Features
Bug fixes
We know that there are a lot questions, speculations and general ramblings going on about the upcoming theHunter: Primal game. In order to address at least some of them, we’ll be doing a series of short “behind-the-scenes” interviews with the developers who have been working on the game. Today our game designer Björn is answering some of your questions about the game and world design.
Which dinosaurs are going to be included?
The initial release will contain three classic all stars from the cretaceous period: Utahraptor, a medium sized, cunning predator that hunts in packs. Tyrannosaurus Rex, a brutal 6 ton predator that fears nothing, and last but not least, the lumbering tri-horned herbivore Triceratops. We have plans for additional species as well but we are not willing to discuss these right now as there are still some details to work out.
How much science has been involved in their design? Can you tell a bit about the research you’ve made?
We’ve approached these species as we would any species for theHunter, trying to learn as much about it the real deal as possible and finding ways to incorporate this knowledge into the game design. The result of this is that, unlike others in the entertainment industry (yes, you Hollywood), we’ve decided not to ignore the last 20 years of scientific research, which means that our creatures pack things like feathers and are 100% GMO free…
Of course, with species that went extinct millions of years ago the information on many characteristics is a bit sketchy, so we’ve had to resort to more creative guesses than we’re used too. The research is harder but it also allows us to focus on the characteristics that make sense for the game. For example, in cases where there are several conflicting theories about a specific detail, such as raptor hunting techniques, we can select the one that creates the most interesting (i.e. horrifying) experience for the player.
How will the dinosaurs behave?
Each species has a unique behavioural pattern. For example, the T-Rex will more or less charge you on sight while raptors are more cunning and will coordinate attacks as a team. Mr Trihorn, on the other hand, is a herbivore so it will choose flight over fight unless seriously cornered.
Can you tell a bit about the world of Primal?
The game is set on a yet to be discovered exoplanet with the environment mysteriously similar to the Jurassic/Cretaceous period on Earth. We’ve tried to approach the world design with the same amount of scientific detail as we did with our dinosaurs. I believe that this aspect of the game is fairly unique, as you will not only be able to experience realistic prehistoric creatures but also the environment they inhabited. Personally I find walking around in this environment to be a really cool and alien experience, as some species of flora that we take for granted in the present world, such as grass and deciduous trees did not exist back then, when ferns and pines dominated the biosphere.
Is it going to be a background story?
The lore of the game is something that we want players to discover themselves as they explore the world, the only thing I can say right now is that it is a very hostile and brutal world that very few venture to by a choice of their own and that dinosaurs may not be the only threat you’ll have to worry about…
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Hello hunters,
Here comes our weekly status update.
theHunter’s little brother revealed
Most of you have probably read our Monday announcement in which we introduced the new project of Expansive Worlds, called theHunter: Primal. The announcement has attracted a lot of attention across the globe, which makes us happy and humbled. We won’t reiterate on this further in this update, if you missed the post on Monday, make sure to read it. For more news on this project, please follow Primal on Facebook and Twitter.
Smells like reindeer…
December with all its festivities and special vibes is crawling closer and closer. Last year’s Holiday countdown event was a huge success, so we decided to keep the same format this year, with a bit of adjustments and unexpected treats (of course ;)). The main theme of this year’s event is going to be (surprise, surprise!) a reindeer, and we are kicking it off on Monday, December 1st, and will keep you busy every single day up until the Christmas day, December 25th. Expect more details on this on Monday.
Until then you still have a couple of days to join our Thanksgiving fest and shoot yourself some sneaky Turkey, fortunately, it’s free to hunt until the end of the week.
Here’s to Robin!
On a final note, we wanted to share with you something more serious and personal. Back in August a very sad incident occurred involving our client programmer Robin (you might remember him by his racoon avatar on the forum and his cheerful posts). In late August he suffered a stroke which came as a huge shock to all of us since Robin was only 23 and very fit and healthy at the time. The months since then have been extremely tough for him and his girlfriend, his family and the whole EW team. Robin is an amazing individual who is very much loved by everyone around him. Today, we are happy to tell you that the worst is over, Robin has been making great success in what we expect to be a full recovery! He has been a true trooper and we’re incredibly proud of him. We visited Robin yesterday and he asked us to send his regards to the community. Robin can’t wait to get back to working on theHunter.
That’s it from us for today.
Happy hunting!
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Dear Hunters,
In a few weeks we will be releasing a brand new standalone product called theHunter: Primal.
Since we highly value our close relationship with all the players of theHunter, and are planning to continue working in this way in the future, we would like to give you a little insight and background to this project. It started off with a couple of our interns playing around with our engine, but has grown into something much bigger. Angrier. Hungrier. We call it theHunter: Primal.
In the last couple of years we have received numerous requests to add dinosaurs to theHunter. We’ve always felt that a game around hunting dinosaurs in a Jurassic environment could potentially be a lot of fun, but also worried that it would undermine the realism and credibility of theHunter, qualities that made many players fall in love with the game.
Even within the studio, dinosaurs has been a frequent topic of discussion. It really took off as a small breakout team started creating a dinosaur game as a side project, working after hours and over weekends. Avalanche Studios and Expansive Worlds management supported the initiative and offered the group of enthusiasts to use the Avalanche Engine that you know and love from theHunter, as the official development platform.
The project as a testing ground
As you might have noticed from our regular updates, we actively support game development educational institutions. We have a long term commitment to several post graduate schools in Sweden and our aim is to have interns from these schools on our team at all times. In fact, many of the current EW staff started as interns and were then hired full-time.
theHunter: Primal, internally also known as “Project Flintastek” (ask a Swedish friend), has become an excellent side project for our interns to dig into, with some help and support provided by mentors from the full-time EW staff. This collaboration has become a safe isolated development environment where new items and gameplay features were born and tested. In fact, some of the findings from this project have inspired new additions to theHunter.
Since everyone who touched the project in one way or another seemed to be really enjoying it, we thought it would be a shame not to give it the extra love it deserved and release it to the general public. So, in the last few months a part of Expansive Worlds, with some help of Avalanche Studios and our interns, have been working to create a first playable version of the game. We’re happy to report that it will be released on Steam before Christmas.
We know how passionate our players are about theHunter, and that there might be some concern that this new project will overshadow it. We are here to put your worries to rest.
Our continued commitment to theHunter
theHunter is still the priority of Expansive Worlds. It has been enjoyed by over 4.5 million players from more than 190 countries since its release in 2009. Many of our staff members joined the company specifically to work on theHunter and further improve the most realistic hunting experience ever made. During the last five years, theHunter has grown from its initial 3 species and one reserve (Whitehart Island), to feature 8 immersive reserves, 20 species, 41 different weapons and more than a hundred different pieces of hunting equipment – and we are not even close to being done!
Having such a great community behind us, with several thousand new hunters joining each day, Expansive Worlds is committed to theHunter for many years to come. There is still so much that we would like to add to the game, not only in the form of new equipment, species and reserves, but also brand new gameplay features to enhance the hunting and wildlife experience even further.
theHunter: Primal is a side project for the Expansive Worlds studio, that will be released as a one-off payment product, in contrast to theHunter which is a service featuring continuous development and expansion. We hope that theHunter: Primal will complement the regular hunting experience of some of our players, as the game is a little more fast paced and has more focus on survival and exploration. Not to mention hunting (or in fact being hunted by) dinosaurs.
During the development of theHunter: Primal we’ve made discoveries and created content that we believe may benefit theHunter, in the future, including:
We are looking forward to your continued feedback and ideas related not only theHunter but also its newly born (and very cranky) little brother or sister, theHunter: Primal.
As a theHunter player, you’ll receive a special offer on theHunter: Primal. Expect to hear more on this later.
For news and updates on theHunter: Primal, make sure to like it on Facebook and follow on Twitter.
Happy future dino hunting!
Expansive Worlds staff
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Howdy hunters,
Here is a short status update from us.
The beginning of a new era
Today starts the new, 17th, season in theHunter, yay! The 16th season has been a long and luscious one, with 4 new species and one reserve added. We’ll be celebrating the beginning of a new era with a free species hunt. Two of the four animals released during the 16th season, Canada Goose and Alpine Ibex, will be free to hunt from the official start of the 17th season and throughout the whole weekend. We’re also running a weekend sale on all goose-related items in the store, including extra discounts on goose decoy bundles and the popular Canada Goose Starter bundle. It’s a good day for those of you who have been dreaming to set up a second (or a third) goose spread on Hirschfelden.
Turkey fest is coming
On Monday we’re kicking off yet another holiday event – Thanksgiving in theHunter. There will be lots of turkey challenges in all forms with varying difficulty levels. Stay tuned for more!
TheHunter quiz – results
We received 1110 responses to the quiz announced in the last status update, out of which 788 people answered all 30 questions and 74 got all of them correctly. With this project we mostly wanted to get hunters to use the wiki more actively by showing how much valuable information about the game one can find there. On the other hand, I hope that the quiz was enjoyable and useful also for those of you who wanted to test their ”raw” knowledge of the game, without digging into any extra sources.
Here are the names of the 5 winners of the em$ draw, randomly chosen out of 74 people who answered all questions correctly.
The detailed results of the quiz can be found in this thread.
Break Action vs. Bullpup
And last but not least, on Wednesday we released a shiny new 7mm Break Action Rifle. The earlier released Bullpup of the same caliber divided the community into two camps, with a lot of people asking for a 7mm rifle with a more traditional hunting design, so we decided to do something about it, plus such a rifle has been a long time community request. So here it is. And in order to solve the community dispute, we’ve thrown in a small challenge – two identical competitions, one featuring the Bullpup, the other the Break action. Let’s see which one wins 😉
That’s it for today, more news next week!
Happy hunting!
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Hey you hunters,
It’s status update time and here’s what’s been cooking up here in our corner of the world:
Events, events, more events
The Nordic Father’s Day last weekend turned out to be a ball and a hell lot of reindeer got shot. Although there’s been a fair deal of frustration here and there, mostly attributed to the elusive trio of 450’s, overall, the event was a success, with as many as 1266 hunters having completed the first mission, 402 the second, and 504 the third.
Now, the ongoing Mid-November Madness is a different kind of hoopla. We know that a lot of you have love-hate relationships with the 100% harvest value requirement, but we thought it’d be rewarding to add in an extra challenge, calling for some additional thinking over the choice of weapons. Fame and glory as well as this unique trophy set will be a reward for top 10 hunters in each of the 9 divisions – well worth a hassle.
There’ll be more events in the weeks to come, don’t get lost in the wild and be sure to follow our news and updates.
How well do you know theHunter?
During some 6 years of theHunter’s existence (in fact, the first forum member registered almost exactly 6 years ago), the game has spawned a truly colossal wealth of knowledge, stories and personal anecdotes.
So, here is a small quiz for you to check just how well you know the game and all its nooks and crannies. No worries, no theHunter myths and anecdotes this time, only hard facts and publicly accessible knowledge. The quiz was prepared by our awesome Wiki team who are doing an excellent job collecting and storing all theHunter know-how for the generations of hunters to come. Thank you guys, your work is invaluable!
The quiz consists of 30 multiple-choice questions (only one correct answer per quesion). If you answer 100% of the questions correctly, you’ll be automatically entered into our final em$ draw, during which we’ll randomly pick 5 people and award them each with 1000em$ (don’t forget to enter your theHunter name at the end of the quiz form if you want to be a part of the draw). You can submit your answers up until Sunday, November 16th, midnight CET, the correct answers and lucky draw winners will be announced on Monday.
Interview with Björn
Our game designer Björn has recently been interviewed by the website GameStakers. He has shared some behind-the-scenes information about the development process and tips on how to succeed in the game. You can read the whole piece here.
New interns in town
This week we’ve welcomed two new interns to the theHunter squad: Pär joined our game design team and Carl-Oscar the programming team. Read their intros below and give them a good welcome in the forum.
Pär
Hello Guys and Gals,
My name is Pär and this Monday I started my game design internship here, at Expansive Worlds.
The first game I’ve ever played was probably Alley Cat, an old DOS game. My interest for games grew quickly and I started playing pretty much any game that my parents allowed me to. My favourite genre is and has been RPG ever since I played that first Diablo game. It did not take long until I dreamed of making my own games.
Gaming is still a pretty big part of my life, whenever I find the time for it. My free time I mostly spend on either side projects or with my girlfriend whom I have been together with for 9 years.
It took quite a while before I actually started following my dream and began to work my way up to become a game developer. When I was about 21 my girlfriend found a game development educational programme in Stockholm, which I did not even know existed at that time. I am originally from the northern part of Sweden but as I got into that programme, I relocated to the Stockholm area. Now I have been through 2 different educational programmes which finally led me to Expansive Worlds where I hope and believe I will fit right in.
Carl-Oscar
Hello out there!
My name is Carl-Oscar Lönn and I’ve just joined Expansive Worlds as an intern. I will be a part of the Client Programming team to bring you new content.
I am originally from the Swedish city called Trollhättan, this is where my beloved family lives. There I studied game development and found my calling, programming. After I was done with studies I went to Falun to further develop my skills at Playground Squad.
When I am not working, I like being at home, playing games and having a cup of tea. I also like to get out and do some geocaching. Sometimes I don’t feel like doing it on my own, but my father often keeps me company.
It feels great to get this opportunity to be a part of the team, so I will give it all and I hope you’ll have a good time hunting.
Happy hunting from the rest of the EW team!
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Hey you hunters,
It’s been only a couple of days since our Movember campaign took off, and we’ve already sold 888 moustaches, worth $1776 in donations. (Can you guess which moustache has been the most popular one?) Thanks for your support everyone and don’t forget that you can also donate directly via our official Movember page.
On Friday we’re kicking off a new event, this time it’ll be a small tribute to the Nordic Father’s Day. Now we know that honouring fathers happens on different dates around the globe, but we had to choose one, so we picked the second Sunday of November, using our privilege as a Scandinavian company 😉 Father’s Day in theHunter will feature good ol’ muzzleloaders and Reindeer, to add a Nordic feel. The best thing, Reindeer will be free to hunt throughout the whole weekend. Check back tomorrow to make sure you don’t miss any details!
On Monday we’ll be announcing yet another hunting spree to help keep you occupied and fend off the November blues. It’s going to mad, but more on this later.
This week we finally got a new front end developer. Magnus, joining the EW team. Read his intro below and say hi in the forums!
Hello everybody. My name is Magnus Eckers, and it is a great pleasure to be able to introduce myself as a new member of the fantastic theHunter team. Starting this week I will be taking on the role as a front-end developer.
I am a father of two children, who is doing their job well – keeping me happy and ensuring that I have a total of zero time for other activities. Despite this fact, I try to find time for some of my interests which, besides gaming, includes music, movies and beer.
I have always been passionate about computer games, ever since I got my hands on my first computer; the wonderful Commodore 64. Having worked as a web developer in other fields for 14 years, I finally felt that it was time I took the chance to work as a computer games developer.
I’m excited to start doing my best to bring great contributions to the magic that is created here at Expansive Worlds.
If you like, hit me up on twitter (@beingeckers).
I hope to be seeing you in-game!
That’s it from us for today, happy hunting!
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Features
* HunterMate App Selection Menu
* HunterMate Environment Camo App
* The legendary HunterMate mini-game “Bust Through” makes a comeback
Read about HunterMate apps in Björn’s Release Notes
Bug fixes
* Fixed .308 “Rival” reload animation bullet visibility
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Howdy hunters,
Pumpkin collecting and slaying the mysterious beast of the Settler Creeks are at their height and, judging by your feedback, you have been enjoying the Halloween missions. There are 3 days left till the end of the event, and it’s about time you hit those missions, if you haven’t done it yet, because your trophy gallery won’t be complete without this malicious pumpkin. You’re competing only with yourself, so there are no excuses 😉
We’ve prepared more hunting fun for you in the months to come, so stay put, the EHR will soon be brimming with events. Speaking about which, we’re proud to announce that:
TheHunter goes Movember!
Movember (moustache + November) is an annual event in which people around the world grow moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues, in particular prostate and testicular cancer. This year theHunter’s joining the Movember movement! In collaboration with Movember Foundation, we’ve organized a special event to raise funds for cancer research and awareness for men’s health, together with you, our community.
Specially for Movember we’ve created a bunch of dandy moustaches for your avatars. You will be able to choose between three different styles – rollie, hulk or magnum, each of them available in two colour variations. They will cost 300 em$ and we will donate $ 2,- for every moustache purchased in our store during November. There’ll also be a Movember ticker on the theHunter main page where you can track in real time how much money our community have raised. TheHunter Movember campaign will start on Monday, November 3rd, and will run through the whole November.
Here is the link to the Expansive Worlds page on the Movember foundation site, where you can make a direct donation, if for some reason you don’t want to buy a moustache but still want to contribute. Money donated via our Movember page will go directly to the foundation.
That’s it from us for today, happy Halloween hunters!
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There are now a total of three different apps to run on the HunterMate and to accommodate for this we’ve created a new App Selection Menu.
How to launch an app:
How to close an app:
The environment camo app is a new free tool that can be used to learn in which areas your environment based camo such as the Sneaky 3D and Ghillie outfits are active.
Legend:
Note that species-specific camo such as the B&C Outfit is counted as items with no environment based camo. These are active everywhere, thus there’s no need to include them in the app.
Since we now have a way to select multiple apps again we’ve brought back an old friend that should be familiar to most veterans of the game. The HunterMate mini-game “Bust Through” is now available via the App Selection Menu and free to all players of theHunter. To add a competitive touch we’ve also added an all new leaderboard for this game on the website.
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