Creature Design | Dalton's Devlogs #1

Steam post imageHello paleo pals! We are hard at work getting Dalton's Dinos ready for you to visit, but the doors aren't quite ready to open just yet. We've cooked up a closer look at the dangerous denizens that will cross your path, though, in our very first developer's log!

You can expect to see a new entry every month or so, where we'll be talking to our dev team and sharing insights, concepts, and other informational tidbits to satisfy your curiosity before Terrible Lizards launches soon™. Without any further ado, let's learn about how terrible these lizards really are.

(Also, have you wishlisted the game yet? Be sure to click that button so you don't miss our launch!)

Terrible Lizards

When & how did you first decide that the monsters had to be… more than just dinosaurs?

Pretty early on, we knew we wanted the dinosaurs to be monstrous. Jurassic Park has already explored Dinosaurs as both animals and monsters, and we've seen that a lot in Dino media since. We wanted to take the cool, neat factor of dinos and put a horror twist on them. Also, the game takes place underground for a lot of it, so we needed to create monsters that were also cave-dwelling beasts.

What makes for good horror creature design? How do you make something universally scary or creepy?

We worked with RJ Palmer on the principal creature design, and he talks about it in a Q&A video we did with him. He shares how striking a balance between the familiar and the disconcerting is key to creating an unsettling, scary creature. Taking that idea even further is exploring novelty within the familiar. The monsters were designed so that they could exist in our world. Specifically, using real-world inspirations in key design elements of the monsters. For example, taking inspiration from the porous texture of a coral reef skeleton for The Hybrid’s ribcage.

What is the process for the design of a creature? From concept to in-game, how many people does it pass through?

We started the dino design process with moodboards. After some internal brainstorming sessions, we set out to gather as many reference materials as possible on existing monsters, dinosaurs, textures, and characters in media to get a feel for what we liked and didn’t like, and to generally validate the vision. From there, we prepared some light prompts, paired them with the mood boards, and had a handful of concept artists create monster concepts. A few iterations with each artist helped inform us on what we liked and didn’t like in monster designs.

Once we had a solid sense of the monster's direction from our mood boards and iterative concept art passes, we collaborated and presented our final prompt to RJ to create the principal designs. He provided us with 2-4 concepts per monster, and then we narrowed it down to one design per monster and then finalized it.

After that, it’s working with 3D artists and animators to model and rig the design for game implementation. From there, the animators bring it to life! So in the end, the creatures took the work of ten people from concept to realization.

What inspired the design of the Dalton’s Dinos mascots?

We wanted our mascot suits to feel like an homage to FNAF, but also just be mascot suits you’d see in the 90s. There was also a practical aspect in that they needed to be suits people could reasonably wear, with the fun, creative choice of the Benji suit having a viewing hole at the base of its neck to pull off the Bronto's long-necked look. The designer of the mascot look, Eden, was very in sync with us on the vibe and direction, and we found really solid designs for our Paleo Pals pretty quickly.

For the dinosaurs themselves, what made you go with the traditional understanding of them, rather than their feathered counterparts?

Since the game takes place in the early 90s, we had to pull back 30 years of dinosaur knowledge and research when building on how we presented and talked about our dinosaurs in-game. It wasn’t easy, and there are possibly holes paleo-enthusiasts will find, but we did our best to present things from a 1990s perspective. For example, paleontologists were aware of feathers on dinosaurs, but the fact was not widely known within the general zeitgeist.

Are there any monster concepts that didn’t make it into the final game that you can share here?

Nope! Luckily, we were able to execute all our mascot and creature designs, even adding an extra midway through production with Pterry!

Are there any funny bugs or glitches with the creatures during development that you can share?

Too many to count. We had one where our Bronto monster was on a cosmic scale in our levels for some reason. The same Bronto monster probably had the most issues. Sometimes he’d float, sometimes his legs would stretch out funny while walking, and sometimes he’d only walk on his front legs. There is one bug with the Allo monster where you don’t die when he gets you, and it looks like you’re just being carried around by him, which is a pretty terrifying experience even for a bug.

[c]He's doing a little dance! 💃[/c]

Do you have any tips for prospective players on what to expect from the creatures and how to handle them in the full game?

What non-game sources did you pull inspiration from?

Inspiration came from everywhere. On the conception side of things, we looked at any and all forms of Dinosaur media, as well as a lot of body-horror and cave-dwelling monster stuff. We also referenced the Jurassic Park 4 hybrid concept unearthed years ago. Then, in our Q&A video, RJ talks a lot about how the skull-face creature designs from The Void and the newborn alien from Alien: Resurrection were the sources of inspiration for the hybrid.

A very important final question: what is your favorite dinosaur?

I can’t really pick. The Hybrid is so full of character and emotive. The Bronto is just such a fun and different take on the species. And the Allo, the Allo is just cool and lethal. But if you’re twisting my arm, I’d go with the Allosaurus monster.