Dinosis Survival

Dinosis Survival is a third-person shooter set in a mysterious jungle teeming with dinosaurs. Players control Tom Burt, a survivor of a plane crash who must hunt, survive, and unravel the secrets of the dangerous world he has awakened in. The game combines elements of action, adventure, and survival as players explore an open world, fend off prehistoric creatures, and piece together the narrative of a world falling apart.

Dinosis Survival: A Cautionary Tale of Ambition and Execution in the Indie Wilderness

In the vast and unforgiving ecosystem of indie game development, where promising concepts emerge like fragile saplings, few stories are as illustrative of the challenges inherent to solo development as that of Dinosis Survival. Released in July 2017 by the one-person studio Corpix Games, this third-person dinosaur survival shooter stands not as a monument to success, but as a stark, educational relic—a game whose profound ambitions were catastrophically undermined by its technical and creative execution. It is a title that serves as a critical case study in the perils of rushing a vision to market.

Development History & Context

The Solo Vision of Corpix Games

Dinosis Survival is the product of a singular vision, developed and published by the enigmatic “Corpix Games.” As evidenced by posts on the Unity forums, this was a passion project helmed by a lone developer, a fact that is both the game’s most admirable quality and the root of its deepest flaws. In an era defined by the rise of accessible game engines like Unity and digital storefronts like Steam, which had recently transitioned from its Greenlight program, the barrier to entry for aspiring creators was lower than ever. Dinosis Survival was a beneficiary of this system, successfully garnering votes to pass through Greenlight in early 2017.

The developer’s stated inspirations were lofty, drawing from the mysterious, character-driven narratives of TV’s Lost and the primal sci-fi terror of the Planet of the Apes franchise. The goal was to create more than a simple shooter; it was to be a story-based adventure set in a world “falling apart,” wrapped in a survival mechanics package. This was an attempt to tap into the burgeoning survival genre while leveraging the perennial appeal of dinosaurs, a niche with a dedicated fanbase still pining for a successor to classics like Dino Crisis.

Technological Constraints and the Rush to Release

Built in Unity, the game’s technical aspirations were modest yet demanding for a solo developer. The stated system requirements called for mid-range PCs from the 2012-2013 era (e.g., GTX 660, i5-2500K), suggesting a project aiming for a certain level of graphical fidelity. However, community feedback during its Greenlight campaign highlighted fundamental issues from the outset. Commenters on the Unity forums immediately pointed out “jerky” camera controls, “rough” character animations, and an “odd” way the player character held weapons—criticisms that would go largely unheeded.

The timeline from Greenlight campaign in March 2017 to release in July 2017 suggests a rushed development cycle. For a complex project involving open-world environments, AI-driven dinosaur behaviors, survival systems, and a narrative, a four-month turnaround was almost impossibly short. This rush to release is the defining context of Dinosis Survival‘s development, a decision that ensured the game would arrive in a state that one critic would later describe as “nowhere near ready for anything short of VERY early access.”

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

A Mystery Unraveled Before It Begins

The game casts players as Tom Burt, a man who awakens in a dinosaur-infested jungle after a plane crash with little memory of the event beyond a “big storm.” The setup is a classic trope of the genre, promising a slow-burn mystery: What is this place? Why are there dinosaurs? Are there other survivors?

Unfortunately, the narrative fails to execute on this promise in any meaningful way. The opening sequence, as described by critic Johnathan Irwin of Hooked Gamers, is “laughably bad.” It features a “blank blue sky, a jet with no detail, and on board the most lifeless flyers I’ve yet to see in a videogame” set to a “cheery upbeat song” that tonally clashes with the impending disaster. The subsequent crash is abrupt, and the player is deposited into the world with no sign of wreckage, breaking immersion immediately. The mystery is not intriguing; it’s confusing and poorly constructed.

The world is littered with potential clues—abandoned buildings, cars, and skeletal remains—but they feel less like pieces of a puzzle and more like generic assets placed haphazardly to fill space. The story, promised to be a central pillar, becomes a mere “means to an end,” as one player review noted. Any thematic depth exploring hubris, survival, or the collision of eras is lost in a gameplay loop devoid of context or compelling payoff. The narrative is a ghost, a skeletal framework that exists only in the store description, not in the actual experience of playing the game.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

A Broken Core Loop

On paper, Dinosis Survival’s gameplay loop is compelling: survive, hunt, stealth, manage hunger, and explore to unravel a mystery. In practice, nearly every system is fundamentally flawed.

• Combat & AI: The combat is described as a “boring, hot mess.” Dinosaurs are “sluggish bullet sponges” with primitive AI. They often get stuck on geometry, run against walls, or stop moving entirely. The strategy for engaging every threat devolves into a simple, tedious pattern: backpedal while shooting or kite enemies around environmental objects. There is no thrill of the hunt or tension of a clever predator; only the frustration of a broken simulation.
• Survival Mechanics: Hunger management is a key advertised feature. Players can hunt dinosaurs for meat or steal eggs, which must then be cooked at a campfire to restore energy. While functional, this system is reduced to a repetitive chore rather than an engaging fight for survival. It lacks depth and fails to integrate meaningfully with the other mechanics or the narrative.
• Exploration & Progression: The game features an open world, but it is a hollow one. Buildings and cars are largely non-interactive set pieces, creating frustration rather than wonder. Weapon progression is basic, with firearms found as loot in the world, but their impact is lessened by the poor combat feedback and enemy design.
• Controls & Stability: The game’s one consistent, albeit faint, praise is that its basic controls (WASD movement, interaction keys) are functional and responsive. However, this is damning with faint praise. The game is reportedly plagued with bugs, including crashes, enemies clipping through obstacles, and save file issues. One player reported that “a dead Dino can also block your Path,” and sometimes “the whole Game will be sent to Nirvana.”

World-Building, Art & Sound

An Inconsistent and Unpolished Vision

The artistic direction of Dinosis Survival is a study in contradiction. The natural jungle environments, when viewed from a distance on the main paths, received occasional nods for their vibrant color. However, this minor positive is overwhelmed by a plethora of negatives.

The asset quality is severely inconsistent. Dinosaurs are serviceably modeled but poorly animated, moving with a stiffness that undermines their threat. Human models, as seen in the intro, are robotic and lifeless. Man-made assets like buildings and cars are described as having “mushy textures” and appearing “loveless,” clearly made from low-poly, generic asset store models that clash with the natural environments.

The sound design is equally lacking. The aforementioned upbeat introductory song is a bizarre tonal miscalculation. Beyond that, the audio landscape is forgettable, with generic effects and no memorable score to build atmosphere. There are no reported options for audio settings, further highlighting the lack of polish.

Reception & Legacy

Critical Panning and Community Division

Dinosis Survival was met with immediate and harsh critical reception. On Metacritic, it holds a single recorded critic score of 20/100 from Hooked Gamers, which perfectly encapsulates the critical consensus. The review titled “Di-no thanks” awarded it a 2.0/10, concluding it was a “hot mess” where “good ideas take a backseat to rushing to release.”

User reviews on Steam have been “Mixed” (54% positive out of 282 reviews), which reveals a fascinating split in the community. Negative reviews echo the critics, pointing out the bugs, poor AI, and lack of polish. Positive reviews often come with a significant caveat: the price. Purchased on a deep discount (frequently sinking to $0.99 from a $4.99 list price), some players found a so-bad-it’s-good charm or a simple, mindless diversion for a few hours. Comments like “Super Fun for In Between!” and “For a Price of £4.99… you get well entertained” are almost always paired with acknowledgments of its glaring technical shortcomings. This divide highlights how a low price point can dramatically alter the perception of a game’s value.

A Legacy of Caution

The legacy of Dinosis Survival is not one of influence but of caution. It did not pave the way for a new subgenre nor inspire a wave of imitators. Instead, it serves as a prime example in the indie scene of several critical lessons:
1. The Danger of Rushed Development: A compelling concept is meaningless without the time and resources to execute it properly.
2. The Limits of Solo Development: Ambition must be scaled to the team’s capabilities. Complex genres like open-world survival shooters are incredibly difficult for a single person to pull off.
3. The Power of Price: A game’s perceived failure or success can be heavily dependent on its cost, with a low enough price allowing players to overlook otherwise fatal flaws.

It stands as a footnote—a game that serves as a benchmark for how not to execute a promising idea.

Conclusion

Dinosis Survival is a fascinating artifact in the history of indie games, but it is not a good game. It is a stark portrait of ambition brutally curtailed by the realities of development. The vision of a story-driven, survival-horror experience in a lost world of dinosaurs is palpable in its description, but that vision is utterly absent in its execution. From its broken AI and repetitive combat to its incoherent narrative and inconsistent presentation, almost every element feels unfinished, unpolished, or fundamentally flawed.

While its status as a solo project earns a measure of sympathy and its deep discounts may provide a fleeting, ironic enjoyment for a very specific type of player, these factors cannot redeem it. Dinosis Survival is ultimately a failure—a cautionary tale of a game that crashed and burned on arrival, leaving behind only the scattered remnants of what might have been. Its place in video game history is secured not as a classic to be celebrated, but as a lesson to be learned.