Hello everyone, welcome to the summer development updates for Prehistoric Fury! We have quite a bit to go over in this dev-blog, with some interesting and exciting news for you all to sink your teeth into. In terms of models, we have no new dinosaur models to show off, but we do have a new concept and of course some new skins!
Tatisaurus Skins
Tatisaurus was unveiled last development update with 2 skins attributed to it, however, this little critter still has more skins to go!
The first skin is a beautifully subtle skin made by Bill Nguyen (with the base of the skin being designed by Ankylopea), this is the African Reed skin. With a blend of Greens, Oranges, and Reds, this is going to be a nice fan favourite when it comes to those subtle designs.
The second skin was designed by Voultronix and made by SadEch, this is the Arid Swamp skin, which might as well coin the nickname “Minty”. Blending both pinks and light blue to create one of the most adorable Tatisaurus skins so far!
Dongusuchus Skins
The next creature to get some well-needed skins was Dongusuchus, tier 1 in the Asian research and advancement tree. This is a creature that will introduce you to that specific research tree and is one of the creatures that is quickly becoming a fan favourite (mainly because of its name).
Due to this, Dongusuchus has received a wide range of fan-made skins, some of which have made it into the game!
The first skin is “Redwood Bandit” designed by Mangobolo. One thing to add, all designs were made onto Dongusuchus by SadEch.
If you are interested in doing so, join our discord server!
Tarchia kielanae (Tier 7)
Welcome a brand new dinosaur to the Prehistoric Fury roster, Tarchia kielanae will be joining the Asian Heavy Herbivore line at tier 7.
The concept art was made by Rigormortis, who previously did a fantastic job with concept art for Sinankylosaurus. This new concept art will become a common theme when revealing dinosaurs via concept art in the future, showcasing both of its versions and an indication of the dinosaur’s ability.
We have touched upon abilities before, however, the ability will be unique to the dinosaur’s research line. Starting at Tier 5 a dinosaur will get a unique ability, which will develop as the player works its way through the tiers, unlocking other dinosaurs in the research line.
Tarchia and the Asian Ankylosaurs from tier 5-10, including that of Minotaurasaurus, will get a unique “Aggressive Armour” ability. A defensive attack that can also be used as somewhat of a battering ram. While the ability is enabled the dinosaur will have 2 new aspects. Increased armour for a set amount of time and a devastating attack on the tail of the dinosaur.
The ability for Tarchia will last roughly 30 seconds, in that time you get 1 tail attack, which will do double the usual damage of the dinosaurs tail attack (also dependent on the upgrades on the attack), this can have the capability to devastate the enemy team, however, after the abilities 30 seconds is done there will be a long cool down and a temporary debuff where the dinosaur will be slower, in a stunned state.
Dev Playtest
It’s been one hell of a month for testing the game. Wapted and I had constructed a prototype build for the game, specifically to test combat and piece together future mechanics and to help us devise what we need to make combat in the game a better experience, mainly due to it being the core focus of the game.
The first tests focused on a basic bite attack for one dinosaur, with the inclusion of teams, basic UI, capture objectives (for a future zone capture game mode) and TDM style objectives, with the additional test of respawns / lives.
There will be numerous internal tests like this in the early stages, and should in no way represent the final product of the game. However, it is important to showcase some of the very basic features from the prototype build, because its builds the foundations of the game.
The biggest things we are aiming to improve upon are our movement (both controls, speed and fluidity) and means to attack.
As mentioned in the prototype, we had 1 attack, a bite attack. However, we want to prevent dinosaurs from just face tanking, something that is quite a common tactic in a lot of games, where one dinosaur can afford to do that. Our aim is to ensure that players are thinking tactically in engagements, whether it’s a tactical retreat to regroup with friends, or using your dinosaur’s unique attributes to strike fear into the enemy team.
Anyways, below is a small video showcasing some footage from the tests, please note, that this is extremely bare bones, in a small prototype arena. More to come and be shown in the future as we conduct more testing, which one day, the community will be able to help with.
Dinosaur animations
Teratophoneus got some love this time, with a whole set of animations, which in theory will complete the dinosaur’s animation set for now.
The animations were created by Sadech and showcase a wide range of animations from calls to attacks and locomotion animations.
Map Development
We ran into some issues with the development of Poseidon, and this is something that has led us to work on a newer map that won’t have these issues. While we still iron out Poseidon as a battle-ready map to be added to the game in the background.
The main issue of Poseidon was the level of foliage that was on it caused some potential issues with the Unity engine, which led to frame drops on our devices when playtesting. The main issue we had was that this issue would be worse on lower-end devices, something that we need to take into account.
I’ve planned out a new map, “Canyon of Dread”, which will be a desert-themed map with the central premise being a small canyon surrounded by multiple different areas from an oasis to sand dunes and a river.
While doing the rough concept of the map I also wanted to give the canyon different levels, with an upper level allowing you to walk along the top of the canyon across the middle of the map. Something that will add future gameplay opportunities, whereby dinosaurs can knock boulders down onto unsuspected dinosaurs. The canyon also features 2 smaller side passages and a middle central passage, meaning it will have 3 elevation levels inside this main route.
The oasis and river routes for the map will be used for more agile dinosaurs to be able to flank around and encircle the opposing team.
That is all from dev blog 16! Feel free to join our discord server to stay up to date on more content coming soon!
https://discord.gg/yEEy994
