This IS a dinosaur game!

[x4000]

Well, gee.  I like dinosaurs.  You guys do too, I take it from the commentary over on the 3d survival game side of things. 

Those who have been around long enough probably remember that back in... 2014 (I think?) we were working on a game called Cretaceous that was a strategy game about dinosaurs.  It never got off the ground.  This game is not that game.   Just to be clear.

---

Just what is this game?  Well, I hope to have some video up later this week, actually.  But let me basically break it down like this:

1. The Starward Rogue stuff has left us with more of a shortfall even than I expected, even after all the outpouring of support.

2. Overall we still have a while to get things in order before things turn truly dire, but the idea of trying to complete an entire 3D survival game to the point where it would be ready for kickstarter is actually kind of ludicrous.

3. However, tons of awesome stuff has been happening over the last month in terms of progress toward that 3D survival game.

4. One of those things is dinosaurs and some really cool art.

5. So I thought... hey!  Why not make a stepping-stone game that actually IS about dinosaurs, but is smaller and more focused than a survival game.

6. Working on this game is not putting the 3D survival game "on hold" (per se), but rather is working on building the components for that larger game by building them into a smaller game (this one) first.

7. And the big exciting bonus is that I finally get to make that game I've wanted ever since the Sega Genesis kinda got it right...

8. The title is "In Case Of Emergency, Release Raptor."  What do you think?

[Misery]

.....really, already?  That was fast...

Okay, I *have* to say it:  What happened to "I'll bring it up in a few days, but not just yet"?   

That being said, this game really is sounding more and more interesting.

Any upcoming videos or whatever yet?  Or still not ready?  I dont remember if I already asked that or not.

Also I agree with you on that particular Jurassic Park game on the Genesis, I remember playing that too,, way back when, and thinking that playing as the dinosaur was pretty awesome.  Playing as Grant was less awesome.  Hadnt really thought about that game in ages, now I kinda want to have another go at it.

[x4000]

.....really, already?  That was fast...

Okay, I *have* to say it:  What happened to "I'll bring it up in a few days, but not just yet"?   

I know, we were just emailing and then literally I pretty much put aside your email and came over here to write this.  I'm not sure what happened there.

That being said, this game really is sounding more and more interesting.

Bear in mind that this is wholly separate from the 3D Survival Game, so you've only been hearing about this particular game since Friday since you were on that one email thread.  But yeah, glad this is sounding interesting.

Any upcoming videos or whatever yet?  Or still not ready?  I dont remember if I already asked that or not.

I hope to be able to put together at least a teaser by later in the week, but I'm not positive.

Also I agree with you on that particular Jurassic Park game on the Genesis, I remember playing that too,, way back when, and thinking that playing as the dinosaur was pretty awesome.  Playing as Grant was less awesome.  Hadnt really thought about that game in ages, now I kinda want to have another go at it.

Yeah: who the heck plays as Grant?   I loved that game.

[crazyroosterman]

em wait is this a 3rd game? if so that's a little nuts 0_0 still I quite like bionic rogue despite the few hours I've got in it so assuming this is a 3rd game how alike is it to bionic?. ps awesome title by the way provided that is the title of this game and not just the subforum

edit put this up before chrises reply.

[Aklyon]

Wait, so we have a dinosaur game, a not dinosaur game, and SBR now?

[Misery]

Oh yeah, I know this is different from the survival game. 

My own preference would be to have the survival game first, but that's just me, as I tend to like that genre (when it's done right).

But everything you've explained about THIS game just sounds good/hilarious so far.  So I look forward to this one too.

[x4000]

1. Yes, this is a third game.  We have this dinosaur game, the 3D survival (not dinosaur) game, and SBR.

2. This game is much more short-term, will be smaller and more self-contained, and comparably inexpensive.  It should be really fun, and it will be a great way for us to make something fun while also building out a lot of systems that we will then turn around and have ready for the survival game. 

Aka, this helps to fun the survival game by building things that the survival game will use.  This will also build a number of things that the survival game will NOT use (aka, this is not a subset of the survival game), but what fun would it be if that were not true.  Even in those cases where we're building something that is only for ICOERR (wow that's a lot of letters -- how about just "Raptor" instead as a short-name for this), it still builds up skills and so on that apply to the survival game.

3. Yep that is intended as the title of the game, and I'm glad you like it.   We had a lot of us talking about it, and Keith popped out with that one.

4. I'd prefer to have the survival game first (in some respects) as well, but it is easily 40x larger in scope than this one.  Just what we need to do to get to the kickstarter level is about 4x larger than this whole game.  This game is more intimate and just focused on some fun mechanics that you can pop in and play and so on.

5. This game is also in 3D and whatnot, so there's no real similarity to Starward Rogue or Bionic Dues.  There are some robots in this game, but you play as a dinosaur.  The genetically-engineered sci-fi kind, not the jungles-and-ancient-earth kind.

[tombik]

I did not like the name.

It is too long to be catchy.

Emergency Raptor is a better name I think.

[Aklyon]

I like the name a lot. Its amusing.

[x4000]

There are a TON of games that are things like "Raptor Escape!!" and "Raptors Gone Wild!!" and "Raptor On The Loose!!!" and whatever else.  I really want to be careful to stay away from those. 

I like the humor of game names like Sir, You Are Being Hunted.  There's going to be a fair bit of mild humor in this as well, although done inside a larger atmosphere that is scary.  I really like how the humor in Aliens worked, or various bits in Terminator 2, or heck even in something like The Sixth Sense.  When you don't try to go to nuts with it "to be funny," I think it can add a lot.

[crazyroosterman]

1. Yes, this is a third game.  We have this dinosaur game, the 3D survival (not dinosaur) game, and SBR.

2. This game is much more short-term, will be smaller and more self-contained, and comparably inexpensive.  It should be really fun, and it will be a great way for us to make something fun while also building out a lot of systems that we will then turn around and have ready for the survival game. 

Aka, this helps to fun the survival game by building things that the survival game will use.  This will also build a number of things that the survival game will NOT use (aka, this is not a subset of the survival game), but what fun would it be if that were not true.  Even in those cases where we're building something that is only for ICOERR (wow that's a lot of letters -- how about just "Raptor" instead as a short-name for this), it still builds up skills and so on that apply to the survival game.

3. Yep that is intended as the title of the game, and I'm glad you like it.   We had a lot of us talking about it, and Keith popped out with that one.

4. I'd prefer to have the survival game first (in some respects) as well, but it is easily 40x larger in scope than this one.  Just what we need to do to get to the kickstarter level is about 4x larger than this whole game.  This game is more intimate and just focused on some fun mechanics that you can pop in and play and so on.

5. This game is also in 3D and whatnot, so there's no real similarity to Starward Rogue or Bionic Dues.  There are some robots in this game, but you play as a dinosaur.  The genetically-engineered sci-fi kind, not the jungles-and-ancient-earth kind.

1 okay?.....

2 that's all cool by me.

3 yeap I love the title still I agree with tombik emergency raptor does roll off the tong better.

4 no comment

5 so do you actually look like a dinosaur? like a real one and not the made up nonsense kind?.
5

[x4000]

I'm not really looking for a title that rolls of the tongue easily (per se).  I'm looking for one that grabs your attention and throttles it.  That reviewers and players who see it in stores or in emails go "what the heck?  I gotta click that..."

As to looking like a dinosaur, yes you will look like a dinosaur.  Will you have feathers?  That... we are working on for a number of angles.  No promises just yet, but I hope to have something really awesome on that front.  Not to show this week, though.

[Aklyon]

You're going to have to be more specific on that, roosterman. Technically all non-fossil dinosaurs could count as 'made up nonsense', unless you count birds or alligators or such.
it would be an odd viewpoint I think, but one anyway.

[Castruccio]

I have some fear that this course of action is symptomatic of the Starward Rogue/SBR approach.  Namely, you make a smaller game to help out with a bigger game (financially in one case, developmentally in the other). But then the smaller game ends up not doing what you wanted it to (because difficulties in development and the market are both difficult to foresee).   Then the larger game--and hence the company--is put into jeopardy by the failure, delay, lack of sales/marketing, etc. of the smaller game.

[crazyroosterman]

You're going to have to be more specific on that, roosterman. Technically all non-fossil dinosaurs could count as 'made up nonsense', unless you count birds or alligators or such.
it would be an odd viewpoint I think, but one anyway.

eh point taken I guess when I think about it properly that really you could flag any depictions of dinosaurs as made up nonsense since we don't have a 100 percent concrete evidence of what dinosaurs looked even with all the awesome work done by scientists archaeologists and so on without being able to go back to the time they existed and seeing them with our own eyes there's no way of really knowing what I meant though was in media were they'll have dinosaurs and just design them to look cool and not be authentic to what we think they look like.