The first tamed creature

The first tamed creature is finally in the game.

Taming was always something I wanted to achieve in Evolve, but this time I decided to stop thinking about the wider system and actually build the mechanic for the first tameable dinosaur.

The dinosaur I chose is the Gallimimus.

The Gallimimus isn't a predator, and its main purpose is fairly simple: helping the player move around the world quickly. It's a very fast dinosaur, but it's also very, very weak. That feels like a good starting point for taming because it gives the player something genuinely useful without immediately turning a tame into a weapon.

Over time I want the taming mechanics to vary between different creatures. I don't want every dinosaur to follow exactly the same process.

For the Gallimimus, I wanted to start with wild taming using a feeding trough, while also finding a way to connect taming back into another part of the survival loop: farming.

The Gallimimus will require certain foods that can only really be obtained through farming. That means taming one isn't simply a case of finding the dinosaur and throwing some food into a trough. You first need to have progressed far enough to grow the food it actually wants.

Once you've got that food, you'll need to tame the Gallimimus out in the wild.

I don't think this process should be particularly easy.

Part of the challenge should come from the world around you. Other dinosaurs can interfere, the player can spook the Gallimimus, and the terrain itself might make keeping a wild creature nearby difficult. I want the actual act of taming something to feel like you're trying to gain the trust of an animal living in a dangerous world, rather than watching a progress bar fill up.

Once the tame is complete, you'll be able to craft a Gallimimus-specific saddle, place it on the dinosaur and ride it.

The Gallimimus will then become a very fast way of travelling around the map, although you'll still need to be careful with it.

Every dinosaur will eventually have its own health and stamina pools, and the Gallimimus is no different. While riding, you'll need to manage its stamina and remember that this is still a relatively fragile animal. It's built for speed, not for standing its ground against predators.

This is very much the first version of taming, but it finally gives me the foundations of the system.

From here I can start experimenting with creatures that are tamed in completely different ways, and hopefully make each one feel like its own challenge rather than simply repeating the same mechanic with a different dinosaur.