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The Lost Wild Developer Diary Reveals How Its Dinosaurs Hunt
Dinosaurs have spent decades serving as oversized targets in games, but Great Ape Games would much rather have players think twice before getting anywhere near one. Together with Annapurna Interactive, the team has released a new developer diary for The Lost Wild, offering fresh gameplay and a closer look at how the Brighton-based studio is approaching its prehistoric predators ahead of the game’s 2027 release.
It builds on what we saw when The Lost Wild resurfaced during June’s State of Play, where its first-person survival horror made one thing clear: players are not entering this island as dinosaur hunters. They are prey, with survival built around observation, distraction, evasion and knowing when to run.
Great Ape Games Wants Dinosaurs to Behave Like Living Predators
Much of the new developer diary focuses on making the dinosaurs feel like animals inhabiting the world rather than enemies waiting for Saskia to wander into their encounter zone. Game Director Gary Napper, whose previous credits include Alien: Isolation, explains that the fear Great Ape Games is pursuing comes from being physically close to creatures capable of overwhelming the player. That has meant thinking beyond their appearance and considering how each dinosaur moves, behaves and reacts within its environment.
The studio has also leaned heavily on research in its design. Art Director and studio co-founder Tim Mehmet discusses efforts to create scientifically grounded dinosaurs, while team members travelled to environments including California’s Redwood forests to better understand the scale and atmosphere needed to sell the game’s wilderness.
AI and Gameplay Programmer Lou Thorpe-Monaghan similarly describes the dinosaurs as characters rather than conventional enemies. Their existence is not supposed to revolve entirely around the player’s presence, reinforcing the idea that Saskia has wandered into an ecosystem that was already functioning long before she arrived.
Saskia Is the Hunted, Not the Hunter
That philosophy extends directly to protagonist Saskia, an ordinary person thrust into circumstances well beyond anything she was prepared for.
Rather than gradually turning her into a heavily armed dinosaur-killing machine, The Lost Wild keeps vulnerability at the centre of its survival horror. Players explore overgrown research facilities and dense wilderness, relying on environmental awareness, distractions, and non-lethal tools to create enough breathing room to escape.
The dinosaurs can hunt individually or in packs, and different behaviours require players to pay attention rather than assume every encounter follows the same rules. If intimidation or distraction fails, hiding and running may be the only sensible options.
It gives The Lost Wild a very different relationship with its prehistoric stars. The appeal comes not from conquering them, but from surviving encounters with creatures the game wants players to respect and fear equally.
The Lost Wild Is Still Targeting 2027
Great Ape Games hasn’t narrowed The Lost Wild’s 2027 release window, but the game remains confirmed for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
The latest footage continues to reinforce what makes the project stand apart from more action-heavy dinosaur games. Rather than giving players enough firepower to climb straight to the top of the food chain, The Lost Wild seems more interested in making sure players remember exactly where humans fit within it.
