Dinosaur Fossil Hunter at Steam Simfest 2022: Hobby Edition
Hello again, Fossil Hunters!
Steam SimFest Hobby Edition 2022 is starting today! For the next few days we’re celebrating simulation games – especially the ones that allow us to try new things and professions we wouldn’t dream of picking up otherwise.
For that reason, our paleontology simulator game Dinosaur Fossil Hunter will be a part of this wonderful event! Here, you can live your childhood dream of becoming a professional paleontologist and hunting for dinosaur fossils! Or perhaps paleontology is an unfamiliar field to you and you’d like to see how working at the excavation site looks like? We’ve got you covered!
At 11 AM PT (8 PM CEST) today we’ll be streaming Dinosaur Fossil Hunter for you all! Take a look at the game’s Steam page where a stream broadcast will appear. This will be a special stream and we mean it, because we’ll unveil the game’s release date during the stream!
We hope to have you with us! See you soon!
Best Regards, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Team
Beta Playtests Status Update #3
Hello, Fossil Hunters!
Another batch of invitations has been sent! Invitations should be waiting for some of you in your email inbox!
We'd like to remind our playtersters once again about the BETA SURVEY we'd like you to fill out after finishing your playthrough. Remember that your feedback is invaluable to us during this stage of development and any suggestions and bugs reports you provide help us improve the game for a release.
Also, remember that you're not allowed to share any footage from the Beta version. We mention that in the survey and you can also find "Do not share footage" notification in the bottom left corner of your screen while playing Beta. Please keep that in mind. Thank you!
If you have just received access to the Beta, we hope you'll enjoy the game!
Best Regards, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Team
Beta Playtests Status Update #2
Hello, Fossil Hunters!
Just a quick update: another batch of invitations has been sent to our playtesters! If you signed up for the Beta, make sure to check your email inbox!
We'd like to remind our playtersters once again about the BETA SURVEY we'd like you to fill out after finishing your playthrough in the game. Remember that your feedback is invaluable to us during this stage of development and any suggestions and bugs reports you provide help us improve the game for a release.
Also, remember that you're not allowed to share any footage from the Beta version.
If you haven't received invitation yet, stay tuned for upcoming status updates!
Best Regards, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Team
Beta Playtests Status Update
Greetings, Fossil Hunters!
A little update from us – some of you should have already received invitations to playtests, so make sure to check your email! If you're among the lucky ones who now have access to the Beta, we hope you'll have fun playing! Remember to fill out BETA SURVEY after finishing your playthrough and remember that you're not allowed to share any footage from the Beta version.
If you haven't received an invtation, don't worry! More invitations will be sent later on, so there is still a chance that you'll get to go fossil hunting before the game's release. We'll keep you updated!
You might also notice that Request Access button is still available on the game's store page. As more people have yet to be invited, this button will remain active. If you haven't registered for playtest yet and would like to be a part of it, feel free to sign up by clicking on the button!
Best Regards, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Team
Dinosaur Fossil Hunter BETA stream
Hello, Fossil Hunters!
If you're counting days while waiting for Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Beta tests to start, we have a little remedy for you! Today at 8 PM CET a special 3-hour long stream will be made available on the game's store page. You'll be able to see a much more polished Beta gameplay along with improved game mechanics and watch as our guest Jimmy sets out on his great fossil hunt!
Jimmy is a paleontology expert and an important member of Dinosaurs Will Always Be Awesome (DWABA for short) – group of individuals, whose mission is to share their enthusiasm and passion for paleontology and dinosaurs with the world! You can find Jimmy and his group on various social media, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, as well as on their very own DWABA website!
We hope you'll drop by and set out on this journey with us!
Remember to sign up for playtests if you haven't done so already! Just go to Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Steam store page and click on the Request Access button!
You'll find more information about playtests here – press the banner to go to the article about playtests:
Best Regards, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter
Sign up for the PLAYTESTS!
Fossil Hunters!
The title says it all – we believe that Dinosaur Fossil Hunter is finally ready for playtests! This is why we’re opening registration!
If you’d like to be our tester, go to Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Steam page and press Request Access button right here:
Once you’re signed up, all that remains is to wait until the registration is closed – this is when you’ll receive an email with an invitation!
Once you’re done playing, make sure fill out THIS FORM. Your invaluable feedback will help us improve the game for the release!
Thanks for your time!
Best Regards, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Team
Devlog #24: Testing underway
Hello, Fossil Hunters!
It’s time to give you an update on development progress!
Before we do that, though, we’d like to apologize for not publishing anything in December – due to Christmas time and New Year’s Eve it was difficult to squeeze in a devlog during that time. We know some of you have been used to a monthly pace and the delay made you confused. We’d like to make it clear that the game is constantly being worked on. It’s a bit late now, but we’d also like to wish you a Happy New Year! 🙂
Now, let’s move to the part you’re all interested in.
What is the game’s current state?
We are happy to let you know that the majority of mechanics and content has been included in the game. We are intensively working on wrapping up development and preparing for the game’s launch.
We have now moved to the testing phase – many of our testers are involved along with the QA team of our publisher. They play the game and give us their feedback while we provide them with new builds and polish the game according to their suggestions. It’s a very intense time as we hand over at least one new build each day.
Main mechanics and gameplay loop have been completed and all 3D content has been included in the game. Locations have been finished as well. Prologue’s content has been successfully merged with the full game’s content and the story has been expanded. Most of the less important mechanics work well, although they require a bit more testing and polishing. We’re also adding remaining 2D graphics.
Fortunately, new workflow related to excavating big fossils received positive feedback from the entire publisher’s testing team, which means we can focus on improvements and adding missing elements to the game.
To be specific, other than obligatory fixes, we’re working on:
2D graphics, such as icons, screenshots and Achievements graphics
Music
Improving some of the game’s interface
Translating new text content
Gameplay balance
Analyzing and improving optimization
Completing remaining minor mechanics
As the end note, we’d like to show you one of the most advanced systems we have developed for Dinosaur Fossil Hunter – rocks excavation system. It was a great challenge to get it right, but we’re very happy with the results.
This system evaluates whether it is possible or not to dig out the rock based on the terrains’ shape.
That would be it for this devlog! We can’t say how long testing will take as it’s a constant loop of creating a build, gathering feedback, improving, creating another build and so on. It takes time, but thanks to the efforts of our testers, we can eliminate a lot of bugs and possible issues you could face. Once this phase is over, we can start preparing for the launch.
Just a bit longer – stay tuned!
Best Regards, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Team
A special broadcast has started!
Hello Players!
The special live stream on Train Station Renovation and Gas Station Simulator steam site has already started. Don't miss the in-game gameplay by the Gas Station Simulator team & Live Motion Games team!
It’s about time to give you an update from the development front! 😃
EGX provided us with loads of valuable feedback. We’ve gathered everything we had learned by talking with players and our own observations and now we’re putting it to use. Unfortunately, as it usually is with development, whenever something is added to the game, some additional time is needed to address all the issues that pop up as a result. Rest assured, with our testing team aboard, we’ll prevail!
We may not be able to provide you with many truly new things, but we believe there is still a fair share of interesting things to show you. Let’s go!
When you get to the excavation site, you need to secure the area. Before, you had to hold the Space button for a while – now, you can either proceed like before or simply press a button to skip this sequence and move on to the next step.
We have polished the look of various animations you encounter during your fossil hunting. Now they look more natural. Take a look!
Other than that, we have improved rock destroying mechanic. It works similarly to how it did before, but now it’s possible to destroy rocks other than the ones you encounter on the roads. For example, you can destroy rocks that get in your way while digging for paleontological treasures!
Rock inspection has also been improved! Thanks to your feedback, Geiger’s counter role has been expanded. After finding the rock with a fossil, you’ll need to perform a visual inspection, which will allow you to find places where the fossil sticks out of the rock.
When you find and prepare your fossil for a journey back home, it’s time to move it to the car! Medium boxes come with this neat cover right here:
While you’re already familiar with most of the game’s features, there is another one that will give you some room for customization. We have added the option to change the colour of your vehicle. You can freely change the colour of any car you can control in the game. Just make sure to make this colour pleasing for the eyes. 😉
We have also been working on including controller support in the game, as we recall that it’s something that a lot of you requested in the past. 🙂
What’s left now is to get rid of those pesky bugs and at last, get the game ready for you – our players and hope that this adventure we’ve been working so hard on will make you fall in love with paleontology all over again!
As a last piece of news for today, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter was chosen as one of ten Polish games to show up at WePlay Expo in Shanghai! The Prologue version will be presented during the event, which will take place on December 11-12. While we won’t be able to be there in person due to COVID restrictions, our game will be left in WePlay organizing party's care. If you haven’t tried the updated Prologue yet and have the opportunity to drop by, please do! 🙂
If you're not on our Discord server yet, we encourage you to join the community!
Best Regards, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter Team
Devlog #22: Improvements and a special feature!
We’re back, Fossil Hunters!
Along with us, we bring you another update regarding our progress on the game! 🤠
Our team continues working on the game’s balance, fixing and further improving the game by adding missing features. Balancing the game requires a lot of attention and cooperation from our development and testing team. Testers play and leave invaluable feedback, which our development team uses to adjust gameplay accordingly. It’s a continuous cycle, which – little by little – allows us to bring Dinosaur Fossil Hunter closer to completion.
In the past month, our team has grown considerably bigger as new dedicated team members have joined our ranks. 💪💪💪 With their help, we gained more time, which in turn allowed us to reconsider some of your suggestions and include them in the game.
Some of the aforementioned features include:
making your character visible at certain stages of the game,
adding a possibility to draw a path on the minimap,
reworked mechanics of securing an excavation site, which should now be more pleasing to watch,
adding belts to hold crates on top of your car in place,
improved vehicle physics.
Moreover, we have decided to do something special for our community. Our Kickstarter supporters may recall “Little Findings” listed among our stretch goals.
Unfortunately, the campaign ended with a sum just a tiny bit away from that goal and we thought we wouldn’t be able to include it in the game. However, with more people on board, Dinosaur Fossil Hunter team decided to bring this idea to life! We have already prepared over 20 unique fossils, which will make great additions to your museum displays! We are currently working on a way to transport these new fossils from an excavation site to a museum. 😉
Keep in mind that’s not all! We have many more surprises in store for you, but we don’t want to spill out everything just yet. We’d like to leave some things for you to discover. 🙂
If you’re looking for a community of paleontology enthusiasts to talk about the game, consider joining or Discord channel! Like always, we also encourage you to add Dinosaur Fossil Hunter to your Wishlist – that is, if it’s not there yet. 😄
