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Rain World - Hunt prey, evade predators, survive as a Slugcat (March 28th, PS4/PC)

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Vire

Vire

Member
Looks interesting, I like the animation, but I kinda hate the typography they used for the logo. Seems petty, but just looks off and unprofessional.

Hope this comes to PS4 with enough funding.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Vire said:
Looks interesting, I like the animation, but I kinda hate the typography they used for the logo. Seems petty, but just looks off and unprofessional.

Hope this comes to PS4 with enough funding.
Click to expand...
Well the dev's inspiration is a mix of graffiti art, old style cartoons, and the wet rain-logged decay. He wanted a kind of graffiti style for the logo. Not sure if he exactly succeeded, but I think it's the best version compared to all the styles we were critiquing before the KS
 
V

Vilam

Maxis Redwood
Wow, awesome look, style, and atmosphere they've got going there. It's a shame it's a 2d sidescroller; it's just not my type of game sadly. Hope they have a lot of success with it though.
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
I'm sorta hoping that the slug cat plushie can be an add on because I want one so bad but don't much care about having a hand in designing a slug cat of my own (or rather my wallet doesn't).
 
T

timetokill

Banned
DrNeroCF said:
Looking at those gifs, the way the tail never teleports and the way the legs are completely grounded, I'm pretty certain that the animations aren't actually sprite animation. Though I'm not sure if it's a 3d model or a bunch of little 2d parts that blend together because of the solid color.

Either way, the there's a lot of effort going into making the game look like that, making a straight up 3d game would probably be less work, depending on a person's expertise.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying there's not a ton of effort going on, but the point is it's still "reasonable" for the team size. People bitching about sprites are missing the point.

Indies aren't exactly swimming in mocap tech and are often hobbyist programmers/designers. Art is expensive and/or time-consuming. And for many, they simply don't want to spend years doing the project, or can't afford it.

A lot of people want to say these choices are being made for "retro/indie hipster cred" or something when it's not really the case at all. It's about choices being made in order to have any realistic chance at completing the project with incredibly limited resources.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
bishoptl said:
I'd like to see this.
Click to expand...
Here you go:
If people are interested, I could go into more detail. The very basics of it is very... basic. You only need two functions: one to determine the distance between two points and one to give the direction as a vector from one point to another. With that you can emulate "chains", i.e. points moving about freely but being stuck to other points at certain distances.

So in my game, the player consists of two such points (upper/lower body) and the lizard consists of 3. Then I attatch to that additional points for limbs and so on. For example the tails of the creatures are several such points chained together.

On top of this stuff I draw the creatures, using simple sprite mechanics such as rotation. For example, the arm of a creature is drawn at the shoulder and then rotated towards the location of the hand point.

This is the reason why the creatures are one, solid color. In fact they consist of several sprites overlapping each other in awkward ways, and if there was any kind of shading on the sprites this would be visible. If I worked in a more reasonable software I could compile the whole body of the creature to one picture and then shade it, but I'm not, so the flat colors are staying. Instead I've tried to adapt my style so that it'll look ok.

When it comes to the more specific movement of limbs and so on it's a great deal of faking going on. The lizards for example do not grab on to stuff and pull themselves forward. Instead they move about with a magical force pushing them in whatever direction they are going. When a limb is too far behind the body it goes into a "search mode", looking for possible grasps in front of the lizard. Such a thing might be a wall, a pole, a platform or whatever. When it finds one, the limb connects to it, and then passively stays there until it's left behind by the body again. The magical propulsion force of the body is dependent on how many limbs are currently connected to terrain, making the speed of movement uneven and synced to the movement of the limbs (few limbs grasping - slow movement of the body).

If there is demand, I could make a more in-depth technical tutorial.
Click to expand...

The Devlog is fascinating. If you have any interest in game development, and want to read a meticulous and practically step by step account of how the game went a mere concept to a generally complete product, it's just so intriguing
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
That dev log is half the reason I love supporting these indy games. You have a limited budget, you don't have the time or team that can make these big big projects...and you find, in your own limited way, something unique and interesting to make.

That's awesome. That's why I back so many Kickstarters. Even if only a handful actually get made, even if some turn out to be mediocre in execution, I will always support and love them for trying something new and interesting with all the restrictions they have.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
More_Badass said:
Here you go:


The Devlog is fascinating. If you have any interest in game development, and want to read a meticulous and practically step by step account of how the game went a mere concept to a generally complete product, it's just so intriguing
Click to expand...

Has he released a video on all this technical stuff? Would be super fascinating to see the development in motion.
 
W

Wensih

Member
I saw this on GameSpot the other day and thought it had already been funded and green-lighted, but of course I shouldn't use a gamespot post as a source of information... It looked really promising though and was the first I had heard about it. I'm glad GAF had a thread on it, so I could actually get some info.
 
A

Alric

Member
Was sold at "slugcat". My fiance loves slugs and we can't wait to play this awesome looking game.

Put in for the $120 to help design a creature. SLUUUUUGGGGGGGGSSSSS
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Alric said:
Was sold at "slugcat". My fiance loves slugs and we can't wait to play this awesome looking game.

Put in for the $120 to help design a creature. SLUUUUUGGGGGGGGSSSSS
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Slugs are so cute, and yet they're consistently one of the most feared animals up there with rats, cockroaches, and snakes :(
 
I

Ionic

Member
Messofanego said:
Slugs are so cute, and yet they're consistently one of the most feared animals up there with rats, cockroaches, and snakes :(
Click to expand...

Do people actually fear slugs? It seems they fit more gross category for most people. If they want to be taken seriously they should get shells.

Anyway, I am blown away by the animation they got going in this. Seeing the creatures slide through bending narrow passages so fluidly is just... awesome.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Ionic said:
Do people actually fear slugs? It seems they fit more gross category for most people. If they want to be taken seriously they should get shells.

Anyway, I am blown away by the animation they got going in this. Seeing the creatures slide through bending narrow passages so fluidly is just... awesome.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's so good
This is probably my favorite video that really shows off how good the animations are, as well as how intense the gameplay can be
 
M

More_Badass

Member
If anyone's interested, here's the download link (.rar) to try the early movement prototype demo. It's really early, from 2011.
There are no enemies and you can't balance on poles, but you can climb around and see how the slugcat moves and animates

Player 1 controls are Arrows for movement, K to jump
Player 2 controls are ESDF for movement, Q to jump
 
G

Graphics Horse

Member
More_Badass said:
If anyone's interested, here's the download link (.rar) to try the early movement prototype demo. It's really early, from 2011.
There are no enemies and you can't balance on poles, but you can climb around and see how the slugcat moves and animates

Player 1 controls are Arrows for movement, K to jump
Player 2 controls are ESDF for movement, Q to jump
Click to expand...

ooh thanks.

Never heard of this before, looks interesting.
 
S

superbank

The definition of front-butt.
The slugcat is adorable and a badass. I love it. Traversing the environment looks very rewarding. It kind of reminds me of Lode Runner.

Kind of strange that some people are criticizing this game for it's "16 bit" aesthetic. None of those games did such fluid/intricate animation like RW is doing. The likeness to real animal mannerisms and movement is impressive. I especially like it when the slugcat is caught by a lizard and all of the lizards go into a frenzy trying to get a piece.
 
C

char0n

Member
Love everything about this one, definitely on my watch-for list now. Style and animation are top notch, gameplay looks fun and interesting (puzzle platformer vibe), and cat slug is adorable.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Amir0x said:
That looks stellar. Man, I love the way that slug cat scampers around
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If you hadn't seen, there's a movement prototype demo to try, if you wanted to test out the slugcat movements. Check my post earlier on this page. Just know that's from all the way back in 2011 so the animations and art have been improved since then
 
V

VibratingDonkey

Member
Does the color or the intensity of the flashing mean anything? Seems to make sense to have it indicate the alert and health status or some such.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Wasn't mentioned on the KS page, but those pups are totally optional. But then you have to deal with the whole dynamic of being their protector and gathering food for them.

You can even kill them yourself.
Or try to
mcisfQF.gif
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Loctope said:
Aww man, sold.
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According to the dev, stuff like this isn't common, unless you actually try to kill them.
...the pups are able to have a few template attitudes towards other enteties, NEUTRAL, FRIENDLY, FLEE and HOSTILE.

This means that in a situation where you kill one of the pups, the others might consider you something to FLEE from or be HOSTILE towards, and then the same AI as when those behaviors are applied to a lizard can kick in.

As you can see the green one is quick to grab a spear and kill me. The others are just trying to flee. You may also notice that the green pup doesn't throw the spear until there are no siblings between it and its target - me.

Now, a situation where the pups are hostile like this likely won't occur in the game, unless you murder one of the pups in front of the others while no lizards are even around. But the same behavior can, as said, be applied to lizards as well.

The pups have different personalities, and the green one is the violent, heroic and brave. When you find them he is holding a spear, and guarding the others. He always wants to carry a spear, and if he doesn't have one he'll pick up whatever weapons he can find around the levels. The HOSTILE behavior is more or less reserved for Green, he is the one responsible for protecting his siblings, and if the player betrays them or if a lizard is carrying a pack mate off towards its den he'll try to use his spear.

I've actually had him "rescue" me once, when a green lizard was carrying me away he lodged a spear in its back. Sadly I was already dead, otherwise that would have enabled me to continue playing.

The other pups are also able to use weapons, but only in panicked situations when a pursuing enemy is getting too close. At this point I don't know exactly what their personalities will be, but I'm contemplating having one of them sickly or injured, so you'll pretty quickly have to decide to get rid of it.
Click to expand...
 
D

Draft

Member
No 16 bit game looks like this.

The 2D game art rennaisance has been wonderful. The Flash style of 2D games during the early XLBA days was god awful.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Asked the devs about stretch goals. My stance is that other than Linux support, consoles, and online MP, I really don't want them to have stretch goals. The devs already stated their intentions and ideas for a bigger game; I'd rather see funds be used for polish and improving the game than just cramming features in because of stretch goals

Here is their response:
honestly, we've been sort of wracking our brains to figure out what to do for stretch goals that would generate some excitement but also wouldn't compromise anything. as Joar explains it, there is a kind of grey area no-mans-land between "comfortably funding Rain World as it is" and "totally rebuilding as Rain World 2.0 so its super slick". We sort of use the analogy of Spelunky vs. Original Spelunky, although its not quite that extreme.

RW2 would guarantee all the cool jazzy stuff: multiplatform, internet multiplayer, much easier console porting, etc etc., but is still quite a bit out of our grasp at this point. RW1, we can probably bolt on some cool stuff beyond the original scope, but Joar is already stretching poor Lingo to its breaking point, so without actually doing the work, its unsure how far exactly we can go with it.

Which makes me very relieved to see people say "more rain world" as a stretch goal, because we know for sure thats possible.
Click to expand...
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Stretch goal announced
NEW GOAL: $50,000
* Rain World on Linux!

* Migration to a more modern programming language! (with all the technical improvements that brings with it)

* Freedom from current limitations!

* Significant polish and an improved game experience for all

* A.I. enhancement, for smarter prey and even more cunning enemies!

* Expanded future possibilities!
Click to expand...
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Just caught up on this, glad to hear it got funded and got Greenlit. Left with a "what the hell is going on" which to me is a good thing. That roof video was cool.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Some new info from the devlog
Bats don't hunt lizards, but they tend to flock around them because they enjoy picking on them, and because they know the risk of Slugcat ambush is smaller if they're hanging out next to a lizard.

On the questions of the game world layout:
The game world consists of many interconnected rooms, that you can move between metroidvania style. Some of these rooms are "swarm rooms", where the flies swarm and where you go to hunt. The swarm rooms can also be played as stand-alone challenges in custom mode. My idea has been that once you have traveled to a swarm room in world mode, it would be unlocked and appear in the menu of the custom mode game types.

On lizard personalities:
Lizards come in a few breeds, identified by head colors. These all have different abilities and feats. Green is the "tank", big, slow, lazy, stupid, but takes a lot of abuse. Blue is the "ninja" lizard, smallest in the family, with the least health, but with the ability to climb on walls and in ceilings, and with a sticky tongue it can shoot at you. Then there are a few others, and then there's red. If you see red, run
Click to expand...

And gameplay from one of the swarm room challenges
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahgvic-l-D0
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Here's a breakdown of the lizard type, posted last year

pDndHSm.png

Green: A slow and dumb creature - easy to avoid but tough to take down.
Pink: A quick and intelligent hunter that will use vision and hearing to track you. Try to not let it spot you to begin with!
Blue: This one can climb walls and ceilings. Nowhere is safe.
White: A passive but deadly hunter. It blends into its environment and ambushes you when you're passing by.
Yellow: Alone they're not much of a threat, but most often they hunt in packs - intelligently cooperating to track and kill you.
Red: A fast, strong and smart hunter with excellent vision and hearing. But what makes it most deadly is its persistance. Once it spots you it will never give up the hunt. Be aware!
 
H

hohoXD123

Member
On the topic of a Vita port:
@ Anthony: there have a been a LOT of requests for PSVita, (and hey, its a cool system!) so that's something we are considering for the future. You are exactly right too: one of the main reasons we are looking toward Unity is how many platforms it works with. But I don't want to get too ahead of myself, lets hit that Linux goal first! :D
Click to expand...
 
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