Gameplay Summary

After growing too big to stay in your parent’s home, you head off on your own with Lucky, your Parasaurolophus best friend. In this farming simulation game, you will learn how to grow food, trade with the local villagers, and build friendships along the way. The best part is that you can tame dinosaurs and bring them home to your ranch! Learn their calls using your flute and discover what foods they like to build a friendship with them. You can then bring them to your ever-expanding ranch to help you farm at your home and solve problems in the area. Similar to other games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, you get to take this game at your own pace and enjoy each day living in the Veridian Valley. 

Critical Evaluation 

I have not played many simulation games before, so it took me a while to acclimate to the self-paced style of Paleo Pines. I’m used to fulfilling quests, having infinite days, and being forced to follow a specific storyline when I play a game, so having the freedom to choose what to do in the day and even choose when the day ends made for a difficult adjustment. The main draw of the game, however, is the dinosaurs, which were incredibly impressive in terms of design and breadth of the cast. While I did not make it far into the game, I saw Psittacosaurus, Gallimimus, and Wuerhosaurus, dinosaurs that don’t typically see media attention. The designs also reflect modern theories about dinosaurs, such as therapods having feathers. Though, I do wonder if they will be willing to attack more controversial dinosaurs in the future, such as Spinosaurus, which has many different theories of how it walked and interacted with its environment. 

As a simulator, this game is good for relaxing and experiencing the beautiful art that makes up its 3D environment. The play style of Paleo Pines is simple in its concept and entirely customizable to the play experience. The basic plot works well for people who feel that they are in a transitioning stage of their life. It’s a new start for the character, so it can be a new start for the player, too. As the player finds new dinosaurs, learns about them, and brings them home, they are also cleaning up their ranch and building a farm. These little tasks provide the player with satisfaction and a sense of control, something that young adults, specifically teens, might desire. 

There were a few annoying parts of the game. The interface made it difficult to interact with items at times, and there were moments where I wasn’t able to interact with an item simply because I hadn’t reached that part of the tutorial yet. As someone who is used to running around in games, I also found the stamina bar for my character to be frustrating to work around. I didn’t want to leisurely walk down the same paths day after day when there wasn’t much to do on the way. This might also be due to an incompatibility with my preferred play style. For those who prefer slower and leisurely games, this is a nice way to balance appreciating the beauty of the game with accomplishing tasks.

Creative Use for a Library Program 

I feel that my library system doesn’t engage with gamers enough, and there should be a variety of programs to encourage people who enjoy video games to build community through the library. One type of program is to have a gaming circle, similar to a knitting circle, where each person can bring in a game they enjoy playing, be it single-player or multiplayer, and play it in the company of other gamers. I am specifically thinking about single-player games, however, like Paleo Pines, where the game is self-paced but not mentally taxing, teens may want to socialize with others while they play their relaxing game. This program could also provide a place where teens can exchange games, learn about new ones, and build their collections, along with building relationships. This could provide a great opportunity for games like Pokemon, where trading between players is necessary for some aspects of the gameplay. For teens who don’t have friends that play the same games as them, this type of program would allow them to make these exchanges. 

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation

It is difficult to think of any aspect of this game that parents would object to. There is no violence, swearing, sex, or any other taboo topics. The only possible challenge to the game is that it is a video game, and there are parents who are concerned their teens are playing video games too often. For these types of challenges, I would share with the parents the benefits of playing video games for teens. While more research needs to be done in the area of the cognitive effects of video games on teens, there is a positive association between playing games and cognitive performance (National Institutes of Health, 2022). Most problems with teens playing video games that have been researched is excessive gaming, which is more about the amount of time spent playing games, not the content of the games themselves (National Institutes of Health, 2022).

Reason for Inclusion

With the popularity of farming simulation games such as Stardew Valley, I wanted to include a niche version that applied to my personal interests: dinosaurs. There are plenty of different simulation games that meet the various interests of a diverse population, but each is of a different quality. Stardew Valley has become the most popular due to its easy play style and relaxing atmosphere, but there are many more out there to explore. I wanted to play and review Paleo Pines to be exposed to a different type of life simulation game and try to understand the fervor that tends to accompany them.