Hi all, we hope you’re all doing well! As always, thanks for your continued support, great comments and enthusiasm here and across socials. We’ve been hard at work on Deathground amidst the major hurdles and realize it’s been a little while since the last update so let’s get to it!
Firstly a major thanks to everyone who's already watched, shared and liked the recent trailer [Which you can watch HERE if you somehow missed it!] and for all of your amazing comments, We’re overwhelmed by your support and excitement for the game!
In case you missed it, we also recently updated our website [Which you can find HERE] and Steam page with new screenshots and content [Which you can find HERE] so be sure to check them out if you haven’t already!
Can you Scents these AI upgrades?
Get the joke, like ‘Sense’ but spelt….oh, forget it, you know what I mean…
You may already know and expect that the dinosaurs of Deathground can see you, and probably even that they can hear you, but did you also know they can actually smell you too?
On the AI side, we’ve been refining what we’re calling ‘Olfactive sense’, which is the dinosaurs ability to locate the origin of scents and follow scent trails left by players or caused by specific items like the Pheromone Grenade.
Recently our designers have been adding all sorts of smells to environments and to items, most notably in the ‘Egg Hunt’ mission where players must find and collect (Steal) a raptor egg from its nest.
And it’s not just the scent of players or stolen eggs either, dinosaurs can smell lots of different things! We’ve been balancing the functionality, working on the dinosaur’s reaction, as they will react differently depending on the strength and origin of that smell, which you’ll be able to use to your advantage to either attract or distract the dinosaurs. Guess what reaction the Raptor has to this?!
Animated Insights
We like to move it, move it, the it being dinosaurs!
As you can see we’ve been putting a lot of time into the animation side of our raptors again…
But on a serious note, one of the points raised when we released our gameplay teaser trailer was that certain parts of the raptor’s movement or some of the animation weren’t looking right.
And it’s true, we wanted to let you know, we hear you and we see it too! These systems are still a work in progress which means there’s constant and heavy duty Technical Animation improvements to make each day.
There’s a lot of AI and Tech that goes into making these clever girls, but ultimately you really need to be able to read and distinguish their movements so you can correctly act upon them.
And it’s not just basic movement through the environment, as mentioned we’ve been animating far more reaction and general animations to help players identify what the raptor is thinking, doing and about to do next.
Lights are getting real low…
You thought the facility was dark before…
A of the many new addition to the Missions and Gameplay is a new ‘Power down’ event, where things get eerie and dark real quick! You’ll need to get the generators running again or else you may get a not-so-nice surprise in the shadows.
When the power goes out, core facility systems will fail, so you’ll need to venture through the dark, replace all required fuses, and get this working again before you can continue.
The basement isn’t the safest place, so be careful down there…
Don’t worry, you’re safe in the lockers!
Well, unless they figure out how to open doors…
Finishing out this month’s update, a little look at what might happen if a raptor catches you trying to hide in a locker…
Well that’s all for now, thanks for reading all, more updates to come shortly!
- Jaw Drop Games Team
New Teaser Trailer - WATCH NOW!
We hope everyone is well and enjoyed the new teaser trailer if you watched the FGS livestream - for those that missed it, sink your teeth into the new trailer for Deathground below!
It’s just a small taste of what’s to come and we’ve got some really exciting content and news on the horizon.
As always, thanks for your continued support and comments. More updates and content coming shortly!
Jaw Drop Games
Gameplay Teaser Out Tomorrow
Hi all, we hope everyone is doing well. As always, thanks so much for your continued support, great comments and engagement in here, Discord and on social channels.
Firstly we'd like to remind you that we're going to be part of the Future Games Show's Livestream tomorrow night - we'd love for as many of you to watch it as possible to check out our exclusive trailer and give the game some love in the comments! Here's a couple sneak peeks into the trailer that we couldn't hold back: The show will be broadcast on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST on YouTube, Twitch, Steam, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and GamesRadar. You can set a reminder to be notified when the show goes live!
We're very excited to see you all there, but in the meantime, let's take a look at some gameplay clips!
Will you be the hunter or the hunted?
It was at this moment, that he knew...
In the Scout, we trust
We've found the egg!..But I think angered someone in the process
Come on in, he doesn't bite, we promise We'll close up with a few peeks into the Powerplant and Turbine Room. Be careful about what or who could be sneaking below and above you.
Thanks all, more updates to come shortly.
Jaw Drop Games
Double Trouble!
Hi all, we hope everyone is doing well. As always, thanks so much for your continued support, great comments and engagement in here, Discord and on social channels.
We wanted to mention first that we're going to be part of the Future Games Show Livestream!
The show will be broadcast on Wednesday August 23, 2023 at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST on YouTube, Twitch, Steam, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and GamesRadar. We hope you're looking forward to it!
Back to the game! So if you thought one raptor was hard enough to deal with, well we’ve only gone and added multiple raptors to this map to make it just that more terrifying and challenging. You’re backed against the wall and have a short window to clear the corridor, are you getting out alive?
If you remember the teaser video of escaping the raptor whilst he was fortunately preoccupied with choosing his snack of choice from the vending machine. Well here’s another teaser into that clip where you’re hoping and praying, it hasn’t spotted you get into that locker.
You've already seen the raptor lurking around in the murky water and basement before but here’s more of that new, flooded basement environment as well as the new labs above. One path is overgrown, the other is flooded but either way, you meet the same doom!
These labs haven’t seen humans in quite some time…
There's a new night guard in town but be careful, he doesn't take too kindly to visitors...
Here’s a peek into where you must get to the office door terminal and activate it in order to help your friends but beware as it’s not as easy as it sounds with these terrors roaming around.
You saw the Powerplant and Turbine Room teased before but here's more of it - it hosts a lot of shadows that you’re best probably avoiding.
Thanks all, more updates to come shortly! Jaw Drop Games
⚠️Flood Warning⚠️
Hi all, we hope everyone is doing well. Thank you all again for the continued support and comments across Steam, socials and Discord. There's plenty of content being shared frequently so please hop in for the latest updates and come talk Deathground.
We have some more visual content and dev updates to share with you but firstly, a quick note on our wonderful CM, Gee. You may have noticed she's not been active lately but that’s because we’re proud to announce, Gee has recently become a mama and the game has its first development baby raptor!
We can confirm that both Gee and her newborn baby are safe and well, and she'll be on Maternity Leave for a while. Thanks for your patience as we handle things on this end.
Back to the game, check out some teasers into the Motion Detector scanning for danger in the wilderness and in the interior archive room: Someone remembered to shut the gates right?...Right?
Here's a few more of the gates and the surrounding jungle areas, we hope you like them.
Who's nominating themselves for the raptor autopsy? He's dead, we promise!
Ground Control to Major Tom - a glimpse into our Powerplant desks.
⚠️Flood Warning ⚠️ Good luck trying to wade your way through the water and escape the danger that awaits you around every corner. You'll make a tasty, albeit wet, snack!
Thanks again and talk soon, Jaw Drop Games!
Raptor Reveal!
Hello all, we hope you're all doing well and again thanks for your support, great comments and interactions here, in Discord and across social media recently! We've got some strong visual content to share with you right away but first and now that we've fully revealed the raptor, we wanted to share a peek at the raptor in all it's glory.
Feast your eyes on the raptor teaser below before it feasts on you! You saw glimpses into the Control Room before so here's some more of those as well as the concept for the courtyard being turned into a reality. Also, see below for more snaps of your buddy being eaten alive as you fail to save them, and the scout in some serious danger. Stay alert or die!
You may recall the caverns filled with hot lava - enter at your own peril...
It's fair to say the Tech Animation updates are coming along well for the player, or you could say they're having a bit too much fun with the poses and rotations! Disclaimer, it's just messing about, we're looking forward to showing the actual positions and items in-game shortly.
And finally for now, we have a cool teaser out shortly that we think you'll like! Check out a few sneak peeks here at the hungry girl and let us know which snack the raptor should go for. Let's hope it doesn't get stuck as those arms aren't exactly long!
We also had a very short feature in the Future Games Show streamed yesterday, we'll let you know when we've got a brand new video and bigger spot to show off more on the game soon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sE1lQv5WPg Thanks once again and we look forward to sharing more updates as soon as possible.
Jaw Drop Games
Careful what lurks in the shadows
Hi all!
Firstly, thank you for your continued support, passion and activity! But quickly to add, our wonderful CM, Gee has been ill recently and is taking some time off. We're all wishing her well, sending our thoughts and good vibes her way. As a result, we're gonna try and step in and provide more updates and visuals!
Secondly, we're aware of the slowdown on updates and can understand it’s caused some curiosity or concerns on development. There's been some serious roadbumps and external issues that have affected development and our team, causing setbacks which we're trying to manage as best as possible. We understand the concerns and especially the intrigue into dates. Hopefully the upcoming updates will help clarify things more and we’ll ensure to update on key events on the horizon, when we can.
You may have seen a sneak peak into our raptor but here it is in all its glory. Be careful what lurks in the shadows!
We’re still powering away and dedicated to bringing an awesome experience, despite the setbacks and want to show more of the game and hard work going in soon. We’ll leave you with some artwork here but please remember to wishlist and keep an eye on here, on Discord and socials for more quality content.
So as you know, we've been upgrading to UE5 which has a lot of benefits to Production and lots of tools and tricks to utilise but also the visual fidelity which you can see here.
A few teasers into the control room and also an Easter surprise! Do you think you could survive this Egg Hunt?
Until next time... If you like what you’ve seen and heard so far, don’t forget to join our community on Discord and talk about all things Deathground. Also check out our channels and spread the news on Twitter, Tiktok etc. We really appreciate the support while we develop this beast of a game.
- Jaw Drop Games -
Blooper-worthy Bugs
Some exciting internal news! We’ve been having weekly playtests over the past couple of months, experiencing all the different cogs we’ve been working on coming together in the latest builds.
A handful of our devs attempting a “selfie” to say hi to you before splitting into groups for a session. Enjoy the awkward jazz hands, dino dance moves and a surprise doggo.
Of course, each department has been running their own playthroughs to test their areas of work, alongside having resident QA testers running through the builds, but we hadn’t played altogether as a Jaw Drop Games family until this summer. It’s been awesome!
The features are starting to come together now and the world is shaping up. The Kill System in particular has given everyone a boost to see working. But like most things in life, not everything goes to plan. Naturally, with all this playtesting, we’ve come across a bug or two. Until we can show you some gameplay, we thought you’d appreciate some dev stories that have come out of our internal sessions.
From jump scares gone wrong
A little studio insight, Ray is usually really chill!
“I was polishing an internal visual test, to which there are quite a few components. So, the majority of my day was spent running around looking for problems. I would spawn in, check a couple of things, take some notes then quit out and fix any problems. Rinse, repeat. It was near the end of the day so I thought I'd update to the latest changes. just in case anyone's work had affected what I had been doing and just generally have a final run-through.
So, I grabbed the latest build, loaded the engine back up, took a quick fly around and then decided to hop into the game to do a final run-through. I checked out a bridge, checked some cargo containers to make sure they were sitting properly, no weird holes, rain working right and then I turned around to walk through the rest of the space. I turned around to....a Raptor. In my face, right in front of me.
I don't think I've ever screamed that loudly before, my partner ran to me to make sure I was okay. It was not cool at all. It's one thing to get spooked, it's another thing when it happens so unexpectedly, I was just trying to work. Damn dinosaurs!!” - Ray, Environment Artist
“I came around the corner between two █████████ while sneaking past Raptors. I had completely forgotten that I'd put the T-Rex spawn there. So, when I came in, suddenly I was face-to-knee with the T-Rex! It leaned forward and roared at me. I immediately ran between its legs to get away. All I could hear was it thundering about behind me, turning around and trying to catch me!” Morgan, Level Designer
To things that are just plain strange
But success strikes too
As many “Oopsie” style moments as we’ve had, there have equally been some perfect playthrough moments too. Can’t beat this feeling when we played last week:
Building the AI for this game is no easy feat but we’re determined to get it right! As challenging as this game is to build, bugs are actually essential for us at this point in development. We’ll happily tackle as many bugs as possible now if it means the overall game experience for you at launch will be of a higher quality!
Until next time...
As the game reaches a new phase of critical development, we're going to be slowing down on community updates to focus our efforts on the game itself. In the meantime, join us and the rest of the community over on Discord to stay connected. (Don’t forget, you can also find and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.) We're excited to work on a global marketing campaign with our new publisher, and we're really looking forward to talking more about Deathground on a broader scale when this campaign kicks off. The team is hard at work to make sure we deliver the best possible experience to our fans. Thank you for your support and patience, please stay tuned for a lot of exciting stuff in the future!
- Jaw Drop Games -
Dressing for Chaos
When you’re outside in Deathground, it’s any dino’s game. Now that you’ve seen how our art team have been building up the elements out in the Jungle, let’s talk about what else we’ve been working on indoors.
Building tension through the terrain As you already know, we’re going for a dark and deadly vibe. Lighting is a high priority for us to nail as it will naturally play its own part when it comes to building up the anxiety-inducing ambience in all playing areas.
Despite the darkness and low lighting, our artists aren’t cutting any corners when it comes to texturing Deathground’s playable areas. The environments have evolved a lot since the pre-alpha demo and what you’ve seen in our earliest trailer. While we need to keep some things a surprise, for now, here’s another sneak peek at one of our indoor spaces.
Deathground’s indoor areas won’t just be buildings, we’ve gone underground too...
We may be leaving you in the dark about what our other areas might look like for the time being. But it should be clear now that we’re working on a realistic art style for Deathground. After all, things always feel much scarier when you believe them to be real.
The jungle is not the only playable area in Deathground There’ll be a lot of places indoors for you to take refuge from our larger dinosaurs. Whether or not you manage to survive for long enough to reach them is another story!
Generally, you’ll find a variety of spaces to run through and hide in. From large rooms to narrow passageways, alongside areas to overlook the chaos and nooks where you won’t fully see what’s coming. Our level designer has made sure that there will be ample opportunity to run into trouble or equally find a quick escape route. But we’re not letting you off the hook that easily with being able to avoid the big beast by being inside. Just because you’re not exposed to any roaming Allosaurus or T-Rex there, doesn’t mean you won’t have to deal with the smaller dinosaurs that can fit into indoor spaces.
Over the past few months, our art team have been texturing every surface of these indoor spaces as well as adding more flavour to our final dino models. Everything is being dressed for chaos and it’s all coming together!
*cue evil laughter*
Until next time... If you like what you’ve seen and heard so far, don’t forget to join our community on Discord and talk about all things Deathground. We also need your help to spread the news about Deathground’s development on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. We really appreciate the support while we develop this beast of a game. Let us know if you’ve wishlisted already!
- Jaw Drop Games -
Welcome to the Jungle
As well as developing our dinosaurs and playable characters, our 3D artists have also been busy dressing up Deathground’s environments in-engine. Since our February update ‘Levelling the Playing Field’, the world has started to come alive. Let’s take a look outside. But first, dim the lights.
Moonlight peeking through the dense jungle.
Have we told you that Deathground will be in a night-time setting? It can be difficult for humans to see in the dark and that will be no different for you as a player in Deathground.
Of course, we’re not suggesting that you’ll be playing blindly through the dark. It just might feel like it at times. There’ll be lamps lining some pathways, there may even be firelight. You’ll have a torch as well as moonlight, should your game objectives lead you to venture outside.
A lamp-lit pathway cutting through the jungle terrain.
There’s a lot of detail hidden beneath the darkness, especially in this dense jungle, now teeming with life and art textures. From the mud and dirt in the terrain to the peculiar plants sprouting up from the embankments or dangling down from high trees. There’s life beyond the fauna that will surround you. Some of you may even spot plantlife from a different time.
We’ve planted Gnetophyta and Asteroxylon, from the Cretaceous period, in Deathground’s terrain.
Waterfalls and rivers will also carve through Deathground.
Regardless of whether you’re surviving indoors or out in the elements, we’re crafting a dark map for you to play in. When you’re in the darkest areas of Deathground, you may not always see what’s coming and you’ll most certainly never be alone.
Remember that dino texture teaser we gave you last month? Well, here are a couple more teasers to keep you going. This time, a shadow and silhouette of our feathered Utahraptor in Deathground.
The silhouette of a feathered Utahraptor in the distance…
An approaching shadow of a Utahraptor coming around the corner…
Until next time... Keep an eye out for more 3D art teasers dropping on our social media channels over this month. Join our community on Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok and help spread the future chaos. If you haven’t wishlisted Deathground already and like our monthly dev updates on our progress, please wishlist! We really appreciate the support while we develop this beast of a game.
