The progress bar took a big bump up today! We’re at 28 percent!

We’re taking a different approach to development with Dinosauria than we did with our previous two games. In the past, we’ve gotten into publishing deals early on, which forced us to ship on tight schedules. This time around, we’re not signing with anyone until the game is largely complete. We don’t want to be beholden to any schedule that may cause us to ship the game before it’s the best darn animal game ever.

So, what have we been up to lately? The fun stuff: gameplay!

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Next dino: Alamosaurus!

While no armor scutes have been found on Alamosaurus, he is probably the closest North American relative to the South American Saltasaurs, many of which were armored. The large sauropods mostly disappeared from North America in the cretaceous, but for a few notable exceptions, such as Alamosaurus and Sauroposeidon. At 70 feet long, Alamosaurus is smaller than Sauroposeidon and many of the Jurassic sauropods, though still larger than the other dinosaurs in the game.

I’ve been pretty silent for the past month… I had my 31st birthday!, then I got absolutely OBSESSED with Dinosauria, then Game Developer’s Conference happened. In any case, I’m back, with lots more bloggy goodness in the days ahead.

Next up on the Dino-a-day posts: Triceratops!

A little piece of trivia is that a complete skeleton of Triceratops has never been found. This is true of many of the dinosaur species that we know about. Sauroposeidon has been extrapolated from just four neck vertabrae in fact! Because of this, the current picture of what the dinosaur world looked like is constantly evolving as new evidence is uncovered.

Next is the dinosaur that’s already been announced: Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus is our only Jurassic dinosaur. The plates on its back may have served as armor, heat regulation or display.

Sorry I’ve been away, I took a week off of blogging for an extended birthday!

Next up, Acrocanthosaurus! Acro is best known for the row of neural spines along his back, which most likely supported musculature. It has been surmised, however, that the ridge on his back may have been used for display or possibly heat regulation.

Acrocanthosaurus is most closely related to Allosaurus, though some have speculated it is in fact a carcharodontosaurid, a family that includes Giganotosaurus.

In any case, at 40 feet long and with power exuding from every limb of his body, there is no question that the Acrocanthosaurus was a lean, mean killing machine.

Parasaurolophus is the “cow” of Dinosauria. As a mid-sized (for a dinosaur), meaty, somewhat defenseless beast, he roams the forests in search of leafy grub. There are many theories as to what Parasaurolophus used it’s hollow nasal ridge for, including vocalization and increased smell capabilities.

Next dino: Ornithomimus!  Ornithomimus is closesly related to Gallimimus, the flocking dinosaur seen in Jurassic Park.  It was slightly taller than a human, and could probably run very fast.  Ornithomimus was most likely an omnivore, eating small plants and creatures.

As one of the smaller dinosaurs in the game, Ornithomimus mostly forages from the ground and makes a tasty snack for anyone who can catch this fast, ostrich-like dinosaur.

12 dinosaur species, 12 days of terrible lizardly fun!  Next up, Sauroposeidon.

Sauroposeidon was possibly the tallest animal to ever live, stretching to almost 60 feet high. While most of the huge cretaceous sauropods lived in South America, some have been discovered in North America.

Today’s dinosaur is the fearsome Utahraptor:

(click to see a larger image)

Jurassic Park’s Velociraptor was actually based on a fictional “giant” velociraptor, the realistic versions of which were only the size of a turkey. But during the production of the movie, a giant raptor was found: Utahraptor, lending some credibility to the blind specualtion.

At 6 meters long, 2 meters tall, and weighing in at 1,500 lbs, Utahraptor would have been a force to be reckoned with, especially if the animal was as smart as has been suggested.

Out version, pictured above, gets its patterns from the modern leopard lizard.

All of the dinosaurs from Venture Dinosauria lived during the cretaceous period in North America. The cretaceous spanned 80 million years and not all of these dinosaurs lived in tandem, but they do represent a fairly broad cross section of the larger creatures that lived during this period.

Yesterday we kicked things off with Deinonychus. Next up, Quetzalcoatlus:

(click to see a larger image)

Quetzalcoatlus was the largest flying creature to ever live. It had a wingspan of over 30 feet. Recent research suggests that Quetzalcoatlus was not a fisher or wader, but in fact roamed the prairies like a giraffe, catching small prey in his beak.