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Mammoths

Mammoth facts you didn’t see coming, because they’re extinct.

Mammoth facts you didn’t see coming, because they’re extinct.

One of the more unknown facts about mammoths is that they’re not actually around anymore. They became extinct 10,000 years ago, an unfortunate reality that we have accepted here at the mammoth HQ. But for your viewing pleasure only, we are here to satiate your need for mammoth facts and information to last the rest of your lifespan.

Your Welcome!

Mammoths are herbivores and graze the ground for food; similar to that of the modern cow!

There is more than one type of mammoth

  1. The Woolly Mammoth
  2. And the Steppe Mammoth

With the latter being the much larger sibling; weighing in at 7.2 metric tonnes and reaching a whopping 4m or 13ft tall

Our little friends the Woolly Mammoth come in at a mere 4.5 metric tonnes and 3m or 9ft tall; approximately the same size as our African Elephant friends

  • Remarkably, Woolly Mammoths are more closely related genetically to the smaller Asian Elephant

Mammoths lived in biomes known as the Steppe Tundra or the Mammoth Steppe

  • This used to be Earth’s most extensive biome; reaching from the west of Europe, across Eurasia and into North America
  • With a significant north-to-south reach as well, the Steppe Tundra reached from the arctic islands all the way to China
  • With the climate being cold and dry the Steppe Tundra was mostly large, flat and featureless grassland, covered in palatable grasses, herbs and willow shrubs
  • However during the winter months snow would cover a majority of the edible grasses and shrubs, making food scarce during this time
  • Though the Mammoths are the most recognised animals, there were many friends that also wandered this landscape; reindeer, muskox, woolly rhinoceros, steppe bison, brown bears, (cave) steppe-lion, scimitar cats, wolverines and wolves
  • It is believed that the extinction of the Mammoths was due to a combination of humans hunting them and the climate changing to be warmer and wetter; removing and changing the vegetation away from what Mammoths could consume

Due to this, fossils and mummified remains of the Steppe Bison suggested that the same happened to them

Woolly Mammoths and friends. Illustration by Maurico Antón via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice_age_fauna_of_northern_Spain_-_Mauricio_Ant%C3%B3n.jpg

They also originated from the warmer African climate; before migrating north into Europe, Asia and North America

Similar to some winter dogs and animals, Woolly Mammoths also had two layers of fur

  • The longer top coat that could grow up to 90cm in length!
  • The shorter undercoat, which created a thick insulating layer
  • Mammoths displayed a range of coloured furs with orange as the most common; paleontological evidence suggest colours ranged from almost black to blonde were present within herds

Humans were also alive and hunting during the Mammoth’s reign and hunted them for food, fur and their bones; which were used to create strong buildings and huts

Due to living in harsh cold biomes many mammoths ended up being preserved and accidentally mummified; with the best being a female in her 50s named Buttercup (RIP)

Scientists are looking more into “reviving” extinct species including the Tasmanian Tiger and the Woolly Mammoth, 

  • This is a controversial experiment due to the significant change in environment and climate since they last wandered the earth

We welcome you to share these amazing facts with those around you and give a small thanks to those mammoths watching over you reading this blog.

Please check out our other mammoth blogs and become acquainted with our very own mini mammoth, Herbert. The best boy in this hemisphere!

If you would like to look at the autopsy photos of Buttercup follow the links below, small warning they are NSFW!

https://www.livescience.com/37042-image-gallery-stunning-mammoth-unearthed.html

https://www.livescience.com/48768-photos-mammoth-autopsy.html

 

Check out these websites for more info

https://a-z-animals.com/blog/10-incredible-woolly-mammoth-facts/

https://www.westberkshireheritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Woolly-mammoth-fun-facts-sheet-online-version-2.pdf

https://www.livescience.com/56678-woolly-mammoth-facts.html

https://www.treehugger.com/woolly-mammoth-facts-5114029

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_steppe

Categories
Events Industry Prototypes

Exhibiting At THE Museum of Discovery

Roving Rovers at the Museum of Discovery

As many of you have heard, here at Mini Mammoth Games we have a Hard Sci-fi lunar management sim under development, Roving Rovers! In December of 2022 we introduced ourselves to Lisa Bailey from the University of South Australia who runs the MOD. Which opened up a great opportunity we had been looking for, a month long exhibition for the public. This would not only open Roving Rovers up to being played by many different people, but also allow us to get first hand feedback and analytics to help guide on-going development.

With an exciting month-long exhibition ahead of us we thought it was only fitting to host a Launch Party. We could then celebrate the wider games industry,as well as connect with space industry professionals from across the state. With the help of the MOD staff we were able to pull off a great night, with an excellent spread of food and drink choices in the very comfortable and welcoming Gould Gallery.

The night went off without a hitch, everyone was able to find the Gallery and we filled most of the main hall., With our game accessible in an adjacent room, everyone was able to mingle and see what the fuss was all about. We were also blessed to have some great speakers that talked about the idea and conception of Roving Rovers. Thank you to Cameron Mackness from Flinders University, Andreas Antoniades from Saber Astronautics and John Culton from the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources (ATCSR). Their endless support of Mini Mammoth Games and Roving Rovers has been a big help with the project and its development so far.

At the exhibition we decided to show off multiple versions of Roving Rovers, showing how the game has evolved over its development . Starting in late 2021 alongside Flinders University and some of their students, we were able to create a small but enjoyable demo that did an ok job at showcasing the 2022 Australian Rover Challenge. With such a welcoming and encouraging response to the demo we decided to continue to develop Roving Rovers further and so we prepared an update for the Space Forum event later that year. In 2023 we once again worked with (ATCSR) to create a more accurate rover demo while adding in some of the participating team’s rovers used in the physical challenge.

All of these versions of the game were available to play with at our exhibition, as well as a few posters providing context as to why there were multiple versions of the same game and explaining the history of the project. We were also allowed to have Mini Mammoth Games staff members manning the exhibition and working from the space, allowing those who visited to ask more in depth questions and learn more about it’s on-going development.

Alongside multiple builds of Roving Rovers we were tracking analytics from the most recent build. These were also displayed  to those who visited the exhibit. We used this event as a way to see how players engage and interact with the rover builder to complete various terrain challenges. With the exhibition open to the public for 20 days we had a staggering 649 sessions, over 61 hours of total playtime with an average of 5 minutes and 45 seconds per player. We did have someone play for a total time of 53 minutes, more than 10 times longer than the average. Players who did play for an extended amount of time enjoyed the rover builder the most and would spend a large portion of their time fiddling with the designs.

 

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Having developers present allowed us to also observe how players would interact with the game between the various builds. From our observations players really enjoyed the rover builder, but wished to have more firm directions/quests like the 2 Australian Rover Challenge builds had.

Our experience with the MOD was fantastic and with over 600 distinct sessions of Roving Rovers it was effective at reaching a large audience. Furthermore, with the MOD allowing developers to work there during its opening hours we were also able to interact and watch those who played the game, which expedited our feedback process.

We would like to thank the MOD. for inviting us to use their space, and all the help and support they provided over the month we were set up there. It was an invaluable experience and we would highly recommend it to any developers given the opportunity.

Thank you to everyone who helped us get to this point and we appreciate all the support!

Click on the buttons bellow to keep up to date and to learn more about Roving Rovers!

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Categories
Industry

Growing The Industry

Growing the Adelaide Games Scene

Hello everyone!

We think it is incredible when companies help to grow and support the growth, development and evolution of their industry. Here at Mini Mammoth Games we are trying to do exactly that despite still being a SME. We are actively supporting new devs, the growth and outreach of games and how they can be used as more than just entertainment every day we operate.

Before Mini Mammoth Games, our founders were all studying together and being offered occasional placements through our academy. While helpful, they were rarely doing explicit game development work and often the projects were in semi-adjacent fields instead. Although ultimately a bit disappointing, these placements did show us how variable our skills can be but just weren’t what many of us were wanting; a placement where we could build a game, from start to finish. Conception to distribution.

Unfortunately there weren’t any game specific placements available in the state, and from the founding of Mini Mammoth Games we set out to change that. Starting off with our old haunt, the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. It was a slow start, but eventually we had a revolving door of placement teams coming in and out and creating hyper casual mobile games in a pipeline that took them from the design and concept to marketing and release onto the Google Play Store.

With this in place we wanted to offer that chance to the full contingent of educational institutes in the state, but first we needed a small increase in our office size to accommodate the increasing demand. Flinders University and Adelaide University were eager to jump onto the opportunity to be able to find placements for their games students. With having work experience directly related to the industry it also gives students a leg up after graduating as they are able to ask staff here to be a reference for their resumes. We can then provide accurate feedback as to how they work in a studio environment and help to push them into the industry.

Aside from our work to help the learning and integration of new developers into this industry,  one of our goals as a company is to  grow the local industry. Our mission is to create memorable experiences that promote a positive impact in the world, and we are achieving that through our placement program, and within all aspects of Mini Mammoth Games. With our client and internal projects we aim to scale internally, so we hire on staff from our program. With the extra experience, they can then at minimum get a casual job working in the game industry. Best case scenario they get a permanent full or part-time job here with us. This is another area where we can further help our previous placements, providing them experience and portfolio work they can use to advance their career even if we aren’t positioned to support them long term at the time.

To extrapolate a little further, within our outreach and client work we are continuously talking to industries and companies whose involvement and use of games as an interactive medium has been minimal at best. Our aim with a majority of networking and outreach is to help those outside of the games industry see how an interactive experience can help them connect with their audiences in a more personal, educational and entertaining way. Something small and personal can often make a massive difference in the way they talk with their own customers, and in the big picture we can help a lot of people learn new, interesting things about the world.

This is only a quick look into what we do and try to achieve here at Mini Mammoth Games, but we hope that this not only inspires other developers to help upskill and support new developers, but also other companies. We can’t do everything ourselves and growing the industry here in Adelaide will benefit everyone in the long run.

So if you, or anyone you know is interested in participating in our program, or running your own, please reach out to contact@minimammothgames.com. We will be sure to get back to you as soon as we can!