Prehistoric Kingdom - Park Building Simulation

Prehistoric Kingdom​

Hi everyone! This is Matt, one of the lead developers for Prehistoric Kingdom, an upcoming dinosaur/prehistoric park building game that we are all currently hard at work on.

The goal of our game is to run the park of you dreams, where dinosaurs, mammoths, and other extinct animals are the main attractions. While similar to games like Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis and Zoo Tycoon 2, our game will also have a very SimCity-esque feel, as the player must realistically manage resources such as electricity, fuel, water, and food.

We just finished our first developer preview, and I was given the great suggestion of posting it here. This is the first of many such previews, so I will try and post them all here as we finish them.


You'll have to excuse the somewhat poor level--level design was never my forte (and neither is video editing, for that matter! )
Hopefully once the level designers work their magic, we'll have some better maps to showcase. I also plan on implementing a procedural map generation system later on.

This particular preview is to showcase our initial flocking system for the Gallimimus.

Over the next few weeks I'm hoping to also showcase the Tyrannosaurus hunting AI, the building system, day/night and weather, as well as some various other pieces we've implemented so far.

 

It is looking good! Only the water isn't looking that nice.

 

I plan to rework the water later. The goal is to have 3d waves and a high/low tide, which can change during certain weather patterns (i.e. hurricanes causing larger waves)

 

The title of this game has caused me to think. Can you logically have a "prehistoric" kingdom? The term "prehistoric" implies a time before recorded history, which would have required a species to have lived long enough to have recorded anything that happened. All kingdoms great or small, past or present have recorded their history... which explains why we even know about them in the first place.

I guess what I'm saying is that maybe your game title is a little... questionable?

 

I think you may be over-thinking it a bit. :mrgreen:

Prehistoric means before recorded history, yes. So anything before the invention of writing, essentially. In our usage, we are referring to prehistoric animals, such as the woolly mammoth. Our game basically involves animals from both the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic eras (Tyrannosaurus Rex, Gallimimus, Saber-toothed Tigers, Mammoths, etc.). And the players job is to run a park where the main attraction is said animals. So it's a modern day "kingdom" of prehistoric animals. It can also be interpreted using the biology term "kingdom".

 

Dude, if you have to explain the details of the game in a separate post then I don't believe you've done a great job of introducing it to the public. Even with the thread title (which I instantly forgot after watching the video; normal human behavior), it still wouldn't have come across to me. I TOTALLY appreciate your reply. I didn't even know it was a park management type game featuring dinosaurs whatsoever from the video or your initial description. I could have clicked the website and such but it is separate from the forums. Just 'food for thought' I guess. I'm meticulous about details like that.

 

The name's fine.

Really? The initial description says it's "an upcoming dinosaur/prehistoric park building game that we are all currently hard at work on."
You can be forgiven for not getting the park management vibe from the video, but that would be because the OP clearly stated that: "this particular preview is to showcase our initial flocking system for the Gallimimus."


More reading, less criticism.

 

I will buy that game, It looks so cool.

 

This looks amazing!!!!

I need to ask, the big mountain on the horizon, is that an actual terrain or it's part of your skybox?

 

You are right we don't explain the game concepts in the video, as that will be a different 'introductory' video showcasing our game as a whole. This was just a simple preview I threw together for the flocking system--mainly to post on our social media pages, where the game premise is already well known. Apologies for not making it more clear.

Thanks! It is a second terrain I made using World Machine.

Thanks

While we may do a Kickstarter to cover expenses (Unity Pro licenses etc.) the game itself will be free.

 

Sure, less criticism. That's why people ask for feedback. I do know that "more reading" certainly doesn't help in introducing your "VIDEO" game. Nobody read anything about the new Call of Duty last week; they watched a detailed video.

For the author, are you sure it's not going to feel weird or funny creating an 'introductory' video AFTER showing several other videos? You know... 'introductory'? Sorry but every human being on planet Earth that perpetrates this just makes me crazy.

 

I'm not quite sure I've ever seen someone unwilling to read ever complain about not finding any information, that is rather strange. With as much effort as you've put into pressing this "issue" it seems you would have saved more time had you read the first post from the get go. But maybe that is just me.

@Prehistoric Kingdom: For as short as it is (and as out of frame the focus of the video is) the video shows some promise. Good luck with your game.

 

You're way over-thinking the name Antman. It's fine.

Plenty of indie games have done the small snippet videos then done a introduction/trailer that shows what the idea of the whole game is about. Lighten up. This also doesn't have the marketing or name behind it that CoD does.

 

Looks really cool, I'd really be interested in helping out as a volunteer if you're serious, I have some assets for a game like zootycoon 2, but the guy bailed and I wasn't able to use them, message if you're interested