Welcome, park managers!

Like we mentioned last, this 2nd update tackles a variety of navigation and stability issues. Most fixes revolve especially around guests, which should stop ignoring player-created barriers and obstacles, for the most part. Or maybe not. They are free spirits.

• Animals
  
  • Relaxed navmesh constraints for Nasutoceratops and Styracosaurus, now allowing them to walk underneath archways.
    
  • Animals can no longer vocalize when sleeping and broadcasting.

• Guests
  
  • Improved pathfinding navmesh generation for guests.
    
  • Guests no longer path on and get stuck on top of rocks.
    
  • Guests should no longer fall through the floor.
    
  • Guests should no longer freeze in place for long periods of time.
    
  • Guests should no longer walk through obstacles and fences.
    
  • Deleting a path will now teleport the guests on it back to the park entrance.
    
  • If guests get stuck somewhere they shouldn’t be, they will be teleported back to the park entrance.

• Construction
  
  • Fixed issues that might have led to mis-aligned grid-bound wall pieces.
    
  • Fixed a modular issue that prevented selection for newly duplicated pieces.
    
  • Fixed the false bottom for Rock Cluster 1 and Rock Cluster 2.

• UI/UX
  
  • Changed FPS limit to account for VSync, and dynamically change depending on the screen’s refresh rate. By default, FPS limit in the option menu is now set to the max screen refresh rate, so users might need to re-apply changes.
    
  • Making a new save game will now show up in the save list immediately after.
    
  • Resolved lighting artifacts on distant terrain.

• Misc.
  
  • Fixed freezing when saving the game.

• UI/UX
  
  • Updated the group editing GUI, this should make it clearer that a modular group is currently being edited.
    
  • Disabled quick loading.

• Audio
  
  • Increased fade-in time on Tyrannosaurus broadcast when far away.

• Misc.
  
  • Drastically improved current Anti-Aliasing solutions. Not only does the default TAA look better, but FXAA and SMAA now provide viable options that improve upon the default. It is recommended to play around with these settings to get the most desired AA look.

• Animals
  
  • Added grazing behaviours to Nasutoceratops and Styracosaurus.
    

• Buildings & Scenery
  
  • Added 1m and 2m Stairs to the ‘Walls’ modular menu. Like other wall pieces, their texture and model change based on the selected material.
    
    
  • Added path snapping to building entrances. While this is a temporary solution until foundation snapping is fully implemented, it should aid with connecting areas of the park together.

• UI/UX
  
  • Added a navmesh preview to the management view menu (which can be accessed through the dashboard on the left side of the screen). Selecting an animal will display its traversal area. NOTE: This is not a completed feature. At the moment, the preview is only generated for a short radius around an animal. In the future, we also plan to give the selected animal a highlight graphic for ease of use.
    
    
  • Added camera edge scrolling and respective settings in the 'Camera' section of the options menu.
    
  • Animals are now placeable on modular items, if the navmesh is valid.

It is a known issue that audio for ceratopsid grazing currently plays independent of the game's current time scale. This will be addressed in the future.
Since we've done major changes to the ways navmeshes are generated on load, loading a save created prior to this patch might take a little longer than usual. This will only occur for the first time loading said save.

We hope you'll enjoy the changes we brought to the table with this patch! While we might release fix patches here and there, this is going to be the last major update until Beta. We regret that animal eating and drinking has not been included throughout Alpha, as it would have required core improvements of the animal locomotion system in order to deliver more satisfactory results. Simply put, we feel it's a better idea to move promptly onto full-time Beta development, and make the needed improvements during this period.
As always, you can rest assured we will be showing off more progress through our future devlogs.

Welcome to March’s Development Update!

In this month’s devlog we’ll be taking a look at what we’ve been working on, what the community’s been up to and the response to our latest release!


Created by Rudi Rennkamel.



To start, we want to thank everyone who has participated in the alpha (roughly 1,300 people). You’re all building some amazing stuff and the team is extremely happy to hear the excitement in the community.

Detailed in our last livestream, there’s a number of additions and improvements we’re working on for the alpha. Since then, the team’s decided to reschedule the addition of the Viewing Platform and building state icons for beta so that we can properly introduce their mechanics at a more appropriate time. Overall, we’re expecting support for alpha to come to an end in early April, though this may be extended if major issues arise.



On a more musical note (pun intended), our composer and sound designer Byron began writing and planning out the new soundtrack earlier in March. This time around we’re aiming to create a very dynamic score, one that’s adaptive and built around a layered music system. We’ve learned a lot about modern audio implementation over the last year, and we really wanted to do the potential of this game’s music justice.

Though a lot of the original melodies and motifs will carry over in some form or another, we hope you look forward to hearing some fresh work in the upcoming beta.





As you may have already seen in alpha footage, our visitors are able to fully navigate in, on and around modular structures. This is a real game changer, as it means that guests do not solely rely on paths to get around your park.

Naturally, this also allows users to build custom bridges without the need for elevated paths! If there’s a navigable area between a guest and their destination, they’ll use it.


Created by @leafzproduction

This functionality extends to guest pathfinding in general, allowing them to walk along building foundations as if a path were underneath them.



Pathfinding is something that will be continually tweaked over time, and we already have a bunch of ideas on how to improve it. It’s got huge potential and we can’t wait to make it the best we can.

Thanks to great feedback from our lovely alpha players, we’ve started working on some tweaks and updates to our user interface. Please note that these changes will not be available until beta.


UI Concept Art (Nursery Update)

For the Nursery, we noted that some players struggled to find the animal creation box. With these adjustments, we hope to make that area more digestable as the “main” workspace. Some more miscellaneous enhancements were made too, tweaks like centralizing the animal’s name and various balances to the overall piece.

When it comes to construction, however, there were a few things that we needed to communicate better:

• When am I editing a group?
  A new screenborder, group header and dedicated exit button will appear when a player enters a group. A subtle audio cue will also play.

• What are the keybinds?
  On-screen keybinds will be bigger and more specific to what the user is actually doing, eliminating excess visual noise and hopefully inspiring new players to give them a glance. If you’re a master though, these floating keybinds can be turned off in the options menu.

For the toolbox in general, we’ll be splitting it into two components for centralized access: settings, and customization. What appears in the respective windows will be context sensitive, dependant on what’s currently ready for placement or what’s selected in the world.


UI Concept Art (Modular Toolbox, Keybinds, and Group Editing Overlay)


UI Concept Art (Modular Toolbox Customization)

This change will give players the ability to select multiple items in a group and change the textures of walls, roofs and rocks at the same time, something that isn’t allowed in the current UI.

Remember though, this is context senstive! If a roof piece is selected, only the Roof Material panel will appear for customization. What does or doesn’t show is entirely based on what you’re doing.

To help with general usability, building state icons will be added during beta to better display what’s needed from the player at a moment’s notice. These remain a consistent size on screen, but scale down over distance.

We should note that these are reserved for things that require your attention or that are time-sensitive, we don’t want to overwhelm the player with non-critical information. Passive things like incubation timers are in a friendly bubble, and bad things are in red-black hexagons.


Concept Art (Building State Icons)

It’s big, it’s bold and it honks! Meet our redesigned Lambeosaurus, a surprise change that wasn’t properly unveiled until alpha’s launch. This animal has quickly become a favourite amongst alpha players with its unique calls and vibrant skin variation.




Apart from a bunch of lovely new designs, we tweaked a number of key features like its facial anatomy and of course, the new giant tail! This one’s for you, Big Paul.



In case you haven’t seen any gameplay from the alpha, there have been loads of fantastic content creators covering it in extreme detail. Though we sadly can’t showcase everybody, these are some great starting points!







Looking at our release roadmap, this is where the game is headed in 2021.

It’s very important to note that these are estimated dates as we are taking community feedback into account during both alpha and beta. We want to release a stable product for Early Access and we will take the time necessary to do so if it ensures a more premium experience.

Our next milestone, beta, will be introducing a bunch of improvements, new features and animals on top of the six available in alpha. This is very exciting for us, as with every major release our project feels more and more like a game.

Some mechanics that were closely tied to staff (e.g. animal food production) have been pushed back as an update post-EA launch to help ease the development schedule. As always, we’ll be providing insight into what’s changing or what’s being added in future devlogs.




Created by ChasmosaurLuke.


Created by JurassicRiley.


Created by TheBeachDog.


Created by Zekin.


Created by LionRider.


Created by OfManyVoices.

...

Thank you for reading March’s devlog!

Alpha’s been brilliant so far, and the team is hard at working on some new hotfixes and patches that’ll be out very soon. Once again, thanks so much to all of our supporters - whether you’ve been with us for years or days, we’re happy you’re here.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• YouTube

Welcome, park managers!

After taking the week-end off, we're back working around the clock to address the most urgent issues reported by the community in the last few days. Today's update revolves around massive memory optimizations, and several UX improvements, especially with regards to the modular system.

• Animals
  
  • Fixed an issue that caused animal IKs not to update if time was stopped or if they were being moved, eliminating a lot of the janky leg stretching.

• Guests
  
  • Guests now avoid walking inside Mini-Aviaries.

• Construction
  
  • Fixed issue with multiple terrain masks multiplying their intensity together (especially noticeable on paths and path junctions).
    
  • Fixed terrain masks for paths and reduced their radius, as they were too large. This should allow players to terraform and paint water far closer to paths than previously allowed.
    
  • Fixed selection collision for several items, including tarps, awnings and mulch pieces.
    
  • Fixed several modular bugs hidden under the hood, some of these should hopefully prevent selection states getting stuck. If selection issues persist, please keep reporting them on our Git Issues page.

• UI/UX
  
  • Fixed an issue with Vsync setting where it would fail to apply.
    
  • Camera controls and several other keybinds (such as M for movement), don’t fire when using renaming inputs.

• Misc.
  
  • Resolved game references to old, unused assets.

• Construction
  
  • Reduced terrain mask radius for buildings.
    
  • Modular pieces can now collide with fences.

• Guests
  
  • Reduced general guest density by ~75%.

• UI/UX
  
  • Transitioned user action cancellation to Right Mouse Up instead of Right Mouse Down. This makes it possible to rotate the camera through RMB and not accidentally cancel an action (for those users that don’t utilize MMB to orbit with the camera).
    
  • Refined sensitivity for gizmo snapping rotation.
    
  • Clicking anywhere outside of the HUD while in advanced editing will now apply the current edit.

• Animals
  
  • Added social vocal animations to Nasutoceratops, Styracosaurus and Tyrannosaurus.
• Construction
  
  • Added a Chainlink piece to the 'Structural Elements' modular menu. This piece has world-space textures, so its visual fidelity should remain high no matter its scale.

• Reduced the game’s memory usage by ~30-35%. You should experience less crashes loading into a new game. This should hopefully fix many issues loading modular groups and items from existing saves.
  
• Added an FPS limit option to the graphical settings, which should decrease GPU consumption for some machines. Further rendering optimizations are still ongoing.

In the odd case your saves don't show up on the load menu when you start the game, worry not, they are still there! A restart should fix the issue until we can look at it in a future patch.

Going forward, you can expect more work to be put into animal and guest AI, which should be our focus for the next few updates.

Welcome, park managers!

Prehistoric Kingdom’s Closed Alpha has finally arrived! An early version of the game is now available to play for eligible alpha tier backers and early adopters. If you should have access and currently don’t, please consult our previous blog post to find your key.

If you’re having issues, please get in touch with Crytivo support so we can get your key delivered to you! Any delayed keys or problems with receiving them is an honest mistake and we want to make sure everybody who needs a key gets one.

Now, let’s get into the details!



These are our core features currently available in the alpha, offering a small selection of sandbox and work-in-progress challenge mode features for you to play with.

We are so excited to see what the alpha players come up with. Even from our VIPs we’ve seen some insane builds thanks to our suite of creative tools and extended functionality like full modular pathfinding on both the animals and guests - how cool is that?!

The visitors can be a little funky to look at (all male guests went to the same barber!), but their pathing capabilities are what counts here. Their visuals and animations will be drastically improved with time.



Everything has room for improvement and alpha is no exception! Over the next few weeks we’ll be providing stability fixes and a handful of content additions such as absent animal behaviours like eating and drinking.

On the user experience front, building state icons are one of the things we’ll be adding to better signify structures that require power or buildings that have reached guest capacity. Currently, the power status of a building is only displayed in the Management View or in its UI popup when selected, so it’s definitely something we’ll be improving.

As discussed in a recent livestream with Crytivo, we’ve provided an updated roadmap for our release schedule as well as what you can expect to see from beta.

It’s very important to note that these are estimated dates as we are taking community feedback into account during both alpha and beta. We want to release a stable product for Early Access and we will take the time necessary to do so.



We’ll also be adding a few more animals into the beta on top of our current six present in the alpha.

As we’re still working on setting up support for custom keybinds in-game, please refer to the sheet below for various inputs. Building actions do have on-screen prompts, however! Players can also access a Help menu by pressing F1 or by navigating to the left side of the screen.



Though we are already aware of various issues in the build, we felt that these were the most pressing to notify alpha players about to prevent duplicate reports.

Animals

• Certain slopes may cause quadrupeds to be angled weirdly.
  
• Returning to a quadruped from a distance may cause its body IKs to briefly freak out.
  
• Creatures may get stuck or stop moving. Picking up and replacing the animal should fix them.
  
• IK issues can cause creatures to jitter or render their animations at a lower frame rate.

Creative

• Painting water at different heights can cause slight water plane “bleeding” on large slopes when placed directly next to each other. This can be fixed by smoothing the slope.
  
• Hard slope limits haven’t been introduced for terrain tools like raising and roughen, resulting in unnaturally sharp pillars or “spikes” if used excessively.
  
• Some terrain tools can be a little too quick at max intensity (raise, roughen).
  
• Forests can become overly dense at max brush intensity very quickly.
  
• Modular grid visualization can become offset. This is purely visual and does not alter the building mechanics.
  
• Due to its massive size, there can be unintended edge cases with the modular system. For more specific details, please refer to the GitHub.

Misc.

• Saving is still somewhat experimental! Please make multiple saves to ensure you do not lose progress.
  
• Cancelling actions can cause painted trees to disappear for a single frame.
  
• Paths can experience lots of visual artifacts, especially on slopes. This will improve throughout Alpha.

To report more issues or UX suggestions, please visit here.

Due to some issues we’ve disabled planar reflections until we can get them ready for general use. We’ve implemented makeshift screen-space reflections for now, though you may notice missing data in areas that should be reflected as black. This is a temporary workaround until more time can be spent on improving it.

There’s also a lot of audio and related systems to cover, which means certain actions like modular group duplication, water bodies and guest crowds are silent. Some of these areas will be updated with sounds during alpha support.

...

If you have any further questions, please be sure to contact Crytivo’s support or get in touch with us through Twitter, Facebook or Discord.

Thank you for all your support so far. For those of you joining us in the alpha, we hope you enjoy your time with it! Once everyone has had enough time to understand our tools and the way the game is played, we’re expecting to see some truly fantastic stuff.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• YouTube

Welcome to our Alpha Information Update!

This is a quick post providing an update on key distribution and pre-orders. Please read this carefully as we want to ensure you receive your key in time for alpha on March 19th!

...

For those of you who purchased Ranger Alpha or the previous alpha tiers (Ranger, Tycoon) via the Crytivo store, you will be receiving new Steam keys in the coming days. Any existing keys you may have used will be revoked as new ones are going to be automatically assigned to your account.

To find your key, you’ll need to log into the Crytivo website using your account and proceed to the dashboard. In the games library you will be able to locate your new key for Prehistoric Kingdom.

Backers who bought through Kickstarter, please visit the Crytivo website. From here you will need to sign in and select Forgot Password, then enter the email address you used with Kickstarter. If you have already migrated your account in the past, this step isn’t necessary.

Once your account has been migrated, you can proceed to the dashboard. In the games library you will be able to locate your new key for Prehistoric Kingdom.

After March 19th, all tiers on the Crytivo store will no longer be available to pre-purchase. If you would like to be part of alpha and beta testing (or to simply grab a copy in advance), this is the final call until Early Access launches later this year.

...

If you have any further questions, please be sure to contact Crytivo’s support or get in touch with us through Twitter, Facebook or Discord.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• YouTube

Welcome to February’s Development Update!

With much anticipation, it’s finally time to talk about alpha release plans and all the new content we’ve been working on behind the scenes. There’s a lot of important information in this one folks, so make sure you read it thoroughly.







Save the date, Prehistoric Kingdom’s alpha will be available March 19th!

Explore the game’s core creative systems and basic economy management with a mix of challenge and sandbox mode features. Get up close with the mighty Tyrannosaurus or the lovable Microraptor and design their habitats without environmental limits.

The initial alpha release includes the following:

• 6 Animals;
  Tyrannosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Lambeosaurus, Styracosaurus, Nasutoceratops and Microraptor, including alt skins or species.
  
  
• Multi-Level Pathfinding;
  Use the modular system to create corridors, platforms and ramps for your animals to navigate around.
  
  
• Various Behaviours;
  Animals can engage in a variety of basic behaviours like eating, drinking, grazing, resting, socialising and broadcasting. Some animals will be updated to include absent behaviours shortly after alpha’s release.

• Terraforming Suite;
  Carve the terrain with six distinct tools: raise, lower, smooth, flatten, roughen and erosion. Get your feet wet with up to three paintable water materials and varying depths.
  
  
• 4 Paintable Biomes;
  Tropical, Temperate, Scrubland and Wetland are available to paint terrain and forests with. Use the brush intensity to create subtle and stylish gradients between textures to add some more realism to the park.
  
  
• 13 Structures;
  Bring your Prehistoric Kingdom to life with a selection of buildings from the Animal Care, Infrastructure, Guest Facilities and Enclosure categories.
  
  
• 250+ Modular Items;
  Get custom with over 250 modular items, pieces and plants to build designs of your own specificity. Use the Modern styling to pick from 7 wall textures or 4 roof designs.
  
  
• Paths & Fences;
  Choose from 12 fences and 7 path materials using an intuitive spline-based construction system. Enable terraced fence placement to create a uniquely staggered look.
  
  
• Saving & Loading;
  Save your park and build it up over time. As with the nature of alpha, saved games will likely break upon entering beta and early access launch.

Due to more extensive development being required, some previously planned features like object/wall recoloring and undo/redo will be unavailable until beta or early access launch.

• Basic Economy;
  Provide for supply and demand with guest facilities and attractions. Offset the costs of construction, animal production and building upkeep by turning a profit.
  
  
• Basic Power Management;
  Connect and power your park with basic power management. Failure and reboot mechanics have been disabled for alpha.
  
  
• Basic Visitors;
  What’s a park without guests to wander the paths? Additional animations, AI, enhanced model variation and guest related gameplay will be arriving in beta and early access launch.

In terms of what you can expect for support during alpha, we’re only looking to tackle stability issues and bug fixes. We’ll be making note of player feedback and talking with the community the entire time, but any new or upcoming content we show in devlogs won’t be available until beta or early access release unless explicitly stated.

We’re treating alpha and beta as distinct milestones so that we’re not simultaneously implementing features and shipping them to a live branch without extensive internal testing or supporting content. By staggering additions between the two milestones we’re able to focus on feedback that’s specific to what we currently offer rather than diluting results.

...

• For alpha backers who went through Kickstarter, we’re currently trying to establish a reliable and automated distribution method to ensure contributors receive their key (and other rewards in the future). We will have specifics available prior to alpha’s release via a news update.
  
  
• Regarding general availability, we will eventually be removing the Alpha tier over on the Crytivo store. An announcement will be made to specify when exactly that’ll happen.
  
  
• Once purchased, there is no “end” to alpha playtime. It’s always accessible and will upgrade to the beta.
  
  
• Alpha isn’t the early access launch! That is arriving later in 2021.
  
  
• Screenshots, streams and videos from alpha can be shared! Show us what you’re making, we’d love to see it.

It’s almost time to release alpha and we couldn’t be more excited! Our VIPs have had access for a bit over a month now, leaving us with a lot of great feedback and creations to admire.

On the dev side of things, each part of the team has been creating, iterating and implementing a bunch of things so that they’re ready in time. Both planar reflections and water shading continue to improve and a whole bunch of audio has been implemented too, including an overhauled set of UI sounds.


Improved water rendering and reflections.

The visuals for our power management are starting to come together, as well. A change in color grading and some temporary but effective highlights for the power radius helps to show the range of generators to the player. These’ll get extra visual polish in the future, though they’re more than workable for now.

For our feathery friend, the Microraptor received new wing textures and an alula (a bird's “thumb”) to improve its fidelity and correct an anatomical issue.







With much excitement, we’re pleased to say that animals are now able to navigate modular buildings! This is a huge deal for us as we weren’t sure if it was something we’d be able to do. Thanks to one of our programmers, Matt, creatures can successfully walk around walls and utilize both ramps and platforms if the space is big enough.

We really wanted a level of interaction between modular pieces and our creatures, so to finally see it come to fruitition through pathfinding is simply fantastic.





As a result, there are so many more opportunities for creative builds. It can’t be understated how much of a game changer this is for the team (literally), and we cannot wait to see how players implement this functionality into their habitats.

Sound found its way to our vocalisation behaviours early in February, adding audio to the social call/response, sad and broadcast calls. We’ve created a short showcase video demonstrating the new animations and sounds for our Edmontosaurus. Take a look!



We’ve also been working on our distance model to help ground the distant sounds of broadcasts within the park and deliver important information like an animal in distress.

The field elm, oak and sabal palmetto were added to the temperate and scrubland biomes to introduce more verticality. We’re especially fond of the new palmetto, it’s great for honing in that prehistoric look.


The field elm (left) and oak (right).


Three size variants of the sabal palmetto.

Including all variants, this brings our number of foliage assets available in alpha up to 70.

Throughout February, we began implementing high quality custom wall and roof materials to replace our previous Modern texture set. Moving to a more advanced workflow (both in implementation and asset creation), this has allowed us to bring out a greater level of detail with a minimal performance trade off - increasing texture resolution by over two times.


Modern textures on the modular wall pieces (glass not shown).


Some of the wall and roof materials will become recolorable at a later date.

We’re aiming to transfer all of our existing buildings over to this new technique by alpha’s release so that Modern textures are one to one across the game.


All animals need a place to sleep and there’s no comfier spot than a hay bed! These items are used to define custom resting spots within a habitat or modular build.





Though the weakest of the bunch, Glass Fences are a stylish way to increase habitat visibility. They come in 1, 2.5 and 4 meter heights, making them the ideal window to another world.



Concrete Fences are strong, providing a thick slab of stone and internal steel to hold more aggressive animals. These come in 1, 2.5 and 4 meter variants.





Bringing the total up to 12 types, that’s all the modern fences for now. There are a few wall variants and new materials that we’d like to add down the line, but for the time being we’re quite content with the core lineup.



Brachiosaurus is one of the biggest dinosaurs coming in Early Access! With its neck fully raised, this gentle giant was almost 14 meters tall - a necessary adaptation for browsing trees.






Created by Dinobob.


Created by Dinomans.


Created by bautii.

...

Thank you for reading February’s devlog!

Make sure you follow our social platforms to stay up to date with all things Prehistoric Kingdom. Remember, March 19th is the big day for our alpha release! We look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• YouTube

Welcome to January’s Development Update!

It’s been a busy month here at Blue Meridian. Starting off 2021 with a bang, we launched the pre-alpha version of Prehistoric Kingdom to our VIP backers. Now that alpha’s looming over the horizon, there’s a lot of content to discuss!


Screenshot by Captain Hadro.



With much excitement, our VIP backers have been playing the pre-alpha version of Prehistoric Kingdom. Over the last few days they’ve been instrumental in helping us locate issues and provide feedback about the current state of the game. Surprising no one, it turns out they’re much better at building than us! You’ll be able to see some of their creations at the end of the blog post.

On the development front, we’ve been hard at work polishing existing content and adding a bunch of new modular pieces like doors, glass, windows and awnings. AI is coming along with some new additions, and water continues to improve with more background work on planar reflections. We’ve added length snapping options for fences and paths, too! This way players can keep their shapes mathematically consistent while building.


WIP Planar Reflections.




The team began work on integrating a variety of behaviours and animation states for the animals this past month. Idling, walking, running, resting, sleeping and grazing are all integrated with support for eating, drinking and socializing coming very soon.

For the hadrosaurs, we’re including a unique rearing behaviour that allows the gentle giants to stand on their hind limbs. From here they can perform long distance broadcasts that are audible from across the park.



When it comes to locomotion, animals now curve their walking path around obstacles like fences to reach their destination. Rather than relying on animation, the body bends procedurally while the creature turns for a more natural movement.

To make our animals even more grounded, we use body and head IKs to ensure limbs stick to the terrain and that they look at things like pathing destinations, other creatures and buildings.


Screenshot by Elliott.

By randomizing the hue, saturation, value and size of an animal, every creature you breed in Prehistoric Kingdom is unique.



The Edmontosaurus regalis above are both female, yet the small differences between them goes a long way in breaking up large groups of animals. Internally, we can control the variation amount per skin and sex, providing us with a lot of flexibility for variants.

Audio
Base level audio implementation began early in January for the Edmontosaurus and Microraptor; adding foley, breaths and a handful of other sounds to their animations. There’s a lot of detail we want to capture to bring these animals to life, so while there’s even more granularity still to implement, please enjoy this early look at the Microraptor.



To help with the sheer amount of assets required, we split animal audio into two parts: vocals and family sets. By doing this, we’re able to produce a large amount of reusable foley, breathing and generic sounds that are shared per family of animals e.g. hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, mini-aviary, etc. On top of that base layer, we’re then able to create unique vocalizations that make up the character of a species.

There’s much work still to be done, so we hope you’re just as excited to hear the animals as you are to see them!

This month we added two new small buildings to the game. Increasing guest education needs, the Information Kiosk is a compact way to show visitors everything they need to know about your park!



The Restroom is a condensed version of its larger variant, starting players off with an affordable yet occupationally limited structure. Researching buildings is an important part of Prehistoric Kingdom’s progression.




Designed to contain the most dangerous of creatures, the Modern Metal Fence set has now been completed. Ranging from 2.5, 4 and 6 meters tall, any escapees are in for a shocking surprise!



Though not as sturdy as their metal counterparts, the Modern Wood Fences are an essential part of the early game aesthetic. Coming in 1, 2.5 and 4 meter tall variants, these fences are suitable for weaker or less demanding animals.



Dusting off its previous look, Protoceratops is roaring to go! This sheep-sized critter is one of the smallest dinosaurs in Prehistoric Kingdom, lacking most of the complex facial features found in other ceratopsians.




Our lovely VIPs have been building, breaking and testing the game in all manners to help us find issues and improve the game. The feedback we’ve gotten so far has been great, and the team cannot wait to launch alpha for the rest of our backers soon.

Including three species of Edmontosaurus and the rest of the construction suite, many of the VIPs have noted just how easy the game was to learn and pick up. In a matter of hours we started to see some fantastic builds! Please enjoy this wonderful paddock built by Strix.






Throughout February we’ll be continuing to add new content to the current build as well as providing Alpha’s release date next month!



Created by AD.


Created by Grimnir.



Created by kanniballistik.

...

Thank you for reading January’s devlog!

We eagerly await your feedback during our time in alpha and are extremely excited to see what the playerbase will come up with. We’re very happy with the results shown thus far, and we can only expect that to increase as new features and items are implemented for everyone to play with.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• YouTube

Welcome to December’s Development Update!

We hope everyone has had a happy holiday season and a safe New Years. Despite the current conditions, we did our best to push through 2020 as a small studio with the support of our publisher Crytivo, our dedicated development team and of course our fans.

We’ve changed a lot over the past 12 months, so it’s time to take a look at the past, present and future.



Part of our tasks in December involved rewriting the camera to provide greater flexibility when working with modular builds. Instead of simply following the terrain, it now adapts the central orbit point to wherever you’re looking once the camera stops moving. By making these changes and adding a togglable perspective mode, players can finally look upward and more easily navigate their parks.

On a different note, our sound implementation pipeline has moved into full swing with the addition of custom audio database tools. Implementing sound for the Microraptor and Edmontosaurus has proven to be a relatively simple task thanks to FMOD, providing our sound designer and composer Byron enough flexibility to implement dozens of audio events without a difficult workflow. We’ll be continuing to expand and improve our sound assets, so stay on the lookout for showcases soon.




It’s time to take a look at the tiniest of enclosures! In case you’ve missed it, Mini-Exhibits are prebuilt structures designed to hold specialized animals that otherwise wouldn’t be able to navigate a regular paddock.



Much like regular animals, Mini-Exhibit species have welfare needs. This means you’ll have to keep their food stocked up and their habitats climatized!



Habitat welfare can be further improved by adding enrichment items like the Avian House and Avian Feeding Tower! These actually provide your Microraptors with new positions and animations inside the Mini-Exhibit, making them more than simple decorations.



For our creatively driven players, we understand the desire to add your own personal flourishes to a Mini-Exhibit.

When first placed, the aviary is completely empty, leaving just the basic trees inside. Obviously the animals wouldn’t be too happy about this, but it’s a great starting point for creations in sandbox mode with welfare disabled.

Inside the building’s interface there are three environmental options available: tropical rainforest, coastal desert and temperate forest. Different species prefer one environment over another, influencing their welfare based on the current choice.





Players who wish to build their own housing can set the Mini-Aviary to a hidden state, hiding the exterior shell. In the same menu, colors for custom lighting can be adjusted, too!




As mentioned in our livestream last October, we’ve made changes to the design of our progression systems. Though these mechanics won’t be implemented until a later date, here are some details regarding fossil formations and a unique currency.

Science Points are a resource earned from exhibits or by breeding new animals. These points can be spent exclusively on Research items or Excavations. By creating a second currency used for progression, it allows us to better reward players for creating and managing their parks effectively rather than simply stacking on the cash.

To get some new species for our park we need to visit the Excavations menu. Excavations take place in fossil formations around the world, granting access to a diverse range of extinct animals.

From this map we can unlock dig sites with money as long as we’ve met the required park rating. The tooltip panel shows your total progress in a given formation, while a dietary icon provides more context to players who aren’t familiar with an animal’s name.


UI Concept Art

With a dig site unlocked, players are able to instantly purchase any animal with Science Points - no additional waiting required.

The more you purchase genetic skins from a single species, the cheaper they’ll become, incentivising players to fully complete a formation. This is for good reason, however, as skin diversity is an important factor in creating a five star park!


UI Concept Art

Some animals like the Edmontosaurus or Tyrannosaurus have alternate species scattered around the world, so we suggest having a good look around to maximize guest satisfaction.

As this new system emphasizes player agency, we will no longer lump formations nor include a randomized fossil market. By removing some of the RNG and wait timers present in past titles we hope to focus on player-driven progression and keep the experience of expanding your park fresh.

Scrubland, temperate and wetland received a handful of flora each in December. Though they’re not scheduled for full completion quite yet, we wanted to get a few representatives into scrubland and temperate to complete the Mini-Aviary. Here’s a quick snapshot of how the biomes are progressing!






Between entirely new plant species are improvements to older ones that could have been made more efficiently for better visuals and performance. This is especially prevalent in the new coconut palms - losing their cartoony look for something more within the realm of realism.

The tropical biome received its aforementioned palms, samanea and scaevola, while the coastal biome got new tree ferns and scots pines.




It’s fluffy, but it’s not a mammal! This is P. perotorum, our highly speculative alt species for Pachyrhinosaurus.




Though this isn’t likely to have occurred in the real world, it’s a very unique look that was too cool to pass up. It’s not every day you see a relative of Triceratops decorated in a fluffy overcoat!



2020 was a lot for everyone. In a very difficult year, our team has managed to grow into a family of 15 members. Edson, Max, Elizabeth, Seth, Siaka and now our newest member, Lindsay, each bring something new to the table.

Changing from Shadow Raven Studios to Blue Meridian, we have continued to strive for something greater. Working and collaborating with Nigel Marven was an absolute dream for us and we’re looking to keep developing that relationship. The sheer amount of new fans and wishlists we see everyday continues to blow our minds as we work on our passion project with your support. It means a lot to us, and we can only hope to push it forwards in 2021. Together.

Preparing to ship our first title in a few months after so many iterations is a little scary, but we know you’ll be there on the other side giving us honest feedback to make a kickass game.



As of this development update, we’re aiming to release Alpha at the end of Q1 this year. Highest-tier backers and select testers will be able to get their hands on early versions of the build by February, with the closed Alpha release following soon thereafter.

In terms of our general release timeline, Beta is expected to happen in Q2 ahead of the game’s release into Early Access. Depending on community feedback during the Beta, we might choose to push things back by a few weeks so new players can get a more optimal experience, but that’s obviously not something we can say for certain yet. Until there’s more information, assume the end of Q2 for Early Access release.

Looking at Early Access launch features, the only thing that’s changed since we last spoke about it is the uncertainty of staff management. As developers we’d be more comfortable moving them to a dedicated content update where they’re the focus instead of a single barebones staff member at launch, but as always we’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

That’s all for now, but we’ll have more alpha and release information available in the next development update!

...

Thank you for reading December’s devlog!

It was a hell of a year but we can’t wait to push onwards into 2021. We eagerly await feedback during our time in alpha and will work to add more content over the coming months.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• YouTube

Welcome to November’s Development Update!

In this blog post we’ll be delving into a brand new mechanic as well as showcasing a revamped dinosaur that many fans will recognize. We’ve tried to keep this one quite focused and streamlined which is something you’ll see more of closer to launch. Without further ado, let’s jump in!



At the forefront of development, quite a bit of work has been done on AI and power management (as we’ll discuss in a moment). In addition to those two items, support for theme styling and light recolouring has been added for buildings. This functionality was extended to the Mini-Aviary to allow for environmental preset switching.

Looking at the animation team, Max is very close to completing the core hadrosaur animation set. He’s been doing a fantastic job and we can’t wait show it off more. Likewise, Nathan’s made sure the Microraptor’s been receiving a variety of loops and unique animation to show off its adorable birb-like qualities!





Moving into new features, power management is mechanically complete! We’re still developing the visual side of it, so for today’s discussion we’ll be using concept mockups to show how it works.

Electricity (or power) is a resource generated by utility buildings like the Wind Turbine or the Industrial Power Station. Providing an electrical output via radius, any amenities or exhibits inside their range will consume power.

Once placed, the radius of a generator can be edited by the player, directly influencing the power output, failure rate, upkeep cost and range. Each generator has its own benefits and negatives, so the usage of multiple types is highly encouraged.



What makes this system unique, however, is that when multiple generators overlap their output is combined. For example, if two intersecting facilities have an output of 50 Power, they’ll create a conjoined area of 100!

The crux of our loop here is to find the most efficient placement for electricity in the park whilst maximising the output to ensure all nearby buildings are powered.



As mentioned above, generators have a random failure rate that can be reduced or increased by changing the radius. When failed, they must be manually rebooted by selecting the desired power station - gradually repairing itself after a short interval. Performing this action will also restart any failed generators nearby.

To help fight this, players can research upgrades to not only reduce the failure rate across the park, but automatically restart generators that have failed.



In your time of need there’s one thing every park manager requires: a Backup Battery! These objects provide temporary power to nearby buildings or paddocks in the event of an outage. Though they have no failure rate, batteries take time to recharge after usage before they’re ready to go again.



Placing batteries in key locations makes sure those troublesome dinosaurs won’t get a chance to escape electrified containment, no matter the circumstances.

Straight out of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Pachyrhinosaurus and Edmontosaurus each feature a variety of alternate species to select from. In this particular digsite, players can find P. canadensis and E. regalis respectively.



With the available tools it’s exceptionally easy to create natural environments reminiscent of their ideal habitats. To promote this further, exhibits that house animals from the same formation or time period are granted a bonus multiplier that adds to the total Exhibit Score (something we’ll talk about at a later date!).





Keep your eyes peeled for more animal stuff next month, we hear it’s about to get cold!

Powering the park, the last three items pertaining to electrical management are here at last. The solar panel, wind turbine and backup-battery offer alternative solutions for a variety of scenarios.







Uncover the latest in fossilized fashion with the Clothing Store, an essential facility in your quest to become the ultimate capitalist empire. How quaint!



It wouldn’t be the start of the festive season without the 40-foot turkeys, though we’re not sure who’s eating who! This recent image depicts two Tyrannosaurus in a colder habitat, one resting and the other sleeping.



...

Thank you for reading November’s devlog!

Though the year is coming to a close, we have one final update in December until our big 2021 starts. Stay posted, park managers! There’s so much to talk about as we get closer to release.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• YouTube

Welcome to October’s Development Update!

To all of our new fans or those who recently found the project - welcome. It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, so we’ll be recapping everything you might’ve missed in the months gone by.

A handful of our developers also took part in live streams during August and September with Crytivo, so be sure to check out the archive if you’re interested!



As keen-eyed fans may have noticed, Shadow Raven Studios has since been rebranded to Blue Meridian - the new and official name for our development studio. With an ever-expanding team and bigger aspirations, we felt that it was time for a new coat of paint that matched our ambitions.

On the developer side, our team continues to grow with the addition of a new animator, Max! Some of you may already be familiar with his work found over on Twitter and we couldn’t be more excited to keep the studio growing with fresh talent.


The art and audio members have had their hands full these past few months creating new buildings, the wetland biome, animals, animations, sounds and music for the game. You saw and heard the fruits of their labour in our latest trailer, showcasing the passion our team is putting into this project.

The programmers aren’t messing around, either! Fences, paths, animal AI, modular building and water rendering continued to receive further work whilst power management started development in the background. In terms of optimization, a flexible voice management system for audio was developed and integrated to ensure that the game sounds great and performs well in dense scenes.





An assortment of recolorable lights can be used to make your park more interesting at night! In this spooky Halloween environment, creative use of coloring can help change the mood of an area in an instant.



Though lamps and similar objects will only turn on at night by default, players can enable an option that forces them to stay lit regardless of the time.

What’s the point in building a zoo if you can’t spend hours detailing the park with gardens? Our art team’s got you covered with the addition of decorative tropical plants and world-space mulch shapes. These fancy items can be scaled without the issue of texture stretch, making them an ideal solution for all your flower bed needs!





Unlike regular flora, these vibrant plants are purely decorative, meaning they won’t contribute to an exhibit’s foliage density.

The wetland biome is home to many amazing creatures. Though there’s a few more trees to create before it’s done, plants like the amazonian giant lilies, small lily pads, mangroves, reeds and cypress already make any exhibit feel appropriately swampy.





Once the biome is complete a final overview image will be available in a later devlog !

All biomes were updated to make enhanced use of height-based texture blending to better mix and match various ground types in a realistic fashion.



Stacking textures on top of each other at a low intensity can create some very unique and interesting combinations, as seen above.

Get to know the buildings of Prehistoric Kingdom with Structure Showcases! Traditionally featuring one building per month, these spotlights provide a quick-look at new architecture from multiple angles.

First up was the Industrial Power Station! This key utility provides power for the park by contributing to the local power grid, allowing guest facilities, infrastructure and eletricified fences to keep the lights on.



Designed to meet the optimal needs for its specialized inhabitants, Mini-Exhibits bring a selection of tiny animals to the park. Beginning with the Microraptor, players are able to customize the environmental preset, temperature, lighting and material of its home inside the brand new Mini-Aviary.






It’s been a long time coming, but we finally revealed our release window and Early Access Announcement Trailer to the world. Arriving Q2 2021, get ready to build, manage and grow the ultimate zoo for extinct animals in Prehistoric Kingdom.



Thanks to our fantastic publisher Crytivo, we were given the opportunity to work with IGN as part of an exclusive first-look. We couldn’t have asked for a better reception and we are deeply humbled by the support we’ve been shown.

We know everyone’s hungry for more timeframes, so we’re pleased to announce that alpha will be available early next year to our eligible Kickstarter backers and Crytivo pre-purchasers. Over the next few months we’ll be discussing exactly what to expect and when to expect it as we get closer to its release.

For years, our fans have wished for a very specific person to be a part of Prehistoric Kingdom and that’s now becoming a reality.

We are incredibly honoured to have British wildlife television presenter Nigel Marven lend us his voice in our latest trailer. The reaction from the community has highlighted just how special this opportunity was and we can’t thank Nigel and his team enough for working with us. It’s a relationship we hope to continue growing, so this mightn’t be the last you hear from this beloved time trav- uh, park supervisor!

To begin, players will be able to breed and play with a selection of 22 adult species found on our brand new website, including the fabulous Deinocheirus, Nasutoceratops and Microraptor!



Refocusing the initial release roster was a choice made earlier in the year to find a consistent basis for quality and to ensure that we’re not stretching ourselves too thin when adding new behaviours and features like ontogeny via updates.

The team wanted to give a good summary of what to expect during our time in Early Access, so keep in mind that a small number of animals shown in the trailer may be reworked or swapped come Q2 2021. We have a fantastic catalogue of fan favourite creatures to work from, so rest assured that more species will be added back into the game over time.

Apart from the animals, players will be engaging with creative tools, management features and progression loops during their time in Prehistoric Kingdom.



Designs for management and progression mechanics have been locked down with implementation already started on a few core components like power management. Once those new features have spent enough time in the oven we’ll be sure to showcase them here in a future devlog.

During our time in Early Access we’ll be looking to build upon our foundations, adding new content such as breeding, growth, expanded behaviours and more.



...

Thank you for reading October’s devlog!

With a release window out in the wild, we want our monthly dev updates to be focused and digestible. Going forward, all devlogs will follow the format set by this one, showing off development highlights and recapping extra tidbits released during the month.

We sincerely hope everyone is excited as we are and we can’t wait to show what’s in store down the line.

Until next time,

- The PK Team

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• YouTube