Ancestors: The Dinosaurian Odyssey

Ancestor: The Dinosaurian Odyssey is an upcoming survival mostly single player game and second installment of the Ancestors (Video Game Series) series. It developed by Afterthought LLC and Panache Digital Games. It will be published by Private Division and Afterthought LLC. The release date is 2023 for Microsoft Windows and an unknown date for consoles. The dinosaur designs of some will mixed with The Isle and the original designs of the game. Dondi teases in the future they will add hypothetical scenarios.

Synopsis
“The dinosaurs, the most successful species to ever walk the Earth. Each year we discover something new about them and how they impacted the face of the planet. In this survival game, you have to survive as a little primitive dinosaur and become a true dinosaur. But you have to survive, grow, and reproduce in order to become one of the greatest rulers on planet Earth.”

-Afterthought LLC and Private Division.

Main Gameplay
The game is in production so almost no information about the gameplay. It is planned to have similar styles to The Isle and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. The game is said to be 130-245 hours long, for sticking with one family tree. In order to evolve, players must evolve neurons and designs over the generations. As new generations comes they get new mutation that will be passed on to future dinosaurian species. If you die along with your family, you have to restart the game, until you decide to kill off the dinosaurs. However, when your a juvenile dinosaur you must avoid other dinosaurs and mammals. If your an adult, it’s your goal to protect yourself and your family at all cost.

But if you choose a bird your goal is to survive past the extinction event. However, one of the developers say they may continue up to modern day birds. He also said in the interview, “As long as you don’t die off until the end of the game. You can play other family trees, and they will be unlocked when your family tree evolves.”

Info
When finding a new species you earn new info on the animal. You also receive information about the animal when you are on the menu screen. This can help you learn how to avoid the animals and if your big enough to fight them, how to fight them.

Triassic Period:
Shortly after the Permian extinction, the world was empty allowing new creatures to take over what was left behind. One of them were the dinosaurs, but in the early Triassic you were a early ancestor to the true dinosaurs. By the middle Triassic, if you survive then you evolved into the first dinosaur. But you aren’t the top predator yet, land crocodiles like Saurosuchus rules the landscape. Being much more active due to being warm blooded, you have an advantage against your relatives.

Jurassic Period:
Your competitors are wiped out by a massive volcanic eruption and Pangea is splitting forcing you and all the other dinosaurs to diversify to new environments. Even though your competitors are gone, you have one thing to compete with, other dinosaurs. Evolve into massive theropods like Torvosaurus and rule the landscapes. During this time, you evolve into the first bird, it’s your choice to play as a bird or continue to play as dinosaurs.

Cretaceous Period:
After a minor extinction event, the world is changing similar to what it looks like today. Grass appears, flowering plants appear as well, but something new, the continents are still drifting expanding the Atlantic Ocean. But your competitors, the mammalians began growing bigger, so you have to keep your eyes out for your babies. But in the end you will go extinct by the asteroid impact, unless if you decide not to end your game there.

Dinosaurs
It will have all major dinosaur groups. Dinosaurs are currently unknown.

NOTE: This is fan made, so none of this is real, so don’t take it seriously. Expect for the companies and The Isle. Dondi’s friend working for Panache Digital Games is fake for now.
The game was developed by Afterthought LLC after they finished the game The Isle. However, they knew they needed some help, one of their friends was a member of Panache Digital Games, after several meetings. They decided to help Afterthought LLC make this upcoming game.

Dondi and his friend mainly focused on the designs of the dinosaurs while some of the others focused on the environment. Dondi confirms the game has just completed preproduction and will enter production in 2021. First concept arts were revealed a week later, and early models were shown. The original release date was 2022, but they figured out it’s too early so it was moved back to 2023. However, according to Dondi, it may get pushed back by another 2 years.

Dondi confirms that within several months to a year, there would be a huge update which would include the hypothetical modes called the “Evolution Code” after the timeline is complete. On a recent livestream, a game designer officially confirms that the game first release will the Triassic Period will be playable first. Then 3 months later, the Jurassic period releases, and by the end of the year, the Cretaceous releases.

Rating
It will be aged for teens due to blood and some gore. However, Tapwing teases that they will change it for mature, since they may add more gore.

Reception
IGN gave it a 8/10 quoting, “It was a massive improvement from Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, this one has a longer gameplay, the game is a bit easier and much more understandable. But this is early access and the early footage and the future looks promising.”

Future Updates Before the Evolution Code

 * New IK System
 * Better sense system
 * More dinosaurs
 * More complex AI relationship (For example, parenting)

Trailers
Ancestors: The Dinosaur Odyssey/Trailers

According to Dondi, the first trailer will come out either by the end of 2021 or early-mid 2022.

Future
Dondi has confirmed they are planning to do a sequel on whales, when the game is finished. They also do a documentary based on the series, according to Tapwing. On December 15th, 2022 a secretive film has accidentally been leaked. Toys from Mattel have been leaked as well. According to the report, it’s called Dinosaurian. According to Dondi, they are making for shorts some will not be realistic for example, Battle of the Eons, which is said to be a series between Cenozoic and Mesozoic. The first episode will have a battle between Short Faced Bear and Nasutoceratops.

Trivia

 * This is one of the most expensive video games of all time.
 * For their project, they hired many paleontologists for help.
 * According to Dondi, environment design was the hardest.