Resurrecting a Dinosaur

When Disney binned a sequel to 2008 game Turok and closed developer Propaganda Games, did you really care? When Disney turned off the Turok multiplayer servers, did you really care?

The Turok Multiplayer Revival Campaign on Facebook did.

"I may be a dreamer, but I'm not the only one," began an email sent to Eurogamer from Bryan Shuler, a member of the TMRC, in April this year. "Turok was unlike most games. It helped build strong friendships with people all over the world of all ages.

"Unlike most co-op games, it was not just going killing everyone you saw, not caring about your team members. It built character, respect, and yes, honour among its co-op players. The teams shared, and had to work together to achieve common goals," Shuler declared, "while evading dinosaurs."

"I am a 53-year-old gamer with drawers full of video games. I was always pulled back to Turok. Turok was a brotherhood game, not just a first-person shooter game."

The Turok Multiplayer Revival Campaign needed between 1,000 and 10,000 supporters before Disney would apparently switch the multiplayer servers back on. The Turok Multiplayer Revival Campaign only managed 408 Likes on Facebook, its HQ.

But disappointment unexpectedly vanished when, in July 2011, the Xbox 360 Turok multiplayer servers were mysteriously turned back on.

"I coordinated the whole thing," Luis Walters, the 15-year-old founder of the Turok Multiplayer Revival Campaign, told Eurogamer. "I got people to write letters [to Microsoft]. I didn't send one personally, but I told them to send links to them raising awareness."

Walters learned that the Xbox 360 servers had been turned back on via a campaigner. "I had a guy come on saying, 'Guys, Turok's on!'" he recalled. "But the PS3: nothing happened. It's still deserted; there's nothing. I checked the other day and they've done nothing about it. We've written on the Sony discussion forums, trying to get people to read about it, but people have gone 'pah'.

"But the servers are pretty desolate," he admitted. "There's not many people. There's at least 100 weekly players, which I'm surprised [about]. And we try and organise games."

Walters hasn't ever spoken to Microsoft about the return of the Turok servers, and laughed when we asked if he'd talked to Disney.

"Ooh ooh ooh no way, heh heh, they'd never reply anything about that. I suggest they probably put them in their delete box. They never reply to any of us," said Walters.

"We're writing on Disney Interactive Studios' [forum] and we're writing about what happened to Turok? What's happening with Turok multiplayer?

"Deleted," he said. "They've deleted them - they've deleted evidence of Turok. They don't even associate themselves with Turok any more, which is wrong."

Partial success, then. But Walters' journey was only just beginning. He felt bad that PS3 owners had no way to enjoy the game he so passionately enjoyed. So, bizarrely, bravely, this 15-year-old boy vowed to make those people a new a game in the style of Turok.

In May 2011, Dark Territory Studios was born. An email sent to Eurogamer boasted of 30 people working on the project, over 100 applicants, hopeful support from decorated actor Robin Atkin Downes, talks with Vin Diesel's agent, a completed soundtrack and with production well under way.

But the prospect of a triple-A, multi-platform game like Turok is just a dream. Dark Territory: Hunter's Isle has absolutely no budget. Walters is 15-years-old boy, he's at school. "There is no money - it's absolutely free," Walters explained. "We work on voluntary contributions." Everyone works part-time. There is no core, full-time team.

Nevertheless, Walters revealed that he gets "two to three applications a day". "I've had to turn people down," he said. "These are the circumstances: I get people apply, I don't think their work's up to it, or they want to be paid and I can't offer pay - and I explain to them the situation and some agree, some disagree.

"It's a win-win situation," he believes. "I get some work that contributes to the game, and they have some work that adds to their portfolio."

Dark Territory: Hunter's Isle won't even be a PS3 game - not "straight away" - despite the project's initial raison d'etre. "I didn't know how hard it would be," Walters admitted. Instead he'll aim for Xbox Live Indie Games, which sounds pleasantly grounded for Luis Walters. "We put it on Xbox Live Indie Games and see how that is," he said. "If we get investors and it goes successfully we'll have it on Xbox Live Arcade and release it all on disc and stuff."

Dark Territory: Hunter's Isle won't even be a multiplayer game - despite the project's raison d'etre. Walters explained that "of course you have to pay for servers" for multiplayer games. And, once more, the project has no money. So, Walters told us, "We've decided that we're going to do a single-player [game]."

"The story is kind of Jurassic Park mixed with Turok," he revealed. "It's set in the present time. You're a set of four protagonists versus four antagonists, so if it goes well we can release some multiplayer if we've getting some money out of it.

He continued: "You go out on an island, it's a bachelor party for the four main characters, which you'll play. The island, like Jurassic Park - they're doing experiments on dinosaurs, and recreating them for the black market to be sold as weapons. And they test them. So the people think they're going to a holiday resort on a remote island outside of America, when in fact they're going to be live human specimens to be chased down by dinosaurs!

The four protagonists enter the facility, cotton on to what's going on and, it sounds like, run into the woods and make a campfire. Obviously. From there, you can pick a character "for example a woman called Helena or something" and access her mission to go find a radio on the other side of the island. Three waypoints are marked on your map and you traipse over to them "across rivers, across mountains - anyway she likes" and try to find a radio that works. The other characters' missions will trigger from here; another character may make an emergency broadcast with that radio.

"I hope it will be quite a good game when it's released," confided Walters.

What of Robin Atkin Downes and Vin Diesel's involvement? "I talked to [Robin Atkin Downes] and he said he's busy," Walters admitted, "but he'll see what he can do.

"I've talked to Vin Diesel's agent," he said, "but I don't think that it's going to lead anywhere. If this interview goes out and they see what's happened, I hope it will catch their eye and, with this being run by someone who's young, that might catch their eye."

"But I can't offer payment, so..."

How would he even record their voices if he can't pay for time at a recording studio? "They record it themselves," he retorted, "and then send it to us - and we can just put it simply in the game."

A press-push for Dark Territory: Hinter's Isle is planned for January. A demo is tentatively planned for summer 2012. Walters is hopeful that, between now and then, his "notable" director friend - who he may hand the project over to - will convince "big names" to join the project and attract investors.

But construction of Dark Territory: Hunter's Isle's island only began "a few days ago". And when Walters revealed that "we haven't really got many programmers", and "we haven't really got many 3D modellers", the bubble pops.

Luis Walters' talks with the confidence of a man beyond his years, but he's relying on a part-time development-force to create a video game. He has nothing more than goodwill-loyalty of strangers, whose help may evaporate in the click of a job offer.

"I've always thought of this," he told us, referring to the chances the project will actually be completed, ever. "I always get edgy. I occasionally get negative thoughts and think, 'What if this doesn't work? What if it fails? The people will be angry,'"

"And I keep on telling myself they won't be, because I ask them and they all agreed to it. They want the work and they get their portfolios and someone got a full-time job from the work they did here."

"The success rate, I mean, I'm sure we'll come out with a game. But it's how successful it is," he added, his temporary vulnerability dispersed. "I'm virtually positive that there will be some sort of game. But if it makes money or whatever - if we come to that barrier where we need some sort of money to put it on the games, that's my worry."

Luis Walters set out to resurrect a dinosaur - a game from 2008 which had its multiplayer servers turned off because it wasn't very popular. He ended up with a single-player Xbox Live Indie Game project inspired by Turok. Deluded or not, he's trying. And he's achieving - something.

But the million dollar question is, will Dark Territory: Hunter's Isle be better than Turok? "Well I love Turok, I absolutely love the game," gushed Walters, completely surprising us. "I was fascinated by dinosaurs as a child. It's from my childhood. I used to look up in the encyclopaedia all the dinosaur names and used to be obsessed by it.

"Will it be better than Turok? They're all professionals who made the game and they were paid for it and they had that motivation, although there's the same motivation here.

"I think it would be better graphics," he added. "I hope it would be. But realistically I can't be sure, I could not be sure. I couldn't tell you at this moment in time if it will be better than Turok. But I hope it is."