Personal Game History: Jurassic Park Rampage Edition

I was surprised today to moderate a comment about Jurassic Park Rampage Edition! The really weird thing is that we were briefly discussing the same Jurassic Park game at work today in relation to the upcoming Tomb Raider Underworld game that we're working on at Crystal Dynamics! Unfortunately, I can't be more specific in why we were talking about it, but possibly in the next few months I can talk about it if I get permission from upper management.

Anyway, the first Sega Genesis Jurassic Park game was a HUGE hit for Sega and BlueSky Software, so it seemed like a no-brainer to pitch a quick sequel. The game was approved for development with much of the original team, but a significantly shorter schedule (6 to 8 months I think) in order to get it out quick while the franchise was still hot. I don't remember all the specifics about the game's development, but I have a few memories:

I wrote the original design document with the assistance of my producer Jenny Cleary. This was the first design document I ever wrote and, unfortunately, I don't have a copy of it anymore. This was also my first job as a game designer since I'd been a largely unsuccessful junior programmer prior to this. If you play the first Jurassic Park game, I did the code for the options menu on the title screen. Woohoo! Also, for any aspiring game designers reading this post, I can't stress enough how valuable any amount of a programming background can be in relation to game design!

I designed two of the levels for the game: the Aviary and the Cargo Ship. I know the gameplay for the Aviary frustrates a lot of people, but I really wanted to try something different with the level design, so I inverted the traditional layout (bottom to top) and made the gameplay flow from top to bottom. Instead of worrying about falling, the player had to worry about pterodactyls that would carry them back to the nest at the top of the level. With the Cargo Ship, I'd been inspired by a Japanese Super Famicom game called Septentrion (known in the US as S.O.S.) which takes place on a Titanic style sinking luxury liner. I wanted to use the rising water level gameplay to chase the player through the different decks as raptors tried to kill them. This was quite a technical feat for the programmers since the Sega Genesis didn't have fancy Mode 7 to simulate the water effects.

In the original Jurassic Park game, we were given strict orders not to kill dinosaurs because it would upset kids playing the game. We ended up having to put them all to sleep with a tranquilizer gun which would cause them to lay down with little z's over their head. In the sequel, the movie had already proven to be a big hit and people had a much different impression of dealing with dinosaurs, so we were not only allowed, but encouraged to blow the creatures to bits! I mean, c'mon. What kid isn't going to want to kill something that will tear a bathroom apart to bite some guy in half?

I still keep in touch with a few of the BlueSky folks who worked on the game. Keith Freiheit (the lead programmer) works at Bottle Rocket Entertainment, Dok Whitson (lead artist) works at SOE, Mark Lorenzen (artist and designer) works at a division of Electronic Arts (the last time I heard from him), Mark Botta (programmer) works with me at Crystal Dynamics, Karl Robillard (one of my favorite people ever) is probably somewhere in Arizona programming Linux applications, and Rich Karpp (programmer) is also at Bottle Rocket Entertainment.