I want to preface this by saying that I know you've set the time of day for each of the islands of Las Cinco Muertes. This post is purely for (hopefully) what you may or may not have planned for Nublar and/or a sandbox mode (which please let there be one, literally everyone wants one).
Nighttime in the Jurassic Park movies, is in my opinion, the most thematically and aesthetically important part of the series. Imagine Nedry driving to the docks in the middle of the day? Or the T-rex breakout? Raptors in the long grass? You get my point. Nighttime needs to be in this game because put simply; without nightime, it wouldn't be Jurassic Park. From what you've said so far, this is meant to be the greatest Jurassic Park of all time. I genuinely believe it has the potential to live up to that title and I have a few suggestions about how you could help convey the feeling of dread AND excitement of nighttime in a Jurassic Park.
1) Dinosaurs should have a higher chance of breaking out at night. Simply put, a dinosaur breakout during the day is not scary. Well...perhaps it is, but certainly not AS scary. I know nothing about how to make a video game, but I assume the dinosaur behaviour is created via some sort of probability system whereby dinosaurs have a certain probability of exhibiting a certain type of behaviour (or it may just be random). Either way, I assume it would be possible to set the probability a particular type of behaviour higher at particular times of day. This would be fantastic.
2) We need flood lights (or some other lighting system) for the park. For some reason, the idea of flood lights illuminating certain sections of the park, putting others in darkness appeals to me greatly and I would love to see a pack of raptors running from lighted sections of their enclosures into the darkness. This adds an entire new element of excitement and I think it would look wonderful with an already wonderfully looking game.
3) Guests and staff should become scarce at nighttime. It makes absolutely no sense for guests and staff to be walking around the park at 2am. Imagine how cool it would be to hear a voice come over the speakers saying 'Last boat to the mainland leaves in 30 minutes, please make your way there now'. You'd get to see the park become emptier and emptier untill almost no one except some security were wandering around. In the original movie I loved the idea of a heavily populated park during the day becoming vacated towards the evening and having no at the park at night. Again this just adds an extra element of realism to it and makes it feel like a real-life functioning park.
4) I think (and i know this will upset some people) that day/night cycle should not be skippable. This is to create tension. Knowing that night is approaching would create a lot more tension for the player as they know that with night brings danger. Dinosaurs break out more, the park is scarier. This way, when dawn appraoches it will be a relief. Perhaps this feature should be optional, however, I don't really know how that would be done. Perhaps for those that don't like day/night cycles they could just have an option to keep the park permanently in daytime.
To me, this is fundamental for helping to convey the feeling the movies. Nighttime IS Jurassic Park.
I would love some feedback on this! Thanks!
Nighttime in the Jurassic Park movies, is in my opinion, the most thematically and aesthetically important part of the series. Imagine Nedry driving to the docks in the middle of the day? Or the T-rex breakout? Raptors in the long grass? You get my point. Nighttime needs to be in this game because put simply; without nightime, it wouldn't be Jurassic Park. From what you've said so far, this is meant to be the greatest Jurassic Park of all time. I genuinely believe it has the potential to live up to that title and I have a few suggestions about how you could help convey the feeling of dread AND excitement of nighttime in a Jurassic Park.
1) Dinosaurs should have a higher chance of breaking out at night. Simply put, a dinosaur breakout during the day is not scary. Well...perhaps it is, but certainly not AS scary. I know nothing about how to make a video game, but I assume the dinosaur behaviour is created via some sort of probability system whereby dinosaurs have a certain probability of exhibiting a certain type of behaviour (or it may just be random). Either way, I assume it would be possible to set the probability a particular type of behaviour higher at particular times of day. This would be fantastic.
2) We need flood lights (or some other lighting system) for the park. For some reason, the idea of flood lights illuminating certain sections of the park, putting others in darkness appeals to me greatly and I would love to see a pack of raptors running from lighted sections of their enclosures into the darkness. This adds an entire new element of excitement and I think it would look wonderful with an already wonderfully looking game.
3) Guests and staff should become scarce at nighttime. It makes absolutely no sense for guests and staff to be walking around the park at 2am. Imagine how cool it would be to hear a voice come over the speakers saying 'Last boat to the mainland leaves in 30 minutes, please make your way there now'. You'd get to see the park become emptier and emptier untill almost no one except some security were wandering around. In the original movie I loved the idea of a heavily populated park during the day becoming vacated towards the evening and having no at the park at night. Again this just adds an extra element of realism to it and makes it feel like a real-life functioning park.
4) I think (and i know this will upset some people) that day/night cycle should not be skippable. This is to create tension. Knowing that night is approaching would create a lot more tension for the player as they know that with night brings danger. Dinosaurs break out more, the park is scarier. This way, when dawn appraoches it will be a relief. Perhaps this feature should be optional, however, I don't really know how that would be done. Perhaps for those that don't like day/night cycles they could just have an option to keep the park permanently in daytime.
To me, this is fundamental for helping to convey the feeling the movies. Nighttime IS Jurassic Park.
I would love some feedback on this! Thanks!
