Dinosaur Island Planner Checklist

The island planner is a practical checklist for Dinosaur’s unrestricted editor. Dinosaur Master’s Steam sim (app 3294300, August 13, 2026) gives you fifteen maps, 40+ species (~80 male/female variants), and full responsibility for whether those animals can actually live together. Use this page before heavy stocking in Classic, Creative, or FPS Survival.

Deep tool teaching lives in the island editor guide; this planner is the pocket list. Parent index: Tools Hub.

One-page planning sequence

1. Pick the map’s story — inland basin, coastal shelf, ridge-and-river, or mixed showcase
2. Mark water first — primary lake/river plus a drought backup
3. Draw herbivore graze loops — contiguous forage, not speckled shrubs (herbivores)
4. Place nesting pads with escape arcs
5. Reserve carnivore dens and kill zones only after surplus food exists (carnivores)
6. Carve aquatic shelves with haul-out margins (aquatic and pterosaurs)
7. Cut pterosaur launch cliffs and landing shelves
8. Possession-test each loop via control dinosaurs
9. Score needs difficulty with the needs tier list
10. Save a clean restore point before spectacle stocking

Zone templates

Foundation park. One water body, two graze belts, one nest cluster, zero apex predators. Ideal Creative tutorial after Getting Started.

Balanced Classic. Foundation park plus one controllable carnivore lane and a small aquatic cove.

Vertical showcase. Ridge forage, cliff launches, deep shelf, and strict predator caps. Prove it in Creative before Classic.

Survival arena. Shorter sightlines, clearer escape routes, conservative hunters—see FPS Survival and game modes.

Symbiosis checks (do not skip)

• Does every herbivore path reach water without crossing unavoidable kill boxes?
• Can nests survive a panic without dumping animals into the ocean?
• Do aquatics beach on cosmetics-only puddles?
• Do flyers have both takeoff and landing?
• Does male/female mix match your breeding or display intent?

Revisit ecosystem symbiosis when any answer is no.

Co-op planning

In local co-op or Remote Play, print or screenshare this checklist. Host marks zones; guest validates on foot or in-body. English-only UI keeps zone names consistent. Confirm PC headroom on system requirements. Ignore codes; bookmark wiki and the Species Hub for roster decisions.

A good plan is boring on paper and alive in motion. If the checklist feels slow, remember rebuilding a collapsed Classic island always takes longer.

Extended notes for fifteen-map tours

Not every map wants the same template. Keep a short card per seed:

• Inland maps: double forage belts before any coastline vanity.
• Coastal maps: protect an inland herbivore spine so aquatics do not monopolize calories.
• Ridge maps: plan gravity-aware chase paths; steep beauty can trap herds.
• Showcase maps: cap predators explicitly; spectacle without surplus is a screenshot of a funeral.

After each session, write one sentence: “Next time I will fix ___ before stocking ___.” That sentence is more valuable than a mood board. When playing with friends, paste the sentence into chat at session start. Cross-link failures to ecosystem symbiosis, needs tier list, and mode guides so the planner stays connected to live systems rather than becoming abstract art direction.

Revisit planner cards whenever Updates Hub entries mention terrain tools or species navigation. Editor patches can invalidate old shelf depths even if your aesthetic taste stays the same. Treat the planner as living documentation for your club’s favorite islands across the full fifteen-map roster, including which Creative experiments earned a Classic port and which stayed sandbox toys.