Prehysteria - What It's All About news

It's amazing to see how many people are on-board with this project, and curious about a survival horror game with dinosaurs once again. I miss the days when I'd sit down with my PSOne, and play the first two Dino Crisis (Dino Crisis III doesn't exist) games. I miss those days, and want to relive those experiences, and bring dinosaur based horror back to the gamers. This is the end goal of Prehysteria. To bring dinosaur based horror back, and make dinosaurs scary again.

People are curious as to what the game is actually about, and what you'll be able to do in-game besides walk around an island. So, I'll talk about some features that are in the early stages of being programmed, and the features that will make it into the release version of the game. I mentioned that the game won't feature any weapons, of any kind to make it a purely tense survival horror experience. That doesn't mean you're entirely defenseless in terms of survival. There will be some minor things that can increase your odds of survival, just not by much.

FEATURES

Throwable Rocks
You'll be able to throw rocks all over the exterior of the island (you're screwed inside buildings). These rocks won't go into an inventory, but will be able to be thrown whenever, wherever, as long as you're outside. Think about the feature from Far Cry 3. Throw the rocks to distract the bigger carnivores for a few seconds while you make your escape, or to scare off the smaller carnivores. This won't work if a carnivore has already spotted you. Your option under that scenario is to run like hell.
Oh, and don't try hitting the dinosaurs with rocks. It'll only anger them.

Day/Night System
If you haven't been able to tell from the various in-engine screenshots there will be a day/night system in the game. Not much to explain here other than it'll change the mood and ambiance of the game. Scarier at night and all, and maybe, just maybe the carnivores will be a little more dangerous at night-time.

Co-Op
A feature that's getting a lot of thought put into for whether it would work in this environment, and if people would be curious about exploring an open-world island full of dinosaurs with three of their friends. The co-op probably won't be worried about until later on down the road in development but that also means that there might be a tad few co-operative features added into the game besides the playing with your buddies. More on this later.

Herbivores
It wouldn't be a dinosaur game without the cuddly herbivores. However, this time around they're not so cuddly. They won't instantly be aggro-ed like their carnivore buddies, but if you get too close or just end up pissing them off they'll probably kill you too. As of right now the only Herbivore we'll confirm is Stegosaurus.
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There's other features, but we'd like those to be more secretive to actually hype the players, and give you guys something to be surprised about, and look forward to when we reveal it. For now, we can give you some delicious concept art to look at in terms of just some of the environments you'll encounter in-game.

An example of how the island was populated by humans a mere couple of years prior to the events of Prehysteria. Here we have one of the player characters (no guns in the actual game) walking around an abandoned building site with Pteranodons flying in the sky (yeah, they're dangerous too). Lots of inspiration from the Lost World, and Jurassic Park III will be going towards some of the human inspired environments.

The same player character is also seen hiding behind a tree in the more "woodland" area of the island. This area is less jungle-like, and more forest like. Think about the different areas in the Lost World film. The Tyrannosaur may not be the most dangerous dinosaur in Prehysteria, but it is in your best interest to hide when he comes knocking.

This raises a question that some of you may be asking. Are dinosaurs tied to specific areas on the island? Yes, and no. The bigger carnivores (T-Rex, Baryonyx, etc) will usually explore the entire island at their heart's content, where as some of the smaller carnivores may stick to specific areas such as the Plains, Cliffs, etc. This doesn't mean they'll explore the island too. They're not restricted, and you'll always be in constant danger no matter what part of the island you're on.

But what happens when you die in Prehysteria? Simple. You die. All of your progress is reset and you go back to the very beginning and you must start over from the beach again. I'd like to work on a system similar to Dark Souls where upon your death the game gets more difficult in terms of survival. This isn't a guaranteed feature, but it's something I've been pondering around in my skull for the last couple of weeks.

Another cool thing about Prehysteria is the building interiors. This means you're not restricted to the jungle for the entire time you're playing. You'll be able to explore a handful of buildings that were erected on the island by humans during their time on the island. You'll also be able to find remnants of their existence in terms of lab notes, and audio diaries detailing the events leading up the destruction of the human presence on the island, and why the dinosaurs are roaming the island freely.

Some of the buildings you can explore are the Hatchery where the dinosaurs were bred, and born. Hatchery props can be seen above. Another building will be the Living Quarters for the humans where they ate, slept, and relaxed during their stay on the island. These are just but two of the buildings you'll be able to explore.

But be warned, you're not safe in the buildings either. Raptors, and other dangerous dinosaurs may be hunting you inside as well. You must stay on alert 100% of the time while playing. You're never safe, and never out of harms way.

Certain areas of the jungle will also be more dense than others (see the image above). This means encounters are going to be a bit more...tense. We have a lot of assets being made so the jungle and other environments won't look as bland as these images we've been popping off. There will also be "dirt roads" you can follow around that lead to the various buildings and will reduce your chances of being lost, but also increase your chances of being seen by predators.

These roads were once used by the island workers to drive to the various buildings on the island. Now the roads lay in disarray, and there may even be one or two working vehicles along your way. This isn't a confirmed feature, but it's something I'd like to ponder with and see how the community takes this idea.

That feature idea is vehicles if you didn't take anything away from that paragraph. That being said, don't expect a plethora of vehicles at your disposal. If we do in fact add them to the game they'd be scarce, and not the best way to travel. Of course you'd be quicker, but it would also draw a lot of unneeded attention to yourself.

The only vehicles that I'd consider adding are this run-down jeep above which would be the perfect vehicle for co-op. Four buddies in one vehicle, outrunning a T-Rex through the jungle. Like I said though, they're loud and would attract most dinosaur in the vicinity. While it would make your journey quicker, it would also put you at a much higher risk of being hunted down and killed.

Even if we did add vehicles to the game, they wouldn't be optimal for long. We'd obviously make them run out of gas, and eventually break down. They have been on the island for a year or two at this point without much care being done towards them. They would be no where near reliable. So, if we do add vehicles (Jeep & ATV would probably be it) use them at your own risk.

A feature that I'd like to have in the final release is proving to be quite the hassle in terms of programming, and just figuring things out. I'd like to make the vegetation react to touch so there's more realism into the game and players can immerse themselves even more into this world. This means when someone or something walks through the grass it will actually move, and bend to how they're moving through the vegetation.

I'd also like to do the same for the trees when the larger carnivores and herbivores are moving through the jungle. Wouldn't it be tense to hear and see trees bending in the distance as a Tyrannosaurus moves quickly towards the player? It's all about immersing the player, and helping induce that sense of fear with aid from the environment.
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Thanks for following the development of Prehysteria, and we ask you to check out our Facebook page, Tumblr page, and forums to stay one hundred percent up to date with the game as well as to get some exclusive stuff that will only be shown on those pages more frequently.