Trivia / Saurian

• Accidentally Correct Zoology:
  • The devs gave Dakotaraptor blue eggs after research indicating that this was the color of Heyuannia eggs, only distantly related to dromaeosaurs (this was before an oviraptorosaur was supposed to be playable). It was later discovered that fellow dromaeosaur Deinonychus also had blue eggs.
  • When the Mosasaurus was first announced its inclusion would've been considered a (very minor) case of Misplaced Wildlife, since at the nearest the genus was only known from the underlying Fox Hills Formation. It wasn't until after Mosasaurus was firmly established as a part of the game's world that mosasaur fossils really ''were'' found in the Hell Creek formation (albeit of an indeterminate genus rather than Mosasaurus itself).
• Creator Backlash:
  • Designer RJ Palmer admitted to hating the design of the hatchling Triceratops, describing its face as looking like "a dinosaur trying to be a person".
  • The game's primary dinosaur modeler, Jake Baardse, has also admitted to disliking the Thescelosaurus model, and has claimed in one of the livestreams that he'll likely spend much of his time in the game as Dakotaraptor hunting down and killing the things simply because he finds them so ugly.
• Development Hell: The Mac version. The PC version of the game was made available on Steam and other platforms in 2017, but the Mac version has run into constant issues and has yet to be released.
• Doing It for the Art: The three years of unpaid work went into Saurian's development before the Kickstarter launched.
• Dueling Works: With Dinosaur Battlegrounds, another independent dinosaur game set in the Hell Creek Formation that aims to be accurate (albeit one whose future is far more in doubt, given that it's been several years since we last heard anything about its development).
• He Also Did: RJ Palmer, one of the creature designers, is also the guy who does Realistic Pokémon, and did some of the realistic Pokemon designs for Pokémon Detective Pikachu.
• Science Marches On:
  • As of 2017, some are now arguing that Tyrannosaurus rex is looking more likely to have been scaly after all, or at least that it had fewer feathers than many recent depictions (including Saurian's current design). That said, the jury's very much still out; the skin impressions recovered are of very small, isolated bits of skin from a few parts of the T. Rex's body. They also notably don't overlap with many of the feathered areas of the Saurian design. The devs confirmed their Tyrannosaurus is going to have a makeover (Despite the aforementioned lack of overlap).
  • After the reveal of a hand from Dakota the Dinomummy, showing that hadrosaurs had a horse-like hoof and a spiky index finger, the devs have plans to revamp their Anatosaurus.
  • The developers did not include Torosaurus because it was not found in the uppermost layers of the Hell Creek Formation, and their blog suggested that rather than being the oldest ontological stage of Triceratops, Torosaurus evolved into Triceratops. However, a 2022 study indicates that Torosaurus did in fact range into the Latest Maastrichtian (although most of this late material originates from the Canadian Scollard and Frenchman Formations, these formations are of the same age and the same animals lived there as in the Hell Creek Formation, and one is also known from the uppermost Hell Creek strata).
  • Dakotaraptor's validity started to crumble as closer examination of its remains revealed it may be a chimera of various other animals found in Hell Creek (its wishbone was identified as a turtle shell fragment, its leg bones from an oviraptorosaur, probably Anzu, its tail bones from an ornithomimid, and its claws, and maybe the teeth, probably from a juvenile Tyrannosaurus) with a study by Andrea Cau delivering more convincing evidence towards its dubiousness, though the possibility that the few bits actually discernible as a dromaeosaur instead produce a smaller Deinonychus-sized animal haven't been ruled out (although he stated it's possible this is just the size range that Acheroraptor could reach as an adult). The devs, wary of this animal's questionable validity, have confirmed they will implement a toggle that disables spawning of in-game AI Dakotaraptor should the player choose not to encounter this dinosaur.
• Trolling Creator: Because so many fans wanted Spinosaurus in the game despite the constant reminders that the dinosaur wasn't found in Hell Creek, the game devs during a livestream jokingly claimed that a new unpublished spinosaurid called Montanaspinus had been discovered in the formation. Poe's Law ensued, and the devs had to explain that Montanaspinus wasn't a real dinosaur. However, "Montanaspinus" was used as the internal file name for DePalma's Ornithuran.
• Troubled Production: Even a dinosaur simulator such as Saurian isn't safe from this. With the developers primarily working on the game part-time, production can be strenuous, and the devs have run into issues such as their former manager stealing $75,000 dollars over five years working with the team. It got to a point where the team eventually discontinued monthly development logs in order to put more focus on the game.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A gallery of scrapped animals and designs can be viewed on the official site. Notably, Alamosaurus had been planned to be included in the game at one point, but was removed when the developers decided to focus strictly on the Hell Creek Formation. Leptoceratops was also planned to appear in the game, but it was removed because it wasn't found in the upper third of Hell Creek. Trierarchuncus^note Which was unnamed at the time was also removed because it was found in Montana rather than South Dakota where the game is set.
  • Some of the dinosaurs had their designs changed in mid-production, often due to Science Marches On. For instance...
    • The Tyrannosaurus rex was originally going to look very, very different. The change was probably for the best, as the original◊ look is more Prehistoric Monster-ish than the next product◊. And then came the newest featherless design^note largely resulting from Unity being unable to render such small sparse filaments...
    • The Triceratops was initially going to have quills on its back, before the team checked the skin impressions they based that off of and decided that they were most likely not present on the living animal the way the original design presented. It also initially lacked the keratinous "mask" covering the upper part of the head and had black horns.
    • The Pachycephalosaurus's design was changed based on a groundbreaking Psittacosaurus model that was revealed. Compare the original◊, which has crocodile-like facial scales to the remake◊ which has a keratinous covering over its dome and a more slim body.
    • The Quetzalcoatlus, in an inverse of the Tyrannosaurus above, was redesigned to look more menacing. Compare the original to the updated version◊.
  • The playable dromaeosaur was originally going to be Acheroraptor...then the larger (and much cooler) Dakotaraptor was discovered, and eventually ended up replacing it. This was done for practical reasons as well. For instance, everything you can do with Acheroraptor you can do with a juvenile Dakotaraptor. Also, playing as something as small as a hatchling Acheroraptor would require both the terrain and the plant models and textures to be bumped up significantly, raising the system requirements to run Saurian.
  • Had the Kickstarter reached its $300,000 and $400,000 stretch goals, Saurian would've had the Two Medicine Formation as an extra map (with Styracosaurus and Gorgosaurus among the playable dinosaurs) and console support on release. Since the KS campaign failed to reach these stretch goals, they are not planned for at this time.
  • Anzu and Ankylosaurus ended up winning the poll to determine extra playable characters, beating out the ornithomimid for omnivores and Anatosaurus and Denversaurus for herbivores (though the losers will still be included in the final game's ecosystem as NPCs).
  • Pachycephalosaurus was originally going to be the second playable after Dakotaraptor before the devs announced Triceratops would be replacing it due to them having trouble programming Pachycephalosaurus's ontogeny. Devs have confirmed that Tyrannosaurus is next up on the schedule, making Pachycephalosaurus ironically the last of the four core playables to be implemented.