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Dev Diary: June 2025

[p][/p][p]https://www.patreon.com/c/BlueMeridian[/p][p][/p][p]Welcome to the June Development Update! [/p][p]Surprise! This month we have a very special blog post with information on a highly awaited feature - breeding! That’s right, animals will finally be able to create their next generation come Update 15.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Before we get into how it works, we wanted to mention that the game is currently 30% off on Steam until July 11! It’s a very exciting year for Prehistoric Kingdom, so it’s a great time to jump in and prepare for Update 15. Now, let’s talk about how breeding came to be![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Though originally slated for the end of Early Access, the team have been secretly working on breeding since Update 14 launched back in April. Thanks to its very warm reception, we re-evaluated our plans and came to a few conclusions:[/p]
  • [p]Players LOVED baby animals![/p]
  • [p]We really wanted to work on breeding![/p]
  • [p]Breeding would add even more gameplay to the vets and diseases coming in Update 16![/p]
[p]As you might imagine, it was a pretty quick decision for us. It also made a lot of sense since our initial vision for Update 15 was an animal behavioral update.[/p][p]With breeding on top, this is the first time that the animals are actually trying to accomplish a long term goal. They’ve only ever had to solve immediate needs like hunger or thirst, but now they have an impulse to mate, look for a mate, successfully court each other, find a nest, build it - there’s A LOT going on in their little brains! And it’s a true evolution of the partner state and family dynamics we first introduced in Update 14. [/p][p]So, with all the said, we do need another month on this thing. This means we’re aiming to get a PTB out in late July to test various features with the full Update 15 coming in late August. It is a really big update with a lot of moving parts so we can only ask for your patience.

[/p][p][/p][p]The following discussion has been written from the perspective of Challenge Mode. Some details and imagery may be altered by the time Update 15 releases.[/p][p][/p][h2]Update 15[/h2][h2]Breeding[/h2][p]In Prehistoric Kingdom, breeding becomes viable once the player has unlocked male animals through research. In order to have your animals successfully breed, there are a number of factors that must be considered.[/p][p][/p][h3]Fertility[/h3][p]Fertility is a new value that determines the maximum amount of offspring an animal can have. This means that animals with a high fertility have the potential to yield many babies, while a lower fertility can only produce few or none.[/p][p][/p][p]UI Concept Art[/p][p]In order to get animals with high fertility, players will need to adjust the growth speed and maturity of their creatures in the Animal Nursery. The slower an animal grows and the younger it is, the higher its fertility will be upon reaching adulthood.[/p][p]This means that players who take the time to raise their animals from baby to adult will be properly rewarded when it’s time to breed them! This is especially important as any offspring will inherit the fertility of their parents, averaging the two together.[/p][p][/p][h3]Breeding Season & Courtship[/h3][p]Throughout the year, each species has their own breeding season. This can be seen through the Paleopedia or by looking at an animal’s biology panel. An indicator displays how long the season lasts and where you currently are in the year.[/p][p][/p][p]UI Concept Art[/p][p][/p][p]During their breeding season, adult animals have a chance to partake in courtship. While this process can be simple for many species, others such as Leaellynasaura have a unique dance move performed by males. Courtship attempts can be accepted or rejected by females, leading to either a positive or negative encounter.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h3]Nesting and Bedding[/h3][p]A successful courtship means that a female has been bred and has the potential to carry offspring for the remainder of the breeding season.[/p][p]In order to actually receive babies, however, the player must add specific modules to their habitat. Dinosaurs will require a Nest, while mammals require a Birthing Bed. If the player does not include these modules in the habitat, animals will never carry offspring, allowing players to selectively choose when they want naturally born babies.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Different species require different nest sizes![/p][p]After a successful courtship, the female will seek out a nesting module to claim as her own. Once claimed, she will physically dig up the nest or birthing bed, changing its features in real time. Nests in particular can be built up into craters or mounds, while birthing beds have dried grass and leaf litter.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Keeper’s Note: Tyrannosaurus will build a mound styled nest in the final update![/p][p]Players can also select what species are allowed to use a nest or birthing bed before they’re claimed. This makes it easy to have separate nesting areas for animals that share the same habitat, for example, this Coelodonta and Elasmotherium.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]The Next Generation[/h3][p]Once a nest has been fully built up, eggs will appear! Each egg now has a health bar and must be tended to by parents or in the future, vets. If the parents spend too much time away finding food or water, the egg health will drop, gradually killing the eggs one at a time. After the incubation period has ended, baby dinosaurs will finally hatch at the nesting site.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Birthing beds work similarly, though unlike dinosaurs, mammals are more resilient and less at-risk of losing offspring. At the end of their incubation period, the mother will rest and deliver her babies on the birthing bed.[/p][p]Nests and birthing beds will return to their original dirt-like state a short time after all the babies have been born, allowing new parents to claim the module.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So, why go through all this? To put it simply, animals that are born in the park have a higher amount of Animal Points than those that were bred in the Nursery. Investing into breeding is a great way to get your park rating up without spending thousands on cloning new individuals. This’ll be especially important come Update 16 when the animals can finally die of old age.[/p][p][/p][h3]Breeding FAQ[/h3][p]Why did you go with placeable nests and birthing beds?
Compared to the other options we thought of, they had the best pros overall. Not only do they act as birth control, but they also allow players to design realistic nesting sites or dens exactly how they want.

Leaving nest creation up to the animal AI wouldn’t have yielded satisfactory results for players and could have even caused navigation issues for baby animals or staff. We wanted to put that choice and control into your hands.[/p][p]
What happens when animals with two different skins breed?
Each baby will be assigned a random skin from their mother or father.[/p][p][/p][p]Will animals fight over nests?
While fighting is not implemented yet, there will be disputes that can occur between females of competitive species if there aren’t enough nests or birthing dens. This is an area we’d really like to expand on in the future!
[/p][p]What happens if I delete a nest or birthing bed?
Deleting a claimed nest or birthing bed will issue a warning popup that will destroy the eggs or pregnancy if accepted.
[/p][p]Can nests become diseased / will there be pregnancy complications?
We’re aiming to add things like that later when vets arrive in Update 16. In the next update however, pregnant animals will consume more food and water at the very least, so there is a little bit of management coming there.
[/p][p]Will animals have realistic offspring amounts?
Since breeding is a yearly occurrence and players can have as many nesting sites as they want, we can’t use realistic clutch sizes. While it’d be cool to see 50 baby sauropods emerge from a nest, it’s less cool to have that happen 20 times in the same month! We need to make things more reasonable for gameplay.[/p][p][/p][p]Does a high fertility mean animals will always have lots of offspring?
There is always a chance that fertile animals may produce little offspring during the breeding season. This is an intentional choice to ensure clutches remain random and varied.
[/p][p]Do I have to worry about inbreeding?
Animals will not breed with direct relatives.
[/p][p]How do I prevent overpopulation?
Species will naturally stop breeding once they go over a certain level of overcrowding in a habitat. Players can also delete nest modules or sell animals once they’re happy with a population level.

Later in Update 16, players will have more control over their breeding populations through feeder supplements. Of course the animals will also die of old age or disease in Update 16, so please look forward to that.[/p][p][/p][h2]Nests in Detail[/h2][p][/p][p]Now that you know how breeding works, we wanted to quickly showcase how much dynamism has gone into our nests. As mentioned above, both nests and birthing beds start as dirt mounds. It’s only once they’ve been claimed that the animal will “build” the module into their desired settings.[/p][p]Thanks to their granular nature, we can do a decent job at replicating nests seen in the fossil record. For example, nests can either be craters, mounds or anywhere in between depending on the species. There’s also a variety of substrates for both them and birthing beds. Here’s how it looks when a developer fiddles with the backend nest controls:[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]We also have four different egg types including ovoid, round, soft and long eggs that actually sit on the outside of a nest - just like what you’d see from dinosaurs like Oviraptor in real life! Each species can also have its own egg colors, making them even more distinct.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]What’s also cool is that the amount of eggs roughly depends on how many babies are actually incubating. It’s not an exact 1:1 for technical reasons, but if your dinosaur has a small clutch, it’ll be reflected in the nest. And yes, once the babies hatch, the cracked egg shells are also left behind![/p][p][/p][h2]Baby Gallimimus[/h2][p]In case you missed it, we recently showed off some baby Gallimimus on our socials! These adorable chicks frequently run around, chirping and clucking along the way.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Like the other animals in Prehistoric Kingdom, Gallimimus grows up seamlessly from baby to adult! Even though we made the system, it always blows us away seeing it in action. Keep in mind any “popping” seen below is not actually visible in-game at regular growth speeds.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]For fans who played the original Steam demo back in the day, the color scheme for our baby Gallimimus might seem familiar! Despite this, our dino artist Cindy swears it wasn’t on purpose. Just a happy little accident![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Ground Texture Updates[/h2][p]Last update, we changed the wetland grass in response to community feedback requesting more grass texture diversity. [/p][p]For Update 15, we’re happy to say that the grasses for desert, grassland, scrubland, temperate and tropical have all been updated. The original green and dry grasses have now been moved to Coastal and Boreal respectively. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Please note that these changes will impact existing saves, so some habitats may require a repaint depending on which grasses were used. Although this may be frustrating, we’d rather get it out of the way now while we are still in Early Access. Thank you for understanding![/p][p][/p][h2]Mesozoic Environments[/h2][p]For this section, we’d like to highlight our environment artist Nathan who has spent the last 6 months exclusively working on plants. Finally, 32 species and over 200 variants later, this monumental task is finished. Nathan can rest now (he can’t) (sorry nathan).[/p][p]Thanks to these additions, 22 new paleobotany formations will be added in Update 15, greatly expanding the world map in the Excavations menu. To help keep things readable, dig sites now use unique icons depending on if they are Mesozoic, Cenozoic or paleoflora related.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]And with that, let’s take a look at our final paleobotany showcase.[/p][p][/p][h3]Mesozoic Boreal[/h3][p]Boreal has two plant species: a fern-like ground covering called Aculea and a coniferous tree named Athrotaxites. The trees in particular offer a variety of shapes and even dead variants.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Mesozoic Desert[/h3][p]Desert also has two species. The first is Ephedra, a diverse plant that can look like shrubbery or a tree. The second is a particular mouthful referred to as Welwitschiophyllum. It’s best recognised by its large leaves and cones that grow from its center.[/p][p][/p][h3][/h3][h3]Mesozoic Grassland[/h3][p]Since grasses didn’t evolve until the end of the Cretaceous period, Grassland is a bit of a weird biome! We picked three species that fill the niche of grass coverage in a habitat. These being the low lying cycad Ctenis, the fern Ruffordia and the grass-like Schizaeopsis.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Mesozoic Wetland[/h3][p]Wetland has some of the most diverse presets in the game with a total of 8 species to work with. You’ve got forests, marshes, horsetails and hydrophytes.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]A new quality of life feature coming in Update 15 is the ability to paint aquatic plants directly onto your lakes and rivers! This is in addition to a water mask toggle that prevents non-aquatic foliage from being painted in water.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]With the water mask toggle enabled, specific plants like mangroves, cypress and reeds will generate in water up to a certain depth - making it super easy to create convincing wetlands.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Species[/h2][p]If one surprise wasn’t enough, we’ve got another! Given the update’s theme, we felt it was only appropriate to introduce a species best known for its relation to eggs. Say hello to Oviraptor, a small feathered dinosaur from Mongolia! Originally described as an egg thief, it’s now understood that Oviraptor was but one of many dinosaurs that cared for their young.[/p][p]Unlike most other theropods, the toothless jaws of an Oviraptor are equipped with a beak and dentary bones - protrusions within the mouth that allow them to easily break down various fruits and nuts in the park.[/p][p][/p][p]We can’t wait to show you how this animal looks in-game as we get closer to the release of Update 15. We’ve wanted to bring this animal back for a long time and are so proud to introduce it alongside nesting.[/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p]Created by Sr Yepetto[/p][p][/p][p]Created by brostigy[/p][p][/p][p]Created by Mighty-Boy11[/p][p]Thank you for reading Junes dev diary![/p][p]It’s been very hard to keep breeding a secret over the last few months but we are so happy to finally reveal it in detail to the world. We will have more news next month as we approach the August release for Update 15 and hope you are just as excited as we are for the future of Prehistoric Kingdom.[/p][p]If you’d like to support the game, don’t forget to check us out on Patreon and visit the Steam Summer Sale![/p][p]- The PK Team [/p]