Welcome, park managers!
Closed Beta is finally here! This latest release offers a unique array of species, building tools, decorative items and more. For a more indepth look at what’s included and how eligible backers can access Beta, check out our previous blog post. If you’re interested in some of the highlights, read on!
• 14 Animals
Discover Archaeopteryx, Camarasaurus, Deinocheirus, Edmontosaurus, Lambeosaurus, Microraptor, Nasutoceratops, Pachyrhinosaurus, Protoceratops, Parasaurolophus, Torvosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Styracosaurus and the Woolly Mammoth.
• Expanded Creativity
A number of additions and changes have been made to the modular building system including recolorable items, point snapping, reworked styling, foliage painting and over 150 new pieces.
• Prefabs
Edit and build with a number of official prefabs! Get creative and build your own using the highly customizable modular building system.
• Day/Night Cycle & Weather
Watch the days go by with the freshly added day/night cycle and weather systems.
What Can You Expect to See in the Next Few Months?
The game will receive numerous tweaks, hotfixes and content updates to get Prehistoric Kingdom ready for Early Access launch. Though this process will require some patience, we’re very excited to work with the community in developing the game further.
The importance of good management and a rounded, core gameplay loop is something we certainly haven’t forgotten about as it’s essential to any great simulation game. We’d like to have done more, but we simply aren't where we wanted to be due to budgetary constraints. Currently, development feels the fastest it’s been because of our improved circumstances and ability to pay for more of the team’s time.
If you’re interested in seeing what’s in the works for Prehistoric Kingdom, you can visit our new Trello page to view the biggest content updates coming before Early Access launch.
In the meantime, here’s just some of the ongoing improvements we’ll be making in the next few weeks:
• Animal Improvements
We’ll be focusing on polishing animals across the board, tidying up their IKs, improving pathfinding and adding new behaviours/animations. The team’s committed to fleshing out our animals and doing the best we can to make them feel alive. What’s a zoo game without great animals?
• Modular Improvements
Due to completely overhauling the modular system, some quality of life features like box select are unavailable. We’re aware that this can be very inconvenient for a lot of builders so we'll be working hard to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.
VFX Particles have also been temporarily disabled due to incompatibilities with the modular prefabs. These will be readded very soon!
• Further Audio Integration
There are a number of missing or temporary audio elements for animals, modular items and various actions. Underwater audio has been disabled until it can activate reliably.
• Power Management Visuals
Power management visualization graphics are currently missing due to system changes and need to be reimplemented. We’ve disabled power outages/reboot mechanics until we can better communicate this to players.
• Tree Implementation
Wetland trees are currently missing due to system changes and need to be reimplemented. After some color tweaks and an optimization pass, they should be back in your games as soon as possible. Boreal foliage is completely absent and will be re-added at a later update with brand new assets.
• Foliage Painting & Path Undo/Redo
Paths are the last major system left to be supported by undo/redo and could not be finished in time for Beta’s launch. As we very recently finished moving foliage painting over to the modular system, it is also not supported by undo/redo.
• Save/Load Times
Larger parks may experience long load times with a dense modular piece count. This issue is being investigated, so we’ve temporarily reduced the object density of our starting map to keep load times down.
• Performance Improvements
Excessive lights can lead to decreased performance at night. There are a lot of optimizations that still need to be made to a number of systems.
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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.
We hope those who play have fun and enjoy what’s currently available in Beta. The team is very eager to improve the game and add new content and management opportunities.
Until next time,
- The PK Team
