Resurrecting a Dinosaur

"The story is kind of Jurassic Park mixed with Turok," he revealed. "It's set in the present time. You're a set of four protagonists versus four antagonists, so if it goes well we can release some multiplayer if we've getting some money out of it.

He continued: "You go out on an island, it's a bachelor party for the four main characters, which you'll play. The island, like Jurassic Park - they're doing experiments on dinosaurs, and recreating them for the black market to be sold as weapons. And they test them. So the people think they're going to a holiday resort on a remote island outside of America, when in fact they're going to be live human specimens to be chased down by dinosaurs!

The four protagonists enter the facility, cotton on to what's going on and, it sounds like, run into the woods and make a campfire. Obviously. From there, you can pick a character "for example a woman called Helena or something" and access her mission to go find a radio on the other side of the island. Three waypoints are marked on your map and you traipse over to them "across rivers, across mountains - anyway she likes" and try to find a radio that works. The other characters' missions will trigger from here; another character may make an emergency broadcast with that radio.

"I hope it will be quite a good game when it's released," confided Walters.

What of Robin Atkin Downes and Vin Diesel's involvement? "I talked to [Robin Atkin Downes] and he said he's busy," Walters admitted, "but he'll see what he can do.

"I've talked to Vin Diesel's agent," he said, "but I don't think that it's going to lead anywhere. If this interview goes out and they see what's happened, I hope it will catch their eye and, with this being run by someone who's young, that might catch their eye."

"But I can't offer payment, so..."

How would he even record their voices if he can't pay for time at a recording studio? "They record it themselves," he retorted, "and then send it to us - and we can just put it simply in the game."

A press-push for Dark Territory: Hinter's Isle is planned for January. A demo is tentatively planned for summer 2012. Walters is hopeful that, between now and then, his "notable" director friend - who he may hand the project over to - will convince "big names" to join the project and attract investors.

"I occasionally get negative thoughts and think, 'What if this doesn't work? What if it fails? The people will be angry.'"

Luis Walters

But construction of Dark Territory: Hunter's Isle's island only began "a few days ago". And when Walters revealed that "we haven't really got many programmers", and "we haven't really got many 3D modellers", the bubble pops.

Luis Walters' talks with the confidence of a man beyond his years, but he's relying on a part-time development-force to create a video game. He has nothing more than goodwill-loyalty of strangers, whose help may evaporate in the click of a job offer.

"I've always thought of this," he told us, referring to the chances the project will actually be completed, ever. "I always get edgy. I occasionally get negative thoughts and think, 'What if this doesn't work? What if it fails? The people will be angry,'"

"And I keep on telling myself they won't be, because I ask them and they all agreed to it. They want the work and they get their portfolios and someone got a full-time job from the work they did here."

"The success rate, I mean, I'm sure we'll come out with a game. But it's how successful it is," he added, his temporary vulnerability dispersed. "I'm virtually positive that there will be some sort of game. But if it makes money or whatever - if we come to that barrier where we need some sort of money to put it on the games, that's my worry."

Luis Walters set out to resurrect a dinosaur - a game from 2008 which had its multiplayer servers turned off because it wasn't very popular. He ended up with a single-player Xbox Live Indie Game project inspired by Turok. Deluded or not, he's trying. And he's achieving - something.

But the million dollar question is, will Dark Territory: Hunter's Isle be better than Turok? "Well I love Turok, I absolutely love the game," gushed Walters, completely surprising us. "I was fascinated by dinosaurs as a child. It's from my childhood. I used to look up in the encyclopaedia all the dinosaur names and used to be obsessed by it.

"Will it be better than Turok? They're all professionals who made the game and they were paid for it and they had that motivation, although there's the same motivation here.

"I think it would be better graphics," he added. "I hope it would be. But realistically I can't be sure, I could not be sure. I couldn't tell you at this moment in time if it will be better than Turok. But I hope it is."