Seeger Cove

The late cretaceous was a grissly, ugly time to raise a child. Thank god for moms like Mona.

Pictures 1-3: A second promotional image for Extinction event.

This is more akin to what I had wanted in the first place: the poses are much better, especially now that I’ve had more time to establish who these characters are, what their personalities are like, and what roles they would fill as playable characters. Mona in particular (still debating on whether I should just call her “Sue” or not) stands out, as the t. rex I had drawn in the original promo shot was terribly inaccurate. Along the same vein, Kid looks a lot more like a proper Alamosaurus. Actually, Kid may have come out looking even more accurate, since I had based his skull on an Argentinosaur’s, not realizing that there are actually some really decent photographs of an Alamosaur’s skull online.

Blunt is now, decidedly, a T. horridus. I like the wide frill shape and the little saw-tooth hornlets that line the frill.

On the following two: Spade was redrawn separately because I didn’t like the pose I had given him. I tend to draw bigger than I should because I like details, so as a consequence I didn’t give him enough room and had to crook his neck to the right, poor thing. I also didn’t have enough room to add in Kid, who I wanted to be rearing up behind the rest of them. I kind of threw it all together in Photoshop in about half an hour.

Picture 4: Blunt being the team badass. He seems like an Alice in Chains kind of guy, or at least, if he were human, that’s how he’d see himself in his own head. 

Interesting note: there’s this popular idea bobbing around the amphitheater of paleontological theories concocted when they have nothing better to do, purporting that Triceratops might have supplemented its diet with carrion, much like modern hippos. Of course, one might also suggest that it rode bus-sized Harley Davidsons and drank hard liquor with its rowdy biker gang buddies in smoky Maastrichtian roadside dives, but you won’t see me submitting that to a symposium anytime soon.

I expect Jack Horner might.

It’s still a cute theory, and it seems like something Blunt might do to scare the little Triceratopsletts. Wonder if it’s based on anything solid this time.

I’m a counterproductive paleoartist. :3

Anyway!

Pictures 5-10: Images piecing together the events of Mona’s backstory and story arc.

5: Not to be taken as canon, as there’s dialogue here. This is only loosely based on Mona’s backstory, but mainly just an excuse for me to draw the male rex again, with his new design.

I couldn’t really settle on a pattern for his feathers, so I just kind of gave creativity the finger and based him on a bird called a Bearded Vulture. Apparently, this particular species of vulture is very popular on Tumblr, because of the striking black streak of feathers along its beak, reminiscent of a beard. I’m sure they’re shipping it with a turkey vulture or some inane nonsense along those lines.

Oh, hi, Tumblr. Didn’t see you there.

6,7,8: Any preconcieved notion you may have had about Extinction Event being a happy tale, or even kind of campy, what with its premise being “Dinosaurs VS Zombies” and all, I’m sorry to say this probably isn’t your story. Mona’s child had overcome and surmounted hardship after hardship, but life can deal cruel blows to the ones who deserve it the least. He doesn’t make it, and worse yet, coming back as an undead puts Mona in an unfathomable position as his mother.

I think you can surmise what happens from that.

Being a mother is likely one of the hardest things someone can take upon themselves.

I recall someone, I think it was the host of the internet program Extra Credits, stating that he’d be interested to see a video game told from the perspective of a mother, and highlighting her plight as a parent and a protector. So long as the species doesn’t factor into it, I present Mona as that candidate, and as a tribute to the hard work, unfaltering love and dedication of mothers everywhere.

Thank you.

9: As the group decides to trek back north, away from the Irradiated Lands, they stumble upon none other than Spade’s old herd. With the elder bull Apex (http://25.media.tumblr.com/1bc04259843ef7b9739ad36ba74f63f5/tumblr_mkskm9u7Up1rwif25o2_1280.jpg) dead and plantlife dying out from the shroud of dust that has encircled the atmosphere blocking direct sunlight, the herd is aimless, hungry and agitated. Mona attempts to hide herself from the nervewracked hadrosaurs, knowing full well that seeing a t. rex would send them over the brink, which leaves Kid (who has been growing nonstop since he first joined the five) in the open. Slowly, tensions rise as the herd realizes that this long-necked newcomer has been eating more than his fair share of the remaining plantlife. Finally, they assail him. Mona bursts from her forest hiding place and rescues her adopted son from their rampage.

10: (Meant to be a night scene. Very incomplete, plan to redraw.)

Mona wishes her companions a bittersweet farewell, realizing tensions have grown too high for her comfort. She has now fully adopted Kid, and fully intends to protect him until he reaches full adulthood.

Until we meet again.

Picture one: Mona’s redesign

Ever since I designed Mona, I felt she’d be the first to get a redesign. The more I looked at her features, the less I liked them, especially those awkward, artificial-looking nasal ridges along the snout. I always sort of thought, “I’d expect to see that sort of ridging given to a dragon or something unrealistic.” I’ve never really seen a reptile or bird with that kind of feature, anyway, so I didn’t think I could justify it. They’re still there, but theyve been overtaken by the crusty, uneven bumps covering her head, neck and back.

I also wanted to base her design off of the “Sue” specimen (this was the plan from the start- she was literally going to be that very same skeleton on display at the natural history museum- a little reference for paleophiles in the know), but Sue’s skull has a very distinct appearance. It’s a bit boxy, especially around the snout, but the nasal ridge isn’t nearly that tall, so I’m embellishing a bit. I found some photos and skeletal diagrams of Sue to keep the facial structure looking similar enough to pass.

May just rename her Sue while I’m at it. I mean why not? It’s not like these characters had names.

Picture Two: Objects in the Mirror

Just another picture of Blunt. I’ve never really imagined what Blunt’s personality would be. Spade’s kind of the series’ Rick Grimes, Caw is the team lunatic, Kid is… well, he’s the kid, and Mona is the badass with a heart of gold, but Blunt… well, maybe we need an anti-hero? Mix it up a bit?

Blunt is a jerk. He wasn’t so much the leader of his herd as he was its tyrant. He’s a selfish bastard who lorded over the other herd members, took first dibs on the fresh greens they came across, bullied the younger members and forced the females into a harem. Just as a younger member of the herd was about to put the old coot down for good, the comet struck and upheaved their vast Montana plane. He never learned his lesson, and his interactions with the Fab Five amounts to butting heads with the goodie-two-shoes duckbill, swatting at that manic featherduster, trying to warm Kid over to his debauchery and keeping that vicious t. rex where he can see her.

And now that his personality is laid down, it’s time to come up with a character arc or two.

Picture Three: Hunting Lesson

Can’t seem to stop drawing pictures of Mona with Champ. Here’s the scene that lead to the little slugger’s first kill.

Picture Four: Extinction Event Logo/Poster

Progress on the pic of Mona with Champ. Looking into the plumage of baby birds to inspire Champ’s design. I want to stay close to a reddish-brown to match the adult skin tone, but I may throw in some grays or yellows because adolescent birds usually have a different coloration than the adults, which is shed as they mature.

May base the male rex’s color scheme on a Bearded Vulture.

Edit: began to add some patterning to Champ’s plumage.


1. The last thing you’ll ever see.

2, 3. Mona before the disaster, with her son, Champ. Pictured in the first image is Champ’s first successful kill, nearly getting himself trampled to bring down an adolescent Lambeosaurus, much to his mother’s dismay.

4, 5. Essentially the same scene, but the second counts as a revision of the first.

The loss of her son hit Mona harder than anything she had ever experienced. She had raised him and his siblings after the death of his father, protected him from his stepfather’s attempted infanticide, and raised him for at least two years by herself, only to have him snatched from her talons in the wake of the apocalypse. The driving motivation in her miniscule little eat-and-sleep-and-eat life was just… gone. She was empty.

Then, after days of wandering, Mona happened upon a rag-tag little band of misfits- A no-nonsense Anatotitan named Spade, a grouchy old Triceratops named Blunt, a certifiably insane Troodon named Caw… and their most recent member, a lost little Alamosaur calf named Kid.

Kid had no direction in his life apart from what Spade told him to do. He was awkward, and his rumbly little voice cracked. He needed parental influence. This poor child, who had his opportunity to reunite with his parents’ herd taken from him by the rise of those abominable undead, saw a space in Mona’s life he wanted to fill, and in time, she took a shine to the sauropod.

The others just hoped that space little Kid aimed to fill didn’t end up being her stomach.

-First concept for the Pachyrhinosaurs in Spade’s introduction. Decided to go with a real subspecies instead, and less shag.

-Female triceratops, for Blunt’s introduction. I’ve been unforgivably neglectful to his concepts.

-Pachyrhinosaurus concept, based on the “wooly” rendering here- http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2013/01/skin-deep-one-skin-fits-all-approach-to.html I really love this idea, especially since the late cretaceous climate was almost similar to our own. Being a canadian species, I’m betting scales just didn’t cut it for some of them. Let’s just All Yesterdays the fuck out of this shit.

-Happily Ever After. Yeah, spoiler alert: the dinosaurs go extinct. I know it’s saccharine as hell, but after what I have planned for Spade to go through? He’s gonna deserve it.

-Mona doing what she does best. I realize I haven’t actually drawn as much of her in action as I thought.

-It’s now called “The Inside Job,” and it is the single most badass special attack in the entire game. I honestly think that’ll be a selling point.
Oh, and keep in mind, the entire attack, from entry to exit, would be done from Caw’s POV. Hooking to the beast, entering it, talons slicing through rotting organs and tissue, exiting through the neck or the mouth. The. ENTIRE. Attack.

I dare you to bring a snack while you play.