Shooting, Exploring, and Dinosauring
It’s the screenshots on Twitter that drew me to Morphite. That low-poly look just has something to it that holds up against even the nicest looking games today – at least for me. I started following along with it’s development a month or two ago after seeing some screenshots with dinosaurs. I found out through my research that it wasn’t about dinosaurs, but I kept seeing regular screenshots with dinosaurs. Finally I decided to shoot the developers some questions about the game, to see just how big of a role our terrible lizard friends play. The Founder and creative director of Crescent Moon Games was gracious enough to answer! Indie devs are cool like that.
Q & A Morphite Interview with Josh Presseisen
Q:. What is the age group/range for your game?
A: I would say ages 8-100. It’s definitely a game for everyone.
Q: What made you want to have dinosaurs in game? Passionate dev? Some kind of inspiration? Was there a conversation or did someone just put them in quietly?
A: I am really into dinosaurs. We also had dinosaurs in our previous game, Ravensword: Shadowlands and it was a big hit there. I think it made a lot of sense to include them in this game as there are so many different creature types. Why not have dinosaurs?
Q: Are the animals procedurally generated? How prevalent are dinosaurs on a scale of 1 to 10?
A: The animals are randomized, so if you find a Stegosaurus for instance, you will see different variations of it on other planets. There are at least 4 or 5 heat ranges that contain dinosaurs – so maybe 1/4 of the planets you find will have them to some degree.
Q: Anything strange happen as a result of adding dinosaurs into the game?
A: As a result of adding dinosaurs – it made more sense to have creatures establish a predator prey relationship, and sometimes a little more complex behavior – like a creature that will only attack you if provoked (Stegosaurus for example)
Q: Any funny bugs, surprising behavior? Basically, any funny development stories?
A: It seems like the Carnotaurus in the game is more inclined to attack than other ones – I’m not sure if its a bug. Its just always on the look out for a fresh kill.
Q: Is there a staff favorite dinosaur? Real and/or in-game?
A: Raptors are always a favorite for me and the little Compies from Jurassic Park 2. I’m a huge fan of Jurassic Park. So much so, that I built my own little dinosaur in high school, with home made animatronics. It could basically open its mouth and turn its head. It had an inner skeleton made out of a aluminum and then I made a mold out of sculpy to paint rubber skin over. Then I ended up leaving it in the trunk of my friend’s car and it got lost, lol
Q: Any other dino-related stuff to share about your game or company?
A: As I said earlier, we are all big dino fans. Anyone reading should also check out Ravensword: Shadowlands, because there are some dinosaurs in that as well.
Q: Have you announced a release date? Price? PC and which mobile platforms?
A: It will come out on PC and iOS first, and we are looking at PS4/PS Vita/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch for consoles. It should be out on Android about a month after iOS. We don’t have a release date yet, but we are still shooting for late spring for our initial release. We’ll see how it goes! We are finishing up the final chapter in the story now, then moving onto more polishing, fixing, adding side missions and more content.
More on Morphite
So there it is. Morphite is 25% dinosaur! Explore alien worlds and blast familiar faces! A big thanks to Josh for taking the time to answer a few questions, and sharing that childhood story gold. Keep your eyes peeled here for more on Morphite. It’s coming to an internet-ready device near you! You can follow Crescent Moon on your platform of choice for more of those awesome eye candy screenshots!
