We sit down with Jonny Watts, Frontier Chief Creative Officer, to discuss the new Jurassic World Evolution* game, which evolves the players' relationship with the film franchise. The game allows users to take control of the operations on the Legendary island of Isla Nublar and the surrounding islands of the Muertes Archipelago. Players will have the opportunity to build their own Jurassic World as they bioengineer new dinosaur breeds and construct attractions, containment, and research facilities. Every choice the players make will lead them through different paths and spectacular challenges arise when 'life finds a way.'
Q: What are some ways that Jurassic World Evolution stays true to the movies? What ways does it differ?
Jurassic World Evolution differs in that this is YOUR Jurassic World. It’s your chance to build your own park and fill it with the dinosaurs YOU want to bioengineer.
You might have noticed nobody in the movies has yet been able to run a Jurassic island where chaos didn’t ensue; maybe you can do the impossible and run a successful Jurassic World? That’s a huge difference!
But Jurassic World Evolution is true to the movies and novels in the lore, the rich history behind the islands and characters, and in the look and feel of the parks. We’ve had incredible access to Universal’s archives to truly bring the Jurassic universe to life on-screen, with amazing actors like Jeff Goldblum, Bryce Dallas Howard and BD Wong reprising their roles especially for the game.
And I think most importantly, Jurassic World Evolution is true to the movies in the way the dinosaurs look and act. We think Jurassic World Evolution’s dinosaurs are the best dinosaurs you’ve ever seen in a videogame. They think and they feel and they react to the world you’ll build around them. We want you to feel attached to them and to care for them, and that’s why we wanted to really make them come alive.
Q: What are some of the throwbacks/tie-ins to the movies?
From the first day we started working on Jurassic World Evolution we knew we wanted to make a game that touches every part of the Jurassic universe - from Jurassic Park back in 1993 to Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom in 2018, all the movies in between and of course, Michael Crichton’s novels.
We have a huge lore index players can dig through, with entries you’ll unlock by performing secret actions in-game. Of course the game is loaded with characters you’ll recognise and easter eggs you’ll spot. There so much rich material to draw upon to fill out the world, and that’s important for a simulation game where you want to make the world feel really believable. Each book and movie offers a different perspective on Ingen, the dinosaurs, the islands and we’ve been careful to take the best of that material and weave it into the game.
Q: How’d you manage to breathe life into your own unique story while staying true to the source material?
We worked closely with Universal on this one. Jurassic World Evolution has a full campaign taking you around the five islands of the Muertes Archipelago. On each island you’ll face different challenges from the terrain, climate and other factors, and you’ll always be able to return to earlier unlocked islands to complete missions or just have fun managing your park or add new dinosaurs you’ve discovered and bio- engineered along the way. As you progress you’ll advance through a unique Jurassic story taking place after the events of 2015‘s Jurassic World.
You’ll be pleased to see connections to the movies and the novels on each of those islands. Enough said!
Q: What was the inspiration for this game?
It’s a long story but the short version is: we love the whole Jurassic series and this is a game we’ve all wanted to play ourselves for a really long time. Frontier became a fully independent publisher and developer after the release of Elite Dangerous, which has allowed us the freedom to develop our own games and to work directly with Universal on the game.
Q: What can we expect to go wrong in the park?
It wouldn’t be Jurassic World if calamity and chaos weren’t possibilities. Chaos is at the very heart of what makes the Jurassic stories tick - both in the novels and the movies, it’s small things mounting up that cause disaster. In the first jurassic Park Dennis Nedry steals dinosaur embryos and shuts down the park’s fences to make his escape. Ordinarily the downed fences might be a problem the park rangers could handle, but a storm means they’re all evacuated off the island. By the time morning arrives, people are running for their lives.
You can be sabotaged, hit by storms or power failures, or even see dinosaurs escape and run wild around your park. It takes a combination of things to make all-out disaster happen, so you should be able to see the worst calamities coming and hopefully intervene before everything gets too out of control. But ultimately you’re dealing with wild animals who have a natural urge to explore and sometimes hunt, so if you leave them an opportunity to escape then bad things can happen.
Q: What was the collaboration with Universal like and how did you combine their input into your creative process?
Universal are amazing partners because they understand Jurassic so well themselves. They know what movie fans love about it and they’ve built an incredible world. There’s so much depth that doesn’t necessarily make it on-screen, but informs everything you see. We had access to all of that depth and colour with Universal’s support.
Q: How does working with Hollywood voice talent differ from standard voice actors?
For Jurassic World Evolution we worked with Jeff Goldblum, Bryce Dallas Howard and BD Wong to voice the parts of Ian Malcolm, Claire Dearing and Henry Wu. And it’s especially rewarding because they already understand their characters so well. All of them were able to add to the script in interesting ways - nailing their delivery and even changing dialogue to bring their characters to life.
Q: You’ve created successful management SIMS in the past. How did that experience channel into the creation of this game?
You can see elements of a lot of management titles in Jurassic World Evolution, from RollerCoaster Tycoon to Planet Coaster, and even some games you might not expect, but ultimately there’s nothing quite like Jurassic World.
It’s been over fifteen years since Jurassic has had a true triple-A simulation and management game of its own, and we felt like the time was right to make this game we all want to play. Obviously Planet Coaster was hugely important as proof to ourselves that we can build a truly modern triple-A management game, but there are some other games in our back catalogue that all play a part in making us able to do this game well - from Kinectimals to A Dog’s Life! Working with creature animation and management titles for almost two decades now has really helped us.