I feel like of all the genres we have so far under the COG and HG banner one thing we don’t have yet is a game where you get to play as a dinosaur, which honestly would be one of my dream game experiences. Not sure whether one would go for realism and set it in a specific epoch like the Jurassic or Cretaceous Period and a certain location, or go down the 100 Million BC route of sticking all of Prehistory in one easy to search land with Cavepeople and Dinosaurs co existing and lizard people and all that jazz, but I would still adore adore a Choice game where you’d get to play as a Dinosaur. Picking from the herbivores and carnivores and all the numerous things one has to do to survive as a giant lizard.
Anyone else have a desire to see a dinosaur related choice game out there?
Well I suppose Choice the Dragons could be considered similar in that you play as a giant lizard, but of course the settings would be completely different as dragons are based in a more medieval period, whereas a dinosaur would be seen in more of a prehistoric setting, which I don’t think I’ve seen done in an interactive fiction game before. It would be good to see a prehistoric COG, but personally I think I’d rather see a game where you play as a caveman than as a dinosaur.
Looking forward to it ,and also if it’s ok can you add dinosaur wars? I really love war games/stories
Also the choice of dragons is similar but it’s story is short ,if it’s not too much can you make the story a little bit longer?
I suppose the core issue of doing a game where you play as a dinosaur is which ones you could be, and that would likely change the game completely. Also writing from the perspective of a dinosaur might be tricky given that they’re not overly bright and tend to fixate on certain matters.
Probably if it was me I’d have it in a land where all the popular dinosaurs co-mingle and let you have the option of being a Tyrannosaurus Rex or one of the Raptor species… though I wouldn’t want to step on Jurassic Park territory too much, so if humans were involved I’d have the Caveperson and Dinosaur situation.
Well if I ever feel that I’m confident enough in using Choicescript or Twine I might have a crack at it. Just exploring a location with dinosaurs would be fun, mind.
I think with a dinosaur game you have a couple of options for a text based game…
a. Playing as a dinosaur, probably in a specific epoch and location, maybe with the objective to grow up an survive. This could work as a collection of mini games actually.
b. Being a person who time travels to the age of dinosaurs and gets to explore stuff. More likely this would work as part of a wider time travel based game (another dream choice game of mine actually, being a time traveller. I know Paradox Factor exists and it’s awesome but I’m thinking something more conventional.)
c. Doing a 100 Million BC style game with Cavemen and Dinosaurs and all that jazz, maybe getting to play as one or the other. Probably this one would be a tad more forgiving with scientific accuracy.
Sounds interesting. If you’d like a reference for narrative possibilities, I would recommend Raptor Red by Robert T. Baker. The narrator is a female Utahraptor, but it will switch to other carnivores and herbivores either by chapter or within the same chapter.
It’s beautifully written and the narrative will occasionally switch from Raptor Red’s to Baker’s as he talks about human concepts/theories that relate to dinosaurs i.e. flowers and how dinosaurs would react, Utahraptor courtship, genetics of family, and so on.
All in all it is a fantastic book! I’d recommend anyone read it who is a dinosaur lover.
A would the best option it’s very different but the standards i’m games normally get there and I would love to play survival game as a T Rex from birth to death.
That Raptor Red book sounds really interesting, I might give that a find then. I can also definitely recommend the various Age of Reptiles comic book series if you’re a dinosaur fan, beautiful artwork with the dinosaurs and no dialogue in sight. And it doesn’t hold back on the gore either.
Also Rogar I think you might find this game in development really interesting, Saurian? I was actually involved in its Kickstarter. Basically the crew are involved in creating a realistic take on the Hell Creek Formation, which is the landscape that Tyrannosaurus Rex would call home.
Hiya! It sounds super cool! Dinosaurs are one of my special interests so anything dinosaur would be something I’m very interested in! Of course, like others have stated, it’s a good idea to do research into what dinosaurs will be in the game
Will there be a star-crossed romance between a Tyrannosaur PC and a quiet, gentle Brontosaur?
More seriously. I do hope you pursue this idea. It’d be interesting to see how you interpret the dinosaur perspective, given that most of their known interests involved eating and sleeping.
Dr. Bakker is also a renown paleontologist, I’d go so far as to say hes probably the greatest paleontologist of our time. You have him to thanks for whenever you see a TRex chasing things down in a movie. He’s actually a great source of inspiration for me
