Every once in a while, a game (usually made by an indie developer) pops up offering a radically different perspective on a popular topic. Dinosaurs are certainly popular, particularly after last year's Jurassic World movie and the great success enjoyed by ARK: Survival Evolved.

　　However, Saurian is a very different project where you will play as a dinosaur and live its life in an open world survival game.

　　

THE GAME

Saurian is a video game focused on providing the most captivating prehistoric experience ever developed for commercial gaming: living like a true dinosaur in a dynamic open world through intense, survival based gameplay. Players will have the opportunity to take control of several different species of dinosaur in their natural environment. You will attempt to survive from hatchling to adult, managing physical needs, while avoiding predators and environmental hazards in a dynamic landscape reflecting cutting-edge knowledge of the Hell Creek ecosystem 66 million years ago.

　　

DYNAMIC OPEN WORLD

Explore a massive open world environment, recreated down to the leaf, based on the fossil record. Hell Creek will challenge your survival skills with unpredictable environmental hazards such as floods, fires, storms and dramatic seasonal changes. That’s without worrying about those with teeth and claws…

　　

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Play as Dakotaraptor, Pachycephalosaurus, Tyrannosaurus or Triceratops. Our eventual goal is to have each of these four complete their entire life cycle from hatchling to adult. Advance through multiple distinct life stages, each of which offers a different experience based on your growth and development.

　　

SCIENTIFIC RIGOR

We pride ourselves on our scientific rigor. All aspects of Saurian are backed up with extensive research to ensure our animals and their world is up to date with the cutting edge of scientific knowledge. This involves consultation with leading experts such as John R. Hutchinson, Matt Wedel, Denver Fowler and Gregory Wilson.

　　

THE POWER OF UNITY

Using sophisticated techniques; Saurian is being developed initially for PC utilizing the Unity 3D game engine, with the aid of several leading systems like RAIN AI and Final IK. Not only is it user friendly, flexible and gorgeous, using Unity means we’re easily able to expand to other systems such as Mac and Linux once the game is complete. Bingo! Dino DNA!

　　

ENJOYABLE GAMEPLAY

Our team are not only scholars of paleontology, but also of game design. The most important feature we wish to bring across with Saurian is an enjoyable experience. Each playable dinosaur will provide unique gameplay balancing interest, challenge and most importantly fun. Even through our dedication to science, this is always our top priority.

　　Saurian is being developed by indie developer Urvogel Games. The team recently launched a Kickstarter campaign which already surpassed the minimum goal of $55K, so things are looking very much rosy.

　　In fact, so much that they commented a few hours ago how they are seriously looking at console ports (probably meaning PlayStation 4 and/or Xbox One) given the current funding momentum. In the meantime, here's the current stretch goals roadmap.