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[More_Badass]

Has there ever been procedural animation done so well?

Overgrowth also has some really impressive procedurally generated animations, and the upcoming Ubisoft game Grow Home will have procedural animations as well.

But Rain World easily has the most natural, life-life animations I've seen.

One of the devs of Overgrowth gave a really good GDC talk on procedural animation
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020583/Animation-Bootcamp-An-Indie-Approach
Yes, Rain World gets discussed as well

 

[KimonoNoNo]

You know what, it's somewhat endearing that it's a bit comically clumsy upon landing and take off.

 

[Haunted]

Game continues to look amazing with every new update. Really great animation.

me too >_< every facking indie game comes with those graphics...

I like the 16 bit era, but we are in 2014...

You complain about being in the year 2014 and come with an argument from 2007?

Educate yourself, son!

 

[KimonoNoNo]

One of the devs of Overgrowth gave a really good GDC talk on procedural animation
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020583/Animation-Bootcamp-An-Indie-Approach
Yes, Rain World gets discussed as well

Thanks for this.

It was kinda jarring seeing animation from the old build of Rain World compared to what we've got now.

 

[More_Badass]

New gameplay video from the latest KS update
http://youtu.be/nTmZajsbSU4

And this awesome tidbit of new info

Many of the creatures in Rain World have procedural elements to them, meaning that their color, size, shape physical attributes, behavior, etc., are unique to *that one creature*. So each time you start a new game, you will encounter unique bestiary with a new personality. But for now its mostly just cosmetic, so more on that when we flesh it out

 

[Altima]

May I ask ? What is the objective of this game ?

Will we have boss fight or something like that ?

 

[More_Badass]

May I ask ? What is the objective of this game ?

Will we have boss fight or something like that ?

It's a stealth platfomer with a focus on exploration and AI. The world is divided into a series of regions, each one designed like a mini-metroidvania. In this world, a killing rain batters the surface, so between downpours, you need to leave your den and gather food, while avoiding and evading predators like the vulture shown on the last page and various lizard species. Your food source migrates and is limited, gradually forcing you to travel to new areas and explore other regions. Regions are designed around specific mechanics and themes: the first is a general introduction to the world and gameplay, the sewers focus on water and aquatic species like leeches, the canopy is all about platforming and dealing with the vulture, etc.

Regarding the structure of the game, the devs said this a few weeks back

The game will not have a "story" like a castlevania game, with characters, dialogue and a pre-written conflict that ends with "last boss, destroy the 'base'". Still, we do plan to have a narrative - but instead of applying the narrative on top of the game mechanics we want to build the narrative inside the game mechanics. The core gameplay will be about nothing but survival, but by adding a few twists to that we want to evolve from that core and create something that makes it less monotonous and gives a meaning to what you're doing in the game world. At the end of the game there should obviously be a sense of accomplishment.

Think of how a game like Castlevania has a pre-written story, and a game like Minecraft has no story at all, but you make your own goals in a sandbox-type world. We want to be somewhere between the two, not entirely giving up the sense of progression that Castlevania has, but neither the feature of creating your own goals and completing them within the frame of the game mechanics that Minecraft has.

 

[Crispy75]

As for "boss" fights, there is a wide range of enemy types with varying abilities and dangers. From irritating leeches to intimidating tentacle-vulture-death-from-above things. But the game isn't structured into levels and bosses. If a creature is hunting you, it will pursue you across the entire world if it can (unless you give it the slip).

The "end game" hasn't been detailed, and I'd like to keep it that way

 

[More_Badass]

Also new region concept, "The Underhang"

So far, that's:
- Suburban
- Drainage System
- Heavy Industry
- Chimney Canopy
- The Underhang

 

[epmode]

That vulture, man. It's like the devs are coding this from an alternate universe where procedural animation LIVES.

I am so glad I backed this one.

 

[gingerbeardman]

That vulture, man. It's like the devs are coding this from an alternate universe where procedural animation LIVES.

I am so glad I backed this one.

Agreed.

At this point I'm enjoying the regular updates so much I feel I've got my worth from my pledge. The fact that there's going to be a game at the end of it is just a cherry on top.

 

[Altima]

It's a stealth platfomer with a focus on exploration and AI. The world is divided into a series of regions, each one designed like a mini-metroidvania. In this world, a killing rain batters the surface, so between downpours, you need to leave your den and gather food, while avoiding and evading predators like the vulture shown on the last page and various lizard species. Your food source migrates and is limited, gradually forcing you to travel to new areas and explore other regions. Regions are designed around specific mechanics and themes: the first is a general introduction to the world and gameplay, the sewers focus on water and aquatic species like leeches, the canopy is all about platforming and dealing with the vulture, etc.

Regarding the structure of the game, the devs said this a few weeks back

Thank you. I'm not a big fan of this survival/exploration game but that does not make this game less interesting for me. I really like graphic and animation of this game.

 

[More_Badass]

Thank you. I'm not a big fan of this survival/exploration game but that does not make this game less interesting for me. I really like graphic and animation of this game.

It's not a survival game like Minecraft or DayZ, if that's what you're thinking. The "collect food to survive" is less having to deal with hunger like you would in Don't Starve, but simply a mechanic to get you out into the world, to new places, and subtly guide you to new regions.

It's a survival game in the sense that you are prey and the world is filled with predators. It's literally about survival. You're outnumbered and easily overpowered by the predators that hunt you. Like the best stealth games, the intelligent creature you control is no match for the enemies that hunt it. A head-on conflict will most likely get you killed, so mobility, evasion, avoiding line of sight, is key to survival. These predators can track you by sound and sight. If they catch a glimpse of you, they can predict where you might go and move to intercept you or be laying in wait. Some can hunt in packs, others can blend in and ambush you.

The game focuses on the most basic and primal form of stealth: prey evading predator. It's that kind of survival, rather than the craft-collect-explore gameplay that Minecraft and others popularized

 

[More_Badass]

Made the vulture able to snap after prey, and carry it...

It's a little lameish, but when I went all out with body motion and neck extension etc the range became too big, and it was just impossible. Maybe it doesn't need a super power attack, but this little peck can do quite well... At least for now.

Hunting behavior (except from the flying outside the room / between rooms part) is pretty much down already though, as it's basically all happening in the interaction between path finder, prey tracker and the actual body's locomotion engine stuff. I've already run around with the vulture and several lizards, and seen it pick its prey, hunt for a bit, change its mind to something closer, etc.

The devlog post also goes really in-depth about the AI. Interestingly, the vulture doesn't have a threat tracker like the lizards and other species do, since it's an alpha predator
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=25183.msg1104223#msg1104223

 

[More_Badass]

I know you're all dying for your Rain World fix.

1) Rain World won Best Devlog of 2014 on TIGForums for a second year in a row. I've been following the devlog for almost three years now and it's always interesting and informative. Seeing the game grow from the early movement prototype to what it is now has been fascinating

2) New info and images on the Canopy region and overall progress

On the level front, i just put together the world file for the 4th region, Chimney Canopy, which was a tricky endeavor. The CC region is situated between 3 other distinct regions and had a bunch strong ideas we wanted to explore, both visually and geometry-wise. Plus the Vulture came out so strong that we wanted to dedicate some serious space to that. Trying to make all these components work together and have a coherent look/feel was quite a challenge!

Early in the game world planning stage, this region was to have around 15 screens, but as it is put together now it has 59(!!!) bringing the total number of screens for the first 4 regions to 192(!!!!), or close to what I had assumed would be for the entire game.

That said, I think Joar and I both agree this region is the the strongest yet, and its really fun to play. From my perspective the larger the world the better, so I'm thinking its worth all the time spent banging my head against the wall! No one will ever say that Rain World is light on content.

 

[Ingueferroque]

I love game devlogs.

 

[More_Badass]

Updated the OP with recent videos and GIFs
Awaiting an answer on whether the game is coming to PS4/PS3, and then I'll update the thread title with confirmed platforms

 

[Puruzi]

The devlog post also goes really in-depth about the AI. Interestingly, the vulture doesn't have a threat tracker like the lizards and other species do, since it's an alpha predator
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=25183.msg1104223#msg1104223

What the

 

[More_Badass]

Okay, had the thread title changed. "On Kickstarter" was way out of date

What the

Dev was showing off the vulture's pouncing movements

 

[Crispy75]

And the slugcat's going all crazy cos it's stuck to his mouse cursor

 

[epmode]

Yes, that smoke is still incredible.

 

[gingerbeardman]

Okay, had the thread title changed. "On Kickstarter" was way out of date

PC means Windows, Mac and Linux - it's probability worth emphasising this in the OP.

Here is where PSN/Vita was confirmed:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rain-world/project-rain-world/posts/807336

I heard there are possibilities of Wii U also?
http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2014/01/23/kickin-it-with-james-and-joar-rain-world/

 

[More_Badass]

PC means Windows, Mac and Linux - it's probability worth emphasising this in the OP.

Here is where PSN/Vita was confirmed:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rain-world/project-rain-world/posts/807336

I heard there are possibilities of Wii U also?
http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2014/01/23/kickin-it-with-james-and-joar-rain-world/

Kickstarter update, when they announced that Adult Swim was publishing

They are 100% here to help us take Rain World to the next level, AKA we can now officially announce that Rain World is coming to PSN, PS Vita and well beyond! Rejoice!

 

[More_Badass]

Vulture-lizard interaction

What the heatmap shows is the anticipated threat level for each tile in the lizard's threat tracker (note that I don't store this data, I generate it on the fly. So the framerate drops quite a bit with this visualization, but when the AI uses it it doesn't ask for every tile, just for relevant ones).

The lizard is inside the little box, which is open in both ends. This box is a sort of temporary shelter, because the vulture can reach in there with its neck - but it's juuust short of being able to reach the whole width of the box.

Basically the lizard merges two sets of data to get this map, the distance to the threat (naturally) and an Accessibility Map. See how the tiles close to terrain are bluer? And the tiles inside the box as well? That's one of the pre baked AI maps, the Accessibility Map, for the vulture. It allows the lizard to understand that inside the box is more safe than outside it. As you can see it's staying in the box, although nervously.

Also you might notice that all terrain has some bluer tiles around it - that's just because the vulture is big and close-to-terrain tiles are considered inaccessible to it for that reason. This might actually need fixing, because just because the vulture's center of mass can get close to a floor doesn't mean its neck is unable to.

The amount with which the Accessibility Map weights in on the final threat map scales with distance. You can see this particularly clearly when the vulture moves down towards the lower-right platform, the "safety" of the tiles surrounding the platform is removed.

This is the same effect that also finally drives the lizard out of the box. When the vulture does its peek-a-boo over at the left side, it's much closer and the safety of the box interior is disrupted. Now the danger gradient inside the box is steep enough for it to be worth it to dash for the other exit. So the lizard goes for it and heads for the room exit up in the corner instead.

You can also see how the lizard's perception of the vulture's position is only updated when there's visual contact, which is why the heatmap is static while the vulture is moving below the box. In actuality the map shouldn't be still during that time, it should move with a Ghost of the vulture that the lizard tracks. But right now the Tracker has some problems with creatures that can move on big 2D planes - it considers each tile 4-way branch and immediately spawns up ghosts to follow all of them, hits the ghost cap and makes the ghosts stop. So it becomes more of a simple "where did I last see the creature" kind of thing. I'll get around to it.

 

[More_Badass]

This looks very interesting

...I think the subtlety of lethal/non lethal combat between non-player entities might really be lost in the wind. Maybe if [vultures] both have masks they could "dance" to establish who gets to scram, but if the mask is off it becomes actual fighting. Buuuuuut this is extra cool stuff, not something to get into when crunching a convention build.

I sent this mockup to James a while ago:

but I don't quite know. Sure, it looks pretty cool, but I'm super hesitant to humanize the slugcat further. Wielding the spear already reduces its animal nature quite a lot, and having it actually dress up in little outfits puts the last nail in the anthropomorphism coffin. Idk...  ???

What do you guys think? Personally I really really like the look of the slugcat wearing a skull mask. There's evidence of an octopus that use coconut shells as armor and assassin bugs that wear dead insects as armor so it's not too much of a stretch that an semi-intelligent creature like the slugcat could learn to use armor IMO.

 

[Crispy75]

IMO, Instead of wearing it, the slugcat should be holding it in both hands. It scares other creatures away, but severely impacts mobility.

 

[More_Badass]

IMO, Instead of wearing it, the slugcat should be holding it in both hands. It scares other creatures away, but severely impacts mobility.

Oh, I like that. I'll share it in the devlog

 

[Crispy75]

Oh, I like that. I'll share it in the devlog

And Joar likes it too
Woohoo! I'm a games designer!

 

[old manatee]

Neat idea but man I'm getting real fatigued of 16bit inspired "indie" games.

I lived through the 16 bit era and I don't remember any games that looked like that.

 

[More_Badass]

Look at that sprawling map. Doesn't it just get your exploration juices flowing?

If you are interested here is an older working concept world map, things have evolved far enough from this that I'm comfortable sharing it without fear of spoilers or anything, and it shows you the general idea of the large interconnected world.

Each color represents a region, and each square a screen, with grouped squares being multi-screen rooms. The regions geographically located next to each other are all connected, but there are also a number of fast-travel-esque connections between distant regions as well. The concept is that each room is a sort of movement puzzle to get through, and each region is its own puzzle of those puzzles, exploring various gameplay elements, geometries and creature territories, and then to get through the world you basically have to navigate a puzzle of puzzle of puzzles.

But as it is now, the 4 regions we currently have hooked up are roughly equivalent in size and complexity to the scope of this entire map!

i think the final version will probably keep people occupied for a while.

On the world structure:

Joar's concept is the entire world active as a constant interactive and autonomous ecosystem that is steadily roiling around in the background as you play through: creatures hunting creatures in distant lands as you make your way through, so by the time you arrive all manner of unexpected strangeness has happened. All that effort spent in the engine creation months ago on abstracting off-screen AI behavior to state descriptions was to make this concept (hopefully) CPU feasible when scaled up.

Hiccups in this 4-region test aside, I think that's still generally the game plan. There may not *really* be a need for the game to keep track of 700ish eventual rooms filled with creatures existing at every moment though, so thats something to get a plan for. But, ideally we could tackle that at a time when we're not already super crunching to get a stable build together for PAX

 

[Nabs]

Yay:

https://twitter.com/RainWorldGame/status/565876127500369921

After a year of toiling in the 4:3 wastes, Rain World is finally in glorious widescreen! tears of joy

 

[More_Badass]

More on the 16:9 change

so Joar just mentioned the widescreen addition casually in the last update, but WOW was that a huuuuuuuuuge addition. The entire game has been built around 16:9 format from the start, the geometry of every room and screen was structured around it, but I think we were so used to our little 4:3 alpha window that we didnt even realize what we were missing. Fortunately our earlier selves planned this out well!

Long story short: the game plays SO MUCH BETTER in 16:9, how its supposed to be. You see paths and lizards and creatures that were previously off-screen, sometimes before they see you, giving you time to plan actual sneaks or escapes like you are supposed to! Plus you can finally really watch the ecosystem interactions that Joar has been working forever on, things like spotting a vulture and waiting for it to to swoop down on a group of pink lizards before you make your move through a tricky room, etc.

Plus the scale just POPS. I've been building these rooms in 16:9 but other than in a little schematic preview window in the editor, havent been able to see the full picture until now.

 

[Drencrom]

Wow, this game truly looks amazing.

When they say PSN, do they mean PS4?

 

[More_Badass]

Wow, this game truly looks amazing.

When they say PSN, do they mean PS4?

No definite word on that yet. I asked a few days ago before I made the title change, and the devs said this:

There is a bunch of big console news coming up, but that's all Adult Swim publisher business stuff to announce when they have it all worked out. We're just focused on building the damn thing!

So just "PSN" for now, but considering how Sony has been pushing indies on PS4 and cross-buy with Vita, I'd say it's probably very likely that Rain World is coming to PS4

 

[More_Badass]

I love how heavy and secure that gate looks. Water ain't getting through that

Shelter gates!

This animation has been sort of insane to get working, but by now I'm pretty happy with it. The segments move in at intervals that's a bit randomized, to give it some variety as you'll see this one a lot.

 

[More_Badass]

Turns out slugcat here is quite the acrobat

This is the skid - if you run a while in one direction and then change direction the slugcat slides a little. The gif really couldn't capture it, here it just looks like some droplets, but the actual feeling when you play is rather prominent. I guess some sort of intimate eye-hand interaction has to be at play which doesn't really come across if you're not playing what you're seeing.

If you jump while skidding, you get the backflip:
Which is cool for obvious reasons

Then there's the roll, which is achieved by holding down + a direction when hitting the ground. Doing the roll saves you from that little stun that can happen when falling from higher altitudes, and gives you a little speed boost in the direction you want to go. You have some control over how many times the slugcat rolls by holding the down key - if you release early you get just one roll, otherwise you get two or even three.

You need some height to get the roll, you can't do it from just jumping on a flat floor.
Jumping out of the roll makes for a special jump, where the slugcat flies like an arrow through the air.

Depending on how long you maintain the roll, this jump acts a little differently. You could say that it's charged by the roll, so there's an interesting dynamic at play: You want to maintain the roll longer to get a more powerful jump, but if you wait too long the roll is exited and you get no jump at all.

The backflip ties in with the roll, meaning that from a backflip jump you can get the roll even if you're not falling from high up. This means that all of the moves I added today can be chained together, which looks pretty cool:

 

[Crispy75]

So cool. That looks as satisfying as some of Mario64's moves

 

[More_Badass]

Joar just doesn't slow down. Another update showing off the new and improved white lizard

I have a decent implementation of the white lizard in now. The camouflage is working, and the different - way more passive - AI is running as well. Neither is top notch yet, but pretty functional.

I was thinking about doing the camouflage as some super high-tech shader, and I'm still considering an implementation like that, but... Actually I'm pretty fond of the flat color silhouette. It fits in with the art style better than shader madness, and actually it provides a pretty perfect amount of actual camouflage for gameplay purposes in my opinion. So, maybe I'll leave it like this for now at least.

For those of you who haven't read this devlog for years and years, the lizards come in different colors with some different traits. The white one is a chameleon that sits and waits instead of pursuing you.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Man, I am so happy I backed this. It looks great.

 

[More_Badass]

Man, I am so happy I backed this. It looks great.

I've played the alpha so I can tell you it plays great as well. And that was just an early backer demo. Certainly lived up to all the hype I had and I had been anticipating this for years

Rain World's going to be at PAX, so expect a lot more gameplay footage soon. It's a four-region build, already bigger than the entire world of the original Rain World 1.0. They're planning 12 regions. In other words, game's going to be huge

 

[KimonoNoNo]

Bloody hell, looks so good.

Those slugcat manoeuvres remind me of similar stuff stouts and weasels do in the wild, and that badass backflip spear throw looks so awesome.

First slugcat goes "Yo, can't touch this", then "Wattah, take that lizard brain".

That camouflage is also perfect being a simple flat colour, they really don't need to change a thing.

 

[Paskil]

Wow, I love the art style. Will be keeping an eye on this.

 

[Aspirations26]

Is there any legit release date for this yet? Game looks pretty awesome and would love to play it.

 

[Strike]

Like the art style. Will be keeping an eye on this.

 

[More_Badass]

WIP Garbage Worms!

 

[KimonoNoNo]

Time for some more Rain World eye-candy.

 

[More_Badass]

Time for some more Rain World eye-candy.

Oh, wow. I hadn't checked the devlog yet today. Awesome stuff as usual. I love how the vulture just totally dwarfs the slugcat in size

 

[KimonoNoNo]

Oh, wow. I hadn't checked the devlog yet today. Awesome stuff as usual. I love how the vulture just totally dwarfs the slugcat in size

The devlog tends to be my first port of call. It's always great to see what they've managed to cook up and there's always a sense of progress.

 

[More_Badass]

*Hype intensifies*
Just imagine playing this.

A wonderful story from the dev

I've barely played the game since... forever, or at all, because it hasn't been a "game" for very long, but tonight I did a few runs. I encountered a situation I wanted to share with you because I want to brag about the game haha, but also because it spotlighted some of the goals we've been going for, and I think it's relevant to the design process as a template of the sort of situation we want as much of as possible.

Not all playthroughs are as good as this, some are still janky and buggy and kills you unfairly. With that disclaimer, here goes the brag story:

So I was moving about in Chimney Canopy, an aerial region with a lot of vultures. I enter a room, and see a vulture just sitting up in the corner of the room, looking at a group of bats as they're swarming. It's a really cool mood to it, this huge predator just chilling out for a while, idly looking at its little buddies mill about. (It was all probably due to some AI bug, but that's beside the point lol).

I'm like a deer in the headlights down in the other corner of the room. For a while it doesn't see me, but then its head turns and I see that it starts moving. So I just back down the entrance and leave the room. The last thing I see is that it unfolds its wings and take to the air, rather than pursuing me towards the exit.

In the other room, I pop out on a platform high up in the right corner. I'm momentarily safe, but I know that the vulture has not forgotten about me. It was just sitting there, so evidently it has nothing better to do than chase after me. At almost the same time as I, a pink lizard enters the room through an exit in the lower left corner. I get an idea.

I deliberately show myself to the lizard. The layout of the room is such that there's a shortcut going from the lower part to the upper part. The lizard bites the bait, and goes in the shortcut to get up to me.

I have some knowledge it doesn't have though. The vulture is on its way. As the lizard reaches the top part of the room, I jump down from my platform and scurry under cover. A moment later, the shadow of the vulture swoops across the screen, and the lizard is startled. The lizard doesn't get away in time, and given the choice of a prey that is right in front of it (the lizard) and one that it can't see any more (me) the vulture goes for the lizard, snaps it up and takes to the sky. I'm safe, both foes having been played out against each other.​

The reason why I really liked this situation, and want to remember it, is because it defines what the rain world gameplay should be like ideally. The player is smaller and weaker than everything else, but by using wit and information advantages, the other creatures can be manipulated to your advantage. The situation relied heavily on the other creatures having relationships and interactions among themselves, contrary to only being aggressive towards the player. By being smart about it, I could turn two overpowered enemies into zero, without using any violence.

 

[Crispy75]

There are going to be some excellent stories coming out of this game

I hope it plays well in newbies' hands at PAX. Can't wait for impressions...