For Game Dreaming, we look to our favorite comics, movies and television shows and imagine them as AAA video games. By using existing games as a starting point and adding in a healthy dose of imagination, we examine how the game might play, what it might look like and what it would be about in order to create the licensed games of our dreams.
This week, we are imagining what the perfect Jurassic Park game for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 might play like.
Jurassic Park is no stranger to video game adaptations. Over the years, there have been a number of diverse (and occasionally dumbfounding) games all sharing the Jurassic Park name. We've had shooters, side-scrolling action titles, fighting games, park management simulators and an adventure game.
However, few manage to accurately capture the essence of what the Jurassic Park film series is all about. The franchise is ripe with potential, as the number of Jurassic Park games over the years have shown. The only problem is boiling down what exactly makes Jurassic Park what it is and adapting it into game form.
That's what we will attempt to do here. By taking the more successful elements of Jurassic Park games from the past and combining them with some fresh new ideas, this is how to create the Jurassic Park video game of our dreams.
Gameplay
At its core, what is Jurassic Park about? It's about a theme park ... filled with dinosaurs. It's surprisingly obvious, but few game developers have approached their games with that in mind.
One of the best Jurassic Park games ever made is Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, released in 2003 for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2. It's almost exactly what you would expect from a game named Jurassic Park. Players build their own dinosaur theme park/zoo by acquiring new dinosaurs, constructing rides and installing safety measures. There are a number of missions for players to embark on as well, including a safari mission where players take pictures of dinosaurs around the park or are forced to "retire" dinosaurs from the park in order to save people of interest when all hell breaks loose. Completing all 10 missions unlocks the "Site B" portion of the game, where players can create a dinosaur island free of tourists or fences and simply watch their dinosaurs interact in a human-free environment.
If we are making the Jurassic Park game of our dreams, it has to be a game about managing a dinosaur theme park. It's the only way. Operation Genesis got it right more than a decade ago, but by expanding on some of its ideas, we can create an ever better game.
The core gameplay of Operation Genesis is a great starting point. Raise your dinosaurs, keep them healthy and make sure the visitors of the park are safe at all times. This wouldn't be Jurassic Park, however, if things didn't go horribly wrong at times. How players deal with natural disasters, dinosaur rampages and other deadly scenarios would make up the other major portion of the game.
That's where the idea of missions come in. Rather than having separate, standalone missions for players to complete, these scenarios would happen naturally over the course of the park's life.
It is during these moments that our game would draw upon the other elements that make Jurassic Park what it is, namely the horror of being chased by a hungry T-Rex or a vicious pack of Velociraptors. These portions could be played in the first person and would adopt a survival horror approach. Players may be tasked with making it to a backup generator facility or to rescue a visitor trapped deep within the forests of the park. Along the way, they would need to sneak past deadly carnivores roaming free. Players would have few weapons and scarce ammo, and the risk of attracting even more dinosaurs would mean players would have rely on their wits, not their firepower.
Remember the kitchen scene from the original Jurassic Park, as the two children scramble to hide from hungry Velociraptors? Turning that into a first-person experience is the goal.
Lucky for us, there is already a first-person horror game that may work as an effective template for these portions in the form of Alien: Isolation. In Alien: Isolation, players spend the game avoiding the deadly alien by hiding in closets, sneaking through corridors and holding their breath when the alien gets too close. Players also have an assortment of tools and weapons to bypass doors and deal with lesser enemies, but the threat of the alien is ever-present and requires players to always be on their toes.
By combining addictive park management gameplay with intense, first-person survival segments, a Jurassic Park game might finally capture all the essential elements that make the film series so endearing.
Visuals
One of the reasons Jurassic Park and its sequels still hold up so well today is because of the stellar visual effects on display. Combining animatronic dinosaurs with CGI, after watching the original film, you could be forgiven for believing dinosaurs still roam the Earth.
With that kind of reputation, a Jurassic Park game needs to be visually top-of-the-line. Sim management games aren't known for their impressive graphics. After all, the majority of the game is spent high above in an overhead perspective. However, for our game's first-person survival segments, the dinosaurs need to feel like living, breathing and incredibly dangerous animals. It wouldn't be scary otherwise.
Story
Park management sims don't usually have in-depth stories. Our game isn't going to try and reinvent the wheel in that department. Instead, it will focus on breathing life into the characters and personalities that populate your Jurassic Park.
The set-up is simple. You are the CEO of Jurassic Park, overseeing every aspect of it. Unlike some bosses, you prefer a hands-on approach to running the park, so when things go wrong, you are one of the first boots on the ground to make it right. Over the course of the park's lifespan, various disasters will strike that will require players to use all their wits and survival skills in order to come out alive. Along the way, players will meet various key personnel for the park, interacting with them, learning their roles and helping them survive. These characters will recur throughout the course of the game, even in the park management portions, giving personalities to the disembodied voices that update you on your park's progress.
It wouldn't be a linear story, and that's okay. Thousands of moviegoers don't flock to theaters for the "story" of Jurassic Park. They go for the excitement of seeing dinosaurs up close and letting their imaginations run wild by asking, "what if there was a place where dinosaurs still roamed free?" That's what our Jurassic Park game aims to deliver: the fantasy of building your own dinosaur theme park while also capturing the majesty (and horror) of seeing prehistoric creatures up close. Now, if only we could get it made.
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