Jurassic Park Builder

Development and release

Ludia and Universal Pictures teamed up in October 2011 to create a park-building game, initially called Jurassic Park: The Social Game, for Facebook and mobile devices with a planned early 2012 launch. It eventually came out as Jurassic Park Builder. The iOS and Facebook versions arrived in North America on July 23, 2012, alongside an Android release. The UK App Store got it on October 19, 2012. A later update added aquatic creatures and fixed bugs. Ludia shut down the game on March 30, 2020, leaving it unplayable.

Reception

The iOS version had strong sales in its first week. Jurassic Park Builder was among the top 15 downloaded Android and iOS games of 2013 and among the top 10 highest grossing of that year. Ben Hanson of Game Informer gave it three and a half stars out of five, calling the sound effects the weakest part and stating it "doesn't do anything exceptional for the genre, but if you have an ounce of love for Jurassic Park you might as well give it a shot."

Mike Wehner of Engadget noted the in-game cost for some items and advised readers to have a credit card ready. Eli Hodapp of TouchArcade described it as an average free-to-play building game with timers and pay walls. Dave Gilmore of The Baltimore Sun rated it 4 out of 4. Slide to Play wrote that despite disliking the unchallenging gameplay, they enjoyed the visuals and audio, concluding that if players avoid spending extra money, it is "harmless fun."

Rob Rich of 148Apps.com gave it four stars out of five, praising the graphics as lush and colorful with well-animated three-dimensional dinosaurs, but criticizing cheesy cameos and horrific lag on startup. Rich noted it is not Operation Genesis for mobile but a simplified freemium version.

Jurassic World: The Game

A follow-up called Jurassic World: The Game, tied to the 2015 movie Jurassic World, came out on iOS from Ludia on April 29, 2015. Universal Pictures first revealed it in October 2014 as part of their movie promotion. Players build a Jurassic World park on the fictional Isla Nublar, adding structures and making dinosaurs. There is a turn-based battle mode where dinosaurs fight rivals, over 50 dinosaur species, and film characters Owen and Claire appear. Kotaku's Patrick Klepek disliked the in-game ads. Gamezebo's Nadia Oxford rated it three out of five, describing it as essentially Jurassic Park Builder part two, with so-so park-building and so-so dinosaur combat.