What I should have done over the weekend is finish the final chapter of Ni No Kuni 2. Instead I delayed the inevitable by diving head first into a new game, Parkasaurus, which released for PC last month on August 20.
I knew I’d love Parkasaurus just from the description: “Parkasaurus is a dinosaur tycoon management simulation where you take care of your dinosaurs by constructing well-designed exhibits, researching specialized technologies, and maximizing profits to expand into the ultimate dinosaur theme park.”
I listened to Atomic Habits by James Clear this weekend as well. (Great book by the way.) He mentioned a potential motivation for playing video games: satisfying the desire to have more control over your life and environment. Management simulators are probably the category of games that best attract people with this motivation, and I can say with 100% guarantee that Parkasaurus scratched that itch for me. I was immediately obsessed, spending hours upon hours experimenting with park layouts and dino pairings.
Science trees unlock new items for park visitors. 
Day-end charts and summaries. 
Biome info for an exhibit.
Things I love about the game:
- Family-friendly with a light aesthetic
- Science and item trees with satisfying progression
- Biome indicators that help you craft the perfect exhibit for each dino species (very educational!)
- Day-end summaries and charts that help you improve your park by showing foot traffic patterns, exhibit revenue, and other valuable info
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Parkasaurus as my weekend play, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of management simulators. It’s a game I can easily lose myself in, so moving forward I plan to time-box myself to only a few hours a week in order to have more time for story-driven games.
Weekend Play is a weekly Monday post sharing about what game I played over the weekend. Each post is a 5-minute read that covers one game. Follow me on Twitter to receive notifications of new posts!
Leave a Reply