Dino Simulator

Dino Simulator asks one question before anything else: which egg? Three of them sit on the start screen - a brown triceratops, a green-and-orange striped T-rex and a purple, spiky ankylosaurus. Whichever you click is the animal you will live as, from a wobbly hatchling in a nest of straw to a full-grown giant that the rest of the island learns to avoid.

Life on a Prehistoric Island

The game drops you onto a lush 3D island of palm groves, grey boulders, rivers and muddy pools. Your first task is to get out of the shell: click the egg and it cracks a little more each time until your dinosaur climbs out. From that moment you are on your own, and the four icons along the upper edge of the display tell you how you are doing - a heart for health, a droplet for water, a drumstick-like icon for food and a lightning bolt for stamina.

Let any of those run dry and you will feel it. Thirst and hunger slowly eat into your health, and stamina empties fast when you sprint. Survival is a constant cycle of finding fruit or prey, walking down to the water to drink and picking your fights carefully.

Three very different dinosaurs

• Triceratops - a plant eater with horns. It feeds on melons, bushes, banana trees, pineapples and mushrooms, and can defend itself well when cornered.
• T-Rex - the hunter. Its missions point it at other animals, and its bite does the most damage in the game.
• Ankylosaurus - a walking tank with an armoured back. Slow, sturdy and hard for predators to bring down.

Growing Up

Your dinosaur passes through three life stages - juvenile, teen and adult - and each stage makes it bigger, stronger and louder (the roar genuinely changes as it ages). Growth comes from staying alive and completing missions, so the early minutes are the most dangerous: as a juvenile, even a pack of little compies can be trouble.

Missions

A panel on the right lists your current goals, each worth coins. They change with the species you picked. Plant eaters are sent to munch specific fruit or flowers, carnivores are asked to hunt particular animals, and everyone eventually gets the bigger milestones: grow up, lay an egg and hatch it. The island is shared with plenty of other creatures - raptors, dimetrodons, pachycephalosaurs, parasaurolophus, nodosaurs, titanosaurs, pteranodons, tortoises and more - so there is always something to chase or flee from.

Keyboard and Mouse

• W, A, S, D or arrow keys - walk
• Shift - sprint (drains stamina)
• Left mouse button - attack
• R - roar
• E - interact: eat, drink and use objects
• C - open the customisation screen
• Esc - pause and settings

A small control reminder sits in the bottom-left corner and can be hidden once you know the keys.

Make Your Dinosaur Your Own

Coins earned from missions are spent in the customiser. You can recolour the body - shades like pale green, dark brown, cool grey, moss, aubergine, cream or turquoise - and change the belly, eye and horn colours separately. On top of that you pick a skin pattern such as tiger stripes, dots, a net pattern or lightning bolts. A preview model spins in the middle of the screen and roars when you change something, so you can see exactly how your T-rex or trike will look before paying.

Survival Advice From the Nest

1. Drink early. Water is easy to forget while chasing a mission. Learn where the nearest river is before you wander off.
2. Do not sprint everywhere. Running out of stamina mid-brawl leaves you with no way to escape a bigger predator.
3. Pick on animals your own size. A juvenile T-rex can win against small prey but should leave adult herbivores alone for now.
4. Use the roar. It is not just for show - it is part of how your dinosaur asserts itself, and it is fun to spam on a clifftop.
5. Follow the mission list. It is the fastest route to coins, growth and the egg-laying stage.

Common Questions

Which dinosaur is easiest for beginners?

The triceratops. Food is everywhere, it does not need to hunt, and its horns give it a fair chance when something attacks.

Can I change species later?

Yes - return to the start screen and pick a different egg. Each species keeps its own missions and look.

Is there a goal or does it go on forever?

The missions give it structure: grow to adulthood, lay an egg and hatch the next generation. After that you are free to roam, hunt and show off your custom colours.

Prefer your dinosaurs in 2D? The pixel runner Dinosaur Game is the quickest dino fix around, and Dino Merge is a relaxed hatching-and-merging puzzle starring baby rexes.