yet? You should do it! https://discord.gg/C6TdkaP
Hello! Work on The Eldritch Zookeeper continues to continue! I've made another development update video all about some new time-travel functionality: It's going to make playing the game a lot more fun. In that video I also go into some of the thinking behind the new Hypnollama an
Hello! Work on The Eldritch Zookeeper continues to continue! I've made another development update video all about some new time-travel functionality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TuxS2mHCVw It's going to make playing the game a lot more fun. In that video I also go into some of the thinking behind the new Hypnollama and Hypnollama Queen monsters that were debuted just a few weeks ago in the brand-new trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVuMhw7S1Kw I'm working on lots of things behind-the-scenes, so more videos will come soon!
Oh, also, have you joined the Discord server yet? You should! We're a nice bunch of people: https://discord.gg/C6TdkaP
I've had one beady eye on Lovecraftian park management game The Eldritch Zookeeper ever since its announcement last year. Things have seemingly been ticking along nicely since then, with its new trailer flaunting a lot more polish and, more importantly, the majestic HypnoLlama. T
I've had one beady eye on Lovecraftian park management game The Eldritch Zookeeper ever since its announcement last year. Things have seemingly been ticking along nicely since then, with its new trailer flaunting a lot more polish and, more importantly, the majestic HypnoLlama.
The Eldritch Zookeeper is the work of Canadian developer Cranktrain Games and takes inspiration from Bullfrog classics such as Theme Park and Dungeon Keeper. It casts players, tricked by a "particularly well-dressed skeleton", as the custodian of an accursed zoo - one in which the exhibits consist primarily of antediluvian beasts from beyond the cosmic veil.
On a fundamental level, that means it's pretty much business as usual in the heady world of park management games. You'll need to construct an attraction that can cater for every possible whim of your guests - whipping up the likes of ice-cream stands, smoothie shops, bathrooms, and other amenities - and ensure you've an appealing assortment of (ideally happy, not hungry) creatures in your enclosures to keep the crowds coming in.
Park management sim The Eldritch Zookeeper looks totally normal if you ask me. You keep a zoo full of very ordinary animals and invite people to come and see them, just like any other zoo. Okay, sure, you ve been cursed by a skeleton in a sharp suit, but who among us hasn t? Just
Park management sim The Eldritch Zookeeper looks totally normal if you ask me. You keep a zoo full of very ordinary animals and invite people to come and see them, just like any other zoo. Okay, sure, you ve been cursed by a skeleton in a sharp suit, but who among us hasn t? Just take a look at these extremely typical mind-possessing llama friends:
