Glorious is the day Parkasaurus friends, Alpha 3 was reached! This means we’ll be receiving a ton of gameplay feedback, figuring out what is fun, what isn’t that fun, and adjusting accordingly. The game at this point is Early Access feature complete – all the parts are there, we just need to get them to run smoothly.
Update 012 Topics
Employee waypoint updates
Dinos just want to have fun
Exhibit Lists
Bonus: Park grand opening
Employee waypoint updates
In Parkasaurus your employees become vital once your park starts to grow, it is a great lesson in delegating out the work. We’ve been improving employee pathing; now you have 3 choices:
random - the employee wanders the park looking for tasks to do
waypoints – you assign the route for an employee to follow
proximity – you assign the employee to stay tethered to a certain area
Dinos just want to have fun
Toys! Toys! Toys! We’ve been finalizing the toy system and changing how this affects your Dino best friends. For example, some toys might improve the health of a Dino (eg. A vaccine is in the ice cube!) or sometimes toys are just for fun, and therefor increase the enrichment of your Dino.
Exhibit Lists
There are many interesting systems in Parkasaurus that sometimes can be missed by players. Last week we added some much-needed info panes that we never realized were very important to have, for example, a list of Dino exhibits. It may seem intuitive to put this in but it's amazing what you just don't see when you’re in the thick of developing a best friend Dino tycoon game 😊
Bonus: Park grand opening
One of the older complaints we got from folks playing the game way back was they felt overwhelmed when people entered the park and they weren't ready...so now you can close & open the park. Guests who are in the park leave, guests en route turn around, and we stop spawning any new guests. This was a fitting point to chat about because it also feels like a celebration for Alpha3.
Parkasaurus Warriors!
The two of us are trying our hardest to get the Parkasaurus word out to the interwebz, and we see all of you helping out! Keep it up! Tell your neighbour to Wishlist us, get your boyfriend to follow us on Twitter or get your boss to post about us on reddit or your company forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Thanks. xoxo
Here are a few ways to follow us:
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Parkasaurus Update #011 : Let there be light!
Spring is upon Parkasaurus! Birds are in the air, flowers are blooming, and your Albertosaurus is causing havoc by the Sushi shop. A normal Tuesday. We've been cleaning up the last features for Alpha3, and looking forward to hearing feedback (scary) from our first internal playtesters.
Alpha Version 3 current milestone…final touches!
Parkasaurus is purring (growling?) right along. Working on one of my favourite features for you dino park – extending operation hours by adding lights! Also since we want all our dino best friends to play Parkasaurus translations have been fully integrated. Oh, and we completely re-worked how the time portal works. Holy!
Update 011 Topics
Night Lights
Translations
Beam me wayyyy back Scotty
Bonus : Exhibit Polish
Night Lights
One design aspect of Parkasaurus is incorporating enough lights at night so your guests can stay longer. Which paths do you light up to maximize the most money? Maybe you don’t care about the money, but want instead to highlight the best-looking aspects of your park? Up to you!
Translations
你好！Bonjour! Здравствуйте! Hello!
Truth be told I don’t know if any of those above translations are even correct (well, maybe the last one), but I do know that we have our translations hooked in throughout the game. Soon we’ll be asking for help in translating the words in Parkasaurus to a bunch of languages from around the world so everyone can have dino best friends. If you think you can help be sure msg us on Discord or on the Steam forums!
Beam me wayyyy back Scotty
We changed how players use the time portal to go back in time and find cool dino eggs. Skulls, footprints and gems now influence the type of eggs you can find; but are not mandatory. Also dino digging was transitioned into the final task to find your dino eggs. And did we mention you’ll be sending back your employees for the task? Choose how many and who to send.
Bonus : 99 Red-ish balloons go by
Lot’s of bugs for Alpha3 are being fixed – this was a cute / sad one. At the end of the day balloons being held by guests were supposed to disappear, instead, I found in them in the morning of the next day slowly floating in to the sky. Keeping that one.
Parkasaurus Warriors!
The two of us are trying our hardest to get the Parkasaurus word out to the interwebz, and we see all of you helping out! Keep it up! Tell your neighbour to Wishlist us, get your boyfriend to follow us on Twitter or get your boss to post about us on reddit or your company forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Thanks. xoxo
Here are a few ways to follow us:
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Amazing News : we decided make Parkasaurus GREAT (by pushing EA)
Hi there Parkasaurus best friends.
When the two of us started Parkasaurus a promise was made to ourselves to never release our game into Early Access before we felt it was ready. Too many times we’ve personally supported Kickstarters, and Early Access games that have release broken, and then disappear into the night. I understand all too well how hard it is to make games – but I also know that gamers who amazingly buy Early Access to support me, who give me money saying “we believe in this product and YOU”, deserve a tight working game experience.
We know that you are all excited for the game and we can't wait to let you get your hands on Parkasaurus and to see what parks and exhibits you create for your dino best friends.
Unfortunately during our evaluation process we feel that, whilst progressing at lightning speed, the game isn't yet early access ready in a way that you deserve, and we do not want to rush something out just to meet our forecast Spring window. Many people have told us it is crazy to not release very soon – that from a business perspective this is suicide. We don’t care – what we care about most is an Early Access game we can be proud of, and a game we can develop together with you, early supporters, to eventually release the best Parkasaurus can be.
Pushing our early access release by a few months means that we are able to refine what we already have and introduce some other, as yet unannounced, features to the game. We have a crystal clear roadmap to bring Parkasaurus to Early Access and then far far beyond, to a 1.0 release, and then much more. Come with us on the ride!
Our regular updates continue as usual and we will continue to be active in the Discord server and other social channels, bringing polls, providing idea submission forms and asking for feedback on features as they are implemented.
Let's grow this together.
Parkasaurus Update #010 : None too Flashy
Howdy there Parkasaurus Warriors! Turns out we should be arriving at Alpha3 this week, a bit behind schedule but not too bad. We also have evaluated the project and our roadmap and excited to provide a schedule update later this week.
Alpha Version 3 current milestone. This week!
Over the last week we have made a lot of progress with the game adding some of the required nuts and bolts that aren’t always the most exciting aspects of a game to show off, but definitely vital to shipping a successful Early Access. . This includes translations, menu screens, option screens, and simple UI improvements to making a smooth gaming experience. Although, we ALSO finished our first pass on one of the funniest parts of the game: dinosaur breakouts
Update 010 Topics
Chaos
Loading & Menu Screens
UI Improvements
Bonus : Exhibit Polish
Chaos
We had a fun time implementing dinosaur breakouts, and you’ll have a fun time trying to contain them. A lot of chaos happens when a dino breaks a hole in their exhibit. Some dinos are fairly chill and only want a hamburger, other dinos are less…chill, and have a taste for meat alright. Question is have you hired enough park rangers to contain? Enough engineers to fix the damage? We’ll see.
Loading & Menu Screens
Option menu, main menu, loading menu : done done and done. Menus can often take a long time to implement but luckily these were not too painful. Check out our little loading screen – we had a good suggestion from our Discord that the dinosaur running on the globe should be randomly chosen, I think we’ll try to implement that.
UI Improvements
UI improvements are interesting because often they are only noticed when missing! I’m sure though all the Parkasaurus players will notice every detail we put in though because they’re the best. An example of a recent UI improvement is the destruction confirmation tool – if you’re destroying an expensive item in your park we’ll be sure to check in with you. Also don’t worry, destroying you dino with a tool is not possible.
Bonus : Exhibit Polish
Even during all these new additions to the game we had time to do a little terrain polishing. Check it out. (this is a slightly older pic, things look even better now!)
Parkasaurus Warriors!
The two of us are trying our hardest to get the Parkasaurus word out to the interwebz, and we see all of you helping out! Keep it up! Tell your teachers to Wishlist us, get your car mechanic to follow us on Twitter or get your neighbor to post about us on reddit or forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Thanks. xoxo
Here are a few ways to follow us:
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Parkasaurus Update #009 : Party Hats
Hi there Parkasaurus Warriors! The next update has arrived. The game is tightening up; a few big features (that are hilarious to see in game) and more graphics updates. At Washbear we hope to be as transparent as possible, and want to let you know that we’re trying very hard to get you an Early Access date update. Thanks for understanding! Parkasaurus Update #009 : Party Hats
Alpha Version 3 current milestone…what is closer than close?
A very large update to the Parkasaurus privacy mechanic has been implemented over the last week. Now there are more options for deciding how to design your exhibit. As always the focus is on your dino best friends so a few more dino accessories were made thanks to our Discord vote. Oh, and of course more food refilling options and dino poop!
Update 009 Topics
Party Hats
What type of manager are you?
Privacy is Happy – but for who
Somebody has to clean it up…
Party Hats
Are accessories for your dino best friends the most important feature we should be working on? The answer is DEFINITELEY YES. Our Discord channel recently voted on what dino accessories they wanted to see more in Parkasaurus, and recent winners were Unicorn Hat (+2 enrichment), Cone of Shame (+1 health) and Hotdog Hat (+1 bonus to eating). Earn those science points to be sure you too can have a full assortment of accessories.
What type of manager are you?
Your dino best friends are going to be really hungry, and we mean HUNGRY. Keeping your feeders refilled is a demanding task in Parkasaurus. The question is do you refill the feeders yourself by items from you inventory bag, or do you have your veterinarians do the work? Or a combination of both? Choices choices.
Privacy is Happy – but for who
Your privacy heatmap allows fine tuning of your dino exhibits to be a balance between what is best for your dinos, and what keeps your guests paying money! Obviously your dino best friends are paramount – so be sure to use tall grass, wisely shape your exhibits, and mindfully place your guest paths along the fences in such a way as to maintain a decent amount of privacy.
Somebody has to clean it up…
Sadly our dinosaurs lost the ability to poop – but luckily that was fixed! Part of raising your baby dinos into full adulthood is ensuring their exhibits are clean. Be sure to hire a veterinarian and a janitor to help out.
Parkasaurus Warriors!
The two of us are trying our hardest to get the Parkasaurus word out to the world, and we see all of you helping out! Keep it up! Tell your neighbour to Wishlist us, get your boyfriend to follow us on Twitter or get your boss to post about us on reddit or your company forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Thanks. xoxo
Here are a few ways to follow us:
Steam Discord Twitter Mailing List Facebook Disclaimer: Any crazy features we write about might change by the Early Access version
Parkasaurus Update #008 : Our Parkasaurus Family
Hello our fantastic Parkasaurus Warriors™! I’m happy to share with you our next update. We are getting closer and closer to getting the game available – and it is becoming more important than ever to get the word out. The two of us are going to need all of you. Parkasaurus Update #008 : Our Parkasaurus Family
Alpha Version 3 current milestone…so close
Are you tired of hearing about the Parkasaurus core loop? I know I am! But the truth is we’re still working very hard on that. In addition though, we finished a ton of other tasks such as: added a few new dinos to the Parkasaurus family, doing the first pass on dino AI, and growing dino babies to adulthood.
Update 008 Topics
They grow up so fast
Do you take your steak rare or…alive?
The Size of our family is never too big : Welcome Seismosaurus
More upgrade sets! Science-awayyy
They grow up so fast
We had recently created baby dinos – so the next task was to have them grow into adults. This also meant new baby models – they are similar to their parents, but slightly different: maybe they don’t have their full color scheme, or all their features have yet to grown in. The other big challenge was getting our save system to work with dinos that now could be a range of sizes. This was difficult to implement, but worth it, and darn cute.
Do you eat your steak rare or…alive?
Observing and figuring out what your dino best friends are thinking is a fun part of Parkasaurus. Each species has their own dino thoughts and inclinations, even individual dinos have slightly different personalities. Is your Stegosaurus extra shy? Well you might need to develop an exhibit with more privacy.
The Size of our family is never too big : Welcome Seismosaurus
Seismosaurus is the Discord winner of what Sauropod gets included in the game. I think we’re slowly arriving at the list for what dino best friends will be available for Early Access.
More upgrade sets! Science-awayyy
Somehow we’re also finding time to make more building upgrade sets. Most upgrades are unlocked in the Science Technology Tree or the Hearts Technology Tree. Upgraded buildings provide various bonuses – for example each Science Building upgrade provides an additional spot for a research Scientist. Note: The last science building in the gif is getting updated (great feedback from reddit friends)
Parkasaurus Warriors!
The two of us are trying our hardest to get the Parkasaurus word out to the interwebz, and we see all of you helping out! Keep it up! Tell your neighbour to Wishlist us, get your boyfriend to follow us on Twitter or get your boss to post about us on reddit or your company forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Thanks. xoxo
Here are a few ways to follow us:
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Parkasaurus Update 007 : Potpourri
Hello Parkasaurus Warriors™! Sorry this is a few days late, blame Google and their faulty calendar. (I should be careful they hear everything). LET’S DO THIS. Here is your Parkasaurus Update #007 : Potpourri
Alpha Version 3 current milestone!
There is still a major focus on the core loop of Parkasaurus, this is really our #1 priority. In addition though, we’ve started to do a graphics improvement pass that is Early Access suitable (eek) – although Alpha 3 is still the current target. With all that said there are lots of interesting updates to choose from this week.
Update 007 Topics
Dino baby logic & integration
Graphics FX improvements
Achelousaurus is the big winner! (chicken dinner?)
Donation system!
Bonus: Privacy Heat Map extensions
Dino baby logic & integration
Last time we chatted you found out that we are indeed having Dino babies ready for Early Access. Since then we’ve created new baby models, figured out all the code bits so they grow over time into awesome adults, and implemented their baby brain logic. Here is a little Steg Baby hanging out with mom.
Graphics FX improvements
We really want Parkasaurus to have a unique look – so there is an extra graphics pass being done on exhibit tiles and paths. In the picture you see the tiles sand, grass and mud. Each of these tiles forms the start of your exhibit design. Your tile type dictates what sort of biomes you can build into – but that really depends on your design choices. The tiles when placed down procedurally create what you’re seeing.
Achelousaurus is the big winner!
Achelousaurus was chosen as the winner from our most recent poll on Discord. Now the poll is deciding what Sauropod we should put in next.
Donation system
We're experimenting with a new system that represents a guests donation potential with money bubbles above their head. As the guest builds up donation from seeing happy Dinos, bubbles appear representing the amount of donation, from 1 to 5. Happier Dinos means more money bubbles. The donation amount will dissipate over time until they reach donation boxes that are strategically place by the player.
Privacy Heat Map extensions
More work on the privacy heat-map; adding vegetation toggle and implemented paths near the edge of exhibits reduce privacy. Exhibit shape and path placement is important!
Parkasaurus Warriors!
Keep it up! We appreciate you SO MUCH for helping spread the word about Parkasaurus by sharing us via that cute little green button below, Wishlisting us, following us on Twitter or posting about us on reddit or forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Spread the word!
Here are a few ways to follow us:
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Parkasaurus Update 006 : Work the Core
Hello Parkasaurus Warriors™! Lot’s ‘a happening. The snow is melting (at least in the cold arctic North) bringing with it the motivation of spring! Here is your Parkasaurus Update #006 : Work the Core.
Alpha Version 3 next milestone!
We finished analyzing all our recent internal Playtests and are using this data to move from Alpha V2 to Alpha V3. (cheers & balloons falling from ceiling) Alpha V3 is going to contain all the bug fixes and changes we determine are required from the playtests – trust me there was a lot. Essentially we are going to work on the “Core Loop” of Parkasaurus. We have some of that early Alpha V3 work to show you in the form of very cool Exhibit polish, and finally we snuck in Dino Babies!
Update 006 Topics
More Playtests
Exhibit rework & polish
Dino Babies!
Bonus: Cool crate shader!
More Playtests
Enough of the playtests already! We know. But for too long people have released broken Early Access games and we don’t want to be one of them. Bugs? We know that’s ok. But broken messes? No way. People can only purchase so many games and we are honoured you might be willing take a chance with helping us bring Parkasaurus from Early Access to full release. The image you see is a quick collage of a few internal playtests at various points in the game. Flooded parks? Yup! The mouse cursor disappeared to never come back? You betcha.
Exhibit rework & polish
The most important aspect of operating a successful Parkasaurus park is really the Dino Exhibit. More money from guests is generated as you tweak and optimize your exhibits to better match your Dino best friends. And every Exhibit starts humbly with an enclosure. Now we immediately indicate that you’ve created an enclosure and inform you of the square footage (this is important…).
Dino Babies!
We had thought about pushing this until after Early Access, but Dino Babies are too cute! Having Dino Babies grow into adults was a much more technical challenge than one might think. Since a major aspect of Parkasaurus is tending to your Dino best friends we had no choice but to put this feature in.
Bonus: Cool crate shader!
When you order items they are delivered to your park in a crate. This is just a neat little shader effect that occurs when you click on your crate. (Note: there are plans to change this effect to make it a little less “science fiction”)
Parkasaurus Warriors!
Keep it up! We appreciate you SO MUCH for helping spread the word about Parkasaurus by sharing us via that cute little green button below, Wishlisting us, following us on Twitter or posting about us on reddit or forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Spread the word!
Here are a few ways to follow us:
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Parkasaurus Update 005 : Let Them Play!
Howdy Parkasaurus Warriors™. Apologies for this update being 1 day late; we were busy getting ready for the most romantic day of the year: February 15th - Galileo Day! The day when we celebrate our love of dinosaurs and all topics science. Here is your Parkasaurus Update #005.
Alpha Version 2 – Closer still…
This was a very exciting week. Topics to chat about from least exciting to most: we created some cool shaders to give the plants and fauna more life, developed robust management graphs for the in-game office computer and lastly started our first playtests with close friends. As you can imagine it was exciting and scary! One of our playtests ended when the water flooded the park…
Update 005 Topics
Plant Shaders
Management Analysis System
Playtests
Plant Shaders
A core dimension for us when creating Parksaurus is to emphasize the importance of using appropriate fauna in your best friend Dino exhibits. This is why we strive to do everything we can to help make the worlds you design more beautiful. Our newest shader does just that; giving life -like wind motion to all the plants in the Parksaurus world, using a 2d noise map that moves across the world. The amount of wind varies with the time of day, time of year and the width & height of the plants. It looks great:
Management Analysis System
In Parksaurus you’ll have the chance to retire to your office to examine the park budget; where did you lose money? Which of your best friend Dinos generates the most money from the guests? Did curly fries sell more than waffles fries on Thursdays? Management graphs were put into the office computer so you can check revenue, profit, etc. throughout the days.
Playtests
The first playtests occurred last week to much terror and excitement. Mostly terror? As predicted the playtests were … interesting. One always wants a raving success when the first people try out your game; the reality is usually tears. Luckily we’ve gone through enough playtests to know the roller coaster of emotions. Ok, joking aside we learned a lot. Our favourite game ending bug though was water leaking out of a Sauropod exhibit and slowly but surely flooding an entire park on Day 7. Good times:
Parkasaurus Warriors!
You’re doing a great job. Keep it up! Have you told your neighbour Bob or written our web address on the bathroom stall? We appreciate you SO MUCH for helping spread the word about Parkasaurus by sharing us via that cute little green button below, Wishlisting us, following us on Twitter or posting about us on reddit or forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Thank you to infinite!
Here are a few ways to follow us:
Steam Discord Twitter Mailing List Facebook Disclaimer: Any crazy features we write about might change by the Early Access version
Parkasaurus Update 004
Hello fellow Parkasaurus Warriors ™. Jeez we’re one month into 2018 already! No worries, I have your bi-weekly (or is that bi-monthly? Nobody knows) Parkasaurus update for you.
Alpha Version 2 – Closer…
Schedule is back on track after a small setback last week. Our upcoming objective is: be able to play all the features of the game AND have them make sense. The catch is the 2nd part of that sentence “have them make sense”. Since we’re all making this game together – I’ll share with you that one of the toughest parts of making games is for people to understand what the heck the feature even is. This requires some internal UI testing that occurs next week. Exciting!
Update 004 Topics
Discord!
Privacy 2nd Pass
Lighting Improvements and Shader Optimization
Dino Magic Items
Discord!
That’s right. We have a Discord channel to chat all things Parkasaurus or anything science related. Come check it out AND share the link: https://discord.gg/7u9d6f9
Reasons to join the Parkasaurus Discord:
choose a Dino family to join (Stegosauria Swooners anyone?)
vote on what Dinos we make next
post or read about cool science articles
Privacy 2nd Pass
Privacy is an aspect of exhibit design. Depending on how you shape your exhibit, place the walk paths, and what enrichment items to install, changes the exhibit privacy profile - represented by a privacy heatmap. There are a lot of factors that go into this. And of course, your Dino behaviour is greatly affected by the privacy profile. With that said - we're doing a 2nd pass on the privacy mechanic to improve the clarity to the player (and to ourselves).
Lighting Improvements and Shader Optimization
This is a two-fer.
The first pass of the game involved many beautiful shaders that were not as efficient as they could have been. For example our fire shader – made from a combination of layered noise masks using 3d cylindrical meshes - was very cool, but caused serious performance issues. We applied a 2nd pass and now the fire is silky smooth.
Even better (it gets better!) was changing the color palette of the Parkasaurus world to match more closely to our vision, and to change the lighting curve from gamma to linear. And wowy – your park is going to look amazing.
Dino Magic Items
Lastly we continued making additional Dino accessories you can research or discover for your Dino best friends. Some items are aesthetic, but other items provide bonus stats for your Dinos! Does the winter hat give your Dino extra warmth once your park reaches winter time? You betcha! Does the fedora influence your guests to donate more? Yup! (secrets, shhh)
Parkasaurus Warriors!
You’re doing a great job. Keep it up! Have you told your neighbour Bob or written our web address on the bathroom stall? We appreciate you SO MUCH for helping spread the word about Parkasaurus by sharing us via that cute little green button below, Wishlisting us, following us on Twitter or posting about us on reddit or forums. Being a Parkasaurus Warrior is such a big help to us. Thank you to infinite!
