Fans of Jurassic World and its video game incarnations may remember our look at Jurassic Explorer, a fantastic three-dimensional game which lets fans get explore the world of a functioning Jurassic World park from a first-person perspective. Before you read today’s piece, we recommend you check out our other feature on the game, where we chatted to the Game’s lead developer, Michael Pearce.
Today we are breaking down an upcoming project tied into Jurassic Explorer, known as ‘Our Jurassic Journey’ – a behind the scenes documentary which will explore the creation of Jurassic Explorer. Ahead of the documentary’s debut in December, we wanted to catch up with Michael again to discuss more about what goes into creating a project of truly ‘Jurassic’ proportions. Check out the interview below:
Hi Michael – thanks for sitting down with us again! It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were chatting about Jurassic Explorer. I heard you and your team have been making a Documentary. So, what is 'Our Jurassic Journey'?
It's good to be back here, Tom! Last time we talked was just before we released Season 2 of our fan game, "Jurassic Explorer", which was more than a year ago now. Since that time our team has been hard at work making a Documentary which will explore the three-year journey our development team took to make Jurassic Explorer. We call this Documentary “Our Jurassic Journey: A Documentary on Jurassic Explorer".
What inspired you to make a documentary about the journey behind Jurassic Explorer?
There were a lot of little things, but I’d say there's two main reasons. Since we released Season 1, the project really blew up and got noticed by many members of the community. Having all those ideas and having the opportunity to expand on the game with Season 2 was a dream come true. By that time, we had learned so much about game development, art, music and our own abilities, and we wanted to share that process with everyone. I think people don't understand what really goes into fan projects behind-the-scenes, and how valuable those skills can be as game developers.
Our Documentary isn’t exclusively about Jurassic Explorer however, and this is the other reason I wanted to make a documentary. My brother and I have been making games since we were young (5 & 7 years old), and as we've grown up it's been a consistent thing we've both pursued. With both of us now entering the industry, I wanted to highlight our journey into employment within our dream sector too, and how we've progressed and gotten to where we are by working together.
How long can we expect the Documentary to be? Is it a short film? Something more?
Our Jurassic Journey will be roughly an hour and twenty minutes long. It’s feature-film length, purely because we had a lot to say and many things to cover.
This Documentary explores much more than just our fan project. It looks at game development all around the world, and follows us on that journey together. We always aimed to make it feel enjoyable to both those who have and haven't heard about Jurassic explorer before.
What was the biggest thing the process of working on Jurassic Explorer taught you?
So, as a game developer, it’s a unique industry. It's something that can be taught in schools, but it’s not as straight forward as getting taught other jobs. I think something a ton of upcoming developers are missing these days are the practical skills you learn when not only being in a development team, but by making a game together whilst directing and guiding the team yourself. Those three major skills become incredibly important when you make a game yourself.
There's a lot of programmers, artists and designers out there who have the theory down but can't find a team to work with, or can't quite complete a full game. It happens all the time, as it’s not easy to find a team or find the opportunity to complete a game.
So, I’d say my biggest takeaway from working on Jurassic Explorer is working on a game, completing it, and directing all of it as a lead dev. Learning all the intricacies of that process along the way was also beneficial. Those practical skills are incredibly valuable and I wouldn't have been able to gain them without the amazing team we've formed together.
Where do you hope to go in the future, now Jurassic Explorer is under your belt?
We dive into what’s next for me and the team in the Documentary, so I don't want to give too much away. I will say that there's a ton of opportunities out there that we're working towards.
We have many ideas and lots of experience that I think will hopefully continue to impress people, and put smiles on people’s faces. With JE we really identified both our skills and our own unique style as a team. I hope that all our future games can capture the same mood and feelings that JE prompted in the audiences who experienced the project
More than anything, I hope people will continue to follow us through our next journey.
Let’s talk about the team – how did you assemble a group of people who wanted to work on this project?
It began in 2015 when I made a (looking back at it, terrible!) 3D Model of the Innovation Centre from JW. It was never supposed to be anything more than that, and I simply did it as a fun learning experience. But, as I shared it online, it gained traction, and people wanted more. So, I made more.
I expanded from the Innovation Centre, eventually forming the whole park, and over time I found our first team member, Andreas Strom.
For about a year we worked on that early project (Back then, simply called "Jurassic World 3D Project") and released three versions to the public which got coverage across YouTube and social media.
After that, we restarted the project from the ground up to build it in new and better software, and alongside three other new team members (Bernard, Zack and River), we began work on Jurassic Explorer.
From day one we knew it was a project we could learn from, and we knew it was an opportunity to grow and develop our talents as a team.
The rest is history!
What did everyone who got involved contribute to the project?
We have a team of 6 members. The core team consisting of Bernard, River and I.
I am the lead developer and 3D Environment Artist. My job is to not only lead the project and decide what is happening and how, but to also make all the art for the games. I also have been involved in directing and editing the accompanying films, too!
Bernard is our Music Composer, and is incredibly talented. All our melodies, musical pieces and anything you hear in both the games and the film will have been composed by him. I've worked very closely with Bernard on each piece produced, and have even been lucky enough to write out some melodies for the game too.
River is our General Programmer and will play a very important role in the next journey we undertake.
Andreas is our Character Artist which means he makes all the Dinosaurs and other organic visuals in our games.
Zack handled all the AI Programming in Jurassic Explorer and brought the dinosaurs who appeared in the game to life.
Lastly, we also had some help from my brother Brandon with programming. You may know Brandon from the famous Minecraft Mod - 'The Aether'.
One member of the team found a very cool job after JE – can you tell us a little more about that?
I can't mention anything specific until after the Documentary is released. But, I will say it really puts into perspective how valuable projects like this can be. It's not just making something that gets you to where you want to go, but it’s keeping at it and persisting throughout the trials and tribulations that projects can face. You must make it your everything. You can’t just give up.
This whole journey for all of us has been amazing and the opportunities we're finding because of what we've learned along the way are both special, and extremely exciting!
I hope you're excited to find out more when the documentary releases.
Lastly, what is next for the Dimensional Digital Team?
A lot! We're not going anywhere, and this is just the start of another journey we're taking.
Creating this Documentary has been incredible for us, and has taught us so much. I've never done something like this before, so making a feature length film which allowed us to express ourselves this way has been amazing.
I hope that you all continue to follow our journey in the future.
Where can everyone follow up if they want to learn more?
Our Jurassic Journey : A Documentary On Jurassic Explorer will release in December this year, An official date will be coming very soon. Look forward to the first trailer on the film coming November 28th too! We currently have a info page on our Fluminus website (Which Fluminus btw ties directly into the film so be sure to watch to find out!) and will be posted to all of our social media and YouTube channels.
For the time being, and for discussion after, people are free to join our Fluminus Discord server to talk everything Our Jurassic Journey and more.
Big thanks to Michael for taking the time to talk about ‘Our Jurassic Journey: A Documentary on Jurassic Explorer’.
You can watch an EXCLUSIVE sneak peek of the documentary here:
The Documentary will release worldwide in December, and will be available on the Fluminus Social Media and YouTube channels, which can be found by visiting the Fluminus Website.
Fluminus welcome people to also join their Discord to discuss the project in the build-up to its release: https://discord.gg/7F3mKrz
Written by:
Tom Fishenden