One of the main ways to earn Zoo Dollars, the in-game currency, is to create art for your animals. With everything you submit, you will earn cash and could trigger a special event. These events vary from having an animal escape to random breedings or receiving a random animal for your zoo. These are RNG rolls, where ZD can range from 25 to 500 ZD per roll.
Artwork
You can draw your animals in any situation to allow for plenty of variety, they don't have to be in a zoo. If you want added realism, however, you are certainly allowed to picture your animals in the zoo 100% of the time.
While there is no quality requirements, your best effort is greatly encouraged! We want you to take every opportunity to have fun and maybe even improve in your work, working with new and different creatures! Chibi art, pixel art, ect are allowed as long as the animal is identifiable.
Art Rules
1. No AI is allowed in our group in any way! The most you can use AI for is for light reference, but no heavy referencing is allowed.
2. Tracing and heavy referencing (including skeleton tracing) is not allowed for rolls. You may trace or heavily reference in art that is not being submitted for rolls, but you MUST credit the reference. Heavily referencing in this case would be, for example, if you could lay the art over a photo and have it be clearly very similar. Here is an example of a heavily-referenced piece that would not be allowed (photo by Josh Felise used with permission).
3. All rolls for a piece of art must go to one person. This is to avoid confusion and possible exploitation. If multiple people submit the same piece for rolls, it will be denied. You are welcome to split rewards after the fact, however!
4. All quest types and prompts should be on separate pieces/canvasses/submissions to avoid confusion.
Please list the number of rolls in your art description!
Rolls per Character Featured
Both animals and staff members will count for rolls
Uncolored art and bases: -1 Roll
- Any art that is uncolored, such as sketches or lineart, will be penalized a roll. Art that is on reused lines or bases is also penalized a roll. Greyscale animals still count as coloring as long as there are obvious tone variations and markings (for marked animals).
Headshot: 0 rolls
- Headshots do not earn rolls on their own, but still earn rolls for shading and background
Fullbody: 1 Roll
- A fullbody image must show at least 75% of the animal to count
Shading: + 1 Roll
- Shading must apply to the entire image to count. Style doesn't matter (soft vs cell-shading) but shading should be obvious.
Rolls Per piece
Bonuses may be applied to any submission, visual art and literature.
You may get more than one bonus in a single submission.
Bonuses do not stack (featuring more than one guest will still only give one extra roll)
Every 200 Words: + 1 Roll
- This does not multiply by how many animals are featured
- Word count is rounded down
- Staff members featured in lit earn a +1 roll bonus (does not stack)
Simple Background: + 1 Roll
- Must contain at least 3 elements (sky, ground, and one other element such as clouds or bushes)
- Backgrounds count once per piece, not per character featured.
- Examples of a simple Background: [X][X][X]
Complex Background: +2 Rolls
- A complex background should reflect significant effort and have multiple planes of depth.
- Backgrounds count once per piece, not per character featured.
- Examples of a complex Background: [X] [X]
Animation:
Frames are not counted separately
- Minor (blinking/smile) + 1 Roll
- Medium (tail movement, head tilting) + 2 Rolls
- Full Movement + 4 Rolls
- Additional may be awarded at staff discretion
Zoo Guest: +1 Roll
- Must be at least 50% pictured
- Must actually be a part of a story (for lit), not just mentioned in passing
- Guests do not have to be human but they must at least be bipedal and anthropomorphic
- Does not stack
Seasonal/Weekly/Release Prompt: + 1 Roll
- These prompts all earn +1 roll per prompt (not per animal)
Quest: + 2 Rolls
- When completing a quest with a quest token, you earn +2 rolls per token used
Submitting Art
Submissions may take between 1 day to 1 week to be approved depending on the submission's complexity and the zookeepers' schedule.
Click the "steps" to see an example image!
Submitting Art to Gallery:
- Submitting to the galleries does not earn rolls and is optional. This is purely for image hosting at this time. This is for adding images to your animal's personal gallery and so you can link the image when submitting for rolls later.
Step 1. Navigate to the Gallery on the navigation bar. Go to the sub-Gallery you wish to submit to and click the "+."
Step 2. Upload your image or enter your text for literature
Step 3. Enter a title and description if you wish. Also add any collaborators or participants.
Step 4. Add all characters to the submission (this will add the image to their individual gallery) and hit submit when you're done!
Submitting Art For Rolls:
- This is how you get your rolls! All art submitted for rolls will be done this way, just make sure you submit under the correct prompt. Only quests require you to add a quest token item. If you do not have one, your submission will be rejected. (UNLESS you are submitting a proof comment instead from Deviantart in the description)
- References can be submitted by linking to the animal's profile as your submission.
- Please do not submit prompts for art that has already received rolls unless you are submitting to earn fame from before the website. Note in the description that rolls have already been awarded.
- Only the person submitting art as a pormpt will be able to earn rolls. If doing art for someone else (such as for a trade or payment) the person recieving the rolls must submit the art.
Step 1. Navigate to the Prompts page under World. Find your desired prompt, and hit "Submit Prompt." There is a General Art Prompt for misc artwork.
Step 2. Enter the submission URL (could be a Zoo-ARPG gallery submission, Deviantart submission, ect) and count the number of rolls you should earn in the description. Ignore the rewards section.
Step 3. Add EACH character featured in the submission. For each, click "Add Rewards" and add the amount of fame the character will earn. This will usually roughly correspond to the number of rolls per animal. If you are submitting a quest, make sure to add the quest token from your inventory. If your quest is from the deviantart (before the website went live) simply add the URL to the comment in the description in lieu of adding the item token. Finally, hit submit and you're done!
So What Did I Roll?
Here's how to check. After a staff member goes through to check everything is in order, all rolls are done by the website and automatically added to your account. Random breedings may take some time to process as they are done manually, but you will know you rolled one because you will receive an item called "Breeding Token." When a staff member rolls them, the MYO slots will be added to your account. The token stays in your account and can be sold or just collected.
Step 1. Navigate to your Notifications. When your submission has been accepted, you'll recieve a notif under "Submission Approvals." Click on "View Submission."
Step 2. Under "Rewards" it'll show you what you earned!
Quests
Sometimes when receiving rolls, you will unlock a random event in the form of a quest token. Completing these random events can earn you awards or unlock certain abilities as well as earn you extra rolls on submissions. Quests/prompts are a 2-roll minimum to complete (not including the bonus rolls)
Veterinarian Award:
⭐️- Allows released animals to skip a vet check
⭐️⭐️- Allows adopted animals to be healed without art or lit
⭐️⭐️⭐️- Reward WIP