Zoo Tycoon

It's probably safe to say everyone has heard of Rollercoaster Tycoon, a game developed by the one man team of Chris Sawyer which was met with surprising success. While it wasn't the first business simulation game, it was one of the first that took the business portion and applied it to something fun and accessible to the population at large.

The actual zoo building mechanics are as simple as the concept of the game itself. Building an animal enclosure is as easy as selecting a fence type and laying it down. At this point players can name the enclosure and then put animals into it. Of course, they won't be happy until the exhibit meets all their needs. Animals each have their own preferred biome (savannah, tundra, forest, etc.) which they must have to be happy. In addition to that, they require set amounts of other terrain types such as fresh water to be happy. Many animals also prefer other features such as foliage, rocks, toys and shelter in order to be really content. All of this adds up to the fact that animals can be hard to please. Each animal type has a specific amount of things necessary for it to be happy in its exhibit, and if it isn't perfect can become angry. For instance, some animals may like an exhibit made up of eighty percent savannah terrain, five percent water, ten percent dirt and five percent sand. Get the mix incorrect and they'll be displeased. Thankfully, players will have an advisor to tell exactly what each animal needs and when those needs are met. Expect to see plenty of messages saying “Animal needs more fresh water” and “Animal would like more foliage” until everything falls into place. While it's nice to be able to see exactly when these needs are met, getting there is still a pain, as you'll eventually have to resort to going tile by tile and tree by tree to nail down the details. Because of this setup, each exhibit basically turns into a set formula which doesn't really allow the player to exercise their imagination when putting the zoo together.