Prehistoric Kingdom News

Welcome to July’s development update!

It’s been a busy month for the PK team as we continue to work towards our next development build and trailer. A lot of our tasks are currently shrouded in secrecy which means this blogpost will be a little shorter than usual, but that’s okay! There’s plenty of progress to be discussed.



Right now the team’s working on a lot of sneaky stuff - a whole bunch of goodies from all sides of development that we cannot wait to reveal! It’s hard to talk about what we’ve been up to without spoiling everything, so for that reason we hope you can forgive us for being light on the programming section this month.

Looking ahead, we plan to begin tackling economy simulation in August in conjunction with further work on the animals. Additional progress has been done reimplementing IK features like head tracking, but it won’t be long before pathfinding works with the new locomotion system.






Seth’s been helping out with visitors by developing a prototype for randomisation. Using masks provided by Edson, we’re able to change not only color but the patterns for clothing like shirts and pants. As colors are grabbed from an existing array of palettes, visitor fashion should be easier to tweak and design when more assets are in the game!

Take a look at the work in progress clothing variation below.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]




Though a little cold, the boreal biome provides a home for your frost-dwelling animals. Dominated by towering pines and fir trees, the delicate lady ferns and shrubbery provide ground coverage for tundra and forested areas alike.
















Bringing better visual parity between the two systems, modern wall pieces now share core textures with our pre-designed structures. No matter what you build, you can take the identity of Prehistoric Kingdom to your custom buildings.



Building accessories like pillars and columns will be added over the next few weeks. As the game gets closer to release, you might just see another theme pop up, too! Please enjoy this new modular build in the meantime.






Once the boreal plants were done, Nathan built two new structures for us this month to begin our collection of guest facilities. As much as we all love the dinosaurs, apparently visitors matter, too.

Whether you’re an indoors or an outdoors person, the Tea-Rex Café has plenty of seating available for your preference. Feeling a little tired? A warm beverage might just brighten your journey across the park.



With state of the art plumbing, there’s nothing the Family Restroom can’t handle (so long as it’s not Psittaco Tuesday). The redesign covers a more realistic surface area than the last, providing maximum accomodation for those in need. When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go!




Hyaenodon was a large apex predator with a globally diverse group that existed for over 25 million years! Despite the name, it wasn’t actually related to hyenas - residing in its own distinct family with other Hyaenodontids.







Also known as the sabretooth tiger, Smilodon is one of the most famous big cats. Wielding two enormous upper canine teeth, this kitty took on a variety of prey that quickly fell victim to its gaping maw.







All bark with lots of bite, the Hyaenodon is one of our weirdest mammals, that’s for sure! It was important to avoid the typical laughing hyena trope, so we initially looked at creatures like the maned wolf as inspiration for any bark-like calls due to its atypical qualities.

Byron utilised an assortment of critters from across the animal kingdom to craft the familiar yet alien sounds of this particular good boy. Since canines have very recognizable sonic traits, substitutes like monkeys were used as the basis to create pseudo-howls - making for a very bizarre animal.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You can see more of Byron's work on his Twitter or Soundcloud!



Highlighted throughout the development update, lots of love was given to Hyaenodon this month. Thanks to Cindy’s lovely sculpt work, there’s new pelt variants - including a hairless option for H. gigas.







Making heavy adjustments to its facial and muscular anatomy, the team did their best to give this creature the unique identity it deserves. Even for a two-star creature, we can’t help but love the big guy for all of its weird quirks. Afterall, it’s a... rat-dog-cat thing - what’s not to love?

You can check out more of Cindy’s work on her ArtStation!

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Thank you for reading July’s Devlog!

We’re deep in development at the moment so it’s possible that August’s post might be of a similar length depending on what we’re able to show. Regardless, the team hopes you enjoyed the latest update and we can’t wait to share more news with you. What we’re working on behind the scenes is very exciting.

Keep an eye on our social media for any announcements or new information!

Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Welcome to June’s development update!

Last month was great for the dev team, showing an increase in quality for all aspects of development. There’s simply too much to cover, so let’s dive right into the content coverage for June.




The team’s been swell, steadily focusing on their tasks and chipping away at the project as per usual. Mau’s been making a lot of headway tackling trouble spots for performance, isolating issues and finding ways to optimize the overhead behind it. As a whole, frame rate has seen some serious improvement since the PAX build and we’ll continue to make the game as performant as possible.






Construction was well underway to enhance the animal locomotion system in June using the mighty Tyrannosaurus as its base.

We’re shifting towards a system that’s more reliant on bespoke animation for transitions rather than allowing the engine to fill in the gaps - giving us direct control over how an animal begins or stops moving. The creatures can have great art assets, but if locomotion isn’t up to the same standard it all falls apart.

Below is a short look at the animator in action highlighting how the T. rex transitions from various movement states (wip).

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So, what’s the benefit of doing things this way? The main bonus is that it eliminates the automated jank that occurs when an animal transitions between a state of movement and its idle position. Instead of magically sliding between poses they’ll kick off the ground or take that first big step into their walk cycle - it looks nice!

This approach does have an increase in animation work, but with the added help of Siaka we really want to get these animals looking as good as they can and the results so far are very promising. We'll continue to polish it up as best we can and show off some new critters in the process.


Intersections are tricky! A point where two objects meet in 3D space may result in nasty Z-fighting or excessive clipping, a definite issue that can crop up if two fence lines converge at a central point. We don’t want to pick a dominant pole to show over another, so what’s the solution? Create a junction, of course!

Temporary chainlink shader, it's a bit broken at the moment!

A junction will automatically generate between two different fence types or on either side of additive objects like gates, attractions and points of intersection.


Seth prepared a technical deep dive presentation showcasing some of the impressive complexities and considerations that go into making an advanced system like water painting. With the features themselves becoming increasingly polished by the day, soon enough it’ll just be tidying up the edges and making the water pretty!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

One area we’re super pleased with is the ability to edit terrain around and inside bodies of water. As the water tool’s depth is chosen via the intensity slider (UI will be updated soon), being able to manually reshape the terrain both underwater and near it adds a lot of power for creativity and room for experimentation.




The grassland biome offers a lot of choice in its verticality, including famous foliage such as the acacia, baobab and elephant grass. We’ve had a lot of fun mixing and matching the selection of available plant life to create new environments, much like the previous two biomes.




As part of the park asset reworking, Nathan’s taken the previous design of our Animal Nursery and elevated it to new heights (literally!). A cornerstone piece of infrastructure for every player, this building’s been updated with a more grounded art direction in an attempt to find that balance between a lovely genetics facility and a giant warehouse for mega lizards.



Adding new components like the various staff areas to increase visual interest, a loading bay inspired by an older iteration was installed onto the structure's extremity.

Although deployment works the same as it always has (drag and drop creatures into the park), the first animal currently bred inside the Nursery will be shown standing inside this area once it's ready to be placed - offering a chance to see the size of the specimen ahead of time!



Switching to a slightly tastier subject, last month we laid out the design plans for feeding as a whole, determining how the process of food production, delivery and consumption will work. As a result, the ground feeders were homogenized in order to account for these plans and work better with ontogeny to prevent excessive clipping or animation that simply wouldn’t work across multiple designs.



It’s important to understand that the updates made to assets allow for a smarter workflow, better performance and a higher quality outcome due to everything we’ve learned along the way. One bit of feedback we’ve encountered from our previous gameplay showcases was that visitor amenities simply didn’t fit in the world we were trying to build, and we agree!

We’ll have a whole bunch of snazzy and far more grounded structures headed your way very soon thanks to the streamlined workflow.

Ankylosaurus was a defensive powerhouse of the Cretaceous. Covered in hard bony deposits known as osteoderms, this walking tank could produce forces strong enough to break the limbs of the most misfortunate of predators. Did they deserve it? Probably.



Grazing atop the highest of Jurassic trees, Brachiosaurus is a famous sauropod beloved worldwide for its graceful silhouette and enormous size. It was originally speculated to have frequented large bodies of water in order to support its weight - a concept that has since been long abandoned thanks to modern science.



One area of motion we’ve been working to improve is secondary animation on the bigger animals, enhancing our rigs to utilize a more dedicated process for better results. Take a look at our in-engine Brachiosaurus walk test below, showcasing the added jiggle bones used to simulate areas that are high in fat or muscle.

You can see similar practices applied to the Ankylosaurus and Tyrannosaurus earlier in the post, accentuating their thighs, sides and dewlap if present.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]




As part of the UI streamlining, we wanted to show off how the Genetics Lab looks - complete with significantly better performance and new statistics management to reflect some of our changes detailed below.

You’ll notice that the menu is now fullscreen and consistent with the rest of the UI, future proofing inclusions like a tab-based navigation system for when disease or other animal-related mechanics are added.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


What was previously all grouped under “climates” has now been split into temperature and biome to make each system more distinguishable. Different species have a unique temperature range and can even have multiple plant biomes assigned to them for added diversity, making alt species such as Smilodon fatalis feel far more special.

Boreal is now home to both taiga and tundra vegetation, making way for the newest biome; wetland!

By assigning foliage biomes to the creatures we’re able to give players a unique jumping off point to start designing around in challenge mode. Some species might be specialized into wanting a single biome whereas another might have a handful of preferences that can be freely picked from.

In terms of game design it felt in-authentic to not nudge the players hand slightly towards an aesthetic or goal catered towards the creature they’re designing for in challenge mode. Using a handful of plants from disliked biomes won’t send the animal crazy, but sandbox is always available if habitat needs aren’t quite your thing.


The social group mechanic has been made more fluid, expanding the criteria to allow for new and dynamic combinations. Some species may have a closed group, or others may have no maximum value at all.

Select species have an added condition for population ratios, however, making mix-gender habitats a bit trickier to care for. Some may only group up in breeding pairs or others may have a more harem-like structure, being led by a dominant male or female. Keeping each sex separate will avoid the population ratio altogether.



If an animal is part of a closed group, they’ll begin to form a herd or pack! If an existing group has filled up, the remaining lonely creatures will split off to create a new one. As long as the exhibit isn’t overcrowded, new groups will be made freely. Just make sure those ratios aren’t imbalanced!



Amongst her time working away on unannounced replacement species for less interesting parts of our roster (don’t worry, they were due for a face lift), Cindy updated Plateosaurus with a fresh sculpt based on a more primitive and reptilian aesthetic.

Lis crafted two new designs to take the mantle of the old whilst reworking the original to fit better within our style.



You can find more of Cindy's work on her ArtStation, here!

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Thank you for reading June’s Devlog!

Thank you to everyone who waited patiently for the update to arrive, we’re deeply appreciative of your support. We’ll be working on some exciting new elements in July and the team simply can’t wait to get this game into your hands as quickly as possible.

Keep an eye on our social media for any announcements or new information!

Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Welcome to May’s development update!

Over the past month the team has been working hard on furthering the development of Prehistoric Kingdom, bringing great progress to all areas across the board. We’re finally ready to reveal some of our new changes and additions to central parts of the project, so let’s dive in!





Big. Scale.

Moving forward, all maps will now include a custom background environment to immerse the player within the borders of their playspace. With a usable area of around 4,000,000m2, there is an unbelievable amount of room to work with. For the players who have the determination and hardware to build a park that big, this one’s for you!

But why’d we make this change? To put it simply, there are a lot of technical problems and edge cases that need to be accounted for using our old islands as they were completely surrounded by water. Without massively limiting terraforming, water painting or spending months of development time on a completely dynamic shoreline, the new maps will look better, feel bigger and most importantly: get the game to our fans quicker.



Decorated with distant foliage and varied terrain, each map will feature a landscape that feels more appropriate and grounded within the world of Prehistoric Kingdom. Since anywhere from 30-40% of the old islands were underwater, this change opens up 100% of the playable area from the get-go - allowing players to maximise their building space without the need for excessive terraforming or the removal of natural features like mountains.

Whilst the buildable area is square on all base-game maps, we’re open to exploring more unique shapes and boundaries down the line for advanced players.


We’ve made great strides this past month in locking down content plans and finishing up current tasks whilst keeping our eye on what’s next.

Adding to our studio’s growing staff roster, Siaka joined as our newest technical animator to assist with transitional animations. Edson, a talented human character artist, also joined the project to create visitor assets. You’ll see more work from the both of them in future development updates.

Currently, we’re working towards a polished and exciting build that will be showcased in the late summer of 2020. After that, it won’t be long before we start making trailers and delivering on an alpha build. Stay tuned, park managers. There’s not too much longer to wait!






To help get your feet wet, Seth’s made significant progress on water painting during May. It’s been a long road due to all the technical considerations, but it’s almost ready.

Regardless of its current level of polish, the system is mostly functional! From here it’s a matter of continuing to improve functionality and tidy up terrain deformation in addition to creating a non-temporary water shader.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The majority of the system should be finished next month, so we’ll be sure to showcase it in June’s update.


Adding support for smarter intersections and random signage decals, Matt’s made considerable usability improvements to the fence system. With increased performance and better mesh generation, a lot of the old visual artifacts have been eliminated whilst also allowing us to get data like exhibit size quicker.

Fences also now support dynamic separation in order to allow for additive objects like gates and viewing platforms. We’re still working on getting the preview to update in realtime, but you can see some of the changes here!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As a new option, terraced or sloped placement has been added as a toggle when working on inclines. This will change whether or not fences are placed smoothly or in a staggered manner.



Next up on our list of improvements will be finally adding fence replacement - which shouldn’t be too hard with Matt’s latest changes.


On a coding level, the modular building system is essentially finished. There’s some things to add, fix or alter, but ~90% of the functionality is all there. To celebrate, we’ve gathered some scenes made by our team showing off more basic builds.

There’s a lot of assets we need to produce to increase building options, but it’s an incredibly promising direction! Once there’s more content to work with the possibilities will only continue to open up.










In addition to designing our new level, Nathan’s been planting the seeds for our improved foliage assets.

Home to a number of animals, the Tropical biome is a vibrant and lush environment decorated with kapoks, palms, and banana trees. Thriving in a humid environment, these plants makes any park feel more alive due to their diverse heights and colorful nature.





Commonly found across the Pacific Northwest, the Coastal biome is compatible with most dinosaurs in the game due to its expansive and temperate nature. From towering redwood trees to tiny ferns, these plants can be used to create all sorts of microclimates.







All maps in Prehistoric Kingdom feature a Visitor Entrance, a tunnel-like structure that allows guests to enter and leave the park. Although it can’t be deleted while the park is open, players have the option to freely move the building to a new position or even change its style at any time.

Default Modern Styling.

In the future, we’re considering adding a handful of styles to various buildings to provide optional park theming and player expression. As the entrance is critical to a park’s feel, we’ve added its modular style early so that players can build custom “skins” around it in a more accessible manner.

Future updates may see the addition of new entrance types for players to pick from.

Modular Styling.

Working on habitats, fences advanced with the completion of some new assets. Utilising world space materials in-game, fence models can be stretched and deformed without destroying textures in the process.



Velociraptor was a small, feathered dromaeosaur that lived in what is now known as Mongolia. Well known through popular culture, this animal is dwarfed by its larger cousin, Utahraptor. Tough turkey, little guy!



One of the most famous dinosaurs, Stegosaurus is easily recognised by its tall dorsal plates and impressive thagomizers. Smaller than most of its Jurassic ecosystem neighbours, this herbivore makes up for its size with some serious weaponry.




This month Edson began working on our brand new visitor assets! They’re still in an early sculpting stage but it’s nice to see some humans instead of dinosaurs for once.





Arguably Britain’s best (sorry, Iguanodon), Baryonyx is a temperamental spinosaurid from the United Kingdom. Living in small colonies like modern crocodiles, this fishy fiend has both a nasty bark and bite - scaring away the competition with its gutterly shrieks and low rumbles.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Previous sound updates and music can be found on Byron’s Soundcloud, here!

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Thank you for reading May’s Devlog!

Next month we’ll be working on fleshing out and finalizing our approach to animal locomotion so that new creatures can be added into the game once everything has been polished and standardized. Audio will finally see extensive in-game implementation using FMOD and there’ll be more environment artwork on the way!

Keep an eye on our social media for any announcements or new information!

Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Welcome to April’s development update!

The past month has been highly productive for the PK team! As always, there is much gameplay and art to cover, as well as more animal showcases than usual thanks to a certain theropod, so let’s dive in!




Development continues to advance at a steady pace, with a lot of the work being put into the terrain system and modular editing. We’ve also managed to get started on cool new features, like rudimentary guest AI!

We hit an important milestone within the modular system, implementing a gizmo-based editing tool. Soon enough this complex, yet useful feature will be completed, allowing us to occupy more of our development time on the game’s management aspects. Water painting also progresses wonderfully, and we can’t wait to show what’s in store in the next few devlogs.






With character models in the pipeline, Matt began experimentation with visitor pathfinding and instancing. So far, results have been promising! Although they have no true AI or needs at the moment, we were able to get up to 10,000 entities navigating our test levels with a minimal hit to performance.

Since our playable area is so large, we’ll be working to provide an optimal balance between guest simulation and crowd population so that they don’t take computing resources away from other areas of the game when playing on bigger parks.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you’re questioning their bizarre aesthetic, don’t worry! The guests won’t all be yellow drones (unless some of them really want to). We are excited to be working with a talented character artist to help bring the humans of Prehistoric Kingdom back to life. Stay tuned for more news on this front in the coming months!


Mau integrated the 3D editing gizmo into the modular building system, supporting the addition of beams, pillars, rocks and foliage! As one of the core components, we’ve added a variety of additional tools to the gizmo to help streamline the construction process.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
There’s also dynamic moss that will always point towards the sky - neat, huh?

Continually increasing its state of usability, we’ve recorded some footage showcasing some of the opportunities available to creative players in Prehistoric Kingdom. Here’s a short demonstration video of an animal house being built!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



With the arrival of the mighty Tyrannosaurus and two of our biggest sauropods, we’ve reached the end of our species spotlights! Thank you to everyone who stuck with us for all 50 profile reveals. We can’t wait to bring you new content overviews in the future!










Large and elegant, Lambeosaurus was a giant hadrosaur that roamed Cretaceous Canada, most distinctively known for its hollow, hatchet-like crest. Like the other duck-billed dinosaurs, Lambeosaurus features the option to switch between a bipedal and quadrupedal stance.



The feisty Protoceratops was a small ceratopsian from Mongolia, best characterized by its large neck frill and lack of pointed horns. With muscular jaws capable of powerful bites, this quadrupedal dinosaur gave the most determined predators a run for their money.



To top it all off, enjoy a teaser of our T.rex’ in-game run animation, slowed down for dramatic effect. We will be showcasing more of its animations in the classic format in the coming months.





Screaming and screeching in an adorable fashion, everyone’s favourite quilled ceratopsian potentially takes the cake for the cutest animal in the game! Although small, the stout Psittacosaurus could deliver a painful bite to any unsuspecting threats.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Previous sound updates and music can be found on Byron’s Soundcloud, here!



The recent trend of animal updates extended to some of the most popular species in the game, as their need for anatomical and graphical improvements became more apparent.

The absolute largest dinosaurs in the roster underwent major design changes: while Brachiosaurus mostly kept the color schemes from its previous iteration, its general proportions and underlying tissue changed in order to fit a more classical view. On the other hand, Argentinosaurus evolved far more drastically, as our portrayal of this massive sauropod made better use of the limited knowledge we have on the matter. Most notably, it sports a more impressive row of osteoderms on its flanks, as well as a more accurate neck posture and head shape.



Last in our line of hadrosaurs to be improved, Edmontosaurus received a new default skin design to reflect the project’s higher artistic standards, over the obvious anatomical improvements, including the trademarked toe hooves.



Finally, Tyrannosaurus was granted some much-needed love. Besides its touched up, more accurate physiology, we modified some of the head characteristics to better match the style and personality we strive to achieve with this formidable theropod. Moreover, Tyrannosaurus now features a more diverse feathered design, while its default skin introduces rex’s Asian cousin, Tarbosaurus!

We are very proud of the result, as it reaches a good compromise between a realistic portrayal and a more iconic look.



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Thank you for reading April’s Devlog!

The eventual release of the game is getting ever closer, and we’re excited to bring more goodies to the table come May. Keep an eye on our social media for any announcements or new information!

Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Crytivo and Soda Den Studio are proud to unveil Roots of Pacha, an online co-op, farming, and life-simulation RPG set during the Stone Age. Grab your friends and some rocks (whichever is more useful) and start building the world’s first and finest farming village!

Watch Announcement Trailer



https://youtu.be/mYEhKvcDhsY

About the game

After roaming the prehistoric world, it’s time to settle down and build a village to stand for generations. Join with friends to develop technology, discover plants to farm, harvest crops, befriend and domesticate animals, and create a thriving stone age community. Find love, nurture relationships, and grow your community—and then celebrate and honor nature in glorious festivals!

Prehistoric ride sharing! Ride animals with your friends!

• Grow and harvest. Start your own farming revolution and invent the tools and techniques to build a prosperous village from nothing.
  
• 
  
• Explore an ancient world. A fertile, vibrant world awaits! Fish streams and rivers, discover unique flora and fauna, and mine the darkest caves for resources.
  
• 
  
• Join the clan. Work with the community, develop friendships, and even find love!
  
• 
  
• Grow your village. Help villagers develop ideas and discover new farming and crafting technology. Construct buildings, invite others into the clan, and transform your settlement into an agricultural marvel.
  
• 
  
• Play with friends. Invite up to 3 friends to join your village. Live with them (or keep your distance), share talents and resources, and celebrate festivals, where each player can contribute to communal dinners or compete in fishing contests!
  

How about taking your wolves out for an adventure?

Release: Early 2021
Platforms: Steam | Xbox | PS | Switch | Crytivo

Wishlist and Follow Roots of Pacha on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1245560/Roots_of_Pacha/


Join our official Roots of Pacha Discord server to participate in closed alpha tests, offer your feedback, and get some exciting sneak peeks at new content from the developers. We’d love to hear your thoughts from the reveal!





⭐⭐WIN NINTENDO SWITCH LITE⭐⭐



To celebrate the announcement of Roots of Pacha, we're giving away 2 Nintendo Switch Lites!

How to enter:

Twitter (1st Nintendo Switch Lite):

• Follow @Crytivo.
  
• Like and share this post.
  
• Tag a friend in comments.
  

Facebook (2nd Nintendo Switch Lite):

• Like the Crytivo Facebook page.
  
• Like and share this post.
  
• Tage a friend in comments.
  

Best of luck to everyone!
Tell your friends!

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