Carnivore was one of the hottest games of the late 90s. The first person shooter is back with a new iteration that may be possible if they meet the goals of their Kickstarter campaign. Digital Dream Entertainment LLC in collaboration with Tatem Games announced Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter Reborn for the PC. This game is a sequel of the original classic dinosaur hunting video game, Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter. Carnivores is a first person shooting game where players hunt the largest and most dangerous creatures to ever exist -- DINOSAURS! The game was originally released for the PC back in 1998 to great reviews and a loyal fan following. Since then there have been several Carnivores versions on mobile and one for the PlayStation Network. Key members of the original team have been reunited to develop this game. Yaroslav Kravchenko, the game's original creator says, "I'm very excited to work with Digital Dreams Entertainment LLC along with members of the original team, to bring Carnivores: Reborn back to its rightful home on the PC." I spoke to producer Mike Mendheim about the new version!
How does this version differ from the original?
The original Carnivore was released in 1998, and the hook of the game is it's a realistic hunting simulator, only instead of hunting deer; you're hunting dinosaurs on a distant planet during its Jurassic period. The biggest difference between this version and the original is the games visual appearance. The world we have created is a beautiful, lush and realistic environment. The grass blows in the wind. There was nothing like this in the 1998 version of the game. The creatures that inhabit this world are much more believable too. We have spent an enormous amount of time and effort improving the dinosaur behaviors and their intelligence, which directly ties into gameplay since different behaviors require different hunting strategies.
How much has your vision for the dinosaurs changed in the intervening years?
When we were developing the original Carnivores we were using references from bones, paintings and of course the Jurassic Park movies. Every year scientists learn more about dinosaurs and as we move forward, we will reflect those new discoveries in the game, such as adding colorful textures and feathers to some species of dinosaurs. We want to be as accurate as possible.
How has the business of making games changed since the original?
The amount of platforms and systems you can run the games on is quite different than it was back in 1998. We have mobile game systems, tablets, a variety of consoles and of course desktop PC's. It's important to have a development strategy across all of these platforms so you can maximize your revenue. Back in 98 we didn't have to worry so much about cross development on mobile systems and tablets. Probably the biggest difference is the level of expectations on the games visual graphics. People expect things to look and move very realistically. Their eyes are quite sophisticated and they know what's good and what's not. It costs a lot of money to develop high quality graphics.
If there was a movie version of the game, what sort of would be ideal plot for you?
This is a Carnivores plot so we'd probably build a story around hunting, maybe involve a very arrogant billionaire taking his (coming of age) son on what he thinks is the ultimate vacation. They travel into space to a distant planet so he can teach his boy how to "become a man" by hunting the most dangerous beasts of all -- dinosaurs. The billionaire's family want no part of killing anything and that's where things take a turn for the worse. The Father maybe kills a young Velociraptor and the rest of the Velociraptor pack doesn't take kindly to this and are out for revenge. The billionaire and his family end up being the ones hunted and must figure out a way to survive. Humans vs. dinosaurs and the billionaire's riches can't help him now...
What's next?
To keep improving our core technology so we can deliver a believable world with even more realistic dinosaurs within it as well as deeper, more intense gameplay. Obviously if the product does well we will bring it to other platforms like Playstation 4 and XBox One. Right now we're fighting for the PC version on Kickstarter and we have 1 week left.