Jurassic Architect

A zoo on the other side of the Portal

Past the Portal lies a valley where dinosaurs never went extinct. You run the only zoo there. On our side, people line up for tickets. Build a park worth the trip, keep your dinosaurs happy and send every visitor home with a story.

Build it your way

• Enclosures of any shape. Fences go on the edges of tiles: hedges, wood, steel, log palisades, stone walls, electric fences, armoured glass and carved Portal stone. A Parasaurolophus is fine behind a hedge. A T. rex needs the strongest kind, and an electric fence holds only while it has power.
  
• Shape the land. Paint grass, dirt, sand and ponds, plant tree ferns, cycads, ginkgos, palms, flowering magnolias and weeping willows. Every species wants its own mix of ground, water, plant cover and room to roam.
  
• Toys for curious minds. Mud wallows, sand baths, giant balls, swinging logs, waterfall showers and hanging meat keep your animals busy and happy.
  
• A park people love. Paths and skywalks, viewing decks and observation towers, ice cream, lemonade, burgers and an explorer café, a gift shop full of plush dinosaurs, guided tours, a safari ride and helicopter flights over the herds.
  
• Landmarks. A T. rex skeleton, floating stones, Portal pylons, ancient ruins and even a golden T. rex. Changed your mind? Pick up a building and move it.

50+ dinosaurs with personality

From the tiny Compsognathus to the colossal Argentinosaurus, with Pteranodon and Dimorphodon in the aviaries. Every dinosaur has a name and its own needs: food, water, the right ground, enough space, plants to hide in, toys and the company of its herd. Happy dinosaurs dance, play with their herd mates and splash in the ponds. Happy pairs court and lay eggs, and the babies hatch and trot after their parents. Dinosaurs catch colds, get tummy aches and limp after ramming a fence, and they grow old: an old dinosaur goes home through the Portal to live out its days in its own age.

Nothing stays calm for free

Hungry, thirsty or cramped dinosaurs pace their fences, ram them and sometimes break through. Visitors scream and run, rangers come with tranquilizer darts and carry the escapee home. Prefer a gentle park? Turn escapes off in the options.

Research, study and rare colours

Your dinosaurs teach you as you watch them. Spend that Knowledge on the research board and your scientists get to work, unlocking new species, shops, plants, fences and lasting upgrades. The longer you keep a species, the more you learn about it, and the Paleopedia fills with real paleontology. Every animal carries its own genes and colours: breed strong herds, collect rare colour morphs and trade animals with other parks on the animal market.

People to run it

Hire keepers who walk up to the enclosures and toss hay or meat into the feeders, rangers who patrol, tidy up and mend the fences, and vets who cure sick animals with a medicine dart. Pay them every night and watch the park run itself, or not.

Something happens every day

The park year turns from the rainy season through the dry season and the storm season to the cool season, and ends with the Yearly Awards Gala. A dinosaur festival with fireworks, a school trip, a heatwave, a fossil dig on the lawn, a thunderstorm that knocks out the electric fences. Special visitors drop by: a travel writer whose review moves your reputation, a famous naturalist who donates if they leave happy, and a film crew that brings crowds if no dinosaur escapes on camera. Letters ask for your decisions, people from our world post Portal requests, and expeditions through the Portal into the Triassic, the Jurassic or the Cretaceous bring back Knowledge, eggs and stories.

Cozy, readable, alive

Soft, toy-like 3D in a jungle valley under a smoking volcano, with a field-journal interface of parchment, leather and brass. Day turns to golden hour and night, rain brings out the umbrellas, frogs hop into the ponds and magnolia petals drift on the wind. Ivy, your park guide, introduces every new feature, and the handbook explains the rest. Play with mouse and keyboard or a controller, and pause or speed up whenever you like.

Campaign, free play and sandbox

A campaign across the valley, with goals and up to three stars in every park: a first season, gentle giants, a lake park, a night zoo, an old zoo to bring back to life and a grand opening. Stars raise your Architect Rank, and every new rank brings a decoration. In free play your park grows level by level, from a few paddocks to a legend, and the sandbox lets you build without limits. Steam Achievements wait along the way, from your first enclosure to a park legend.

Made for streaming

Streaming on Twitch or YouTube? Turn on streamer mode and your chat joins the park: viewers name the next dinosaur to hatch or arrive and the next visitor through the Portal, and every evening they vote on tomorrow's event.