Devlog 19

Hi everyone,

Since our last post we’ve been testing and working on a couple of new elements, and we’re excited to finally be able to share some of them. So sit tight because this is going to be a lengthy post.

The Squad Mechanic and Home Base System

The squad mechanic is a mechanic where you could take members of your own species to help you during combat.

The video shows how the player, which is a Tyrannosaurus, can form a pack of Tyrannosaurus AIs to take down a group of Triceratops, something that would be difficult if done individually. Because of this, the squad mechanic will be helpful when taking down multiple or more powerful foes such as unique AIs. At this moment, the squad mechanic can only be used in the unique regions of the campaign mode, however, this mechanic will be worked on further throughout development.

Aside from squad mechanic being used for combat purposes, we wanted the squad mechanic to help bring a sense of progression for players to experience. Which brings us to the next mechanic that we’ve been working on, and that is the Home Base system.

The picture shows a currently work in progress home base system that will be further refined throughout development.

The home base system basically act as the player’s home, or nest, a safe haven for the player to go to after roaming the region. In the home base the player can interact with squad members to boost their effectiveness when they are taken into battle. The home base also act as a place for players to regain strength and obtain temporary bonuses before venturing out into the world.

With the foundation of these two mechanics established, we are now ready to move forward with something that we’ve been drafting for the last few months, something that is rather ambitious, a new mode that focused heavily on survival, the survivor mode.

Survivor Mode

Much like its name, the survivor mode focuses on giving players a more conventional dinosaur survival experience.

Contrary to the campaign mode where the player is provided with information about the world through UIs and menus, the survival mode only gives information regarding gameplay mechanics for players to rely on in order to survive, pushing players to learn and overcome challenges presented from the world itself and its inhabitants. Therefore UIs and notifications will be extremely limited in this mode.

Aside from information presented, there are several key differences between the survival mode and the campaign mode.

One of the major difference is that the survival mode will be relatively smaller than the main campaign, both from the size of the map, and the roster of dinosaurs presented. This is because the world is built in a way to push players forward, taking them deeper and deeper into the world.

Another major difference is the setting and overall atmosphere between the two modes. With the survivor mode focusing more on survival elements, we’ve decided to make it look aesthetically different compared to the campaign mode.

Where the campaign mode is made to look more colorful and vibrant, the survival mode in contrast will be less colorful and bleak, giving a much more realistic tone and feel to the overall mode. And unlike the main campaign where the dinosaurs are based on Cretaceous North America, the dinosaurs of the survivor mode will be based on Cretaceous Asia.

Because of this difference in overall tone and aesthetics, most of the dinosaurs presented for this mode will be made from the ground up in order to capture the overall theme of this mode.

The picture above shows a currently work in progress Alioramus model for the survivor mode, one of the first playable dinosaurs of this mode.

From the picture above it can be seen that the overall look and tone of this model is very different from models presented in the campaign mode, as this model is made with some form of realism in mind. For the case of this Alioramus, it is heavily influenced by North African ostrich and vultures.

Why Survivor Mode?

One of the primary reasons why we have decided to integrate this mode to the game is that we’ve realized that additions such as squad mechanic, and home base, along with previous additions such as dynamic environments, unique AIs and special abilities, have tilted the campaign mode heavily towards its RPG elements to a point where it overshadows the experience given by its survival elements.

Because of this, we have decided to create a mode that revolves heavily on survival elements in order to give players the option for a survival centered single player experience. This mode is called the survivor mode.

Closing Remarks

If you’ve read up to this point, you’re awesome and I thank you.

Its clear from this post that there are plenty of things that we would need to do in order to integrate much of these elements into the game. And with much of its core elements still needed to be integrated, we will be focusing our efforts more towards developing the survivor mode before finally working, integrating, and polishing remaining campaign elements.

Because of this there will be quite some time before the next major update is able to go live for the public. But we can confidently say that the next major update is going to be huge.

That’s currently it for this devlog, and more updates coming soon.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter to check out our work in progress, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos.