When I started Dinosaur Island, I had been using Unity for years. I had worked on both 2D and 3D projects, however I always found that my 3D projects had a quality much lower than their 2D counterparts due to my lack of ability to create my own assets.
In April of 2021 I downloaded Blender on a whim and decided to try my hand at 3D modeling. I found it not only to be not nearly as difficult as I had imagined, but also incredibly fun and relaxing. As I began modeling low-poly characters I realized that I had finally overcome my largest hurdle in creating 3D games.
I started a new project in Unity and got to work right away on a 3D platformer inspired by early 3D games like Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Donkey Kong 64, and Crash Bandicoot. Dinosaur Island was a way for me to become accustomed with new Unity standards as well, such as Cinemachine and the new Input system, both of which I've found to rapidly decrease development time for such integral parts of a game.
Dinosaur Island is still in development, and if all goes well I hope to publish the game some day. I still have a long way to go but I'm enjoying every second of it. Feel free to download the pre-alpha builds above, or check out the source code at the bottom of the page. Eventually the source will go private, but I'll have a real demo out by then.
| Action | Key(s) |
|---|---|
| Movement | WASD, Arrow Keys |
| Jump | Space |
| Change Camera Mode | C |
| Switch Characters | Shift/Ctrl |
| Pause | Escape |