Prehistoric Kingdom News

Welcome to October’s development update!

In this month’s spooky post we’ll be discussing some of the things we’ve been working on in addition to creature remakes and a brand new animation reel!




This month, a small handful of influencers were given keys to a slightly enhanced iteration of the PAX build to demonstrate some of the features in Prehistoric Kingdom.

Although there were some expected issues that have since been fixed, we’d like to give a huge thanks to Geekism, BestInSlot, and Swrve for showcasing the project at this stage. There will be more coverage in the coming months as we add the last few features to finish up the creative features, but until then, stay tuned!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Development in October saw the beginning of the new modular building system as well as a full month of animal reduxes, animation, and sound design.

While the rest of the team continue to work on their assignments, Matt’s had the lovely task of porting the project to the latest version of Unity so that we can make use of some new features and address issues that had been resolved in the most recent iteration. As we’re quite far into core systems now, you can imagine that this was quite a big task to ensure that nothing broke along the way.

Now that it’s mostly dealt with (had to get it over with at some point!) new progress in other fronts should appear more frequently.






As the tycoon genre continues to push forward with precise modular construction tools, we’re following suit to bring a high level of customization and variety in creative opportunities to our audience.

Originally, our plans from Kickstarter were to add wall pieces to what would essentially be the very basic modular tools found in the Steam demo. Now, it’s beginning to become the fully-developed and expansive creative suite that this genre’s fanbase has come to expect from modern simulation management games.

Featuring temporary icons and basic functionality, you can find a short demonstration video below.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

What sets Prehistoric Kingdom apart is the flexibility to freely enable or disable the grid during construction for any modular object, including wall pieces, pillars, foliage, statues and more! This feature gives players expression and versatility in their design process, whilst giving the option to keep pieces all within the one modular group for easier editing and management.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

With a variety of different objects and pieces coming in the final game as well as helpful building options, we can’t wait to see what designs, props and facades the community constructs!

Next month we’ll be developing the 3D gizmo tools that allow for precise movement, scaling and rotation of modular objects like props, foliage and decoratives.

WIP Modular Building Tools and Textures.


Whilst not focused on, work was put into an iteration of the dynamic weather system during October to experiment with how fog, clouds and lighting changes can affect the game’s tone and feeling.


WIP Overcast Weather.

In addition to the occasional overcast sky, dynamic cloud shadows are cast over the island as thicker clouds roll-in overhead! During gameplay we’ve found that this improvement has gone a long way in making the setting of Prehistoric Kingdom feel more grounded in reality.




As per usual, new graphical tweaks were brought to the project in our continued effort to make the game as pretty as possible.

Miscellaneous adjustments included a more focused vignette and increased chromatic aberration alongside bigger changes like time-based fog colors, increased fog rendering distance, modified lighting colours and color-grading tweaks to give the game a deeper spectrum of color. Overall, the team is happy with the graphical direction of the game with the assured goal of only getting better with time!





October was filled with a dozen of deadly dinosaurs with no mammals in sight, how spooky! Featuring many first looks at the new models of old classics, this was definitely a bigger month for our continued reduxes.






Oh, deer! Made famous by its large rack and title as the Irish elk, Megaloceros stands tall alongside our menagerie of mammals included in Prehistoric Kingdom. Animated by Nathan and Mau, we’ve looked at a wide variety of reference material to make this animal move, sound and behave appropriately.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In the future, we will be moving away from the animation video format in favour of more managable content that allows us to share our best animations without losing time that could be spent elsewhere.




Apart from designing the new sounds for Megaloceros and a few other creatures, Byron wrote the newest animal introduction track titled Giganteus. Expanding the range of Prehistoric Kingdom’s music as a continuation of the icy mammal themes, this piece introduces the solo cello and viola to help incorporate a more personal and rigid sound to the music.

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/giganteus




Our chunky herbivore friends saw massive improvements courtesy of Cindy’s ongoing remakes and enhancements. Featuring far more detailed textures with some slight design revisions, Ankylosaurus, Camarasaurus and Diplodocus have never looked better in Prehistoric Kingdom!





Much like the animals, staff have their own set of needs that must be satisfied to prevent issues such as dissatisfaction, lack of efficiency and quitting their position.


Basic needs include a worker’s mood, effectiveness, energy and salary. These four statistics can influence each other in addition to outside forces such as animal escapes, deaths and natural disasters.



If a staff member’s mood drops below their minimum tolerance level, they are far more likely to quit as a result. To efficiently manage your park, we suggest keeping an eye on your staff members and ensure that they’re operating to the best of their ability


“My park sucks but I don’t want my staff to leave; what can I do?”

The answer to this question is simple - provide benefits! When disaster strikes and the worst occurs, staff may quit if they don’t feel safe. Benefits allow the player to pay for various coverages to improve the longevity of their staff in the event of tragedy.

Examples of some of the togglable benefits.

Although expensive, benefits will greatly increase the tolerance level of staff across the board. When you’re a corporate managerial mogul with a park full of extinct animals, keeping it up and running is your number one priority!

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Thank you for reading October’s Devlog!

We hope you enjoyed this month’s development update! We’ve got some more great things cooking up behind the scenes and we can’t wait to show it off in the future.

- The PK Team

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Welcome to September’s development update!

It’s been a big month here at Prehistoric Kingdom. In today’s post we’ll be recapping some important events that occurred in September as well as detailing some of our future plans. Without further ado, let’s get straight into it!




Earlier in the month we streamed footage of the PAX build over on our Twitch channel - giving us the opportunity to speak directly to the community and discuss future content.

One of our key points discussed during the livestream was the future of Prehistoric Kingdom and what’s left to do before moving onto the next phase. Announcing new features such as a dedicated moat tool and enhanced modular building, you can find the core slides from the stream below.





Additional information discussed during the stream can be found here.


Development during September was a little more relaxed after the weeks spent preparing the game for PAX West and the livestream. We took some small much-needed breaks, but the show must go on.

As detailed above, we’re going to start laying the groundwork for our modular building system in October. Much like the project, our plans for modular construction have expanded greatly and once finished should offer a selection of tools that are extremely easy to work with.

In terms of general development, we’ve mainly been addressing issues relayed to us from PAX and getting the first pre-alpha into the hands of our generous VIP backers as well as making the game look prettier. We’re currently investigating some new issues that will be fixed in an internal patch soon but despite some bugs, the entire team has been humbled by the overwhelmingly positive reception to early footage.






Saving and loading were added this month so that players can now return to their parks at a later date! Thankfully, it works far better than the demo’s iteration and should be more immune to strange issues like missing data or corruption with game updates. Of course, we’ll need to see how it plays in the future, but so far everything’s been working fine!




Shortly after PAX we spent a few days developing our own screenshot mode to give early players an additional thing to do as well as help the team more easily create new species spotlights and promotional material.

Compared to some of the other screenshot solutions available on the market, we decided to develop our own system as it allows for easier customisation in addition to better accessibility for a variety of graphics cards since it’s built directly into the game.

While it was an extremely easy feature to implement, it’s added a lot of replayability to the game as sharing paddock builds and pretty scenery has never been easier. Depth of field, image effects, filters, camera field of view and more can all be changed and utilised by players to get the perfect shot. And yes, since we include the ability to natively change the timescale we’re expecting some awesome player-made documentaries to come out of this!



In the future we'll be adding support for light direction and dynamic resolution so players can take high-resolution images!



This month’s species spotlights featured an interesting array of cuddly and not-so-cuddly creatures as we begin to close up with our three-star animals.






As some of you may have noticed in our Milestones graphic, Nathan expanded our fence list beyond our expectations for Pre-Alpha 1! With over 30 fences in the game, there’s a lot of variety to select from when building your Prehistoric Kingdom. Take a look at some of our brand new creations!



Continuing the trend of improving the old, the restaurant has been massively improved with higher fidelity textures and a new model. Like the old iteration, we’ve kept the top floor interior visible. However, now it’s far more detailed and even includes a fluorescent Crowny light!




Due to needing to address issues with the PAX build and having to make constant tweaks in preparation for our VIP’s and YouTubers, there will be no animation reel this month as we didn’t have the time to squeeze it in.

Tune in next month for a new animation reel!




Although on the larger side of our small herbivores, the Dryosaurus chirps and chitters with its almost-chittering like calls. Byron’s completely remade our favourite Morrison ornithopod to retain its sound identity from the demo with a brand new mix and enhanced vocal quality.

Please enjoy the Dryosaurus sound update!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


In the realm of music, Byron’s been working on a new breakout track for the game titled ‘Run’. It’s not finished yet but we wanted to give everyone a little sneak peek at what’s to come.

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/preview-run




Cindy gave two of our Mammoth Steppe friends a fantastic remake this month with completely overhauled textures and big anatomical improvements from Mau. We’re proud to do mammals justice even when against the dozens of dinosaurs available in the game and hopefully, the results speak for themselves.



Mammals weren’t the only things to receive tweaks, however! Although we won’t be updating its textures, Baryonyx had some troublesome anatomy that we wanted to take a closer look at as it’s one of the first animals we made post-Kickstarter. With some tweaks to size and body proportions thanks to more available information, England’s fishy forager is now at its true size and features a more accurate silhouette.





Continuing where we left off from last month’s update, we’ll be discussing staff specialization and its implications in park management.

As previously established, all three staff types have their own skill types relating to their role in the park. The more times a staff member completes a specific skill (e.g. cleaning or refilling a feeder), they’ll gain a skill point and complete that task faster.

Once the keeper has maxed out their skill level in a specific area, they’ll be able to complete that task twice as fast - but how does specialization come into this?


By paying a training fee, players can promote staff members into only completing tasks relating to one of their skills in order to more efficiently manage their zoos when generalised staff simply isn’t cutting it anymore.



Now that a staff member has been specialized, they have the potential to work almost six times as fast for that specific role upon maxing out their skill level.

Although it’ll take longer for them to improve their level since they’re performing a stricter range of tasks, the long term benefits of investing in this system are highly recommended for efficient park management.


Once a specialized staff member has maxed out their skill level, they’ll gain a special perk offering various benefits depending on their job type and chosen specialization.

Example of perks available from a staff type's chosen skill specialization.

These perks offer passive abilities that will greatly reward players for their time investment and can help to cut back on park management stress or make things like animal capturing easier.



Whilst specialization isn’t absolutely required to run your park, players seeking more management opportunities should be able to enjoy experimenting with this system to provide new and diverse results. Tune into October’s update for the next instalment of staff management; needs and benefits!



Since our Kickstarter VIP’s have received their first early preview, check out some of their park creations and screenshots!


Created by AD.


Created by AD.


Created by Silver.


Created by Silver.

Lastly, please enjoy some builds from one of our developers!



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Thank you for reading September’s Devlog!

It’s been a crazy month for impressions and feedback from the community. We’re humbled by the response from those who have gotten to play it and are dedicated to improving Prehistoric Kingdom where we can! October holds a myriad of improvements and core additions that we’ve all been waiting for, so we’ll see you all again next month!

- The PK Team

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Welcome to August’s development update!

The team’s been working around the clock all month in preparation for (you guessed it!) PAX West. Progress across the board has seen drastic improvements to all parts of the current game as well as some new additions, so buckle up, park managers! It’s going to be a long read!




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA_xjsbthB4
It’s been a long time coming, but we’re proud to reveal our first pre-alpha trailer demonstrating some features and general presentation of the current game.

We’ve updated our screenshot gallery on both Steam and the Crytivo store to better reflect the current progress of the project, so make sure to sink your talons into the images below:




PAX West is currently underway! If you’re in the Seattle area and want to check us out, make sure to go visit the Crytivo booth and take a look at all the lovely projects on display. There are t-shirts, games and collectible pins (including our very own Triceratops!) available on the show floor.

One of the first photos taken with our animatronic dinosaur at PAX! Thanks to @Doubleunicorns and many others on Twitter, for sharing these moments!

Everyone’s worked extremely hard to get us to where we are today and we couldn’t have done it by ourselves. We’d like to give a massive thank you to our publisher Crytivo for their continued support and opportunities throughout development, as well as all of our Kickstarter backers who have been extremely patient and generous. You rock!

Livestream Announcement

For those who couldn’t make it to PAX or simply want to catch up, Prehistoric Kingdom’s pre-alpha build from the convention will be played live with developer commentary on our Twitch channel on September 5th at 2 PM (PDT)!

If you’d like to come over and watch or simply ask us questions, most of the team will be making an appearance. We hope to see you all there!

Development Progress

With the convention underway and a playable build already in the hands of some lucky members of the public, we’re moving forward at a great pace!

Currently, we’ve got our eyes on feedback and suggestions from players in addition to finalising Pre-Alpha 1 in the coming months. With a lot of the bulk out of the way, the team is extremely eager to get started on new creative features such as elevated paths and brand new modular building tools.

Animals will be another focus point of ours. While we push onward with development we’ll be working on their basic behaviours, new animations, adding creatures and of course dozens upon dozens of micro-sounds to bring them to life. It’s going to be a lot of work but more than worth it in the end!

Animal Locomotion & Pathfinding

Coding wizard Matt brought improvements to animal locomotion with the addition of root motion, allowing us to greatly reduce sliding by controlling movement speeds through animation instead of code.



Animals don’t just path in a straight line, either. They can turn while standing still, walking, or running to create an organic and unpredictable look as creatures respond appropriately to the change in direction.

As a result, locomotion is beginning to look great! We’re extremely happy with how the system is turning out and can’t wait to bring further life to the animals with the addition of more complex behaviours and features.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8qnKtlSiaI
After PAX we’ll be looking into introducing basic needs like eating and drinking as an early addition to the quickly approaching Pre-Alpha 2.

Fence & Path System

The fence/path system saw an enormous update thanks to the inclusion of arc curves instead of the original bezier lines we were using. Although more difficult to implement (thanks, maths!), curved fences now behave as expected while making the experience a billion times more user-friendly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eboIIDVQf4Q
As discussed previously, fences, paths and buildings feature an angle snapping toggle in order to allow for precise construction and building options. In the future, this system will be accompanied by a grid overlay to better visualise exact measurements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVQn3DkERI

Terraforming

Terraforming received additional polish with some light height constraints implemented on smaller brush sizes to create a more realistic looking shape to hills and mountains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssWjAHREkdY
While also available for building placement, demolition and fence/path placement, we’ve added an extremely handy toggle that locks the user's cursor to the centre of the screen whilst moving the camera with it. Since movement is entirely mouse-driven, terrain and foliage painting feel especially nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjGcoYqvAlg
Next up for terraforming is to add in all the clutter objects and continue where we left off with water painting. Not too much longer and the entire terraforming suite will be complete!

Exhibit Area Info

To make the perfect exhibit creation even easier, we have included a way to view an enclosure's statistics and name. This can be accessed by either clicking a fence, effectively bringing up the area overlay shown below, or utilizing the terrain tools on an enclosed area.

This feature allows the player to check and create the right conditions without the limitations of continuously selecting animals, for a quicker and easier gameplay flow.

Building Shader

Buildings, fences and paths got a lovely shader overhaul this month in our efforts to make structures prettier and add new functionality for features such as emissive lighting at night and improved glass.



Paths got special attention with a new distance fade value that prevents ugly tiling and micro-detail showing up when the camera is far away. With this new inclusion, they’ll seamlessly blend into their detailed texture once the player is within range.



August saw the reveal of five new species spotlights featuring their various habitat statistics. Between the hell pig and chicken mimic, this month’s line up was quite diverse in shape and size.

Subpolar Foliage & Climate Completion

Much to the approval of our fluffy mammoth friends, Nathan finished up the remaining Subpolar climate textures and foliage assets.



While we went back to optimise all foliage in the game, quite a few changes were made to the tropical wet plants to make them more visually diverse and interesting.



Now that all 64 plants and 32 terrain textures are in the game, we’ve had great results when mixing and matching the various climates to create a more diverse landscape. We invite creativity when building your paddocks and greatly await seeing the user made creations in the future.

Once we’re finished adding the clutter objects to the terraforming menu, exhibits will only become even more diverse in their detail and aesthetic.

Path Designs

In addition to 17 path textures of various shapes, materials and sizes, Nathan’s designed two unique pathways that’ll go a long way in theming your parks.

Featuring familiar patterns, the new ammonite and footprint paths let players show off their prehistoric pride throughout the park. Equipped with a new shader (thanks, Mau!), specularity shines through during the island’s warming sunsets to give paths a more polished look.

Music

Amongst creating some new sounds for the Prenocephale as well as general game audio, Byron wrote a new piece specifically for the teaser trailer titled Building the Impossible. We hope you enjoy the track!

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/building-the-impossible

Animal Redux

Cindy got to work on various odd jobs needed for PAX as well as updating the new two-foot turkey. With entirely new designs and a flashy display crest that physically moves up and down, our Velociraptor mongoliensis continues the trend of bringing new life to outdated animals.



Now that we’ve revealed its species spotlight and the skins are done, please enjoy a better look at our Gallimimus bullatus (if they’re willing to cooperate!).





Today we’ll be starting our deep dive into staff management in Prehistoric Kingdom. Essential to your park’s survival in the late game, your employees are an extremely valuable asset!

Whilst players can manually perform certain actions such as refilling food troughs and emptying trash cans themselves, workers will complete tasks based on their job to make zoo automation easier.

Types of Staff

At launch, staff will be divided into three main jobs: Animal Keeper, Maintenance Worker and Park Ranger.

• Animal Keepers care for animals and their habitat: refilling feeders, cleaning poop and checking their health.
  
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• Maintenance Workers collect trash, repair broken structures and can improve the speed at which buildings are constructed.
  
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• Park Rangers act as the primary security division within the park. They can use lethal force or tranquilizers to subdue animals and are required for moving creatures across the park.
  

Skills

As staff members perform various jobs around the park, their skill level will begin to increase. Gradually doubling the speed at which tasks are completed, points will be added to one of three unique skill types depending on which duty they’re undertaking.

Skills are unique to each of the three main staff types and help to further differentiate them from each other.

Example of the three Animal Keeper skills and their speed increases based on proficiency.

Improving their skill level is a completely passive occurrence that doesn’t necessarily require input from the user. However, players are incentivised to keep staff safe and happy to increase the working speed of their employees. Treat staff poorly and you’re going to have trouble in no time!

Next Month...

Tune in to September’s update for the next instalment of staff management; specialisation! The team’s very excited to reveal more about our future plans and can’t wait to get working on them in Pre-Alpha 2.

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Thank you for reading August’s Devlog!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s look into development. Don’t forget that we’ll be live streaming on September 5th at 2 PM (PDT), so set a reminder, buy some snacks and get ready for fun. Until next time,

- The PK Team

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Welcome to July’s development update!

Progress is going better than ever behind the scenes, with some much-needed mechanics finally starting to take shape, making the current iteration of Prehistoric Kingdom feel more like the game we all expect. Last month we mentioned we might not have as many news due to the higher volume of work, but there are still many exciting things to uncover, so bear with us!




In case you’ve missed the last few updates, we’ll be attending PAX West from August 30th to September 2nd in Seattle with our publisher, Crytivo! As the opening day gets closer (tickets available here), Crytivo’s been sharing pictures of some of the merch and booth elements that’ll be found on the show floor; how exciting!




PAX attendees can expect to play a short slice of introductory gameplay designed to familiarise players with some of Prehistoric Kingdom’s exhibit creation tools.

Taking the helm as the new park manager of an almost operational island, it’s your job to follow requests from the Board of Directors to successfully populate the park with a happy and healthy herd of Edmontosaurus.



As this is an exhibit-focused build and the first playable iteration with our current features, certain building categories will be disabled for the sake of streamlining the user experience at the convention.


Alongside continuing previously scheduled work, our programmers have been focused on completing specific requirements for PAX that also go towards meeting development milestones we set for future playable builds.

July oversaw the biggest development leaps with the management interface, but also animal locomotion and pathfinding, which are a massive upgrade from the respective demo’s systems.

As you also might notice in the graphic below, the "Pre-Alpha 2: Management" box got its color updated this month, as we worked on some of the management systems needed for the future.






As you have probably gathered by now, much of this month’s development time was put into making our animals move around. Matt has always been vocal about updating the locomotion system of the demo, and he’s finally got a chance to shine - he laid the foundations for an all-around superior locomotion.

He implemented IK’s for both the animal’s limbs and heads, not only virtually removing any sort of sliding or shifting to the feet once in movement, but also allowing for a more believable ground adaptation. Moreover, animals can dynamically move their heads around points of interest, further adding to a life-like appearance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stCF87zvA74

While there is obviously much more work to be put into locomotion and overall AI, we hope you’ll enjoy this sample of what we’ve been doing. Even as a work in progress, this trumps anything we’ve done in the past on the matter.


In charge of the core gameplay progression, Mau spent time working on some of the features needed for August’s PAX build - inbox and offers.

These are some of the first management features we started working on ahead of time, as they are vital to a park’s natural growth and spice the gameplay up with that extra edge of challenge. We have shown concept graphics for offers in the past, but now we managed to actually lay down the framework necessary to craft any kind of contract or offer in the future, in a very dynamic and customizable way.



Equally as important, an inbox system allows the park owner to receive many kinds of notifications, ranging from the aforementioned offers, to dig results, forecast alerts, financial reports, and even rating increases. While not incredibly flashy in its current state, the system we built also allows for simple further implementation of different message types in the future.




Nearly 22 weeks since we began our species spotlights all of the 1-2 star creatures have been shown! Leading the next set of creatures with Ceratosaurus, the team hopes you’ve enjoyed the weekly journey so far.






The tropical dry climate is home to some iconic plant species that are going to make quite a few of your Jurassic animals always feel at home.



Taking inspiration from the world’s great dry plains, we are sure you will recognize imposing trees such as the Acacia and the Baobab.




Finishing off our structure list for Pre-Alpha 1, Nathan created the next observation-based attraction. Providing an elevated position for your guests to survey your park, the Lookout Tower provides a unique vantage point.



Similarly, the Viewing Platform’s texture set was updated to better unify the two viewing attractions and conserve memory. Those with keen eyes may even spot the unique ammonite floor tiling!





This month Byron began work on creature sound redesigns, beginning with Edmontosaurus. With a completely reworked sound set, we can’t help but love the new sounds of our weird Hell Creek behemoth.

Every so often we’ll be uploading small sound updates to our Facebook and Twitter accounts to show a selection of audio from a featured animal. Any reveals throughout the month will be recapped here, so don’t worry if you miss one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGzgTW8lQUI




With few feathers ruffled, Cindy finished up the redux of our Oviraptor philoceratops! Featuring pronounced sexual dimorphism across males and females, this alleged “egg thief” (not guilty!) is a must-have for any startup park with its uniquely bird-like looks and movement.



Huge improvements were brought to the new Oviraptor model with drastic alterations to the skull and its feathers thanks to our new technique. Out of all the enhanced creatures shown so far, we personally feel that this is by far the most improved.



In the same vein, Gallimimus bullatus also received a much-needed update. As one of the earliest animals to be modelled, this fluffy ratite-like theropod underwent several upgrades across the project’s history. With our recent wave of animal updates, we thought it would be a good idea to give it one last revision, and with what results! Our beloved ‘chicken mimic’ got a brand new coat of feathers, and looks better than ever!



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Thank you for reading July’s Devlog!

August is going to be the month we show the world (although, on a more limited scale) one of the very first playable versions of what is eventually going to become the full build, so we have reasons to be both very excited and incredibly horrified (it’s gonna be fine, right?).

- The PK Team

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Welcome to June’s development update!

We’re back again with another monthly development blog post. The team’s eagerly been working on more behind the scenes planning and content in preparation for a certain convention in the US, so perhaps it’s time to reveal more about it. Tune in below, park builders!







After using our previous logo design for almost five years, we felt it was time to update the game’s identity and bring it closer to modern zoos with a simpler, more readable aesthetic. Showcasing our new iconographic sauropod, Crowny, she’s quickly become a fan favourite on our Discord server.

This logo will be present in all future media (both in-game and promotional), so with in-game environments taking on an inviting and colorful aesthetic, the updated logo better compliments the extended periods of relaxed park building gameplay amongst the island’s atmosphere and cheery music.





Thanks to our lovely friends at Crytivo, Prehistoric Kingdom is heading to PAX West this August!

Featuring a small playable build of the current game at Crytivo’s booth, attendees will be able to snag some physical goodies and meet our very own animal texture artist, Cindy! Tickets are running out quick so make sure to grab them while you still can!



To keep it brief, we finally fixed our issues with Unity and are now continuing to prepare our show floor demo for PAX. Please understand that all of our focus will be on PAX itself, so upcoming devlogs may not feature animation reels and lengthy content reports. Without our supporters and Crytivo, we wouldn’t be able to take on such massive conventions and we’re extremely grateful to receive offers like this because of that.

Not a whole lot has changed since last month from our milestone chart so we won’t show an updated graphic due to redundancy. However, basic animal AI is currently getting worked on, so please look forward to some early tests of the creatures walking around soon!





The continued implementation of animals in-engine was furthered with the introduction of basic animal selection, animation states, sound cues and particle effects!

Below is a quick test for a key behavior many of our animals are going to display – broadcasting. This is going to be employed as an effective warning/alert call, usually by the alpha member of a group. Bear in mind the effects and sounds are still WIP, and will be replaced with time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuVr1Uy3onw

This month we have started laying the ground work for animal locomotion – making sure AI navigation is not only realistic in the way it chooses its walking paths, but also looks good doing so. In order to be able to accomplish that, we have started looking into Inverse Kinematics systems (IKs for short) for our animals’ limbs, which should considerably reduce jitter while walking and running. While these developments aren’t ready to be showcased yet, you can be sure we’ll show more in the following months, as the AI and pathing progress.

Preparing not only for the PAX preview, but also for the first pre-alpha build, we started implementing some of the animals you’ll be able to play with. Here’s a preview of just 3 of them:





This month saw the reveal of four brand new species spotlights featuring unique habitat specifications. From the woodland dwelling Bos to the tight family packs of Yutyrannus – which one is your favourite?







Due to this month’s heavy workload when it comes to engine work and animation, we weren’t able to put much focus on map creation. Even so, we have readied all the assets needed for the 7th climate of Prehistoric Kingdom, the Temperate Oceanic climate. As one of the game’s most ancient looking climates, its foliage includes classic staples such as the towering redwoods and ground-dwelling ferns. Even the mightiest of sauropods are dwarfed beneath these trees!



Placed together, these vegetation assets make for great scenic environments, fit for the majority of your prehistoric exhibit needs!





Animation galore! We’ve got two brand new previews to show off this month featuring our slow rocky friend and a slightly more hairy critter. As with all of our animation showcases not every animation is shown so please don’t be alarmed to see things missing; they’ll definitely be there!

Kicking off with the promised preview from May’s DevLog, Mau finished up our Ankylosaur rig! Decorated with shoulder spikes and bony osteoderms, Sauropelta’s defensive nature allows it to ward off oncoming threats. Adapted to its heavy and tank-like build, this nodosaur is a formidable foe to any hungry carnivore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUJ7Fsfu784

Through June, Nathan got to work on the elephant rig using a variety of real-world references. Arguably the most well-known of the ice age creatures, Mammuthus primigenius or the Woolly Mammoth, is a true titan of the Pleistocene epoch. Featuring sturdy tusks and an elegant trunk, this is one five star attraction that time didn’t leave behind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_SZN7PEX-M





Proceeding with the feathers and hair overhaul, the Bos received a huge update to its anatomy to provide a correct restoration of the animal. In addition to the long-horned bison, the Mammuthus received some new shampoo and conditioner to tidy up the various body to alpha transitions and present a much nicer look!





Building across various islands around the world, it’s expected to come across some unfavourable conditions. Weather pushes the player to prepare for their environment by affecting the way the park responds due to changes in animal and guest behaviours.



Each island comes equipped with its own unique set of dynamic weather conditions. Naturally, normal weather events aren’t particularly damaging to the park but can alter the effectiveness of resource production, which plays into park management and layout e.g. solar panels are better suited to long sunny days than rain or fog. At the same time, wind turbines function better under windy conditions.





At launch, two natural disasters will be available: hurricanes and blizzards. These two events are all around pretty similar, but because they are based on varying temperature, they diverge the most when it comes to visuals. Regardless, these disasters pose a great threat for your park as they render it more inhospitable, scaring animals, exponentially slowing transportation, and putting power production to a halt.

Later on, we plan to expand our disaster roster across maps, with 2 new disasters: tornadoes and earthquakes. Once again, these are map specific (as there can only be one disaster type for each map). While shorter in duration than hurricanes and blizzards, these two extreme cataclysms have the opportunity to be more destructive, as they directly affect your buildings and fences.


Note that until the latter 2 disaster make it into the game, the existing maps are gonna use the first 2 disasters.



Reading this, you are probably left wondering: “What can I do to prevent my dear Scruffy Rex from being obliterated by a tornado?” While we want to fill the player with a sense of urgency during these events, we don’t want to render them as complete deal breakers, given the proper insight and preparation. We plan to include researchable items that can upgrade buildings, services and animals alike to shield them from especially bad weather. At the same time, smart park layout can be employed, assuring a constant input of energy by placing varying power options.

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Thank you for reading June’s Devlog!

Like mentioned above, July and August are going to be incredibly busy months for us as a team, as we have to prepare what is perhaps going to be the first playable version of the game, for a larger public. We might not as be as consistent with updates, but that shouldn’t take away from summer’s excitement! Until next time!

– The PK Team

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