Hi! I am known as JoLumaya. Thank you for your interest in this project! I'm a 3D artist and animator who is seeking some dev talent to work with to create a remake of Dinosaur Planet, which was a scrapped N64 game that eventually made its way to the Gamecube as Star Fox Adventures.
---HISTORY---
Dinosaur Planet was a Zelda-inspired Action Adventure game to be created by Rare in 2001, starring the infamous blue fox Krystal (which would have been be her debut), a wolf named Sabre, and their two dinosaur partners Princess Kyte and Prince Tricky. The game would have let you swap between Krystal and Sabre any time as they explore either side of Dinosaur Planet in hopes to collect the 6 magic Spellstones and save the world from the evil General Scales, all the while saving an ancient civilized race called the Krazoa. Kyte and Tricky would travel with the main characters, using their own abilities to assist them in their adventure.
The game was nearing completion until late in the N64's lifespan, when development was moved to the Gamecube and redeveloped into Star Fox Adventures and released in 2002, which implemented the Star Fox IP and gave the game a number of refinements and stunning graphics for the time. However, the impending Microsoft buyout of Rare resulted in a rushed and flawed product that fails to live up to its huge potential, with a lot of cut content, missed opportunities, and a heavily revised and underwhelming story. Roughly half of the original concept made it into the final game. This meant Krystal being given a backseat for the majority of the adventure, and Fox McCloud being inserted as as the main character, replacing Sabre.
In early 2021, a late Beta build of Dinosaur Planet 64 was leaked on to the internet, and revealed tons of content cut from the final game, including entire levels, characters, enemies and an epic, cinematic storyline that was very different and far more in-depth than the final plot in Star Fox Adventures. Basically around 80% of the original game is in that Beta build, with it only missing a true ending, sidequests, and a few missing levels.
Dinosaur Planet is supported by a small but very passionate community, with some taking upon themselves to fix a multitude of bugs in the Beta and restoring some content. However, it will always have flaws, and so does finished product of Star Fox Adventures, and I believe a full remake can help both games reach their true potential.
---ME AND DINOSAUR PLANET---
Despite its flaws, Star Fox Adventures is still one of my favorite games, and I have been a big fan of the original Dinosaur Planet story for many years. The 2021 leak has allowed me to envisage how the game might have looked had development continued over to the Gamecube unaltered (so no Star Fox references or cut content). What resulted are a bunch of animations and renders, showcasing the N64 game's cutscenes with the Gamecube assets from Star Fox Adventures, with a few Gamecube style models of my own. These are basically my own concept videos for a potential remake.
--INTENT---
My intent is to build a dev team and create a complete & enhanced version of Dinosaur Planet, based on the 2021 Beta leak, using already-made assets from both games to streamline the workflow.
The remake retains the story, world and content from the original and also restores missing content from the Beta. All while implementing the graphics style, ideas and mechanics introduced in Star Fox Adventures, as well as a wealth of improvements, revisions, new content and QoL features to make it the ultimate version of the game. Anyone who didn’t initially enjoy Star Fox Adventures before should have plenty to like this time around!
Eventually this means that missing content from the Beta will need to be made from the ground up, but that will be for another time when the game is far in development. Some new dialogue will be needed also, and I plan to find voice talent to stand-in for characters in need of new dialogue. A goal is to get new and revised voice lines from Estelle Ellis, the voice of SFA Krystal and the Queen Earthwalker.
Visually, I intend this remake’s graphics to be in the style of Star Fox Adventures. This means recycling the original art and assets from both games to drastically cut down the workload, to maintain Rare’s intent with the visual direction and (hopefully) ensure consistent development, including the reuse of textures and models, as well as reuse of music, sound effects and voice acting, for complete authenticity. I will provide my own original models as well for elements that weren't in either game, and I will rip environments directly from the leaked Beta, which will then receive new and updated geometry and repainted with Star Fox Adventure’s texture work.
All of this in turn will present the game as a "lost complete version" of Dinosaur Planet that was made for the Gamecube or the Xbox.
---WHY DO I NEED HELP?---
I am sadly not a programmer, and cannot comprehend coding very well (believe me, I’ve tried for several years before). I am willing to try and learn programming again if this project goes underway, but it’s not my specialty.
What I can definitely do is provide a wealth of things to assist with the development, including models, animations, design docs and UI assets. A great deal of these assets, including a few design documents, are already created. Several models are already prepared, whether they are mine or sourced from the original games.
It can also help to have some people who do have experience with Blender as well. I’ve used Blender for 6 years, but there’s still many things I don’t know but others do, so the more helping hands, the better :)
Additionally, I am still a bit unfamiliar with game development myself. I have worked with a few people on a couple of games before, but only small/cancelled projects. I have collaborated with artists and voice actors in my own animated projects however, and I am absolutely willing to cooperate and learn a lot about working as a team for this game!
---SCOPE---
I have worked on my own animated film that was monstrous in scope (5 years to animate), so I know what it's like to work on a big project. As Dinosaur Planet is a huge, 20+ hour game, it is incredibly important to keep the overall scope in check. In order to help the development, as stated before, is to recycle assets from both games. Both games must be heavily referenced to emulate the look, controls and feel for the remake. A cutscene system is also essential, as the game has a lot of long cinematics (All of which I am willing to animate!)
There are a number of potential things I would like to add to the adventure, including new sidequests, secret areas and a few cool surprises for fans of both games.
I must explicitly state that I am NOT interested in producing HD graphics and recreating every existing asset from the ground-up, as that is way out of scope and not the intention of the project to begin with. I much prefer to use the original game’s assets out of respect for Rare’s own visual direction at the time and not to entirely replace their own work. No matter what, I want to keep Rare’s DNA in this remake. This has to look like a game that Rare themselves made in 2002.
So with that, in terms of what engines are available, as long as they can manage what the game needs, I'm pretty flexible. Unity is good, and I am interested to try Godot too. However I'm a bit iffy about Unreal however, especially since the game has a 3D turntable menu in its UI and I've been told that Unreal is best for 2D UI elements. I prefer not to use that engine anyway, to be honest.
---FINAL NOTES---
I welcome anyone who is interested to develop the game with me :) It would be most ideal to have some familiarity with either Star Fox Adventures or Dinosaur Planet if you want to join, but if you’re not, I will happily guide you along. I can direct you to where you can find the 2021 Beta leak. Also being able to play Star Fox Adventures for reference is highly recommended, as that game’s refined mechanics is what this remake needs to be based off of.
I must stress that this is project is for experience and educational purposes. It is supposed to be a casual hobby project. But it is rather long-term, so I hope whoever joins me will be in it for the long run, which I would absolutely appreciate!
I must DEFINITELY also stress that the Dinosaur Planet is owned by a particular video game company who is known to take down fangames that use their IP. So development must be done under wraps until it is actually ready for release.
If you or if you know anyone who would be interested in resurrecting Krystal’s first adventure in the way it was originally envisioned, I’d be incredibly happy to work with you to make it a reality. Please don’t hesitate to reach out, I’d love to have a chat with you about it!
I think that’s it. Thank you for reading my proposition! I hope it wasn't too big ^^' I look forward to meeting someone willing to cooperate with me on this remake!
All the best!
