Prehistoric Kingdom News

The time has finally arrived - Prehistoric Kingdom is now available in Early Access for $29.99 USD! Thank you to everyone who has shown their support along the way, we can’t wait to continue this amazing journey with you all.

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Prehistoric Kingdom's Early Access release offers 23 prehistoric animals, 3 playable maps, animal welfare, basic economy management and more!

To read a full breakdown of what's currently on offer, check out the Launch Features recap on our official blog.




As this is an Early Access title, the game will require a number of large updates before it’s ready to leave the program. Like stated on the store page, we currently expect 18-24 months of ongoing development after launch to get the game up to its full potential.

To start, you can find out what’s in store for the next year of Prehistoric Kingdom by visiting our official Trello page. Though everything is subject to change, we highly recommend checking in to see what is on the horizon.

• Major Updates (Quarterly)
  Arriving at the start of every quarter, Major Updates can include new animals, large gameplay systems and new, exciting locations to build your next park in.
  
  These are the biggest updates during our time in Early Access and will add the most significant content to the game experience.
  
  
• Minor Updates (Monthly)
  Arriving once a month, Minor Updates bring quality of life improvements, new items and small features to the game.
  We intend for these updates to act as supplementary content drops while we develop the larger updates in the background.
  

You can see how this scheme fits into the rest of 2022 below:

• Q2 2022
  April: Early Access Launch (Today!)
  May: Minor Update
  June: Minor Update
  
  
• Q3 2022
  July: MAJOR Update
  August: Minor Update
  September: Minor Update
  
  
• Q4 2022
  October: MAJOR Update
  November: Minor Update
  December: Minor Update
  

It’s important to note that this update scheme does NOT include hotfixes! The team will be working to resolve pressing issues and bugs where we can to improve the games stability.
 

If you are experiencing issues or would like to leave constructive feedback, please let us know via our Github page here. We will be releasing hotfixes over the next week to address a number of issues present in the game.

Critical

• Saving the game CAN fail as a very rare occurrence! We've added an auto-save feature, but PLEASE create multiple saves or backups during a play session.
  

Performance

• FPS may drop randomly during a play session. This can be resolved with a restart, but the team is actively investigating the issue.

Animals

• Animals may get stuck sometimes. Moving the animal to a new location can help them.

Guests

• Guests can be prone to various pathfinding issues when removing paths or modular pieces.

Gameplay

• There is currently no undo/redo for paths.
  
• There is currently no undo/redo for painted foliage.
  
• Mini-Exhibit animals do not currently save.
  
• Animal Nursery incubation does not currently save.
  
• Loan repayment does not currently save.

Modular

• Modular prefab icons may load up white. This is purely icon related and does not affect the prefab itself.
  
• Deleting multiple pieces can sometimes leave unselectable “ghost” pieces behind. Saving and reloading will remove them.

Visuals

• Selection graphics when selecting pieces do not render correctly, resulting in an x-ray like appearance.

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Welcome, Park Managers!

The wait is almost over! Prehistoric Kingdom Early Access release offers 23 prehistoric animals, 3 playable maps, animal welfare, basic economy management and more!

Before we delve into what’s available, we’d like to remind everyone that this is simply the start of our journey through Early Access. There’s a lot of exciting content yet to come and we hope you’re eager to see what comes next!

• Dinosaurs:
  Acrocanthosaurus, Argentinosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus, Deinocheirus, Dryosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Iguanodon, Lambeosaurus, Nasutoceratops, Pachyrhinosaurus, Protoceratops, Parasaurolophus, Psittacosaurus, Torvosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus and Styracosaurus.
  
• Mammals:
  Coelodonta (Woolly Rhino), Smilodon and Mammuthus (Woolly Mammoth).
  
• Mini-Exhibits:
  Archaeopteryx and Microraptor.
  

Listen in awe as these amazing beasts each have their own sounds harmonising throughout the park. Every animal is unique in its size, variation and saturation value with various animations for every species. Watch them bring life to your park as they: walk, run, graze, sleep, eat, drink and even poop! Some animals like the Psittacosaurus even have alternate species to find and collect.

That's not all, folks! Additional animations and interactions between animals will be included in notable updates after Early Access launch, and the animal menagerie will continue to expand as more remarkable species join Prehistoric Kingdom.



Each map has specific tailored soundscapes, colour grading and ambient lighting so that players can enjoy the different environments in each of their parks around the globe!

Challenge
Take the role of Park Manager and grow your economy by developing the infrastructure to care for your animals. Maximise your potential Exhibit Score by improving the state of habitats to increase Science Points production and park donations from guests.

Breed new creatures and revisit old ones to hear a variety of facts delivered by Nigel Marven - your park supervisor and head of zoological developments!



Science Points can be collected passively at each enclosure and are based on the current Exhibit's Score. Use these points to unlock new dig sites and animals to showcase at your zoo.

(You can unlock animals in the Excavations Menu, found in the Management Dashboard.)



Sandbox
Modify the game settings to your liking or reach your full creative potential and design your dream park with no limits.

• Customizable settings include:
  
• Starting Cash (includes infinite toggle)
  
• Starting Science Points (includes infinite toggle)
  
• Infinite Power
  
• Animal Habitat Welfare
  
• Animal Dung
  
• Unlock All Animals
  
• Character Dialogue
  

(More options will be added to Sandbox as new mechanics are introduced.)



Scenario
A fully narrated Tutorial by the wonderful Nigel Marven is available to play and can be accessed via the Main Menu. Although intended for newcomers to the game and genre, this helpful guide is a joyful park managing experience for all players!



Developing these goal-driven features has been a great introduction for the team to apply narrative-based game objectives to Prehistoric Kingdom, with more Scenarios to follow in the not so distant future.


Build and decorate your dream park using an array of powerful creative tools.

Terraforming
Grow jungles, carve rivers and raise mountains across the enormous playable area that each map has to offer using the Terraforming Suite.

• Carve terrain with six distinct tools to shape the land: raise, lower, level, erode, roughen & smooth.
  
• Get your feet wet with up to three paintable water materials: calm, rough & muddy
  
• Adjust the water depth intensity to your liking to carve shallow rivers or form monumental lakes across the map.
  
• Paint terrain and forests with 6 paintable biomes: Tropical, Wetland, Scrubland, Temperate, Coastal and Boreal.
  
• Use the brush intensity to create subtle and stylish gradients between textures to add more realism to your park.
  

The Desert and Grassland biomes are still in the works and will be added in future updates!



Paths & Fences
Choose from 15 fences and 11 path materials using an intuitive spline-based construction system and enable terraced fence placement to create a uniquely staggered look!

Modular Items
Get custom with over 600 modular items including: wall structures, roofs, doors & windows, lights, props, scenery items, trees, shrubbery, plants, rocks, sticks, and even VFX fire, smoke and water). A selection of modular shapes are also available to create fully custom pieces in your park.

If that’s not enough, ALL decorative modular pieces can be scaled to increase or decrease its size, allowing for more creative customisation!



Custom Modular Prefabs
Players can save their creations for repeated use around their park or in other saves. Though it is not yet linked to the Steam Workshop (coming soon), prefabs can be shared locally by finding them on your computer and uploading them online or in our Discord. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Animal Welfare
Every species in your park has needs, and it's up to you to care for them!

They require ideal fencing, paddock size, water, forest & cleanliness! You can view these stats by clicking on the Habitat category in the Animal Info box.



Your prehistoric animals will poop after eating, lowering the cleanliness of the habitat! Place a Dung Beetle Nest near poop piles to automatically clean them or select the clean command from the bottom of an exhibit’s menu.



Much like regular animals, Mini-Exhibit species will soon have welfare needs too. This will be introduced in a later update, but for now, you can still place and build a habitat for your beautiful aviary creatures.

(Tip: To remove the fencing around the Mini-Aviary, simply select the exhibit and click “Edit Group”. Use the Styling Toolbox to remove the shell or create your own!)



In the future, low animal welfare will lead to illness and eventually... death. These repercussions will be introduced in a later update.

Exhibit Score, Donations & Science Points
Players can improve the state of habitats by watching out for animal welfare and working to maximise their potential Exhibit Score. This will increase passive science points production and park donations from guests.

Soon we’ll be looking into guests interacting with buildings. For now, we've added a simulated economy for amenities and exhibit donations that will add some complexity to the economy management in your park.

To find your Exhibit Score, simply select the perimeter fence of a habitat.



Science Points are used to unlock new dig sites and animals. Players can collect science points passively by each enclosure, based on the enclosure’s current exhibit score.

Basic Power Management
Certain infrastructures will need electricity! In the Park Infrastructure category, utilities such as; solar panels or wind turbines can be placed next to buildings to power your park.

...


Early Access is a huge achievement, but by no means is it a finished game. With continued development and support, many more features are expected to be released in future updates so that players can truly build the ultimate prehistoric zoo of their dreams!

If you’re interested in seeing what’s in the works for Prehistoric Kingdom, you can visit our Trello page to view the biggest content updates coming in the next few months.




If you are an eligible Kickstarter Backer, please make sure you have set up a Crytivo account using the exact email you used to back the game on Kickstarter to ensure you receive your Early Access key on time.

For those of you who purchased Early Access via the Crytivo store, you will be receiving new Steam keys upon Early Access release. Any existing keys you may have used will be revoked as new ones are going to be automatically assigned to your account.

If you have any further questions, please be sure to contact Crytivo’s support at [email protected] or get in touch with us through Twitter, Facebook or Discord.

...

We started this game as a small-scale project all the way back in 2014. After all this time, we must thank our wonderful community once again for their outstanding support over the years! We hope you all enjoy what we have so far.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Bring extinct creatures back to the world with PREHISTORIC KINGDOM Early Access, arriving APRIL 27TH 2022! Featuring 23 animals at launch, 3 playable maps & an array of powerful creative tools to build the park of your dreams.

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Welcome, park managers!

This update has taken longer than we initially expected. We wanted to make sure we could reasonably polish new game mechanics while working on Early Access release features, and marketing in parallel. We apologise for the delay and hope you all enjoy the new update.

• NEW: Challenge & Sandbox Mode
  • Challenge and Sandbox are now separately available through the ‘New Game’ button within the main menu. Players are also able to create and set completely custom Sandbox games.
    
    A map selection screen has been added under the ‘New Game’ menu.

• NEW: Animal Welfare
  • Animals will now poop after eating, lowering the Cleanliness of the habitat.
    
  • Animals now require ideal paddock size and crowding, water, forest, biomes and cleanliness.

• NEW: Exhibit Score, Donations & Science Points
  • Improve the state of your habitat by watching out for animal welfare and working to maximize its potential Exhibit Score, increasing donations and science points production.
    
    To find an exhibit’s score, simply select the perimeter fence of a habitat.
    
  • Science points are used to unlock new dig sites and animals. You can collect them passively over time. Improve your habitats to improve science points production.

• NEW: Habitat Maintenance
  • Place a Dung Beetle Nest (found in Animal Care > Enrichment) to automatically clean paddocks.
    
  • Manually clean habitats by selecting the perimeter fence of an exhibit and pressing the clean action at the bottom of the menu.

• Animals
  • NEW ANIMAL: Iguanodon
  • NEW ANIMAL: Brachiosaurus
  • Added new additive animations to all the existing rigs
    
  • Brought back sleeping, grazing, broadcasting and running behaviors for all animals
  
• Levels
  • Added a new playable temperate map set in the UK
  
• Buildings & Scenery
  • Added a new wooden fence: Tropical Bamboo
    
  • Added 1x1, 1x2 and 1x4 wall pieces
    
  • Added pillar wall pieces
    
  • New Prefab: Large Planter Modern 1 - found in Modular Pieces > Gardening
    
  • New Prefab: Large Planter Natural 1 - found in Modular Pieces > Gardening
    
  • New Prefab: Large Planter Natural 2 - found in Modular Pieces > Gardening
    
  • New Prefab: Large Planter Tropical 1 - found in Modular Pieces > Gardening
    
  • New Prefab: Animal House Backstage - found in Animal Care > Housing
    
  • New Prefab: Large Animal Stables - found in Animal Care > Housing
  
• Foliage
  • Arrowwood (x1)
    
  • Field Elm (x2)
    
  • Oak (x2)
    
  • Paper Birch (x4)
  
• Construction
  • Added the Path replacement feature
• UI/UX
  • Added state icons tied to various gameplay elements (e.g. lack of power in the park, animal placement, etc.)
    
  • Added ability to set the park name through the Management Menu, in the Overview section
    
  • Clicking on a biome icon in the animal habitat menu or enclosure habitat menu will automatically open the Landscaping Menu with the right biome settings
• Audio
  • Added night and dawn chorus ambience to the Scrubland map
    
  • Added Elephant family sounds to Mammoth
    
  • Additional vocal sfx and foley for Sauropods
    
  • Additional vocal sfx variation for Protoceratops
    
  • Additional modular sfx variation for wood materials
• Music
  • Added dynamic layering to certain music tracks; layers will come in or out based on the time of day, construction frequency, and animal proximity.
• Options
  • Added Anti-Alias Options: Off, FXAA, SMAA, TAA and CTAA
    
  • Added a ‘Controls’ section to the options menu, allowing users to set custom key bindings for the game’s controls

• Animals
  • Reduced vitality needs drain speeds for most species
• Buildings & Scenery
  • Adjusted vegetation color for plant feeders
    
  • Adjusted Concrete Path coloration
    
  • Adjusted emissive sign brightness
• Foliage
  • Painted foliage now adapts to terraforming changes, aligning to the underlying terrain
    
  • Every click or brush stroke will now place at least 1 foliage element
    
  • Adjusted amazonian and water lily colors
    
  • Adjusted kapok colors
    
  • Adjusted translucency of birch, sabal palmetto, coconut palm, kapok and samanea trees
  UI/UX
  • Overhauled game economy - decreased structure build and upkeep costs where applicable, while tying in exhibit donations and amenity income to the overall park balance. Hopefully these changes are going to make running a Challenge mode park a much more enjoyable experience
    
  • Players can now carry terraforming operations while having items selected
    
  • Improved animal navmesh visuals
    
  • Improved background visibility for the Options Menu
    
  • Slowed item scrolling speed in the building toolbox
    
  • Added a smoothing effect to the start of item rotation, allowing for finer degrees rotations
    
  • Canceling a spline (fence/path) action while building a segment doesn’t completely disable the action, but instead will start a new action for a smoother experience
    
  • Removed ability to select modular pieces from separate groups while editing a group - only the pieces within the edited group are now selectable
    
  • Saved games can now load the correct month progress, which was previously overwritten
    
  • Reworked progress bar logic on the loading screen. This should more accurately display how close you are to finishing loading
• Rendering
  • Generally improved ambient coloring and color grading - color grading especially is now map specific, with the default scrubland level receiving a much warmer overall coloration
    
  • Vastly improved night and sunset rendering
    
  • Vastly improved shadow quality at most quality settings
    
  • Improved SSR Scaling at lower settings
    
  • Improved water depth interpolation - dramatically reduced sharp lines on the water’s surface where it shines, and in shallow water
    
  • Warmed up default sunlight colors
    
  • Tweaked quality presets to improve perf/quality balance
    
  • Increased post-processing vignette
    
  • Increased grass brightness in shaded areas
    
  • Improved loose rain streaks appearance when overlaying water shores
    
  • Rolled grass graphics back to Alpha level (purely a cosmetic change, with no major impact to gameplay or performance). Grass graphics are something we’re still playing with, so expect these to change and improve over time
    
  • Auto exposure now updates regardless of time scale, resolving over-exposed shots
    
  • Rocks now get glossier during rainfall
    
  • Improved glass fence reflectivity
• Audio
  • General mix adjustments
    
  • Entity sounds while in Management View are now louder with flatter dynamics
    
  • Time speed up audio cue now fades away
    
  • Updated sfx for small and medium plant placement
    
  • Updated sfx for dead, medium and large tree placement
    
  • Random bird calls on modular tree placement are now based on level biome
• Input
  • Re-binded right click drag to camera panning, whereas it was previously set to camera rotation

• Critical
  • Fixed a save/load bug that caused save times to always default to Year 1
• Animals
  • Fixed Camarasaurus not being able to eat from the tall pole feeder
• Foliage
  • Fixed selectability for Scots Pine 2 and 3
• UX/GUI
  • Fixed several selection graphic events conflicting with management view
    
  • Fixed nursery menu scrollbar defaulting to lowest available position
    
  • Fixed main board GUI sliding animation issues
    
  • Fixed a new game initialization issue that prevented the help menu from showing up
    
  • Fixed a bug that caused the animals to not play their walking animation within the nursery preview
    
  • Fixed nursery menu sort order, now displaying the nursery menu in front of any selected GUIs
    
  • Disabled access to incomplete land value management view
    
  • Fixed water intensity always defaulting to its max value, now the landscaping intensity slider will remember the last set amount
    
  • Fixed Loading Menu masking issue with loading buttons
    
  • Fixed spelling mistakes on various text elements and tooltips
    
  • Fixed a coloring menu issue where copying a color into the hex input field would result in a slightly different color
    
  • Fixed an indexing issue that caused the management overview menu’s labels to break after the first year
    
  • Fixed main menu GUI scaling issues
    
  • Fixed excavations world map jitter issues
• Audio
  • Fixed sky wind audio not looping
    
  • Fixed group placement audio not including foliage sounds
    
  • Fixed Camarasaurus not playing walking growls
    
  • Fixed Camarasaurus not playing foley while eating
    
  • Fixed Deinocheirus not breathing while sleeping
    
  • Fixed rain impact layers playing on animals not near the camera
    
  • Fixed Edmontosaurus and Lambeosaurus Nursery audio
    
  • Fixed action canceling sound event only triggering for modular actions
• Music
  • Fixed nursery theme not playing while in the nursery menu

• Massively optimized fence rendering
  
• Significant GPU optimizations for prepass rendering
  
• Small CPU optimizations for selection rendering
  
• Slight CPU optimizations for general rendering
  
• Fixed GUI related bug that caused massive lag spikes at certain times of day while having a group selected
  
• Slight rendering optimization for rain particle effects
  
• Considerable optimization for guest AI calculations
  
• Optimized sunset and sunrise rendering speed
  

• If you are working with an OLD SAVE, please read the following:
  
  • Due to the addition of exhibit statistics, old paddocks will need their perimeter fencing rebuilt
    
  • A new navmesh has been added for giant animals like the Brachiosaurus. Old saves do not have this mesh which will result in giant animals walking through visually innaccessible areas
    
• Brachiosaurus can have issues drinking. We are looking into this.
  
• A number of additive animations and returning behaviours do not have audio. This will be addressed in hotfixes and the launch update
  
• There is a known issue that unrealistically lowers the game to 10-15 FPS. If this occurs, please restart the game.
  
• There is a known issue that causes prefab icons to load empty or white (this does not affect the actual prefabs!). If this occurs, please restart the game.
  

A hotfix patch will be arriving in a few days to address various issues.

Thumbnail screenshot from Discord user Grimnir.

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Save the date, Park Managers! PREHISTORIC KINGDOM stomps into Early Access April 27th 2022, available for $29.99 USD!

The full Early Access trailer will premiere next week on April 21st, narrated by the one and only Nigel Marven. Showcasing all the prehistoric animals featured in the upcoming release and our 3 playable maps, you won't want to miss this long awaited overview of Prehistoric Kingdom’s Early Access! Keep a look-out on our socials for the big reveal.

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