Another Semi-Aquatic Apex on the Horizon? - New Dev-blog #25 is Out!

[h3]– Project Lead[/h3][p]
Hey Extinctioneers! Every month has just been getting better and more exciting, whether its new features being added to the Tech Demo or just progress wise, things have been looking promising. This month I put most of my focus on the map: designing several cave systems and an underground temple space as a future quest/lore hub for tribals. I also reworked stretches of coastline for better traversal and sightlines, and worked on the small island on the main lake. Furioussmaug and I also worked on adding more colours to the current creature skins to ensure more variety in colours. The rest of the team has been working super hard too and i couldn't be prouder of them.[/p][h2]
Map Work:
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Skins:[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Artist[/h3][p][/p][p]Hi everyone! This month I’ve been diving into designing the new icon for the Ouranosaurus UI panel and I’ve been exploring some fresh concepts for the different Kickstarter tiers. I’ve integrated the drawings from storyboards 1, 3, 7, 8, and 10 (the existing ones) with my own. Excited to see how these ideas evolve![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Programmer[/h3][p][/p][p]Continued optimization and balance work on the Dino side for the Tech Demo, including combat test sessions with QA, plus new animation and sound hooks. Night-vision received a major tuning pass (scent next). We’re also ready to reveal the mystery playable, a Semi-Aquatic Apex: Deinocheirus—slotted up next, alongside pachy/draco/tropeo on the todo list—chosen to counter Purussaurus populations without overpowering on land. The next couple of months are focused on shipping the Tech Demo; QA progress is strong.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]– Sound Designer[/h3][p][/p][p]Began creating threaten and attack vocalizations for Ouranosaurus (alt attacks may change as we iterate). I also synced prior Eocarcharia sets to both hatchling and adult animations so timing and intensity feel right in-engine. (Watch the YouTube video to hear the sounds)[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Tech Artist[/h3][p][/p][p]Re-posed and weight-painted the tribal armor sets for both male and female characters, piece by piece, to preserve clean deformation. I also rigged a new skeleton to ensure natural motion across the full equipment range.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– 3D Artist[/h3][p][/p][p]Built a modular bridge kit that scales to any length. The pieces snap cleanly into our current environment workflow and are ready for wide use across biomes.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Level Designer[/h3][p][/p][p]Wrapped a major round of map optimization and visual upgrades. Shadows are far less demanding now, and we’ve enabled Lumen hardware ray tracing. All Lumen presets use NVIDIA ReSTIR for the surface cache, reducing noise with a small perf win. I expanded foliage diversity per biome and began stitching rivers toward a single connected system. More world updates are on deck.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Programmer[/h3][p][/p][p]Polish sprint for the Tech Demo: lots of bug fixes and systemic optimizations, especially around inventory and item management. I also added a new Dino Character Menu with player-facing settings (time format, Fahrenheit/Celsius, etc.) to make the experience more configurable.[/p][p]We’re getting close to showing you what we’ve been working on — stay tuned for the Tech Demo![/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Cinematic Artist[/h3][p][/p][p]Hello Everyone, This month I was able to get around to finishing up the cinematic that will play upon launching the game! It may get minor tweaks, but the current cut is ready for Tech Demo integration. (Full clip on YouTube Video)[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Social Media Manager[/h3][p][/p][p]I started as one of the Social Media Managers for this project in the middle of this month, alongside Monjie who does all our content planning. After getting this position I have been working hard trying to gather a lot of content to get everyone excited for the Tech Demo. One of the biggest challenges I’ve had so far is that sometimes to get a good clip, it needs to be recorded alot of times, as I am very picky. This month we’ve had a huge number of views and new followers. Just last week we hit 400k views on a TikTok video of a tribal on a tree house looking down on a Eocarcharia. Seeing our platforms grow so much and this fast makes me want to work even harder to provide even more and better content going forward. I’d like to show my gratitude to all of those who take their time to follow the news on our social media platforms and to all the nice comments we've been so glad to have.[/p][hr][/hr][h3]– 3D Artist[/h3][p][/p][p]Wrapped base textures for Purussaurus and moved into concepting and sculpting the growth stages. I’m also refining an illustration for splash/marketing use. Several long-running art tasks are nearing completion. I also worked on finishing the other remaining patterns for Eocarcharia and Ouranosaurus.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Programmer[/h3][p][/p][p]First month on the team! I optimized the foliage interaction system and synchronized it client-server, with a respawn loop for harvested nodes. I updated the swimming component for UE’s water, cleaned Blueprints, fixed stamina (no drain on sprint toggle; proper empty-to-regen), and corrected rolling abilities with all 8 directional variants. For tribes, I rebuilt the Camp Manager—The manager handles the spawning through a component. To allow for unique customizations, the manager now takes in maps for population, quests and classes. This allows us to specify roles for each AI and spawn the appropriate character for each Role. We can also specify how many of each role to spawn.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]– Animator[/h3][p][/p][p]Wrapped a full set of Ouranosaurus broadcasts, Broadcast, Friendly, and Surrender—with a matching style pass so they read clearly in gameplay and from distance. Threaten is next and slated to slot into the same pose language. I also tightened the Ouranosaurus Precision attack and tuned Eocarcharia turn-in-place for crisper footplants. Finally, I reworked Eocarcharia’s Threaten—shorter and more natural.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]