Jurassic Park Builder

Jurassic Park Builder is an Apple and later Android and Facebook application produced by Ludia in 2012.^[1] It is a construction and management simulation game in which the player builds a theme park featuring extinct animals. Three kinds of parks can be made: Jurassic Park, located on Isla Nublar, featuring dinosaurs and other Mesozoic animals; Aquatic Park, located on a seabed featuring extinct aquatic animals; and Glacier Park, located in Patagonia, featuring extinct animals from the Cenozoic era along with some Mesozoic crocodilians.^[2] The game is similar to Jurassic Park III: Park Builder and Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis.

Gameplay

In Jurassic Park Builder, the player is chosen by John Hammond to be the manager of Jurassic Park. The player has to build a well functioning Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar. The game takes place after the events of Jurassic Park III, but before the events of Jurassic World. Characters from the films such as Henry Wu and Ian Malcolm help the player by checking on progress and helping the park to advance in prestige.

Gameplay is similar but not as detailed and grandiose as Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. The player is given a stretch of land to build upon. The land can be expanded as the player levels up. The player can place anything into the park as long as space is available.^[3]

The game's primary currency are gold coins. The game's rare Bucks are used to buy special items. Bucks can be purchased from the in-game store using real currency or can be earned by leveling up or fulfilling certain criteria in the "GET MORE FOR FREE" option or by watching videos raging from 10 to 30 seconds. Bucks are used to buy coins. The game allows the player to connect with other players online and to visit their parks.

A coin-collecting minigame called "Code Red" becomes available if the player's park contains at least 5 carnivorous dinosaurs. In the minigame, the carnivores rampage during a violent storm. A circle appears over their heads and fills up with color from green to blinking red. The brighter the color, the more coins are earned. The player must tap on the dinosaur before the circle completely fills to earn the coins. If a circle above any carnivore's head fills completely, the carnivore escapes and the minigame is over. The objective is to earn as many coins as possible and prevent any dinosaurs from escaping.

Aquatic Park features aquatic reptiles and is unlocked when the player reaches level 10. After the completion of Jurassic Park and Aquatic Park, Hammond wants to open the Glacier Park; featuring the extinct animals of the Cenozoic Era. Glacier Park is unlocked when the player reaches level 20. For Glacier Park, Alan Grant accompanies Hammond's team to the glaciers of Patagonia in search for DNA samples.

Buildings and other items

The player can place certain buildings into the park to allow more coins to be collected. These buildings do not alter gameplay and only serve for visual stimulus and to obtain more coins. Buildings must be constructed before they can start earning coins in game. There are a variety of buildings to choose from. Most can be purchased with coins, but certain ones can only be obtained via Dino-Dollars.^[4] The player can also construct a Safari Tour around the park purely for aesthetic appeal.

The player can also purchase foliage or aesthetic pieces for the park. They take up the park's space but have no actual affect on gameplay. When placed next to buildings or dinosaurs, it allows coins to be collected faster. Plants, fountains, braziers, fossils, rocks, and various other items can be unlocked by leveling up. The higher the level, the more content the player has access to. These items can be purchased with coins, but certain items can only be bought with Bucks.^[5]

Creatures

The player can choose from more than 30 dinosaurs to place into the park, including Brachiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Velociraptor. In order to obtain these dinosaurs, the player must expand the park by cutting down the surrounding jungle area and clearing away the debris left behind. One piece of debris will contain a piece of amber, which the player must invest money into decoding. Once fully decoded, a dinosaur will be revealed and be ready for purchase. Most dinosaurs can be bought with the coins earnable ingame, but certain dinosaurs can only be purchased with special Bucks. Only one individual of each dinosaur species can be placed into the park, although smaller ones live in pairs. When the dinosaur is placed into the park, it starts out as an egg. The player must wait on the corresponding time limit to pass in order for the dinosaur to hatch or spends Bucks. When the dinosaur hatches, it will begin to generate money for the player to collect. Carnivores are kept in cages, while herbivores are not confined.

All dinosaurs start from level one. The higher the level, the more money they earn. When a dinosaur reaches the halfway mark, it matures into its adult form. To level up a dinosaur, the player must feed it. When a dinosaur reaches level 10, it can be evolved. Evolving a dinosaur allows it to reach the next level tier, which allows it to make more money. Evolving a dinosaur also changes its skin, which only serves for visual appeal and does not affect gameplay. Choosing the evolve option is irreversible and makes the evolving dinosaur unavailable until it is fully evolved. No money can be earned from it during this time. When the dinosaur is fully evolved, it will revert to an egg form, and the player must wait out the time limit until it hatches again. The process can be repeated up to level 40 and can be done for every dinosaur. The player then invests money to evolve it when more amber is found. It varies in cost for each time. It takes ten strands of DNA to finish the process.

Crops serve as food for the herbivores, while meat serves as food for the carnivores. Bucks are used to buy large quantities of meat or crops, which are obtained via their corresponding harbors. The player invests money into the individual harbors, which opens up a time window which the player can expand by putting in more money. The harbors collect food for the dinosaurs over the time limit. Harbors can also be upgraded to allow more food to be earned and have longer time to allow more food to be gathered.

Other creatures include Elasmosaurus, Mosasaurus and Tylosaurus for the Aquatic Park; and Smilodon, Marsupial Lion and Woolly mammoth for the Glacier Park.

Release

On March 29, 2012 a cover for the game's Facebook page was revealed. It shows Alan Grant, John Hammond and Kelly Curtis. After that more artwork was revealed.

Jurassic Park Builder was open for download on July 23, 2012 on iTunes in the USA and Canada. The game was advertised through Facebook.^[6] However, the game contained many bugs. On October 18, 2012, Jurassic Park Builder became available in Europe and South America. It was later released on Android.^[7] Facebook got its own playable version as well.

Reception

Rob Rich of 148Apps.com gave the game four stars out of five and wrote, "Jurassic Park Builder is not Operation Genesis for mobile devices, but it is like playing a simplified freemium version of it. Which is all kinds of alright." Rich praised the game's graphics, saying, "Backgrounds are lush and colorful, while the dinos themselves are actually three-dimensional and animated quite well. They even look good when zoomed in as close as possible, which is something not many free-to-play sims can claim." However, Rich criticized the game's "cheesy 'cameos'" and "horrific lag each time the game first starts up as it contacts Game Center. Waiting several seconds – possibly even a minute – until it's all good to go sees everything running nice and smooth, but that initial period of chugging can be excruciating."^[8]

Nadia Oxford of Gamezebo also rated the game four stars out of five and said that the "core gameplay certainly doesn't break new ground, but it builds a solid experience with its old materials." Oxford praised the game's "decent selection" of dinosaurs, and noted that "they vocalize with an impressive library of snarls, squeals, and grunts." However, Oxford also said "the game's selection of decorations and buildings is kind of sparse". She concluded that the game "doesn't really offer an outset that's as exciting as the movie that spawned it, but it's still a very decent park-building game that lets you manage some fascinating attractions."^[3]

Jurassic World: The Game

An updated version of the game,^[9][10] titled Jurassic World: The Game and based on the 2015 film, Jurassic World, was released by Ludia on April 29, 2015,^[11] to coincide with the release of the film.^[12] Jurassic World: The Game was released on iOS mobile devices.^[13] Universal announced the game in October 2014, as part of its promotional plans for the film.^[12] The game allows the player to operate a Jurassic World theme park.^[13]

Jurassic World: The Game uses the same general gameplay as Jurassic Park Builder, but includes the addition of hybrid dinosaurs. Aquatic creatures did not appear in the game until September 30, 2015 when the Mosasaurus was added. On December 11, 2015, an entire aquatic park with an unidentified species of Ammonite, Dakosaurus, Dunkleosteus, Kronosaurus, Leptocleidus, Psephoderma, Megalodon, Mosasaurus, Prognathodon, and Styxosaurus were added. Eight additional creatures were added on March 16, 2016: Baculites, Geosaurus, Helicoprion, Liopleurodon, Mauisaurus, Plesiosaurus, Trinacromerum, and Xiphactinus. Two tournament creaures, Archelon and Edestus, are planned to be added. On June 29, 2016, a new regular aquatic creature was added: Pliosaurus.

A VIP membership has been added with new exclusive animals: Apatosaurus, Hainosaurus, Henodus, Mastodonsaurus, Orthacanthus, Prestosuchus, Pterodactylus, Tanycolagreus, and Tylosaurus.

Sources

External links

• Jurassic Park Builder on developer Ludia's website