DINODRIFTERS Dev Diary #12: Cutscene Mechanics

Hello and welcome to another DINODRIFTERS dev diary!

Story Mode tells the tale of the eponymous Dinodrifters - a team of time-travellers with a mandate to rescue dinosaurs and study the past. To aid in that, cutscenes play inbetween important sections of gameplay. Today, I shall go over how they work.

From the opening sequence to Blackhill Reserve (all these animations are not necessarily final and are work-in-progress)

These cutscenes are animations that trigger based on certain conditions, like location, time, mission progress and potentially many others and play over the game. 

Each episode generally will have around 70-80 shots in their cutscenes. In addition to this, characters can communicate to the player via the sliding comm system to the top, outside of cutscenes.

Characters can communicate via dialogue boxes like this, with text-to-speech and facial animations allowing them to talk!

Some cutscenes are not episode-specific and are played under special conditions like a high relationship level with a certain character or owning a certain item. These are less numerous but should they occur, it means something special will happen!

The text to the top-left is debug information and not viewed normally in-game

Next diary, I will talk about the character creation in DINODRIFTERS and how you will customise your avatar in Story Mode!

Until next time!

FACT FILE: Gojirasaurus

Name origin: Gojira (aka Godzilla, after the Toho movie monster) and greek sauros (lizard)

Short Description: Medium theropod predatory dinosaur

Height (adult): 2.25 metres

Length (adult): 5.5 metres

Weight (adult): 500kg

Temporal range: 210 Mya

Distribution: North America
Sexual maturity (in years): 6 or 7

Description: Gojirasaurus was the largest predatory dinosaur of the Late Triassic Ghost Ranch. Related to similar species like Coelophysis, Gojirasaurus is a forerunner to all large theropod predators, including Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus.

FACT FILE: Brachiosaurus

Name origin: Greek brachion (arm) and sauros (lizard)

Short Description: Massive herbivorous sauropod dinosaur

Height (adult): 16 metres

Length (adult): 23 metres

Weight (adult): 30 metric tons

Temporal range: 154-153 Mya

Distribution: North America
Sexual maturity (in years): 13

Description: Brachiosaurus, the giant of the dinosaurs, was a true colossus, able to freely graze from the highest plants and virtually invincible to all predators, for one kick or swing of its tail could break bone.

FACT FILE: Gigantoraptor

Name origin: Greek gigantas (giant) and latin raptor (thief)

Short Description: Large oviraptorsaur predatory dinosaur

Height (adult): 5 metres

Length (adult): 8-9 metres

Weight (adult): 2.2 metric tons

Temporal range: 85-70 Mya

Distribution: Central Asia
Sexual maturity (in years): 8 or 10

Description: This massive creature fed on meat and plant alike and was unchallenged in its activities from most all. Gigantoraptor was the largest oviraptorsaur of all time and while mostly carnivorous, was an omnivore and could eat certain plants, making them highly adaptive to the environment.

DINODRIFTERS Dev Diary #11: 2019, the Year of Dinodrifters

Well, hello there! Welcome to the last DINODRIFTERS dev diary and blog post of 2018!

Today, I'd just like to talk about the past and future of DINODRIFTERS. With the new year almost here, I'd just like to take stock of what is to come to DINODRIFTERS in the coming months, including how I got here.


Development of the first prototype of what I'd later call DINODRIFTERS began in late 2017. The scope of it was simple: a remake of an old flash game once hosted on a certain website called the Big Al Game. You played an Allosaurus and progressed from a baby to adulthood, surviving hazards and eating to grow. I remember it being very difficult (I don't remember if I ever beat it), but growing up with computers in school, it was one of a few games we could play as most websites were blocked by the school censors. So many good hours were spent playing that game and hiding it before the teachers could see...

Anyway, I wanted to recreate it, as the original is now gone and impossible to play. I could only find 4 or 5 screenshots of the game across the whole internet that prove its existence, but I managed to recreate it within a month. However, I added improvements to the formula - sprites, animations, multiple playable dinosaurs, more dinosaurs, until finally, I decided to add a story mode and additional areas outside of the Morrison Formation. I added more and more until it evolved into a sandbox of prehistory.

That is how DINODRIFTERS come to be.

The two modes in the game, Story and Dinosaur Mode, are basically two different games that use the same assets, but under different rules. I plan to have an scenario in Dinosaur Mode that sets everything to be like the Big Al Game - play as Allosaurus, as a hatchling, with unique events to match those in the inspired game (remember those poor injured pterosaurs anyone?).

For DINODRIFTERS, 2017 was the year of birth, 2018 was the year of evolution, and now at the end of 2018, I can say that 2019 will be the year of release. The year of DINODRIFTERS.

By the end of February, I hope to have Chapter 1 of Story Mode and at least 10 game areas complete. Enough for a playable release of some kind. More will be announced in the coming weeks. Chapter 2 will follow in April-May and Chapter 3 and the game as a whole will be complete by August-September. That is my tentative plan as long as nothing nasty happens. Delays may happen, but the game will release in 2019 no matter what. 

Beyond that, I have additional plans for DINODRIFTERS - new areas and additional content to come after release, free to anyone who purchases the game - none of that DLC nonsense. I even have a massive plan for a third game mode that would be incredible to do. I'll be updating DINODRIFTERS beyond 2019 for sure - you can count on it!

But first, we must get to release! The road goes ever on and on after all!


Be ready to drift into the past and beyond in 2019 and of course have a 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

See you later!

CHARACTER FILE: Drifter Yellow

Drifter Yellow

"All my life I've ran from myself. Of who I am. I think that's why I love animals so much. No animal's ever judged me like that."

Name: Aelwen “Priddy” ap Rhyds

Age: 25
Sex: Female
Gender: Female 
Date of Birth: 13/03/7673
Place of Birth: The Continent
Time Drift Card: Jurassic

Chief palaeontologist of Blackhill, Aelwen is a shy young Cymreeni woman who loves working with animals. She’s incredibly introverted but her expertise on animal behaviour and habits is unparalleled.

Aelwen’s shy attitude comes from her fear of social interaction and low self-esteem. She hides in her work with animals to run from her human-related issues. She constantly wears a cap to hide something she is ashamed of, alienating her from almost everyone, save the other Dinodrifters and the Prince.

What is Aelwen hiding? Can Aelwen harden enough to remove her mask and gain the confidence she needs to step into the social spotlight? Only time can tell. 

FACT FILE: Triceratops and Torosaurus

Triceratops

Name origin: Greek tri (three), keras (horn) and ops (face)
Short Description: Medium herbivorous dinosaur
Height (adult): 3 metres

Length (adult): 9 metres
Weight (adult): 9 metric tons
Temporal range: 68-66 Mya

Distribution: North America
Sexual maturity (in years): 8 or 9

Description: Triceratops was a herd animal that grazed in open fields. If a predator attacked, they would gather together and use their horns to scare their foe away with a display.

Torosaurus

Name origin: Greek toreo (pierced) and sauros (lizard)
Short Description: Medium herbivorous dinosaur
Height (adult): 2.5-3 metres
Length (adult): 8 metres
Weight (adult): 6 metric tons
Temporal range: 68-66 Mya
Distribution: North America

Sexual maturity (in years): 7 or 8

Description: A brother species to the Triceratops. Probably lived and ate differently from Triceratops to serve a different ecological niche.