Jurassic Park: Survival

Jurassic Park: Survival
Developer(s) Savage Entertainment
Publisher(s) Vivendi / Konami
Designer(s) Felix Kupis
Michael Kirkbride
Programmer(s) John Lafleur
Artist(s) Rob Stahl
Engine Sabertooth (also known as "Fang")
Platform(s) GameCube
PC
PlayStation 2
Xbox
Release date(s) Cancelled (initially planned for 2001)
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Jurassic Park: Survival is a cancelled action-adventure video game that was in development by Savage Entertainment and was to be published by Konami.[1] Based upon the Jurassic Park franchise, the game was to be released on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in November 2001.[2] Other versions of the game were planned for the PC and GameCube. The game was cancelled due to conflicts with Vivendi over payments. In North America, the game was expected to receive a Teen rating.[3]

Gameplay

Jurassic Park: Survival was to be played from a third-person perspective with David Vaughn–a member of a security team–as the main character.[3] In its preview video,[4] gameplay appeared similar to a survival horror game, with additional action-adventure elements such as climbing, crawling, rolling, shoot rolling, jumping and swimming, as well as other platforming strategies to outwit the dinosaurs instead of trying to take them head on.[5]

Vaughn's enemies would have included eight dinosaur species and four different types of military officers. A fictionalized version of Troodon with glowing eyes would have been featured in the game,[5] and was later implemented into Jurassic Park: The Game. Dinosaur AI was meant to be an integral part of the game; dinosaurs would be able to lure the main character into traps, hunt in packs, and retreat for reinforcements if needed.[6]

Vaughn's weapons would have included a pistol, an electric prod, and a grenade launcher.[3] Vaughn would also carry a PDA with him, which could be used to contact team members for assistance.[5] An item known as the "phero pack" could also be carried around and dropped in certain locations to lure dinosaurs to Vaughn's human enemies and attack them.[6] Puzzles were also to play a major role in the game.[5] Stealth was also a significant part of gameplay, as Vaughn could complete objectives easier by avoiding detection from guards and spotlights while inside enemy encampments.[6] Vaughn could also use computer terminals located throughout the game to access security cameras for a better view of the area and nearby enemies.[7]

The game would have featured 12 large levels, located in swamps, dense forests, huge underground caves and networks of tunnels, military outposts, a marina, a terrorist camp, jungles, and a hatchery. A tram would have been used to transport Vaughn from one location to another.[5] A driving mode was also planned, in which Vaughn could drive an all-terrain vehicle,[5][7] or drive a Jeep being chased by a Tyrannosaurus.[7]

Chacko Sonny, a founder of Savage Entertainment, described the company's goal on the game as "Die-Hard meets Jurassic Park."[8]

Plot

According to IGN, the game's story would have involved a secret third island, where wild dinosaurs roam while others are contained in security areas. The U.S. Government, concerned about dinosaur overpopulation, sends a security team to the island to aid scientists who are studying the animals' behavior. David Vaughn, the main character, is among the security team. A "shadow organization," interested in dinosaur DNA, locates a government insider on the security team and launches an attack, taking full control of the island. Vaughn goes on to explore the island and rescue scientists and other security members.[5]

According to GameSpot, David Vaughn would have been a security officer at the now-closed Jurassic Park, where his job would be to prevent dinosaurs from escaping the island and multiplying. Unknown to Vaughn, his boss and head of security on the island, has made a deal with a shadow corporation to supply it with dinosaur DNA, followed by the destruction of the island to give the shadow corporation an edge in DNA research. Vaughn's mission would be to keep the dinosaurs on the island while rescuing his security co-workers.[7]

According to PlanetPS2.com, the game would have been set on Isla Sorna, with Vaughn as a security design technician.[8]

Development

Savage Entertainment's COO and co-owner, John Lefleur, began working on the game in June 1998,[9] when Jurassic Park III was announced by Universal Pictures.[10] Lafleur served as the project's leader and as a programmer.[9] Konami and Universal announced the game in September 2000, under the title of Jurassic Park III, to be based on the 2001 film of the same name. Jurassic Park III was described as an action-adventure game, and was to be published by Konami for a fall 2001 release on Nintendo's GameCube, Sony's PlayStation 2, and Microsoft's Xbox.[11] A PC version was also announced.[12] Konami revealed that the Xbox version of the game would be titled Jurassic Park X.[13]

In October 2000, it was announced that Savage would be developing the game.[14] The game's artificial intelligence (A.I.) software engineer, Joseph Nunn, began designing and programming the game's A.I. that month.[15] By November 2000, the Xbox version of the game was scheduled for a tentative release in the third or fourth quarter of 2001.[16] In April 2001, the PlayStation 2 version of the game was scheduled for release on November 14, 2001.[17] By May 2001, the GameCube version had not yet received a release date.[18]

On May 9, 2001, the game was officially unveiled as Jurassic Park: Survival, with no relation to Jurassic Park III,[7][8] although the game was to include memorable scenes from each film in the series.[8] The first screenshots from the game were released that day.[5] A trailer for the game was released later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).[19]

To develop the game, Savage utilized their new high-performance game engine, codenamed "Sabertooth"[8] and also known as "Fang."[20] The engine was developed concurrently with the game.[20] It would have been the first Sabertooth-developed PlayStation 2 video game to be released.[8] Swingin' Ape Studios worked with Savage to help create levels and other aspects of the game,[5] including its ATV level.[3] Michael Kirkbride, the game's senior designer and artist, designed game objects, puzzles, and levels for the game.[21] Felix Kupis, another senior designer, worked on the levels' layouts using 3DS Max.[22]

Art director Rob Stahl developed the visual design of the game's levels, buildings, vehicles, and weapons based on what was featured in the series' first two films, Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, as the third film was still in production and could not provide visual reference. Stahl also co-created gameplay scenarios and worked with the engineering team to develop Savage's game engine.[20][23]

Each dinosaur's mesh data was based on models created by Stan Winston, followed by high resolution photographs being taken of the models to help create the game's dinosaur graphics. Each of the game's dinosaur models used a maximum of 1,500 polygons, a low number for the PlayStation 2. This allowed the game more polycounts for its large levels.[24] The game utilized motion capture technology, which was overseen by Giant Studios.[25][26] The game also utilized cinematic scenes, which were created by Tigar Hare Studios.[27][28]

In June 2001, the Xbox version was planned for release in the spring of 2002.[29] The following month, it was reported that the Xbox version would be released in November 2001, alongside the PlayStation 2 version.[2] As of July 17, 2001, the game was expected to be showcased at a Universal gaming event in early August 2001.[2] On July 31, 2001, Savage announced that they were no longer working on the game.[30] By September 2001, the game's release date was delayed to January 2002.[31]

On November 5, 2001, Savage confirmed they were no longer working on the game due to conflicts of Vivendi-Universal not providing funding to Savage.[32] A spokesperson for Savage later said, "We were looking forward to finishing [Survival] up and getting it on the market [...]. Unfortunately, we can't finish it without funding to pay our people and Universal wasn't providing that."[33] On November 19, 2001, a Universal spokesperson reportedly told a Jurassic Park fansite that progress on the game would continue with a different developer, with an expected release sometime in 2002. According to Universal, "We simply weren't happy with the progress of the game and we felt that it deserved more time with a new developer." The website was later asked to remove the quote, as Universal claimed it was "not an official statement".[34]

Later that month, a Savage spokesperson said a new developer would probably start from scratch on the game, and speculated that Universal had not yet found a new developer. The spokesperson also said, "Universal has crunched the development cycles of some of its titles in the past and failed to realize that carries with it a necessary compromise on quality. It would be good for them to give the team working on the title sufficient time to do the franchise justice."[35]

In December 2001, the PlayStation 2 version was expected for release sometime in the first quarter of 2002.[36] From January 2002 to March 2002, the PlayStation 2 version's U.K. release date was unknown.[37][38][39] Ultimately in the U.K., the PlayStation 2 version was to be published by Sierra Entertainment for release on April 12, 2002.[40] The game had been cancelled after Vivendi purchased Universal Interactive.[9]

Sound

The game was to use the same dinosaur sounds from Jurassic Park III. During development, Universal was in the process of negotiating the use of the film's musical score in the game.[7]

Promotion

In June 2001, Universal announced they had partnered with advertising agency Kovel-Fuller to create a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign for the game, consisting of national television and printed ads.[41] The game's trailer was released on the Jurassic Park III soundtrack CD.[29] Universal also considered in-theater promotion,[29] and planned to include the game's trailer on VHS and DVD copies of the third film.[41] New screenshots for the game were released throughout July 2001.[42][43][44]

References

  1. ↑ "Going Savage". IGN.com. October 5, 2000. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Mowatt, Todd (July 17, 2001). "Jurassic Park III: Survival preview". Electric Playground. Archived from the original on 2001-08-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Jurassic Park: Survivor Preview". GameSpot.com. May 14, 2001. Archived from the original on 2015-03-03.
  4. ↑ Jurassic Park: Survival
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Perry, Douglass C. (May 9, 2001). "Jurassic Park: Survival preview". www.IGN.com. Archived from the original on 2001-05-15.
  6. 1 2 3 Turner, Ben (May 11, 2001). "First Looks – Jurassic Park: Survival (page 2)". www.PlanetPS2.com. Archived from the original on 2001-05-26.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Satterfield, Shane (May 9, 2001). "First look: Jurassic Park: Survivor". www.GameSpot.com. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Turner, Ben (May 11, 2001). "First Looks – Jurassic Park: Survival". www.PlanetPS2.com. Archived from the original on 2003-04-07.
  9. 1 2 3 "John Lafleur resume". JohnLafleur.com. Archived from the original on 2004-06-16. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  10. ↑ Cox, Dan (June 30, 1998). "‘Jurassic 3′ slated by U". Variety. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Konami's Triple Punch: Crash, The Thing, and Jurassic Park III". IGN. September 21, 2000. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Clever Girl...". IGN. September 21, 2000. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Konami Reveals Xbox Titles". Daily Radar. September 22, 2000. Archived from the original on October 17, 2000.
  14. ↑ "Savage Commences on Jurassic Park III". www.IGN.com. October 5, 2000. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Joseph Nunn". LinkedIn. Retrieved August 16, 2015. Senior AI Software Engineer. Savage Entertainment, LLC. October 2000 – July 2001 (10 months), Culver City, CA. Designed and programmed video game Artificial Intelligence systems for PS2 and Xbox video game consoles. Wrote autonomous agent subsystem and pathfinding routines for Jurassic Park 3: Survival game. Programmed in C/C++, working closely with and partially on animation and physics engines.
  16. ↑ "Xbox American Release Dates". XboxWeb.com. November 7, 2000. Archived from the original on 2000-11-21.
  17. ↑ "PS2 American Release Dates". SonyWeb.com. April 9, 2001. Archived from the original on 2001-04-13.
  18. ↑ "The Ultimate GameCube Preview Guide, Page 4 Of 12". IGN. May 2, 2001. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Jurassic Park: Survivor Movie 1". www.GameSpot.com. May 23, 2001. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  20. 1 2 3 Stahl, Rob. "Jurassic Park 3 / 2001". RobStahlDesign.com. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Michael Kirkbride". LinkedIn. Retrieved March 16, 2015. Designed levels, puzzles, and game objects for Jurassic Park III: Survival, which was never released.
  22. ↑ "Felix Kupis resume". FelixKupis.com. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  23. ↑ Stahl, Rob. "Rob Stahl resume". RobStahlDesign.com. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  24. ↑ Turner, Ben (May 11, 2001). "First Looks – Jurassic Park: Survival (page 3)". PlanetPS2.com. Archived from the original on 2001-06-19.
  25. ↑ "Shot Breakdown" (PDF). BarryDempsey.com. Winter 2013. p. 4. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Brian Windsor resume". BrianWindsor.com. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  27. ↑ Lehane, Scott. "CGI Artists Find New Creative Opportunities in Video Games". DigitalGameDeveloper.com. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  28. ↑ McCort, Kristinha (August 1, 2001). "Great Expectations". Millimeter magazine. Archived from the original on February 11, 2010.
  29. 1 2 3 Elkin, Toby (June 18, 2001). "Content rules video games". Advertising Age. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  30. ↑ "News section". www.SavageSite.com. July 31, 2001. Archived from the original on 2001-11-12.
  31. ↑ "PS2 Game Delayed?". DansJP3Page.com. September 6, 2001. Archived from the original on August 16, 2002.
  32. ↑ "'Jurassic Park Survival' Canned". www.DansJP3Page.com. November 5, 2001. Archived from the original on 2002-12-31.
  33. ↑ "More Survival Info". DansJP3Page.com. November 7, 2001. Archived from the original on December 31, 2002.
  34. ↑ "'Survival' Continuing Development?". DansJP3Page.com. November 19, 2001. Archived from the original on February 3, 2002.
  35. ↑ "'Survival' Fans Might Be in For a Long Wait". DansJP3Page.com. November 21, 2001. Archived from the original on February 3, 2002.
  36. ↑ "The PS2 Release Calendar". IGN. December 5, 2001. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  37. ↑ "The most accurate release schedule in the biz – 2002 TBC (To Be Confirmed)". Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine (Issue 16). January 2002. p. 51.
  38. ↑ "The most accurate release schedule in the biz – 2002 TBC (To Be Confirmed)". Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine (Issue 17). February 2002. p. 51.
  39. ↑ "The most accurate release schedule in the biz – 2002 TBC (To Be Confirmed)". Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine (Issue 18). March 2002. p. 51.
  40. ↑ "Jurassic Park – Survival". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  41. 1 2 "Universal Interactive Studios Chooses Kovel/Fuller for Global Ad Campaigns". Yahoo. June 18, 2001. Archived from the original on 2001-06-26.
  42. ↑ "New media: Jurassic Park Survival". Gamespot. July 5, 2001. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  43. ↑ "Jurassic Park: Survival preview". The-NextLevel.com. July 9, 2001. Archived from the original on August 1, 2001.
  44. ↑ "New media: Jurassic Park Survival". Gamespot. July 12, 2001. Retrieved August 16, 2015.

External links

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