Prehistoric Kingdom News

Welcome to the March Update!

In this month’s post we’ll be sharing some new features that will be introduced before Early Access launch, and briefly discussing some technical challenges we’ve had to overcome before the next update is released.




Due to unfortunately-timed technical issues over the last few weeks, we had to delay the long-awaited poop update.

Most of the content for the patch is now finished and currently being tested. We've merged the next two main updates together, but some final implementations will still need to be completed before the patch and new features are ready to go live. Closed Beta players can expect this update shortly, before Early Access is released in April.

If you weren’t already aware, a public roadmap highlighting some of our upcoming plans can be found over on Trello and has been updated to align with our current plan for Closed Beta and Early Access launch.

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Let’s take a look into some of the headlining features coming in the Closed Beta 0.4 update. Like all patches, the full changelog will be available on Steam upon its release.

[h3]Animals[/h3]
Coming to Closed Beta is Brachiosaurus! This colossal creature will certainly draw plenty of guests to your park to witness its towering scale.



Big thumbs up for Iguanodon! Even with its unconventional looks, we think this classic duck-billed herbivore will become a fan favourite in every park.



A number of new additive animations have also been included for all the animals in Beta. These play while wandering around and add a bit more life to the creatures.

[h3]Animal Welfare & Poop[/h3]
In 0.4, the first wave of animal welfare will make its way into your parks. Players will need to tend to the unique habitat requirements of each species and ensure they have access to food sources.

With food there must also come poop, a detractor in habitat cleanliness and score. You can read more about poop mechanics in our previous blog post.



Failing to care for welfare will lower a paddock’s exhibit score and the park rating, making it harder to make money and science points.

In the future, poor animal welfare will lead to illness and eventually death.

[h3]Science Points & Exhibit Score[/h3]
By clicking on a habitat's perimeter fence, players can view its Exhibit Score and Habitat statistics. It’s here that you’ll find information on how well designed a paddock is, how large it is, and more.

At the beginning of each month, players will be rewarded the total worth of Exhibit Score in the park via Science Points. This resource can be spent unlocking animals or skins in the Excavations menu.

[h3]Temperate Map & Additional Foliage[/h3]
Bring prehistory back to the United Kingdom with the all new Temperate map. 9 new foliage variants have also been included to expand the visual diversity of our Temperate line up.

Temporary foliage cover.

You can also see our recently added State Icons in the image above, communicating facilities or paddocks in need of attention.

[h3]Sandbox Mode[/h3]
Beginning in Beta 0.4, players will be able to start a Challenge or Sandbox game from the updated New Game menu. Customizable settings available in the patch include:

• Starting Cash (includes infinite toggle)
  
• Starting Science Points (includes infinite toggle)
  
• Infinite Power
  
• Animal Habitat Welfare
  
• Unlock All Animals
  

More options will be added to Sandbox as new mechanics are introduced. All previous saves will be converted to Sandbox mode upon the arrival of Beta 0.4 for compatibility reasons.


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[h3]Tropical Map[/h3]
Set in the sunny paradise of Costa Rica, the upcoming Tropical map provides stunning scenery and deep, humid forests perfect for your prehistoric menagerie. This locale will be available at the launch of Early Access.



[h3]Psittacosaurus[/h3]
Like we teased last month, Psittacosaurus will be coming to Early Access with three distinct species; each donning various facial horns and spikes. Today, we’re revealing the biggest species, P. sibiricus!



Of course, it’d be a missed opportunity to not give you all another look at the smallest parrot lizard, Psittacosaurus sp. The team hopes you’re just as excited as we are to watch these little gremlins wander their habitats.



[h3]Tutorial[/h3]
You asked for help. We listened. An introductory tutorial will be included with the Early Access launch and narrated by the legend himself, Nigel Marven. This tutorial will be a masterclass in Prehistoric Kingdom basics; from Animal Welfare to Turning A Profit - you’ll be an expert Park Manager in no time!

Speaking of Nigel, at launch, he’ll also be providing players with an assortment of facts (over 90 lines!) for all your newly bred species. Occasionally, he may even pop up when revisiting old species to provide more information.

Below you can hear an early preview of meeting our lovely Parasaurolophus for the first time, featuring one of three facts. There’s a bunch of audio processing and effects yet to be done, but we thought we’d showcase a little bit of the dialogue before the game’s release next month.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In time, we’ll be expanding the dialogue to include alerts and pointing out potential problems with the park.

The team’s very interested in creating additional characters for Prehistoric Kingdom and developing playable scenarios beyond the initial tutorial, so we hope you enjoy your first taste at what could be!

[h3]New Trailer[/h3]
Finally, we’re very excited to share that the release date for Early Access will be announced in a new trailer coming out next month! We want to thank everyone for their patience and assure you all that Early Access is still scheduled to be released in late April 2022, so keep an eye on our socials for the new trailer premiere!


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Created by Mrs TeaRex.


Created by Warpath.


Created by Mr.Mugman.

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Thank you for reading March’s dev diary!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this month's development update. Our team has been working incredibly hard in the lead up to Early Access as we eagerly await the next chapter to Prehistoric Kingdom that can be shared with everyone worldwide!

Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Welcome to the February Update!

In today’s post we’ll be exploring parts of our next Beta update and delving into what our busy team’s been working on. If you weren’t already aware, a public roadmap highlighting some of our upcoming plans can be found over on Trello.




Extra wall pieces and pillars will soon be added in our next update, allowing for new shapes and wall combinations. In addition to pillar pieces for all the wall materials, players will also be greeted to 1x1, 1x2 and 1x4 panels to create more intricate parts in their builds.



As you can see above, there are a number of unique pillar models depending on their assigned material.


In our next update, players will need to consider the welfare of their animals and the quality of their habitat. Beyond expected necessities like food and water, Exhibit Cleanliness is a new and important feature with big consequences for your overall exhibit and zoo rating.

While pooping, animals will drop small dung particles onto the ground and create mounds. While the particles disappear after a short amount of time, dung mounds will build up over time as animals continue to poop nearby. Players can minimise poops by supplying High Quality feed to their creatures.



Excessive faeces can greatly detract from a paddock’s Exhibit Score and will begin to make animals unhappy.



To manage Exhibit Cleanliness, players can either schedule a habitat for cleaning or employ some very lovable friends; the Dung Beetles! Found within the Animal Care category, the Dung Beetle Nest is a small item that will automatically clean piles of poop within its radius.




Park Managers wanting to operate large income zoo's will need to pay attention to their Exhibit Scores, a new value used to keep track of how attractive a habitat is to visitors. Higher scores lead to better donations and collectable science points.

UI Concept Art with placeholder numbers.

To maximise Exhibit Score, players have a number of options at their disposal:

• Total Animal Ratings: the collective value of all animals in the habitat.
  
• Decorations: the number of decorative scenery objects in the habitat.
  
• Ecology: housing animals from the same time period and country.
  

These perks can be offset by poor exhibit management, however. Visible dung, carcasses and repeated species found elsewhere in the park will drop the overall Exhibit Score.

Players must also attempt to maximise the Total Welfare and Visibility of a habitat to secure the best possible Exhibit Score.


With Early Access just around the corner the team continues to collect important feedback, improving gameplay experience through updates and prepping for Early Access launch. It’s been wonderful to see the community grow over the last few months and we can’t wait for everyone to have access to Prehistoric Kingdom!

We’re currently looking for additional animators to join the team and help further develop Prehistoric Kingdom. If you’re interested in working on creature animation, please send your portfolio over to us on Twitter via DMs or to our email address ([email protected]).


So, what’s coming beyond the next update? Right now, our environment team is hard at work on the upcoming Temperate map (British, ‘innit). 9 foliage variants will be arriving alongside the new locale, offering more variety for the temperate biome.



We’re also very pleased to finally unveil the long awaited Psittacosaurus redux. These little critters will be available in one of our final updates before launching into Early Access, arriving with three alternate species. We can’t wait for you to meet them all!





[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Created by SimplySavannah.


Created by Warpath.


Created by So_Bad.

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Thank you for reading February’s dev diary!

We expect the next update for Closed Beta to launch in Early March, with Early Access scheduled for a late April release.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Welcome to the December & January Development Update!

Happy New Year, 2022! In this combined Dev Diary we'll be discussing December’s Closed Beta improvements and some exciting future developments for upcoming major game updates.

After our short holiday break, the team is back preparing new content that’ll be ready to drop during February.




While we work on introducing Animal Welfare into the game’s current beta build, new animal feeders (Blood Pumpkin & Fruit Block) provide enrichment for the animals at your prehistoric zoo.




There are a number of new additions to building items for creative builders to expand their guest facilities. Additional doors, lights, tables and chairs have now been included as Modular Pieces.


Enjoy more trees and plants with the new Boreal Biome and all its substrates: Snow, Withered Grass, Gravel & Rock. This new scenery addition inspired many Winter Wonderland parks over the festive season.

This update also saw the addition of the Douglas Fir, Alaskan Cedar, Alpine Currant and Alpine Bearberry.




The PK team is expanding! In December we welcomed new members to the team to speed up production and to increase our social media presence. With Early Access in April (only a few months away!) we’ll continue to provide regular content updates to get direct feedback and thoughts from the community that have Closed Beta access.


Animal socializing and behaviors will play a big part in managing a successful zoo and keeping your prehistoric animals happy! We're very eager to introduce our animal welfare mechanics in the lead up to Early Access and continue to flesh out their presence in the park.

As a start, the team’s currently working on exhibit management features such as dung. Everybody poops, and your prehistoric animals are no exception.

Some herbivore dung. This is some crappy work!

In terms of gamemodes, we’ve begun creating dedicated Challenge and Sandbox experiences alongside our new map selection screen. From here, players will pick where in the world they want to build their Prehistoric Kingdom and how they want to play.



Finally, Prehistoric Kingdom will soon be greeted by a returning species that our animal artists have taken extra care in developing. Players with access to the Closed Beta can look out for this creature in one of the upcoming major game updates before Early Access launch.

Weird looking cat.


Created by Warpath.


Created by Bumbee.


Created by Draco Agamicus.

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Thank you for reading December-January’s dev diary!

We’d like to thank all of our current players for providing their feedback in this crucial stage of development. We have many exciting weeks ahead, and we can't wait to share everything with you!

Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Welcome, park managers!

With Christmas officially upon us, we felt there was no better way to close 2021 off with a festive holidays content patch!

• Animals
  
  • New Animal Enrichment: Blood Pumpkin
    
  • New Animal Enrichment: Frozen Fruit Block
• Buildings & Scenery
  
  • New Guest Facilities: Modern Table (x4)
    
  • New Props: Table Umbrella (x2)
    
  • New Official Prefabs: Shaded Table Modern (x4)
    
  • Lamp Decorative Hanging (x2)
    
  • Lamp Decorative Straight (x2)
    
  • Lamp Decorative Vertical (x2)
• Foliage
  
  • Alaskan Yellow Cedar (x3)
    
  • Douglas Fir (x3)
    
  • Alpine Bearberry (x3)
    
  • Alpine Currant (x3)
• Biomes
  • Added the Boreal Biome with all its substrates: Snow, Withered Grass, Gravel & Rock
• Audio
  • Speeding up time will now play time-specific sound events for better feedback

• Buildings & Scenery
  • Introduced collision checks for bins, benches, and tables
    
  • Decreased default scale for Wheelbarrow
• Foliage
  • Updated icons for Scrubland foliage
• Rendering
  • Reduced bright blue hues in the screen-space reflections
    
  • Reflection probes now account for clouds
    
  • Generally improved water rendering, particularly sky color reflection accuracy
    
  • Improved underwater graphics
• Audio
  • Certain entity sounds now remain audible when time is sped up e.g. animal growls, calls, etc.
    
  • General mix adjustments for when the game is sped up

• Critical
  • Fixed power node refreshing events to trigger at the expected times - previous performance improvements had accidentally messed this up
    
  • Should have fixed a critical selection error that caused double clicking to lock up player input
• Buildings & Scenery
  • Fixed saved light coloring resetting on new placement
• Rendering
  • Resolved distant atmospheric flickering
    
  • Fixed downscaled resolution for underwater effects
    
  • Fixed animal outline popping up on demolition actions
• Construction
  • Fixed flashing grid on modular action end
• UX
  • Fixed weather transitions not applying correctly on different timescales

• Slightly improved performance of rain particle effects
  
• Improved water CPU efficiency
  

The team will take a short winter vacation, but we'll be back in full swing come early January, so see everybody then!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Welcome, park managers!

In this small patch we've targeted some main optimizations that should hopefully scale decently well with larger builds, as well as some much requested quality of life features.
The work on those fronts doesn't end here however: high on our priorities are further guest and animal optimizations, as well as better gameplay integrations of existing systems - power is on the line for further updates, with the eventual inclusion of status pop-ups making game readability more straight forward.

• Foliage
  • Bald Cypress (x4)
    
  • Swamp Beech (x1)
• UI/UX
  • Added keybind for quick modular grid toggle - G
    
  • Added a GUI tooltip to modular actions, giving users better indication of the current modular action being performed
    
  • Added modular attaching functionality - a new piece will automatically be added to a group if its placement is in collision range
• Audio
  • Large ornithomimid family sounds added to Deinocheirus
    
  • Vocalization audio added to Parasaurolophus
    
  • Surface interaction foley added to large theropod and ornithomimid rest/sleep animations
    
  • Nursery preview audio added to Camarasaurus, Deinocheirus, Torvosaurus, Mammoth, Pachyrhinosaurus, Parasaurolophus and Protoceratops

• UI/UX
  • The building menu toolbox is now enabled by default, regardless of current player activity
    
  • The modular styling toolbox is now enabled by default whenever the player cycles through modular selection. Hopefully this will make it easier to access the full range of material editing
    
  • Added ability to double click a modular group to quickly begin editing mode and select the hovered piece
    
  • Increased max. amount of styles displayed in the modular styling GUI to 5, allowing players to change more than one material at once on a broader piece selection
    
  • Generally revamped UX for the modular power status, it should now be much easier to accurately read upon the energy status of a group
    
  • Enabled quick nursery shortcut found in the Nursery Holder menu
• Rendering
  • Updated several biomes grass colors

• Critical
  • Fixed critical modular group data caching issues, which led to incorrect power readings in the past, among others
• Graphics
  • Fixed black splotches on the distant ocean
    
• AI & Animals
  • Fixed animals walking on the spot
• UI/UX
  • Fixed issue that caused Escape input events to trigger at the wrong time for modular group deselection
    
  • Fixed issue that prevented the building menu to reset properly if it was upscaled
    
  • Fixed bug that caused selection outlines to disappear on piece redo, if the group was selected

• Fixed some null logging for the animals, players should see slightly better animal optimization
  
• Improved modular rendering efficiency, with larger park performance scaling slightly better. At the same time, rendering queues should now clear out if complex groups are not rendering anymore.
  
• Optimized several CPU processes, mostly tied to modular groups and power processing. CPU usage on larger parks should be smaller
  
• Improved grass CPU performance
  

We hope you'll enjoy this update! We've got another patch planned for the next few days, to coincide with current festivities. Afterwards, the team is gonna be taking a holiday break, with regular updates returning in January.

Happy Holidays!