Deathground News

[h3]In our March update, we showed you how our Utahraptor locomotives were looking. But we know the star of the show for many of you is the T-Rex. So, here’s a glimpse of what’s been going on behind the scenes.[/h3]

With all of our dino models rigged up, it’s the T-Rex’s turn for some animation attention. Right now, our animators are working through every detail of their different behaviours. From how their body moves to how their facial expressions shift from one state to another. Here’s how this beast is shaping up while on the go. With the SFX, music and darkened atmosphere, it will really feel like a chilling experience.

Above: Technical animation WIP - the first steps of Deathground’s T-Rex

Running speeds are also being defined within our game design and we’re working on getting this big dino moving at pace!

Above: Technical animation WIP - Deathground’s T-Rex running

Q: Can you imagine being chased down by this creature?

And if the sight of our T-Rex won’t get your heart racing, hearing the roars and rumbles shuddering from the distance definitely will! Our Audio Director is having a field day balancing all of the different SFX with Deathground right now and we can’t wait to share more dev updates about that in the future.

Above: Technical animation WIP - Deathground’s T-Rex roaring

Until next time...
Thanks for checking in! Don’t forget, skins and textures are still to be revealed. The imagery above is simply more animation work in progress that we wanted to share with you! Like we’ve said before, we love hearing from you after putting our progress out there.

Don’t forget, you can join our community on Discord, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and tweet about us on Twitter. We really appreciate the support while we develop this beast of a game!

- Jaw Drop Games -

[h3]As many of you will already know, the dinosaurs that we showcased in our teaser trailer were placeholder pre-alpha assets. We used these assets to pitch our game on Kickstarter and had always planned to implement our own designs. [/h3]

Since then, Deathground’s four dinosaurs (Utahraptor, Compsognathus, Allosaurus and T-Rex) have been concepted, modelled and rigged by our talented team of artists and animators. We’re currently animating these beautiful beasts, but every day we see these creatures coming to life more and more. From the dev perspective, it’s pretty thrilling!

While they’re not fully dressed in their textures and tones, which you’d see in-game, we wanted to show you some animation progress of Deathground’s Utahraptor. From our first pass at animating them walk while in a neutral position, to making these hellions move more menacingly while searching for their prey.

N.B The below GIFs are not the final looks or animations, simply work in progress.

From our first locomotive animation experiment ...to our latest

Here’s the scenario. You’ve just managed to run away from a Utahraptor and while they chased you, you’ve managed to hide. Can you imagine peeking out from your hiding spot or through the thick jungle-like foliage to see this beast still hunting for you?

On that note, we’ve also been experimenting with different ways that they can remove you from different hiding places. Here’s just one example of this work in progress …



Q: Do you think you could survive the search?

Until next time...
Thanks for checking in! We love hearing from you after putting our progress out there. Don’t forget, you can join our community on Discord, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and tweet about us on Twitter. We really appreciate the support while we develop this beast of a game!

- Jaw Drop Games -

[h3]While our Tech team tenaciously work on the dino AI and game build, let’s get into the level design of Deathground.[/h3]

Introducing our Level Designer
You would have already met Morgan, plus some of our other devs behind Deathground, during our AMA last summer. Morgan spent a lot of time over 2021 laying down the foundations of Deathground’s map. Thanks to all of her efforts early on, we as a team very quickly had a great grasp on what the base map was going to look like. It was amazing to see the first jigsaw puzzle pieces in place, and with Phoebe’s (Environment Concept Artist) artwork, we could feel the world of Deathground coming to life.

Then over several months, Deathground transformed from its blockout “green blob” phase to the first import of terrain, alongside the blockout imported over the top. Check out the different phases in the GIF below.

Comparing the different phases of level design over last year’s development



With the buildings and thick foliage in place, she continued to tweak the terrain while mapping out the playable area that you’ll be running around through. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Morgan is building a labyrinth of passageways for you, some you won’t be able to see from a lookout spot...

A sneak peek underground on one of the blocked out playable areas

Building to scale
As you can see, routes throughout Deathground will vary in size. As soon as Morgan was able to get her hands on the new and improved dino models, she started adapting the building structure according to their sizes. One of the many unique challenges has been on making sure it would be realistic for certain dinosaurs to move through different parts of the map. As problem-solving goes for a Level Designer, that's a pretty fun one to have! Wouldn’t you agree? On many occasions, we would enjoy listening to Morgan’s ‘out loud thinking’ work-style, while she’d demonstrate what she’s working on.



Morgan has designed a lot of great levels by considering both the different gameplay scenarios and the player’s perspective. There’ll be a lot of intense gameplay moments to come, thanks to her consideration on the level design. Think about those future corridors that you’ll be trying to outrun the dino’s through. The tighter spaces that you thought were only small enough for just you. Or that passageway you thought the larger dinos couldn’t charge through after you… Cheers for the future terror, Morgan!

Current development
As all of the major buildings have been blocked out throughout pre-production, Morgan continues to finesse the level design. Now collaborating with our 3D Artists, the structures will be adjusted to fit the assets that they’re creating for the interior and exterior spaces of Deathground. You can already see some of the development of the exterior from the images below.

Comparing the different phases of level design over last year’s development on just one area of Deathground

Q: When in-game, would you like to look over the world of Deathground from vantage and viewpoints?

Let us know in the comments and discussions area.

Until next time...
Thanks for checking in! Don’t forget, you can join our community on Discord, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and tweet about us on Twitter.

- Jaw Drop Games -

[h3]Happy New Year, everyone! We are back behind screens and diving deep into Deathground development once more. Let’s get this year rolling with the first update of 2022. First stop, we have a little more concept art to show you.[/h3]

Last year, our Art team had been experimenting with different shapes and structures for the buildings that you’ll discover in-game. Here’s a little flavour on how our concept artists have been considering the architecture.

Environment Concept Artwork - when an artist tests out a variety of ideas at once…

While some of the featuring styles may have more mystery behind them, other elements of Deathground’s architecture will show strong, geometric shapes in the Brutalist style. We don’t want to spoil the fun of your first playthrough. So, we’ll cut the details short there. But if you’re looking for a word of advice for future gameplay, don’t be fooled by these mentioned themes of strength and stability. You will still have to survive the patrolling dinosaurs, regardless of whether you’re inside or outside!

In our November News, we showed you a little of what our art team had created from inside some of Deathground’s buildings. Working from lore written by our Game Designers and Narrative Designer, these Earth-bound environments have also taken shape outside, in both 2D and 3D form over recent months. Like this cliff-side area as one example.

Environment Concept Art of an exterior area within Deathground

From these environment concepts, our 3D artists have been able to work into the finer details in-engine. Inspired by the lift you can see in the first concept artwork (above), here’s a sneak peek at a funicular lift our 3D artists have been building. We’re only giving you a mere glimpse, but you may spot that we’ve got some other buildings blocked out and on the go too.

A sneak peek at the level design and 3D artwork on the funicular lift

But don’t worry, not all areas of Deathground will be so militant, doom and gloom. Maybe you’ll come across more remote, rural and relaxing areas? Like this one.

A nice place to take a walk…maybe.

Somewhere you can take a relaxing stroll through, pick up some fresh produce, pet the local wildlife or take a moment to stop and smell the blood-soaked roses of Deathground...
Just joking, there will be no roses in Deathground. Stroll and pet at your own risk.

Anyway, what we’re trying to say is that we’re building a lot of 3D terrain for you to run and (attempt to) survive in. We hope some of our concept art has helped paint a better picture of what’s coming. Just remember, this doesn’t even scratch the surface…

Until next time...
Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget, you can join our community on Discord, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and tweet about us on Twitter.

- Jaw Drop Games -

[h3]It’s without a doubt that this year has been packed full of awesome development from our team. We’ll be unloading more visual updates for you next year so that you can see more behind the scenes of Deathground’s development. But before we dive into that, our studio directors have been reflecting on what our devs and the studio have achieved over 2021. Here’s a little insight. [/h3]

[h2]Onboarding more talent[/h2]
It’s not a secret that our team has grown since the original lineup for our Kickstarter launch. When we secured a publishing deal, it helped us bring in more hands on deck. Our tenacious team of artists, animators, coders, programmers has grown tremendously. So, it’s no surprise that when we asked our Studio Head and Development Director what their favourite task has been over the past year it was this - “onboarding tons of new talent!”



[h2]Seeing what our team can do[/h2]
We’re aiming for Deathground to feel and look devastatingly deadly. While our art team has been devising new 3D visualisations to immerse you into the game, our tech team has been forging movement and life into these scenes.

We’ll be sharing more of the studio’s work next year. But you would have seen a couple of Bobby (Rebholz’s) Utahraptor concept sketches in our October news as a little appetiser already. It’s no surprise that the team were excited to see Damian Guimoneau onboarded as our Creature Modeller earlier this year, to bring Bobby’s concepts to life.



In case you missed it, you can see a sneak peek of our core dinosaurs in their model form in our August news.

When we asked what our director’s favourite WIP (work in progress) updates had been from this year, they couldn’t help but marvel at the dinosaur progression, in comparison to our Kickstarter pre-alpha placeholders. From Deathground’s creature concepts transitioning from sketch to model, then seeing them start to become animated.

A sneak peek at Deathground’s Compsognathus concept and model

An early technical animation WIP of Deathground’s Utahraptor screaming



[h2]Overcoming challenges[/h2]
As a survival-horror game, with AI dinosaurs as the star feature, the pressure has been on to deliver a killer line-up of dinos. But it’s positive pressure. Deathground is very much a passion project that we are perfecting and tweaking every day. When we asked our directors what they thought the biggest challenge for the team has been, it was the same answer across the board. You guessed it. Dinosaurs.



Naturally, building this game has been, and will continue to be hard work. As you may know first-hand as a fellow developer or appreciate as a gamer, translating lore into game design is tricky. But all the challenges will be worth it!

[h2]Looking ahead[/h2]
While we’re wrapping up our tasks before the end of the year, we’re pretty hyped to jump straight into January’s checklist. So, what are our directors looking forward to?



We’re immensely proud of how Deathground is shaping up to be. Just remember, everything you’ve seen above is still work in progress and not to be taken as final! As you can now imagine, we have a plethora of behind-the-scenes goodness coming your way over next year. Keep a lookout in our news section, we’ll continue to post an update on the first Friday of every month.

Until then...
We hope you enjoy the festive season and have a Happy New Year. Thank you for your continued support!

Don’t forget to join our community on Discord, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and tweet us on Twitter.

- Jaw Drop Games -