Former Rare design director Gary Napper has recently opened up about the fascinating connections between his upcoming dinosaur survival game The Lost Wild and Rare’s mysterious nature-focused title Everwild, which Microsoft cancelled during a significant round of Xbox studio cuts last summer. Napper, whose impressive resume includes leading design on the critically acclaimed Alien: Isolation, has provided intriguing insights into how creating believable non-human characters presents unique challenges that span across different projects and genres.
The designer’s comments shed light on the complex nature of creature AI design in video games, particularly when developers aim to create entities that feel authentic and unpredictable rather than simply serving as obstacles for players to overcome. According to Napper, both Everwild and The Lost Wild share a fundamental design philosophy centered on making creatures that are “believable and consistent up close,” suggesting that his work at Rare significantly influenced his approach to the prehistoric predators in his current project.
The Unique Challenge of Designing Believable Creatures
Perhaps most surprisingly, Napper revealed that his celebrated work on Alien: Isolation was in some ways an “easier design challenge” compared to both Everwild and The Lost Wild. The reasoning behind this counterintuitive statement lies in the nature of the creatures themselves. The Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation had a singular, clearly defined purpose: hunting and killing the player. This streamlined objective allowed the design team to focus entirely on creating tension and fear without worrying about making the creature feel like it had a life beyond pursuing Amanda Ripley through the corridors of Sevastopol Station.
In contrast, the dinosaurs of The Lost Wild and the mystical creatures of Everwild required a fundamentally different approach. These animals needed to exhibit behaviors that extended beyond mere aggression, displaying curiosity, territoriality, fear, and other naturalistic responses that would make them feel like genuine living beings rather than video game enemies. This requirement for behavioral depth and ecological authenticity represents a significantly more complex design challenge, as developers must essentially create convincing artificial ecosystems rather than simply programming effective antagonists.
Everwild’s Cancelled Promise and Its Legacy
Everwild had been in development at Rare for several years before Microsoft made the difficult decision to cancel the project during last summer’s widespread cuts across Xbox Game Studios. The game promised a unique experience centered on nature and magical creatures, with early trailers showcasing a beautiful, painterly art style and hints of a world where players would interact with fantastical wildlife in meaningful ways. Though details about the game remained deliberately mysterious throughout its development, the project clearly represented an ambitious departure from Rare’s more recent work on Sea of Thieves.
The cancellation of Everwild came as part of a broader restructuring that saw Microsoft shutter several studios and cancel multiple projects in an effort to streamline its gaming division following the massive Activision Blizzard acquisition. For fans who had been eagerly anticipating the title, the news was disappointing, but Napper’s comments suggest that at least some of the design innovations developed for Everwild may live on in different forms through projects like The Lost Wild.
The Lost Wild: A New Frontier in Survival Horror
The Lost Wild has generated significant excitement among survival horror enthusiasts since its announcement, promising an experience where players must navigate environments populated by intelligent, reactive dinosaurs without relying on traditional combat solutions. Unlike many games featuring prehistoric creatures, The Lost Wild appears focused on creating genuine tension through vulnerability and smart creature behavior rather than empowering players with weapons and abilities to fight back against their scaly adversaries.
Napper’s background makes him particularly well-suited for this type of project. His work on Alien: Isolation demonstrated a masterful understanding of how to create sustained tension and fear through AI-driven encounters, and his experience at Rare working on creature behavior systems appears to be translating directly into The Lost Wild’s dinosaur encounters. The combination of survival horror sensibilities with naturalistic animal behavior could result in something truly unique in the gaming landscape, offering players an experience that feels both terrifying and ecologically grounded.
Expert Opinion: Gary Napper’s transition from Rare to independent development represents an increasingly common pattern in the industry, where experienced designers take ambitious concepts from cancelled AAA projects and adapt them for smaller-scale releases. The Lost Wild could serve as a proof-of-concept for the kind of sophisticated creature AI that Everwild might have featured, potentially influencing future approaches to wildlife simulation in games across all budget levels.
