Indie Game MESOZOICA Let's You Be the Dinosaur of Your Choice

Tycoon games are a great series that lets you see what it would be like to own and build your own park. From theme parks to zoo's, there are various different versions that let you really feel and interact with the world within as you continue to grow the profit and popularity of your attraction.

Bringing back the dinosaur era with their very own tycoon game is DreaminCode who are creating the game Mesozoica; which is pronounced Mez-Ah-Zo-Ic. This game will be your chance to create your own parks, or use a pre-existing one, to run a park with the various dinosaurs that existed on our planet millions of years ago!

Bringing an era to life isn't an easy task, but this looks like they are putting tons of care and attention to detail in it so that they bring a product that is truly fitting to provide to players that are both new to the idea and old fans of Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. You will also have a chance to take control of the dinosaurs and actually play as one of the various fossils that are brought to life in this virtual world!

You read that right. You can be any dinosaur of your choosing!

Another interesting aspect is that it won't be a plain sandbox style game that just gives you a variety of options, but it will include a multi-path story with options from business to staff to what dinosaurs are even in your park! Players are launched into this world where the living standard has increased to the point where the call for entertainment has increased to the point that companies have started searching for ways to increase entertainment and wealth. Everybody is looking for the new wonder of the world!

"We mostly want to keep the plot quiet or secret. There are plans and Easter Eggs and features that are being kept under wraps so players can experience them for the first time while playing. I have even said there are things not offered in the game that are unlockable later in the game." - Maxwell Wood

Q&A with Wood, Project Lead

What made you want to make this game?
"The idea came in to being after, I would probably say that everyone on the team including myself have been fans of the Jurassic era - the genre was seeing a digression after Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis"

So you are trying to take over the idea of Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis to be made how you saw fit?
"That's the general idea, yes. It's not so much to pick up where they left off, but rather to bring something new and to challenging games like zoo tycoon that are made by bigger studios. Now it's turned into its own fleshling, or you could probably say it's own entity."

Will there be a story line or main objective for the players to follow?
"We looked into the tycoon genre and realized there was a gap in what tycoon's offer and what players want. There is a kind of story as you pick your own company of one of the three you start off with, advisers, dinosaurs, and further options. They will have their own quests and challenges. Not only will there be a narrative story line for players to get behind, but also characters and narrative."

How long has it been in development?
"Too long would be the correct saying! For us, it's been two and a half years now. I will say this, we ultimately redeveloped the game three times fully; as in got to where we are ready to push out a demo and it wasn't something we were proud of. Issues with development or with the team, but ultimately we provided a product but it doesn't live up to what we expected it to be, what we think players expect it to be. We want to make something to challenge AAA studios and bringing a successor that fits the response from all the people."

What is your target audience?
"It was exclusively to Jurassic Park fans. We were tailoring it to the fan base that has been waiting thirteen years of Operation [name]. But we wanted to expand it to people those who are fans of tycoon games, fans of dinosaur era, and up to where we can't define them to a single group. We are aiming for a Teen rating so it's comforting for parents and it allows a greater range of people to play it. We understand there will be people pirating it and finding ways around the rating, but we still want to include them."

What can players expect while playing your game?
"The only thing that I can for sure say is that what they can expect is probably the most realistic, and not realistic in sense of accuracy, but in texture quality and animations that challenge the standards as well. More importantly an experience that is tailored to what they want. They define what they want in the era, items, narrative, company and other customization. What we have found to be surprisingly true is that it is a toolbox, a suitcase. It is not a predefined journey or anything like that."

What's your favorite dinosaur in your game?
"I think my favorite, which has some bias in it, was going to be the Suchomimus because of it's AI system which has changed since we added the dinosaur controller; which lets you take control of the dinosaur. But the Gallimimus is the most refreshing take on the computer dinosaurs."

How many options and pieces will be available for the build your own park section?
"Initially we are going to give a set amount, which comes from Zoo Tycoon and Operation Genesis, but we want it to be more open world style so we are going to have a moduler system. So in other words, you can build structures in any way you want. There will be walls, pieces, and other parts for the AI to interact with as far as customers, executives and dinosaurs. Instead of giving you a set of buildings, we would rather the number be unlimited and give players free range to build."

Will there be some staff created parks for players to use?
"Yes. There will be some that make it into it. That's just because we enjoy building the buildings in our system, but there is going to be an event that hasn't been announced yet that will let players interact with the game before the game releases so that the fans and players and gamers in general can come and help us pre-build buildings for the players that don't want to use the moduler system. So there will be preset buildings, and a way for players to make their own, but we are going to be including the community to build the base line."

Will there be DLC for the game? What would it contain?
"For our current system, which is the most exciting part, is that one of the biggest downfalls for the tycoon games is that the DLC comes as expansions. We would like to add anything new such as skins, we would like it to be updates into the game weekly or monthly, adding 50-60 new creatures or skins to the games; depending on take off."

Check out the Trailer from their Old Kickstarter:

DreaminCode is hoping to launch a Free Update to the Demo in Q2 of 2017 on both PC and Mac, depending on the progress speed. The full game is still to be announced at a later date. You can follow for more information and updates on Facebook and YouTube.