Deathground News

[h3]Please, come in. Take a look around. But don’t get too comfortable.
There might be something moving at the end of the corridor... [/h3]

As a survival-horror game, we’re designing Deathground gameplay to provide that thrill of trepidation from the second you hit start. We know how much you want to feel scared, every time you play it. We’re taking our artistic direction deadly seriously, with the goal of creating a deeply atmospheric backdrop for you to immerse yourself in.

As you’ve already seen a glimpse of creature artwork in our latest news pieces, our Art team has also created environment concept artwork over this year too. Before we head outside, let’s take a glimpse of what’s happening inside some of Deathground’s facilities...







Lighting will play a huge part in building the mysterious world of Deathground. In these sneak peeks, our Concept Artists have created dark-lit areas to help set the tone. Whether your main source of light is moonlight, building light or simply a torch, gameplay will feel tense as you continuously search for hiding spots, dinosaurs or escape routes.

Right now, our 3D Artists are forging these facilities in-engine, dimming the lights even more and creating an eerie arena of terror for our AI dinos to run havoc through.



Q: Do you want a closer look at how Deathground’s exteriors are shaping up?
Let us know in the comments.

Until next time...
Join our community on Discord, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and tweet us on Twitter.

- Jaw Drop Games -

[h3]Feathered dinosaurs vs. non-feathered dinosaurs. Since we started this project, this topic has been HEAVILY discussed by both dinosaur fans and the devs behind Deathground.[/h3]

We officially announced, in our AMA in August, that we are developing a game that will star feathered dinosaurs. Here are three simple reasons why we’ve decided to take this direction:

1. Our Art team is taking on a challenge set by science.
   If palaeontology research and discoveries have been updated over the past two decades, why can’t dino culture evolve alongside them? We’ve done our research and are feeling confident with our creative choices.
   
   
2. We're inspired by the former, but we want to forge our own path.
   Yes, we are very much lovers of former dinosaur franchises too. The concept of Deathground was fuelled by nostalgia! As a studio, we want to create unique and unforgettable games with jaw-dropping moments. The first time you find one of these fearsome, feathered creatures in-game, we hope will be one of them.
   
   
3. Believe us, these creatures WILL be scary!
   There’s an idea floating around that feathered dinosaurs won’t scare you. Well, as Deathground is going to be a horror-survival themed game, we’re working on making your gameplay experience feel simply terrifying. In the animal kingdom, feathers aren’t just used for flight. Above all things, they can increase speed, agility and be used to build up an intimidating demeanour. So, it's not just how they will look. It's also how they will move towards and around you too...

But if this news is roughing up your feathers in the wrong way (sorry, we couldn’t resist), then how would you feel if we created the option to deactivate the feathered look?

Are you team ‘Toggle-Off’?
Or team ‘Feathers, please!’
Let us know in the comments.

Until next time...
Join our community on Discord, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and tweet us on Twitter.

- Jaw Drop Games -

[h3]A huge thank you to everyone who tuned in for our 2021 AMA. We hosted it on our Discord server earlier this month and received so many great questions from you all. The team had a blast answering them![/h3]

As the majority of our devs are running on BST, we understand if you weren’t able to listen live. We wanted to pack in as many of your questions as possible. Go grab yourself a tea(rex), settle in and hit play below. Enjoy!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Looking for a specific topic? Here’s our running order:

00:33 Look who’s talking
01:15 Concept and Vision
11:25 Let’s talk about Design
32:38 Let’s talk Dino now

So, there you have it. Straight from the devs’ mouth!

Now we have our own question for you - what would you like to hear more about? Deathground is continuously evolving, we’d love to share our development with you. Leave us a comment, telling us what you’d like to see in our future updates. We’ll try and cover it as best as we can!

Until next time...
Join our community on Discord
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram

Cheers!
Jaw Drop Games

[h3]We know we’ve been quiet since announcing our project last year. Take that as a sign that the Devs behind Deathground have been busy building the game![/h3]

One year since Kickstarter
You may have heard that we launched a Kickstarter campaign for Deathground last summer. Our aim was to gain a little financial nudge to help give us lift-off and showcase what we were working on.

Well, next weekend marks one year since our project was successfully funded. Along with this support, we also gained an army of amazing backers, who sit at the core of our community. If you’re reading this, Raptors, thank you so much for helping us start our journey! Now we’d like to welcome the wider community to join us on the rest of our development journey.

Since then, our dev team has grown and is now packed full with world-class talent. We’ve also confirmed a publishing deal! We’ll be telling you more about them in a future update. For now, all we’ll say is that we’re super hyped to be partnered with them.

Our Publishing deal
Not only has the publishing deal brought in new resources, expertise and marketing support, it has also given the project more room to evolve. We’re able to fulfill what we set out to do on Kickstarter and beyond. With a bigger team and an even more beastly game to build.

We’re able to develop more game content and produce it at a significantly higher quality. From a greater level of general polish, all the way to the nuances of dinosaur animation and their behaviours.

Technical Art Showcase ‘Breakout’.
In case you missed this on our YouTube channel, take a look at our latest technical art showcase, demonstrating weather effects and high quality optimised environment assets. All rendered in-engine and output at 4K, 60 FPS.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
AMA
To celebrate our first year of development, we're having an AMA next week on our Discord server! What would you like to ask the DG devs? To make sure we make the most of our time, we’ll be curating a list of your top questions, ahead of the stream. We will get through as many as possible.



Add your question in the ‘AMA’ channel for consideration. If there is a similar question already submitted, please give it an upvote. Question submissions are open from now until Wednesday 11 August 2021!

Until next time
Thanks for checking out our first update of this year. We’re aiming to share much more with you on a regular basis going forward. So, keep an eye out on the first Friday of the month for these news-bites. Until next time!

Discord Facebook Instagram

- Jaw Drop Games -

So people have been wondering what gameplay looks like after the reveal trailer. Here's a few teaser clips showing a glimpse into Deathground!

Please note, all content shown is Pre-Alpha. A lot, notably the dinosaurs, animations and models, will improve during development.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Additionally our Discord Server is now open. Anyone can join but backers get exclusive access to the members-only area. Come join and discuss the game with the Raptor Pack!

If you like the look of the game, please consider backing on Kickstarter

Cheers,
Jaw Drop Games