"Hold on to your butts."  -Ray Arnold

The dinosaur game we’ve always wanted.

This project has been a dream of mine for some time. I have been gaming ever since I can remember and over those years only a handful of dinosaur games have ever been worth playing. Most of them, especially ones with the Jurassic Park license, have been abysmal. This is a real shame, because they had so much potential. Some were playable but none of the games ever gave me that feeling of being fully immersed in a world with real dinosaurs. Maybe it was the graphical limitations or broken game mechanics, but it never felt right.

With The Lost World our team wants to create THE dinosaur game we have all been craving for since childhood. I know that sounds quite ambitious but with adequate funding, constructive community feedback and a focused effort, there is no reason why this can't become a reality! Never before have we had the tools and technology to pull it off like we do today.

It seems like large developers don't think there is a market for such a game but I disagree. I think the problem is that a quality dinosaur game just hasn't ever been produced. A few games brought some innovative ideas to the table, like Trespasser for example. Yet, no one game has managed to pulled it all together. To gauge the interest of such a game just look at the overwhelming buzz kicked up by the rumored dinosaurs in Battlefield 3. It really stirred up those 8 year old dreams again in everyone. Dino D-Day was the most recent dinosaur game to come along that I got some enjoyment from but it's close quarter combat and aging engine left me wanting more. I was looking forward to Telltale's Jurassic Park: The Game, and you all know how that turned out. 

I have noticed a lot of discussion and interest in the mod community about dinosaur mods for Crysis. Some of the projects are starting to look very promising. If some mods are ever finished they may provide some fun but I believe most would rather have a fully featured game that is complete and supported.

A few mods to check out for some ideas of how our game will feel:

• Lost World Returns
• Return to Jurassic Park

The goal... + dinos of course.

What will the game be like?

The Lost World is a single player first person sandbox game. It will be more focused on exploration, survival and puzzle solving rather than fast paced shooting, but there will be some of that too of course. The story has not been finalized yet but we have been tossing around some great ideas. The time period is still very much up in the air. It will either take place in modern day or during the 1930s. We would like to get some feedback from the community on what you feel would be the most epic dinosaur story ever told.

Features

• DRM Free! (No "Ah ah ah, you didn't say the magic word.")
• State of the art AAA DirectX11 graphics and gameplay built with CryENGINE 3 (DX11 only - no Windows XP support)
• PC exclusive(this is no dumbed down console port)! It will push your hardware to the limit but will scale down nicely for older systems. We are targeting 40-60fps on an i7 GTX 680 @ 1080p.
• Battle your way through miles of exotic open sandbox jungle and plains.
• A living, breathing world. We aren't just creating dinosaurs, we want to create an ecosystem full of life with as many interesting plants and animals as we can squeeze in.
• Realistic landscapes using GeoControl 2.
• Interactivity on the same level as the original Crysis. Vegetation will bend in the wind and the world to react to your actions.
• A variety of  dinosaur species( water, land, and air) authentically modeled with realistic behaviors and animations!   (From Compys to Brachiosaurus)
• Plenty of firepower at your disposal.
• Dynamic time of day and weather effects.
• Multiple game modes including a Campaign and Free Roam (With enough funding we would also like to try to incorporate a single and multiplayer survival mode.)
• Slower paced than traditional run and gun. More emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving. It isn't necessary to slaughter every animal in your path but if you want to, then by all means.
• And so much more...

Why CryENGINE 3?

CryENGINE 3 allows us to hit the ground running in many ways.  It provides stunning next gen graphics and gameplay. We can create and update detailed interactive environments very quickly so we can focus our attention on other aspects such as content creation.

Giving back to the development community.

We believe it is important to give back to the development community. Therefore, upon project completion we will donate all of our created assets(textures, models, animations, etc) to everyone to use so it can further indie game development as well as the modding community.

Who are we?

We are a team of software engineers who have a passion for all things dinosaurs and gaming. We have all created game mods over the years for various engines but do not have a commercial game under our belt yet. What we may lack in experience we feel we more than make up for in dedication. A project of this size will need some additional man power and know how, which is why we want to hire some experienced game designing professional to assist us.

Blender designs...

Why do we need your help?

Unfortunately none of us are in a position to support ourselves financially without a salary or have enough capital to hire someone full-time to assist us in production. To achieve the quality we expect to attain, will require several full time and part-time resources.

Prototype...

How will the Kickstarter money be used?

The money will be mainly used to expand our team and bring on some very talented full-time employees to assist in game production. I want to find some rock stars who are as passionate as me about this project. Ideally, we would like to hire an animator and designer right away. If we exceed our goal, all of the extra money will be used to bring on even more resources to help get the game released quicker and to add more polish. If our funding goals are well exceeded I would also like to begin work on a single and multiplayer survival component. First and foremost though, we want to get the world built and the dinosaurs in it with before we spend too much time on the campaign.

Funding will also be needed to purchase any materials we don't create in house such as models, textures, and music. To speed up development we will be buying 100s of high quality assets from sites like Turbo Squid(we are buying this bundle on day one. In addition, some funds will be allocated to purchase content creation software such as 3D Studio Max.

More prototyping...

Why will this game succeed where others have failed?

• We will keep an open dialog with the community and really listen to your ideas and concerns. We plan to engage in forum discussions daily and keep you updated on progress. You will be a part of this process every step of the way.
• We are not restricted by publishers or licensing, we have complete control over what gets delivered and when.
• And most importantly, this game is our passion! We wake up everyday excited to have the opportunity to be part of something like this and that will show in our work. We are dedicated to making this happen! We will see it through to completion and ensure it's a quality product.

When do you plan to release the game?

We are planning to release the full game Christmas 2013, digital download only. We want to have a working pre-alpha version of the game released by this time next year. This way we will have plenty of time to get your feedback and add polish to the final product.

Thank You!

Without your help a project of this scale wouldn't be possible. If you have any questions feel free to ask, we will answer every question. We really want to make this happen so please spread the word around on this project! :)