Reverse Zoo

You run a zoo where the animals are the visitors and the humans are the exhibits. Build spectacle exhibits to draw a crowd and comfort amenities to keep it, then let each day simulate attendance, income and reputation. Every structure costs Bananabucks once to build and then charges upkeep every single day afterwards. Run out of money and the zoo closes.

• Exhibits supply appeal, which brings animals through the gate — from the Office Cubicle at 30 up to the Wedding Pavilion at 430.
• Amenities supply comfort, which keeps them there and spending, from the Mud Bath at 40 to the Burrow Lounge at 210.
• Upkeep is charged daily and never stops, so a build is a commitment rather than a purchase.
• Reputation compounds: a good day makes the next day busier, and a bad one does the reverse.

• Desktop: click a build option, then click a pen to place or demolish it
• Phone & tablet: full touch support, tap to build and place

• Daily: a seeded scenario for everyone
• Practice: a random scenario

• Grand exhibits are prestige, not efficiency. The Office Cubicle returns 3 appeal for every 1 of daily upkeep; the Wedding Pavilion returns about 1.6. The cheap ones are strictly better value per day.
• The same curve applies to amenities, harder: the Mud Bath gives 4 comfort per 1 of upkeep, the Burrow Lounge 2.
• Because of that, early comfort is the best-value thing you can buy — a Mud Bath outperforms any exhibit per Bananabuck of upkeep.
• Build cost is survivable; upkeep is what bankrupts you. Before placing something, ask whether a bad week still covers its daily charge.
• Expand on the back of reputation rather than cash. Cash tells you what you can afford today, reputation tells you whether tomorrow will pay for it.

The management loop is the business simulation's, and the specific one — spectacle to draw a crowd, amenities to keep it, upkeep every day thereafter — is the zoo-management form Zoo Tycoon popularised.

The original premise is the role swap: the animals are the visitors and the humans are the exhibits.

The swap is a joke that turns out to have a point. Every structure costs once to build and then charges upkeep forever, so a zoo is really a bet that a crowd will keep arriving — and looking at the arrangement from the other side of the glass is a fair way to be reminded of that.

Reverse Zoo is an original management sim with a playful role-swap premise. Free to play in your browser on PlayPendium.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.