Project Ferocious: Everything we know about this eagerly awaited dinosaur shooter
Project Ferocious
On October 6, 2020 the Austrian indie solo-team OMYOG, acronym for Omelette And Yogurt, began to talk about the development of a new FPS on which he had been working for at least two years, a game that, moreover, would be released in a few months. Since then, hundreds of posts with videos, info and curiosities about Project Ferocious have followed, this is the name of his shooter set in the jungle, which have frequently updated the state of play of this game developed by one person.In June 2021, however, the connections were interrupted, leaving everyone a little confused and with an even greater curiosity towards the game. The trailer shown at the Future Game Show in 2021 ended with a generic "Targeting 2023", therefore it is assumed that the works are continuing with the lights off.
Waiting for new information, here's everything we know about Project Ferocious.
What has been shown so far
a beautiful picture of the sea from Project Ferocious The information on Project Ferocious is not a lot, but enough to get a pretty good idea of what will be waiting for us on Xbox Series X | S, Playstation 5 and PC. Through the blog, the developer has published several preview videos where you can appreciate game clips, programming sections and technical demos on the graphic engine, created with a surprising Unity. Through the official forum of the developers of this engine, the Project Ferocius programmer spoke extensively about the goals achieved and the inherent difficulties in using Unity. One of the greatest satisfactions obtained concerns the extreme flexibility of the programming. OMYOG has been working on this engine since 2008 and has evidently reached a certain maturity and speed in its use.Through the pages of Reddit, the programmer talks about the performances obtained thanks to the HDRP (High-Definition Render Pipeline), the excellent scalability of the game, which runs smoothly and perfectly on various tested hardware, and finally, how the works are still in the alpha stage with numerous aspects still to be addressed. The idea, in fact, is to publish the first chapter of the game and see how the public and critics react, and then go on with the work and continue with the following chapters.
His atmosphere and game setting
One of the shooter phases shown in the presentation videos The general "mood" of Project Ferocius is very reminiscent of Crysis and its frenetic gunplay. Within the game, the protagonist moves with a certain agility through inaccessible places such as rainforests and rocky environments, sea and beaches. One of the aspects on which OMYOG has worked most assiduously is that of the protagonist's movements in the environment. In addition to climbing and climbing steep cliffs, you can swim underwater, run as if in a sort of parkour among the plants and hide so as not to be discovered by enemies, mixing action with purely stealth phases.The preamble of the Project Ferocious plot sees a powerful paramilitary organization take control of a tropical island and its creatures, including dinosaurs and enormous fantasy beasts such as the gigantic crabs that populate the beach (you remember the mythical Giant Enemy Crab?).
The developer then admits several times that he was strongly inspired by Crysis, even remembering it as the first reason why he became a video game programmer (and this reveals his young age). OMYOG also cites "Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie as his very first shooter played, whose dark and foggy atmospheres were perfectly reproduced in Project Ferocious.
The game is very reminiscent, in some stages, also the first Far Cry thanks to a luxuriant vegetation designed with great detail and some effects (like the one underwater) that immediately bring back to the Ubisoft title.
About the gameplay and its structure
Very excited phases are expected The gunplay of the game appears extremely solid in the (few) played phases shown through the trailer and the videos released on the official Twitter channel. The developer reports that he has worked a lot on this aspect, programming a series of effects such as the dynamic destruction of environments (wooden parts jump everywhere and walls crumble), the ricochet of bullets and the recoil of weapons, all customizable and very varied in their selection. In one phase of the game, the protagonist's ability to wield two weapons at the same time is also noted. Another aspect on which OMYOG is currently in planning is that of the refinement of artificial intelligence, both of human beings and of dinosaurs.As he himself states, moreover, in the more advanced levels it will be possible to directly control the animals (perhaps for a hypothetical PvP?), which animations currently need to be refined and perfected (the programmer himself does not define himself as a very good animator and says he needs a lot of time to optimize this aspect). In addition to the great variety of movements of the character, we also point out the possibility of driving means of transport such as boats and jeeps within the map. The first version of the entry level is roughly 2x2 km large and represents the introduction of Project Ferocious. A very large portion of the game, considering that the game is not an open world as it might appear at first glance, but a level-based title guided through very large maps, within which the player can take different paths to get to the 'goal.
Almost a one-man-show
the Unity graphics engine has been pushed to the limit As he himself states on the official Twitter blog, the programmer behind Project Ferocious has little experience in the field of animations and this is currently slowing the development of the title. Although OMYOG is a software house made up of a single person, through some posts on Reddit and Twitter we have discovered that other freelance professionals are helping it in the progress of the work.The design of creatures, for example, was entrusted to the Dutch Wietze Fopma, a designer with great experience in the creation of monsters, beasts and fantasy animals. Fopma has already worked with Wizard of the Coast, Sony Pictures, Netflix and Aaron Sims, historical collaborator of Stan Winston and authors of the design and effects for Gremlins, Terminator, War of the Worlds, Wonder Woman, Stranger Things and many others hit movies and TV series. Experience in this field is certainly not lacking and the quality of the creatures of Project Ferocious is immediately evident from the first sketches drawn.
The incipit of the story
On the island there seems to be a great variety of dinosaurs The setting of the game, as we have seen, is therefore a tropical island lost in the ocean where our alter ego gathers to look for some missing journalists while investigating atrocious war crimes. It will immediately be discovered that the island, kept secret and extremely controlled, is under the control of a mysterious military force that guards its secrets and location.The game alternates sections of pure action and shooting with others that are more stealthy in the which we should discover some mysteries and free the prisoners. The developer also announces many stages of horror (he also cites Dino Crisis as one of his sources of inspiration) and of pure and relaxing exploration within the vast game maps. Waiting for more details and new development videos, we hope that OMYOG is currently working on Project Ferocious and that the 2023 target is respected and centered for the release of the game.
Project Ferocious looks like a very right mix between the gunplay of Crysis, the setting of Far Cry, the horror phases of Dino Crisis and the atmosphere of King Kong, or all the titles cited as a source of inspiration by the developer. The game is certainly very ambitious and is currently still in the alpha stage, the programmer is doing almost all the work by himself and the release is set for a generic 2023. However, many qualities can be seen from the videos shown and the first leaked info. on the blog. We just have to wait and stay confident.
