Tamer Project Total Progress Report - May 2024
Hello to our supporters! We've decided to provide everyone interested in following Ride the Lion and our work a public, full project update so you can understand where we are in the development of Tamer: King of Dinosaurs.
This is going to be a very in-depth post that goes into detail about every aspect of the game, so we hope you enjoy the effort and gain a better understanding of not only the project but also exactly what we'll be working on all the way to release and how additional support through funding will allow us to make everything even better!
GAME DESIGN DOCUMENTATION & PROJECT MANAGEMENT SCHEDULE
100% complete
Tamer's GDD (game design document) has been in version 1.0 since we stepped on the gas near the end of 2022 and we brought it to 2.0 in late 2023 after some rounds of testing and further conceptualization.
We hosted a one month game design seminar right at the start of production so the team had a clear picture of what we wanted to create and what we needed to do to make it happen, and we also held several other major meetings throughout last year so any updates or changes to the plan was understood by the whole team.
Anyone the understands game development knows what a huge advantage it is to know exactly how your game will be constructed from the start of development, especially when that means both in terms of design and schedule.
Did you notice how a bunch of franchise AAA games over the past few years have come out and looked and played even worse than previous titles? It's not because the devs or environment artists got worse at programming AI or making good-looking levels.
It's because of poor management.
The people at the top get stuck in an overly idealistic concept phase far too long and then make consistently late and poor decisions when properly documented and communicated decisiveness was needed far earlier in development.
This causes the project managers to struggle maintaining the schedule, the developers to be confused and overworked as they see their best efforts amounting to much less than they could have in the end, and the artists to be rushed in the creation of assets that should have been requested in a far more efficient manner.
We've had to deal with this nonsense before in our previous projects. It's a big part of why we formed this team together and that's why we don't have that problem at Ride the Lion. The heads of our studio consistently listen to the feedback of our developers and artists to address their concerns ahead of time so they don't become a source of chaos for the project, and we are always decisive but fair in our expectations.
This is what allows us to create a game with a large scope while having a relatively small studio. Every opinion is respected, and everyone's ideas and concerns are always treated seriously.
While Tamer's design will certainly evolve during testing, we're confident that what we've already put down on paper is going to translate into a fantastic gaming experience.
We also built different scope levels into the design in terms of how much and how polished we'll be able to deliver depending the additional funding we get through Patreon.
In particular, we want to have a more robust fort buidling system and excellent combat.
FULL GAME SCRIPT
100% complete
Since we already had a NYT best-selling novel as the base for our narrative, making the adaptation was an interesting process to say the least. Maintaining the high-quality narrative was priority number one, but we also took note of how stretching the plot of books and one and two over the amount of gameplay we wanted was going to be difficult due to the necessity of more action beats to justify it.
That's why we made gameplay-centric additions to the narrative to add more content but also carefully wove new deep threads of characterization into that story. Any action beat thrown into the script was used to explore who our characters are and how they react in high-adrenaline situations.
Pulling that off took many months of back and forth between the studio and Michael-Scott Earle himself, but in the end we're all really happy with the extra content and we think fans of the original books are going to love it!
The script was further updated during our performance capture and we've finally reached a 3.0 version that contains a level of content we are confident we can deliver.
However, additional support will allow us to include everything - especially the prologue chapter that features an Earth-based sequence full of beautiful women in bikinis. We're fairly confident that's something you want to see.
ART DIRECTION & ART BIBLE
100% complete
We were fortunate to work with a wonderful partner studio that put together a slick and stylish art bible for us. That has been the driving force for both our character and environment modeling process since its creation, and we're really starting to develop quality aesthetics for the game.
The look of the project has been nailed down and we're ready to proceed with full production in confidence. Should be reach a solid level of support, we can use these materials to upgrade the entire game's look as well as make sure everything has a nice, consistent shine to it.
CINEMATIC & CUTSCENE PERFORMANCE CAPTURE
Pipeline 100%, content 95% complete
Going hand in hand with the previous objective, something we are very happy about is that we have already filmed the entire Tamer: King of Dinosaurs script's performance capture!
Last year, we flew our NYC-based actors and several key members of our team to a remote location and simply got it done over a period of 3 weeks.
Shooting such a large script was certainly a challenge, but our team worked together so well that we actually wrapped early despite making the decision to reshoot several major sequences once the actors got even more comfortable with their equipment and the puppeteering process.
So if the entire script is filmed, why are we not at 100% completion? As we process the data and put it into the engine, we notice some things could have been a little better due to technical issues. When that happens, we have our team "body double" parts of the footage, that being either the face or body, to match the actor's performance from the reference footage but also get a more crisp take. This saves us a lot of time during the cleanup process.
There are also some shots in the Tamer script that require a lot of physical movement and actopn. Shooting these later into production allow us to save time during the primary shoot and adapt as we later make changes to the in-game map and fort/cave levels.
It is likely all of the additional takes will be done by the end of summer 2024, but additional funding will allow us to really focus on increasing the quality of the cutscenes by fixing/adding additional character work so we can have a much better variety of shots in the game.
CINEMATIC & CUTSCENE PRODUCTION
Pipeline 100%, content 5% complete
While basically the entire game's script has already been captured, we still have a long way to go when it comes to producing the cutscenes.
Tamer: King of Dinosaurs does not utilize traditional full-video cinematics for the vast majority of its runtime. Instead, we take a more theater-based approach to the game's plot and have it take place entirely in-engine.
This saves a ton on the game's installation size and allows us to produce a narrative delivery that feels far more organic and centered inside the world itself, showing off our environment work and allowing our actors to use their stage to deliver the story.
Our first major test of constructing these cutscenes came in the form of our NSFW module demo release. We took the bookend scenes of Victor's first romantic encounter with Galmine and brought them to life so we could give context to action.
This allowed us to establish a proper workflow, style and cinematography that will carry through to the rest of the game.
We have a long process of exporting/importing all of our performance capture and then auditing the footage and marking it for retakes if necessary, then setting it all up as level sequences, then stitching them together into full master sequences.
Because this is a process that can always find improvement in the shots, it will be ongoing all the way until we finally release in 2025. However, we expect everything to be in place on a basic level by winter 2024 with the majority of the cutscenes either finished or 90% of the way there at that point.
With your support we can bring a consistently high level of cinematography to the entire project, making it truly impressive and elevating the presenation of the story.
GAMEPLAY ANIMATION
Pipeline 100%, content 20% complete
If we were counting the placeholders, our gameplay animation would technically be around 80% complete. However, we are currently utilizing marketplace assets for the gameplay animations and character locomotion.
We intend to make a pass on everything and use our performance capture technology to make our humanoid characters move in a more natural way before we reach full release.
Our current 20% mostly comes from dinosaurs like the deinonychus that we assigned to our animators to work on for combat testing. They've also gotten a few other baddies out of the way like the carnotaurus and dilophosaurus, both of which will show up in major actions sequences/boss fights throughout the game.
Since our team is experienced with this process, we don't see it as a challenge for the project to get the rest of it done. It's more about finding the right time in the schedule.
Gameplay animation will likely all be done around winter 2024 with some small tweaks and additions being made all the way up until release in 2025.
The main thing more support will allow us to do here is create a greater variety and higher quality of animation, which will obviously make gameplay more visually outstanding.
NSFW MODULE & ANIMATION
Pipeline 100%, content 15% complete
The release of our internal NSFW demo module took a lot of hard work for the studio to reach the level of quality we wanted, and we got it done! In the process, we developed all of the tools we needed and established a clear workflow.
Now that we have all the tools we need created and know exactly how to do it, so all we have to do is create the content. That means putting together the romance scene sets and executing the animation.
It's now understood how long it will take us to make a scene happen now, so we have a clear idea of the scope we can deliver. Additional funding will allow us to add a significant amount of animations per character and even share some animations between them through retargeting.
The NSFW animation's initial workload should be done in early Q1 2024 and we will continue to add animations all the way up until release.
Out of all the objectives where we want to focus the funding, delivering more and top quality adult animations is at the top of the list. Most importantly, we want to have a full-cast harem scene at the end of the game if possible, but that's going to take a lot of time and resources we probably won't have without your help! Please consider donating to get us to this highly desired epilogue, distinguised aristocrats of the gaming community.
CHARACTER MODELING
85% complete
While we do want to continue to make small improvements to the models throughout developer, all of the main character models (Victor, Galmine, Sheela, Trel, and Kacerie) are finished.
When it comes to humanoid characters, we only have a few cameo characters from Tamer 1 & 2 that are left and they have already been started.
Our entire dinosaur cast already has models, but some need a detail pass since they started out as marketplace assets and might not meet the standard we've set for the game.
Any remaining assets are expected to be completed in Q3 2024.
However, outfits chosen by our supporters from polls and other goodies will be added to the game all the way until release, time and resources permitting of course. Additional funding means we can make additional outfits, especially making ones that are more complex and sexy.
ENVIRONMENTAL MODELING & GAME MAP
Design 90%, content 15% complete
The overworld map of Tamer is totally finished in terms of scope and geography. However, we're still looking into the aesthetics of the various areas to make them stand out and apart from each other visually.
We have a master file that we add to over time with visual references. This is referenced as we build the map and eventually make high-detail passes to areas where we have finalized the gameplay sections.
A fully functional 3D environment is already in place, but we've got a long way to go to make it into a real map. We hope once we get a nice Patreon total going we can add a lot more polish and especially environmental effects, both visual and audio, to make the map feel amazing to traverse.
GAMEPLAY DEVELOPMENT
20% complete
The biggest part of the project outside of the significant plot we will deliver is the development of the actual gameplay and building the skeleton of the whole experience.
We already have the full UML document created, which means we know every single quest, interaction, cutscene, event, etc. that takes place from the start of the game to the end.
Construction the skeleton is underway, and this entails laying the completed gameplay modules on top of each other while connecting them with checkpoints, cutscenes, and everything else required to move from the beginning of Tamer to the credits.
By the end of summer this year we'll have a pre-alpha Tamer test skeleton totally complete. That's the point where we begin polishing everything and adding substance to the content so it feels like a real game and can eventually be tested.
When it comes to testing, we intend to build a full internal team from Patreons and other close supporters that will play through Tamer numerous times and help us polish the gameplay and bugfix everything so by the time we launch we have a great title on our hands.
So what is the status of these various modules?
Basic combat is already totally functional. You can engage enemies with both melee and ranged weapons and enemy AI appropriately engages you back and chases you when you try to run.
We've also made great strides with the partner AI system, which is necessary to make Sheela an integral part of the game. While it is functioning at the most basic level, we have a lot of testing and optimization to do before it's ready for full gameplay.
The framework for our various inventory and item related systems is already finished. You can gather resources, cut down trees, discover crafting blueprints and then create the items with your charatcers.
You can also allocate tribe members to do work while you're away from camp.
The two systems we have yet to do significant work on is the raid and chase sequences.
Mild spoilers if you haven't read Tamer 1 & 2, but there are several times where Victor and Sheela are chased by hostile dinosaurs. There are also two major raid sequences where the fort is attacked. We've done a good amount of design work on these, but these modes will require a lot of additional programming and testing to make work.
Gameplay development will be going until we get to testing around winter 2024, and at that point we'll focus on refinement and debugging. Of course, additional funding gives us a chance to wrap all of these modules together in a much tighter, well-functioning framework.
As we mentioned above, fort building is something that is currently scaled back in the design but we have bigger plans for it if we can make that happen.
UI / UX
95% complete art assets and design, 10% integration
We recently completed the full design and creation of the game's UI, but implementation is going to take some time. Our current goal is to install it piece by piece as we build the game's skeleton. It's not a particularly difficult process, but you always discover little things that need fine tuning as you test.
Something we'd really like to do with additional funding is add some crisp visual flair to the UI by making it more like the Eye-Q system in the books, evolving it into a digetic system similar to games like Dead Space.
OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK
100% complete
The soundtrack for Tamer: King of Dinosaurs is technically complete. That means we have all 13 of the basic tracks done. Here's a listing for your reference:
TAMER THEME
FORT
VALLEY
CLIFFS
LAKE
JUNGLE
DEEP JUNGLE
SHEELA THEME
GALMINE THEME
TREL THEME
KACERIE THEME
BASIC COMBAT
BOSS FIGHT
The reason we say "technically complete" is that these are enough original tracks to cover all our bases, but we definitely want to have more.
We'd like to have additional compositions to play during cutscenes, more mood music for more specific areas and weather patterns, etc.
All in all, we have about 5 more tracks and 8 more variations we'd like to add, so we'll see how much funding we get.
So that's it for the project update! We're committing to making a public update summary onece a month from here forward, but you'll need to join as a paid supporter in order to get access to all of the dev blogs, previews, internal test builds, etc.
Any support you can give us is extremely appreciated by everyone in the studio and especially Michael-Scott Earle so we can bring his IP to life!
Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next month!