Prehistoric Kingdom News

Welcome to the 12th devlog for Prehistoric Kingdom, officially marking one year from the release of the first content-filled, monthly progress blog post! Coinciding with this festive period, this post will celebrate our successes and accomplishments as a project, while also serving as a reminder of what’s yet to come.

Since this is a special month, we decided to skip over the ‘State of Development’ chart, replacing it with a year-round inclusive review of what has been done so far, right towards the end of this post.

That being said, we hope you’ll enjoy seeing more gameplay than post months. We are ready to start talking progress!





This month we put a lot of focus into making our building system feel and sound polished. Our second SFX designer (Byron) worked closely with our gameplay programmer (Mau) to ensure that every piece of player interaction had some sort of feedback for the player.

https://youtu.be/Q_Q-Cuxw2uM

Compared to the demo, we put a lot more into making Prehistoric Kingdom feel responsive and sound great. Through many revisions, we are super happy with how the core elements are shaping up.



It’s hard to believe that we first created our scaffolding system all the way back in October of 2016! A lot has happened since then so it’s only natural for us to try and overhaul its performance and aesthetic.

https://youtu.be/b6_VQ7LTHDY

This system had a lot of unsolvable issues which led to some pretty hefty performance hits whilst also not looking all that great, either. To remedy past problems our team looked at small real world construction sites to create brand new assets and find a much less taxing way of implementing a runtime scaffolding effect. Below is the result we found most satisfactory, please keep in mind the ground is part of a simpler test level.

https://youtu.be/9NWwlRsQygQ



In Early Access we’ll be introducing a simple and easy way to select multiple objects. To achieve this, simply hold the left mouse button down and drag the selection box over all structures and decorations that you might to move, duplicate, or delete.



Additional items can be added to the selection by holding shift and clicking on the desired building. Think of it like manipulating files on your desktop; pretty easy, right?





What good is any business without clientele? To top October off, we continued producing assets for our visitors, with the middle age group in mind this time. The adults will serve as the ‘mainstream’ category in Prehistoric Kingdom, being the most common guests in the park with the most well-rounded needs of any group.





To respect the tradition set last month, Nathan has been hard at work producing wholly new animations for the medium-sized theropod rig. While the showcase video features Allosaurus in particular, you can expect these animation to apply to animals such as Yutyrannus and Ceratosaurus, albeit slightly changed in order to better fit the target animal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLUIkHL8CGc





Much like what’s been done for our dinosaurs, mammals will also be getting their own introduction tracks. Primigenius has a larger emphasis on drums, winds and horns than what is usually found in our music.

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/primigenius-mammal-theme

In addition to this, Byron also finished up an old breakout piece; Tantrum-o-saurus rex. Filled to the brim with familiar orchestration and Prehistoric Kingdom motifs, this track is sure to set in some nostalgia and panic as a hungry theropod runs rampant through your park.

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/tantrum-o-saurus-rex





Small access buttons on the corner of the screen offer a handful of various tools and shortcuts for important management views in addition to features like screenshot mode or the park map.



A global list of all recently bred animals is also accessible so that players don’t need to head back to the Nursery when populating their park.





This month we started working on our notification popups – something that we’d like to be mostly out of the way and provide clear contextual information. Certain actions like unlocking new animals will be a bit more exciting, however, as seen in our work in progress animation below.





All popups can be disabled in the options menu.



As a fitting departure to 2018, our animal and building information panels have reached a final pass before moving onto UI implementation within the game itself.



All UI elements and icons will have tooltips when hovered over.



After a long process of iteration, it’s satisfying for us to finally put down the concept stage for these elements and say “This is it. This is the one.”



Screenshot mode got some pretty major reworks to allow for a far greater degree of flexibility when trying to get that perfect shot. We considered implementing the Ansel tool but decided on creating our own system due to compatibility issues with AMD cards in addition to some new features like time of day and fog settings.



We’ve opted for a vertical redesign reminiscent of third party solutions that’ll be more out of the way than what we had previously.





The end of the year brings a bunch of new fully realised alternate skins to life. As our holiday treat, please enjoy the finished alt skin sets for Edmontosaurus regalis, Parasaurolophus walkeri, Iguanodon bernissartensis, Allosaurus fragilis and Megaloceros giganteus!











In addition to the other three creatures, our Tyrannosaurus has received remakes of the Blackbeard and Ginger designs. To better fit a more contemporary feathering on T. rex, we’ve adjusted the location of feathers on the Ginger skin to remove excess fluff.







In the past we have talked about our plans for the general fossil system, but since so much time has passed since then, we felt it was a good idea to revisit our design in more detail, helping you visualize it with even more interface art.



Fossil formations are located all around the world, featuring dozens of unique extinct fauna. Like in past games, this is where players will find the remains of 50 different prehistoric creatures at launch.

South America, for example, features the Ensenada, Huincul, and La Colonia formations:



Example of our South American sites at launch.





Once a team has been assigned to a dig site they’ll send their findings back to the player at the end of each designated site’s digging timer.

However, if waiting around isn’t your cup of tea-rex, the Fossil Market is perfect for you! Donated from private collections, auctions and museums alike, the catalogue refreshes every month with new animals and specimens each yielding varying degrees of DNA.



It’s a little pricier than traditional digging though it offers the benefit of hand picking creatures and instantly adding to their total DNA viability.



Once a creature has reached 50% of its true genome it can be bred within the Animal Nursery. It’s important to note that anything created in this state will have a weaker immune system and lower fertility chance.

Despite this, additional coloration and physical alterations still need to be unlocked by acquiring 100% of the DNA. Certain creatures like Thescelosaurus and Tyrannosaurus can even have their integument changed depending on which genetic skin has been unlocked.



Alternate skins are unlocked in challenge mode by completing genetic milestones for each animal.



2018 was a big year for us as a team; a colossal year. Between planning, drafting, designing, redesigning, and working on different facets of the game, it’s been a huge year.



This year began with the strong partnership between Shadow Raven Studios and our publisher Crytivo. With them we’ve been given many new opportunities such as convention showcases and access to additional resources like the lovely Martin Fyris who helped conceptualise many of our buildings during production.

Officially, we started development on Prehistoric Kingdom in late March of this year after releasing the Jurassic Patch for our public demo. We would’ve liked to have started sooner but were held back by the short term nature of the codebase and implementation of new features like better AI and implementing new assets including animals and fences.



Even before Kickstarter, we had a very clear idea of where the project should head and what its direction would entail for our creative process. We knew we wanted to approach production through the aid of 3 well-defined development stages, delineating the progress of the game clearly: creation, management, and progression. In the 9 months since we started working on what is eventually going to be the released game, we were able to create an enormous quantity of art assets needed for all 3 phases. Never in the history of the project have we had so many ‘props’ to fill our game world with, and we are incredibly proud of that.

When it comes to gameplay, there’s been the expected ups and downs. While we have revamped every creative aspect present in our 2017 demo, effectively putting our past work to shame, we also had to depend to some extent on third party assets that would improve upon the engine we are using, allowing us to truly create the product we wish to publish. As such, we weren’t yet able to complete the first phase we set, but considering the work put in it thus far and the technical complexity that comes with it, we definitely feel like we’re on the right track, albeit slowly so. On a practical standpoint, we have the following:





Celebrating our accomplishments for this year, we realize that it’s also time to think about the future. 2019 is the year we’re gonna start seeing true, substantial leaps in progress, with one or more phases of our alpha plan possibly seeing completion during this time-frame. As we stated in past blog posts, our top priority right now is bringing the ‘creation’ phase up to speed by developing all the tools necessary to unleash every player’s creative potential.

Early on in the year, we are gonna make it a point to complete our level design so that we can start bringing all our systems together to create polished and user-friendly builds. We are going to finish our fence and path systems, and delve into fleshing out our animals, from the animation system, to the AI that drives all their actions.

Sounds complicated? That’s because it is, quality takes time. With that in mind, we think that at this pace the other 2 phases should take far less development time. One way or another, we will definitely have something to show for our work in the year to come, and we know you are gonna love it!

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Thank you for reading December’s Devlog!

2018 has been one hell of a year and we are ever so hopeful that 2019 has got great things in store for the community!

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If you would like to check out our past blog posts, you can head to the official one here!

November’s Devlog is here!

For our eleventh (yes, eleven already!) monthly progress post, we prepared some more in-game sneak peeks, as well as long awaited reveals, so let’s just jump straight into it!



Keeping on the trend started last month, we’re going to present charts expressing development progress for each respective month. In November, our programmers got more involved in furthering the important systems needed to complete the ‘creation’ phase of the game.

Not only did we begin polishing our building system and create the necessary interface layouts for it, but we also started cracking down on more complex construction features, such as fences and paths, which we are going to show more for in the months to come. Our intent for this late part of the year and the early part of next year, is to keep developing and polishing our creation mechanics in sight of the first pre-alpha build completion.







Like we mentioned earlier, all our programmers got more involved in the game-making process, resulting in an increased progress pace all across the board. While we still have a long way to go before our creation systems are completely finished, here’s a sneak peek at our early building system. In the near future, we would like to add more visual indication of building placement; you can count on particle effects and even construction site effects. Moreover, the building models themselves will get more love: plants, custom path foundation and even their own animations (e.g. a full restaurant would be buzzing with guests).

Please keep in mind these clips were recorded on a test level and are NOT representative of final graphics.

http://prehistorickingdom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BuildingTest.mp4?_=1

Obviously the building system wouldn’t be much without proper demolition and selection, so here’s a reminder of the mechanic vision we’re going for when it comes to these two features. In the next couple of months our 3 programmers are going to be busy with bringing these concepts to life, dividing their workload in 3 main tasks: fence/path making (Matt), building, selection, demolition and assorted visuals (Mau) and finally level design and shader work (Victor).





As we explain in more detail in the ‘Audio’ section of this blog post, we have gone great lengths into adding audio features to the growing game. Here’s a short video to illustrate:

http://prehistorickingdom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/RestaurantSoundscape-1.mp4?_=2



Our gameplay programmer has finally gone ahead and turn all those lovely GUI concepts into actual, functional game interface. It might not look like much progress from the demo, but the quality increase is definitely there, compare and contrast.

http://prehistorickingdom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/UISFX.mp4?_=3



As always, our art staff has been super busy with asset creation. It’s actually kinda scary how quickly they are cycling through their assignments: soon enough, we’re gonna run out of cool things to show.



This month would oversee the completion of 67% of the buildings bound to appear in the Early Access release. As such, we are excited to show more of the park’s future scenery, as well as some fences and other important structures.


A variety of lamps and light posts can be used to decorate your pathways during storms and night time.


A classic staple of any zoo, players can use tables to create their own parks and sitting areas.


Sturdy and tall, the electrified metal fence is great for containing some of your most precarious creations.


The wooden cable fence is used to contain small animals and is recommended for exhibits with moats or trenches. Whilst functional, some unhappy creatures may find it easy to escape if not cared for correctly.


Akin to designs found on farms, this fence provides high visibility at the cost of lower security.


Security cameras are used to monitor and notify Park Rangers of escaped animals. Players should be conscious of their directional properties as the small security camera can only see one perspective.




The Visitor Dock allows guests to enter the park via ferry transport across the ocean. One way in and one way out – what could possibly go wrong?




Thriving with entertainment and hungry patrons, the restaurant serves as a place to eat for guests of all ages. Squint and you might just catch some easter eggs inside the top floor!



We are excited to reveal the first in a series of animation showcases, the Edmontosaurus using the Hadrosaur rig! We have been hard at work creating the base animations that are gonna help outline the animal’s future behaviour in the game, making sure the movements match not only the animal’s look, but also its size and presence. Keep in mind most of these animations will be used again for the other hadrosaurs in Prehistoric Kingdom, albeit with slight variations and adjustments. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/7mJp70Snc6w





This month was unusual for our musical composition, as we experimented more with the game’s music pieces that add to the soundscape, but aren’t ultimately part of the main soundtrack, persay. The restaurant needed some love, so Byron thought of composing two jazzy tracks to complement the structure’s atmosphere. They are the kind of music you would expect in restaurant, lobbies, and assorted fancy places (such as elevators, they are undeniably fancy). We had a lot of fun with this experiment especially, since it allowed us to play with variations of our main theme that would otherwise not see the light of day.

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/a-merry-little-kingdom

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/jurassic-jazz



On the sound design front, we have been making progress with general SFX, preparing sound files for every part of the first alpha build. When it comes to environment, we have been breaking audio queues to fit the different climates we have, as opposed to the broader sea-plain-forest system we were using. Following comes a taste of the tropical wet sound design. Keep in mind we would like our in-game system to feature different sound zones depending on the current climate implemented.

http://prehistorickingdom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/PK_DevLogAmbientScape.mp3



Last month saw the last of our Early Access receive their default skins. Seeing as how that means we have no more modelled animals to reveal, we will be focusing instead on each species’ alt skins, infant skins, and genetic variations.



We have shown the new Trike designs last month, and since, our animal texture artist has been hard at work bringing those renditions to life through the revamped Triceratops! Enjoy all the 4 skins, 2 for each species!







With that in mind, we decided to give our other ceratopsians some well deserved love. Welcome the remaining alt skins for Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus, as well as a reworked 3rd alt skin for Styracosaurus!







All this new content gave us a great opportunity to take a family picture, for no less than the ceratopsian family and relatives! Enjoy Prehistoric Kingdom’s Marginocephalia!





It’s time! Like we announced in our previous blog post, we would be revealing the design for the first confirmed animal to make it into Prehistoric Kingdom after the initial 50 animals, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus! While we won’t actually start production for this animal until soon after the initial release, we are excited to present our take on this large carnivore’s design, hoping that you’ll be as fond of it as we are, and hoping that it may put some curiosities to rest.

Check its Artstation presentation for a better look at the lit and flat colored versions of the concept.


The peculiarly short-legged Spinosaurus will make for a fine addition to any park it is put in.

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Thank you for reading November’s development update!

We’re gonna continue working towards meeting all the internally set goals for our first pre-alpha over the coming months, effectively making this our #1 priority. The creation part of the game is the most challenging by a large margin, but each month we get closer and closer to the expected results. Stay tuned!
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If you would like to check out our past blog posts, you can head to the official one here!

Welcome to a very special Q&A Event!

Firstly, we’d like to thank everyone who submitted their questions to all four categories from our social media accounts. We found this level of community engagement to be highly rewarding as developers and we are extremely excited to provide answers to your burning curiosities!

While every question below is taken as a direct quote, please understand that we may have had to make some changes to encompass multiple questions.





Q: “What inspired your amazing Dinosaur designs? I mean, your Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptors look amazing, almost as if you went back in time and actually saw the animals.”
A: “Looking at modern animals and especially modern relatives of said extinct animals as a reference goes a long way when it comes to making a design feel grounded. We like us them natural looking animals (except when we go full-on wacky with our designs, we tend to do that).”
– Mau

Q: “Which animal was the hardest to design? The most fun?”
A: “The hardest to design title would probably go to any of the ankylosaurs, they are tough ones and break my spirit. As far as most fun, it would have to be the 2 newest additions to our design roster, Triceratops and redacted. Those 2 were really fun.” – Mau

Q: “How important is accuracy to you? It will be nice to finally see an accurate dinosaur tycoon-style game.”
A: “Most of us on the team are paleo enthusiasts, so accuracy is definitely high on our list of what we want. However, from a pragmatic standpoint, we can only take it so far – new theories, papers, and discoveries come out nearly every week, and if we were to follow the trends and leading thoughts exactly, we’d never finish the game!” – Cindy

Q: “How many skins per species have you planned?”
A: “TOO MANY. But to answer your question with some actual numbers and technical jargon: for most animals, they will have a default skin and two alternate skins, so three. Some animals, such as Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus, have four skins. On top of that, each animal has an albino and a melanistic – so the total is now five or six.” – Cindy





At least a couple million people asked these very two same questions, so we condensed all of those into a few lines down below:

#1 MOST ASKED QUESTION
Q: “How advanced will the AI be? Will animals have any worthwhile or interesting behaviour to look at?”
A: “Our AI-building process will be iterational, which means it starts basic and receives more additions to it as time goes along. We obviously do want to make our animals feel as alive as we possibly can, and we believe a proper looking herd and pack behaviour is going to add much to that. Add hunting, a somewhat dynamic fighting system, and breeding to the mix, and you got yourself a lively bunch of prehistoric animals.” – Mau

#2 MOST ASKED QUESTION
Q: “Will the animals be able to reproduce?”
A: “Yes, animal reproduction is something that we’d love to develop in the future. We are hoping to include basic breeding at launch if possible!” – Byron

Q: “Will theropods be possessive while eating like we can see in modern big cats?”
A: “Potentially. Animal behaviors are something we still need to ‘flesh’ out completely (haha, get it?), but you can be sure to expect some messy, aggressive eating animations for our Tyrannosaurus, that’s for sure.” – Nathan

Q: “Will albino and/or melanistic animals require special care?”
A: “Our plans regarding mutated animals aren’t solid at the moment but we feel that it’d definitely add an additional layer to animal care and management. Much like the real world, we’d like albino animals to be more susceptible to disease and weaker than other members of their species – potentially dying off at a younger age. Because of this, objects like shelters and stricter habitat requirements will be more necessary to keep albino creatures healthy. Typically, melanism has less health impairing effects than albinism so they would be easier to care for but don’t quite offer the same level of park bonuses that might be seen with albino critters.” – Byron





Q: “What about the Pterosaurs? When will we see the start of development on the Supreme Master Race?”
A: “We’ll begin working on pterosaurs and marine animals (anything that doesn’t use the current locomotion system, really) after we release our Early Access build. We’re expecting all these to be pretty time consuming, so we are leaving them for later, probably in the form of one or several big free updates.” – Mau

Q: “Will live prey, such as goats or fish, be added into the game for carnivores to eat?”
A: “Live prey has always been something we’re interested in. We always wanted to have a system where live prey has a chance to alter the aggression of animals feasting on them and also has the potential to upset visitors, but it’s much better nutritionally for carnivores and keeps them entertained as it serves as a form of enrichment. It’s something we’d like to do in the future!” – Nathan





Q: “Are there any specific features from the demo that will not be in Early Access?”
A: “Early Access is definitely meant to bring updated and overhauled systems from the demo into a far greater range of player accessibility. However, we’ve decided to move away from in-game characters to opt for more standardised notifications (though some may still be referenced through Easter eggs!). Apart from this change, there are no major demo features that are being discontinued.” – Byron

Q: “Will we be able to walk around our own park?”
A: “While not expected for launch due to the development time required, Ranger Mode will allow players to traverse and interact with their park from a third or first person perspective.” – Byron

Q: “Can we port our parks from one gamemode to another?”
A: “The ability to change the gamemode of a park is determined by however the player chooses to start their game. When starting a sandbox park, the gamemode can be freely changed along with the gameplay settings. Challenge mode parks cannot be altered as they’re made of parameters set by us to ensure a fair but difficult game.” – Byron

Q: “Will there be potential to build indoor exhibits?”
A: “Whilst we’re not planning a system specifically for building interior exhibits, it may be possible to build them nonetheless with a combination of walls and elevated paths, serving as walls and roofs respectively, then placing objects inside. Can’t really give a concrete answer for this until the game’s ready though.” – Nathan



Q: “Will there be a sustainable ecosystem?”
A: “That’s something that we would like to do and something we’ve thought about. Ecosystems really come down to balance, at the end of the day. This question is something that we can’t really answer until the game is done, or almost so. Technically, it might be possible, as animals will breed, so as long as you can keep a healthy population of animals going, an ecosystem might be possible! It’s not a priority, obviously, as this is a park building game and not a nature sim.” – Nathan

Q: “Zookeepers forming bonds with individual animals?”
A: “Bonds can be created by breeding young creatures and quickly introducing a keeper into their paddock, reducing the chance of an attack from an animal later in its life. Similar effects can be achieved by hiring workers with a higher skill level. This trait may carry over into future generations, though we’ll see!” – Byron



Q: “How do you plan on keeping the game interesting after all objectives of building a park have been completed?”
A: “That’s a very hard question to answer as this is an issue with pretty much every park building game; once the park is “finished”, what else is there to do? First of all, it’s in our best wishes that the management features that we will include in the game will prolong your journey and keep it more interesting as you work your way to 5 stars and a finished park. Once you have reached the “final goal”, we’re hoping to shift focus more on to maintenance of those 5 stars. There’s always dangers that can happen to ruin your success, for example, natural disasters, dinosaur breakouts, illness, bankruptcy and more. Additionally, we’re hoping our creativity tools and building variety will keep you imaginative enough to continue to find new ways to build plazas and unique exhibits. Another thing is the animal behaviors themselves, as we’re hoping to keep them varied enough to keep you watching for pretty extended periods of time. Animal behaviors will be especially cool once we implement the genetic traits system, as you’ll be able to have pretty diverse behaviors… imagine a hyper aggressive Psittacosaurus nipping your guests!” – Nathan

Q: “Do some animals and buildings need to be unlocked through a progression or research mechanic, or is everything available from the get-go?”
A: “In the challenge game-mode, only a handful of structures will be unlocked to start building with. You will be able to unlock more through the research feature once you gain science points… we will talk more about this in a future devlog. And of course, when it comes down to the animals, you will be unlocking them through the fossil hunting system, which we have also talked about here.” – Mau



Q: “What climate effects will be implemented in the game and how it will affect the park, visitors and dinosaurs?”
A: “‘Climate effects’, the information there is quite foggy. Bad puns aside, we do want to include thunderstorms, hurricanes and blizzards and some other minor weather types… hopefully in the EA release! These will stress out animals, damage infrastructure, injure guests and more. It’s more or less a balancing act when it comes to including weather types in the game, as we’ve got to really test what works and what doesn’t in a way to not make them simply frustrating.” – Nathan



Q: “Is there going to be mod support?”
A: “Mod support is a mixed bag. If by that you mean developing and adding specific implementations to streamline the modding experience, then not initially (though not off limits for the future!). If you are however asking whether we will prevent people from messing with the game, then definitely not. For all intents and purposes, mod away!” – Mau

Q: “I know many developers that do this with their games, but do you guys use console commands (I.e. Money cheat, Dino happiness cheat, etc.) when playtesting the game? If so, will they ever be released to the public for standard use in the game?”
A: “When developing the game we tend to set keyboard shortcuts and commands to test new systems quickly. A player will be able to edit a lot of the values and gameplay systems inside the options menu rather than a console – effectively allowing us (and you!) to “cheat” while in the correct gamemode via a much prettier interface. As you suggested, this involves things like giving yourself more money and animal happiness, for example.” – Byron



Q: “Has the release of recent dinosaur tycoon games changed any aspects or the direction of the game?”
A: “We were already pretty set and confident on the project’s general direction before they were announced, as we started distancing ourselves from the classic Jurassic experience pretty early in the game’s history. So in a broader sense, no, not really. What it did do however, was giving us a quality wake up call, encouraging us to strive for the best we can possibly do.” – Mau





Q: “Will textures and models of animals be better (higher poly) than in demo? Renders look awesome, but in engine they don’t look good.”
A: “Yes, all our demo animals are pretty old models, and we have remade some and updated others to fit the look of our newer, better models. Our animation work has also greatly improved, contributing to a better overall look. Generally, our new models will see a huge visual improvement in-game, as you can see here.” – Mau





Q: “How are the animals sound effects (being) produced?”
A: ” Traditionally, sound effects design for creatures is done by layering together several sources of sound (human, animal and/or artificial in origin) into a single artistic construction that represents a new sound all on its own. I usually take s look at the animals before I start working, so I can paint a mental picture of what they would sound like. Meticulous listening and vivid imagination is required to make the character of the sound effect match the outwardness of the animal it’s being used for.” – Aleksa

Q: “I’m getting into game dev, and I’m just curious to know of the workflow for the models.”
A: “The concept art usually doesn’t come into play up until we start working on the colors, unless there’s some unusual features in the animal’s structure, that is. We start off with a low poly blender model and pass that off to our texture artist, to be sculpted and painted in Mudbox. Once that is done, the low poly version of the model goes back in blender with all its respective maps, where it receives its ontogeny-related blend shapes, and finally gets rigged. Hope this little insight into our process may be of help!”- Mau



Q: “To each team member, what is the most enjoyable part of your job in the game?” and “… What has been the least enjoyable part?”
A: Here’s a handful of thoughts from some of our team members!

Aleksa: “When you’re working on extinct animals, you build an animal’s personality from the ground up, and take everything about it into account. I definitely love it when all the layers I’ve been digging for come together and just click. Then you know the work’s been worthwhile.”

Byron: “The community interaction and excitement around blog post time is a great payoff for the weeks we spend writing and preparing all the content. Although, trying to balance multiple roles can be tricky. Nowadays I’m often assisting in graphic design, music, blog posts, writing, and community interaction. It’s definitely a lot of work and can be stressful if not managed correctly but the delightful comments I get to read after working hard on a multitude of jobs around the game is worth it.”

Cindy: “I get to tell people I work in video games making dinosaurs and that is one of the best icebreakers at parties. Oh and I guess the satisfaction of being in a talented team making the game every paleo nerd has been dreaming of since that one Michael Crichton novel got published.”

Maurizio: “The creation process is an enticing thing, I love the idea of being able to produce something people will enjoy. In particular, I most enjoy implementing interface and shaping the user experience to its greatest. As for the least enjoyable part, it would probably have to be Nano (Byron). Nobody likes that guy.”

Nathan: “Most enjoyable part? Well, I’m pretty fond of coming up with small details to include in the designs for buildings and whatnot, as I really have to think “What would go here? Why?” and then I have to think of a good way to include said details in a way that works technically well for me. Same applies for animation, it’s quite fun to think of ways to make animals show personality in their animations and to imagine how movement would go; I can’t stress how many times I’ve ran around in my living room as a dinosaur to try and figure out how movement should work. My least favorite part is obviously putting up with Mau, that’s a given.”

Victor: “Hardest part is getting the realistic branch growth patterns of trees down within a reasonable performance budget.”

Q: “Are you all eating well? Blink twice if you need help.”
A: What is ‘food?’





Q: “What inspired a game revolving around extinct animals specifically, rather than a general animal park game?”
A: “I don’t believe there’s a single person on the team who hasn’t had some nostalgic experience with dinosaurs or management simulation games that makes them so endearing to us. Whether it was hours spent with the Zoo Tycoon series or Operation Genesis, there’s something magical about the combination of park management and extinct animals. As there hadn’t been a new entry in the genre for so many years it was only appropriate for a bunch of paleo nerds and tycoon fans to try their hand at making something they love for others to enjoy.” – Byron

Q: “How many species do you intend to add post Early Access?”
A: Keep reading to find out.



Q: “Where can Kickstarter backers talk with developers about submitting skin designs?”
A: “On Discord, of course! Please join our server and message a moderator or developer with the appropriate credentials if you were a backer above $500 (skin tier) so we can add your exclusive VIP Role.” – Byron

Q: “The $100 Kickstarter support level lists both Beta and Alpha access as part of the reward, but the Crytivo $100 level only lists Beta access but otherwise matches the Kickstarter rewards. Is this a change due to the Crytivo arrangement resulting in a loss of Alpha access or is it an error in the Crytivo reward listing?”
A: “This is indeed an error in the reward listing as Alpha is included within the tier description. Apologies for the confusion, we’ll try to have the issue resolved as soon as possible!” – Byron



Q: “Will you release the beta on Steam?”
A: “The beta is expected to be released privately on Steam via unique codes for backers and early buyers. Windows and Mac versions of the beta will be available.” – Byron

Q: “Will the extra content (like the soundtrack, ranger book, etc.) that are listed on the Crytivo page also be available for Steam?”
A: “Too early to make a definitive answer, though we’d to include them on Steam.” – Byron

Q: “Is the Recently Extinct Animals pack still being considered as something to add down the line as a paid DLC, if not a free addon?”
A: “Too early to know for sure but we’ll see.” – Byron



Q: “Ya like jazz?”
A: Yeah, it’s alright.



Once again, thank you to everyone who submitted their responses.
Over the three day submission timeline, we had a total of 375 questions – that’s insane!

Unsurprisingly, the animal category was by far the most submitted question type:



We understand that not all questions were successfully answered so be sure to keep an eye out for future events and other Q&A panels!

This past month we’ve been working extremely hard to get the game even closer to a more playable state – something that doesn’t look like a mishmash of development levels and independent functions. Because of this, we’re kind of hoping that you aren’t expecting any big news drops until the next DevLog.









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Welcome to October's development update!

It's time to get extra spooky as we delve deep into another content filled DevLog! We have some important information and updates to share this month, so get ready to read!


The only day of the year we are allowed to be edgy. We took full advantage.



We reached out to our Kickstarter backers earlier in the month to clarify the state of development and answer a few questions regarding our release.

To provide a brief summary of the discussion, we mainly focused on talking about our unfortunate reliance on third party assets and software (such as SpeedTree and Unity) to update before we can proceed with certain elements like fully integrating our new foliage rendering system.

Our progress is better illustrated on a monthly basis through a milestone graphic to maximise transparency. The graphic below will be updated every update to clearly reflect where we are with core gameplay systems so that everyone has a solid understanding of the game's overall progress. We feel that this is an honest way of presenting the current state of development and also illustrates the importance of completing certain components against other tasks.

A lot of us take on multiple jobs or responsibilities within the team, so we thank you deeply for your patience.





Sadly this month we don't have much to show on the programming front, as most of the work being done is laying the foundations for the future management systems. On the other hand, we are experimenting more and more with the spline-based path and fence systems while we are waiting on third-party assets for some terrain system fixes. All in all, progress is most definitely being made, albeit slowly.



For October the art department decided to get extra spooky and make a whole bunch of new assets!



Finally, we are down to the last few pieces of concept art for our Early Access structures.



Counting all building models shown off in the past and this month, we are currently 53% of the way through the modelling of the Early Access structures that will be included in the initial release! If you'd like to send our building modeller some love, check out his other work on his ArtStation page!


The Gift Shop allows guests to purchase an assortment of merchandise with prices that are sure to send your inner capitalist wild.


Vending machines are a great way to provide small momentary snacks to your guests around the park.


Benches! Guests know them, guests love them. Place these along the edges of paths to give visitors a place to rest. Coming in a variety of seating options, the bench is an essential part of every successful prehistoric paradise.


Guests hate dirty parks! Trash cans allow patrons to dump their rubbish into a selection of bins instead of your lovely pavement. Once full, Maintenance Workers will swiftly empty the garbage and clean any loose scraps.


Featuring four of the most iconic prehistoric creatures, the Mascot Statue is a decorative object that's perfect for any large plaza.


Let there be light! Solar panels create electricity for your park during hours of sunlight and are made less effective during periods of darkness.


The wind turbine, water pump and solar panel are the first three utility buildings to be included in Prehistoric Kingdom’s Early Access launch.

The last two animal feeders were also modelled this month in addition to a plethora of enrichment objects that will be a welcomed exhibit accessory for many animals.


The wooden and metal feeding trough is a classic staple of any zoo simulation game. All five food types can be placed inside these large containers.


Designed for animals of all heights, the tall feeder is recommended for creatures like Paraceratherium and large sauropods. Smaller creatures can graze from the vegetation at the base of the tower.


The scratching post is usable by animals both big and small. Suspended by two large concrete pillars this enrichment object will provide relief for the itchiest of animals!


The tire and log swing puts your animal's strength to the test with this interactive challenge for medium-large creatures.


Enrichment toys come in a number of options. Activity balls and sturdy allow critters to chase or gnaw on a variety of materials.



This month we began to create the first set of visitor models that’ll be wandering your park. Using a basic facial shape of six different meshes and texture sets a lot of the variation will stem from clothing items worn by guests.

Here is the first look at the youngest of our three guest demographics; the teenagers!



Younger and more full of life than their older counterparts, teenagers have a need for excitement and will more often than not insist on an abundance of attractions to visit.



Smilodon received a few of its basic locomotion movements this month and this is certainly one kitty that you don’t want to touch!







Our composer's back at it again with a finished version of the snippet shown last month! The Island is another playful track that will play in the background as players build or look over their parks. Featuring some more world instruments such as the shakuhachi, this piece takes on flourishes of colour and interest from various cultures while incorporating variations on some familiar themes.

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/theisland

For every piece of ambient music written for Prehistoric Kingdom an additional "ambient mix" will be created: a lighter and more minimalist version of the main track. This way we can create trigger points within a player's game that tells the music how to behave. So, for example, if it's night time or the player has a limited number of guests in their park the game will decide to play the light version of any given track. Once your kingdom is bright and bustling the complete orchestral score kicks in!



Enhancements and new iterations continue as our UI designer brings our old interface elements back up to our new post-Kickstarter standard.

The options menu received a most needed amount of loving with a new coat of paint and expansive list of togglable features.





The interface settings allows for customization over the UI scale for larger screens and colour options for the main HUD/coloured panels. For those who experience difficulty reading text, the opacity of the colour can be manually changed to suit the individual needs of a player.



We've looked into features that older games of the genre have been missing and found that many users often try to replace or add new music files from popular films and television shows. While our composer quietly sits in the corner, we're offering full flexibility over the frequency of ambient music and the ability to add brand new tracks to the game's existing playlist!



After many iterations the team finally agreed on the best way to display our expansive animal list within the Animal Nursery whilst offering a lot of flexibility for sorting or finding a certain creature.



As a standard we’ve now split every animal into distinct family groups that can be easily distinguished and identified without the need of excessive horizontal scrolling like in the demo. Players can also find a new set of parameters depending on a creature’s environmental and social needs.





Along with spooky, scary fossils, October also brings the final four species - Daeodon shoshonensis, Hyaenodon gigas, Megatherium americanum and Paraceratherium bugtiense!





After many months of hard work we’re incredibly delighted to say that every animal in our launch lineup has their model, rig, ontogeny, and default skin set done with at least half the animals having all of their alt. skins completed! Next up on our list is texturing all remaining alternate skins for our Kickstarter creatures to completely finalise every critter but until then please enjoy this render featuring every animal coming to Prehistoric Kingdom.

You can support our animal artist's hard work by checking out her ArtStation page here!



Much like our previous development updates we’ll continue to produce group renders of some our different extinct families. Although they aren’t exactly scaly murder birds, our mammals are sure to be a hit amongst your guests!


All the mammals making an appearance in the Early Access release.



Our scientists have observed new mammalian ontogeny processes in the park - most notably recording the angry piglet, not-a-hyena, sloth, and one lanky boi.





Similar to Tyrannosaurus, the equally loved Triceratops will receive a visual update since it’s one of our oldest creatures. Keeping inline with the colour palette used in some of our other iterations of Triceratops, this month we present four brand new skins given to our horridus and prorsus alternate species.

For a better look at the detailed art, you can check out each design concept individually here!





We’ll be discussing some recent additions to our game plan regarding visitors and their effect on your park, bringing in some rather exciting gameplay opportunities. If you’d like to check out our last post featuring Visitor Needs from August, click here!



Originally intended to be a purely cosmetic change, Prehistoric Kingdom features three main age demographics within its core visitor gameplay: teenager, adult, and elderly.
We felt that including different age groups would immensely add to the management experience as players work to create a park that appeals to their target audience and public perception. Whilst offering a way to make crowds look more diverse, the three age groups also come with unique gameplay variables:


Examples of differences in guest types.



Proficient park managers will be sure to regularly check the time of year to maximise their profits!

The holiday season (November-January), for example, is capable of providing huge amounts of income through guest influx around certain months. With a range of teens, adults, or elderly coming to visit the park it’s extremely important to ensure that your park has the appropriate facilities and attractions ready to facilitate their needs.



In a future development update we’ll touch on the advertising system and its effect on guest demographics!

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Taken by Barry.


Taken by il1013.


Created by X Stream Chaos.


Taken by X Stream Chaos.


Fan skins created by Lis.

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Thank you for reading October's development update!

We're hoping to make November more eventful in the programming department and of course continue chopping away at our more than extensive list of art assets as we push the game further along. It's a very big project that is going to take a lot of time but it will all be worth it over the coming months!

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If you would like to check out our past blog posts, you can head to the official one here!

Welcome to September’s development update!

It’s that time again for another look into some of the things that were worked on during the last month. Some non-project related events meant that some of our team members had other matters to tend to in September but nonetheless everyone is doing okay and we are back to show some of our exciting content. This update is a little shorter than usual, but we hope that its content more than makes up for that!



Programming has been back into full-swing after our unexpected and continued waiting on SpeedTree and some other third party tasks. While the development schedule may have shifted, we have been doing our best to continue working on other components and features in the meantime.

With some better news, however, the foliage and water painting are almost complete! Although we currently can’t import the new trees and foliage due to lack of Unity support, our programmers have been experimenting with some stock pieces and we’re blown away by the results.

In-Engine environment painting work-in-progress result using stock and old demo assets.

Please keep in mind that everything used is a placeholder development asset and will either be replaced or made far prettier in the future!



For reference, here is the foliage painting system that currently exists in the pre-alpha demo:



While it wasn’t necessarily bad, it didn’t behave as expected and resulted in players having to click over and over again. Foliage rendering caused a substantial drop in frame rate which meant that dense forests were hard to create smoothly. Thankfully, these issues have all but been eliminated.

Today, we’d like to present the foundations of Prehistoric Kingdom’s new foliage rendering system.





As you can see below the intensity of the brush can be altered, resulting in an increasingly sparse placement of trees.



And of course we couldn’t forget the ability to place individual trees by lowering the brush size to its minimum value.





Yes, it’s finally here! Eagerly awaited by fans and developers alike, the water brush is a quick and easy way to paint water directly into an exhibit.





It’s definitely taken some time to get to this stage, but we think that everyone can agree in that it was worth it purely for the results.



Now with a short and less gif-heavy update, we decided to jump ahead while waiting for SpeedTree to get started on the framework for the new and improved resource system. It’s mainly mathematics and programming at the moment but once we get some UI hooked up we’ll be ready to show it off!







The Off-Road Safari allows your guests to get up close and personal with animals by driving directly through exhibits via a set path.



Building a Restaurant is a great way to avoid queues and serve quality food to your hungry patrons. With a warm two-story design and plenty of seating options, the atmosphere is sure to light up your park’s night life. Players can rename the sign on the building in the properties window.



In the “unlikely” event of an emergency, the Large Underground Bunker is capable of holding up to 500 guests. Much like its smaller counterpart, injured guests can be treated for wounds.

Like our past buildings, any improvements or adjustments from the concept art will be made in the modelling process so everything above is sure to look even better!





In our continued efforts to improve the look and feel of the game, our UI designer has gone back and tidied up the main HUD elements.



It’s not too much of a departure from what we had previously, but it certainly helps give players more screen space when building their park – not to mention its sleeker look. New overlay and access buttons have been added to the top left of the screen, as well as some new icons for fencing and funds. As always the UI colour can be changed by players in the settings menu.





Our composer was quite busy this month but he still managed to sneak in a little preview of something he’s been working on over the past week. It’s currently unfinished, untitled, and very much a work in progress but the final version should be ready for listening in the next DevLog!

http://prehistorickingdom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/PK_TrackWIP2.mp3?_=1



This month brings one new creature and some alterations to an old classic. Please enjoy the new renders of some of our personal favourites; Dilophosaurus wetherilli and Ursus spelaeus – the cave bear!







In September we made some changes to our old demo animals to make them look closer to their fossilised counterparts.

Velociraptor mongoliensis first debuted in its current state back in 2016. Upon further inspection, our feathery friend had some definite anatomy issues that needed to be addressed!



One request we are often asked pertains to one species of a very well known genus; Triceratops. With some magical developer wizardry, Triceratops horridus will be joining the ensemble as an alt. species for Triceratops prorsus. Since we’ve decided to use textures to quickly swap between the two, no differences will be found in the frill or body. As for the general anatomy and body plan, we updated it to resemble more recent reconstructions of the creature.





Straight from the nursery and incubation chambers our park scientists have provided us with some more growth charts for a few new creatures. Today we’re proud to show off our geckos, fluff cubs, and lanky chicken bois.









With eight months worth of alternate skins shown since Kickstarter, we’re down to the very last one. There’s a few being saved for their eventual reveal on the model (such as a certain feathered tyrant), but we hope you’ve enjoyed waiting to see what Early Access design comes next!






All of our Early Access Thyreophora – including a new Sauropelta skin!

Believe it or not, we’re down to only three more animals that still need to be revealed. As the total number of finished animals begins to increase all future model reveals will be the alternate skin designs fully realised onto our critters. Stay tuned for next month’s exciting animal showcase as we unveil the last few remaining mammals!

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Thank you to our amazing backers and fans for continuing to support our project!

It seems like only yesterday that the Jurassic Patch was released and development on the full game began. We’re striving to make October even more productive and deliver on a tycoon experience that we can be proud of. It truly is a group effort and we couldn’t be doing what we are now without you.
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If you would like to check out our past blog posts, you can head to the official one here!