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[tortoiseandcrow]

but it would be pretty cool if as reds got older they're color got a bit darker or maybe just have that for all the species, and maybe make older ones less agressive but a bit more patient or per-say "intelligent".

I like this idea. An "age" track might allow you to add the increased individual variation you want, while still keeping it consistent within the species. The "age" value would serve to clump together probabilities for certain features (including size). You'd see juvenile blues with short stripes and a small amount of tail-feathers, or adults with long stripes and lots of tail-feathers, but never (or very rarely) short stripes with lots of tail-feathers. Juvenile greens only have nubs on their backs, while older specimens have all sorts of crazy dorsal spines (right now greens are the easiest to pick out, I think). Juvenile pinks are covered in streamlined feathers, eventually shedding all but a magnificent crest display. Maybe juvenile pinks tend to be warmer purples, fading to cooler hues as they get older and larger. This can lead to them being potentially confused with the more aggressive reds, which would be advantageous for them, particularly in their youthful inexperience. Heck, you might even use the "age" value as a modifier in territory disputes. Juveniles are more likely to yield to older, more experienced ones.

I guess the core take-away underlying this suggestion might be that I think it is really important to have predictability in patterning in order for proper identification to take place, but I don't necessarily think it is an entirely bad thing to have room for a calculated amount of confusion.

[Teod]

That was (my fantasies) about reality, now let's move to fantasy land! I'm trying to make a Neon Lizard. I want to somehow hint at some sort of biotechnological qualities, but I don't want to have like, nuts and bolts sticking out of them. Whatever is going on here is more sophisticated technology than that... Maybe? This is really fuzzy stuff, but I know what mood I want to get across. So, stuff changing colors are rare in nature, but common in modern technology. Screens change color all the time. The reason why I like the color pulsing of the lizards is this - that it brings in an alien, or artificial, quality. It makes it obvious that this is not "just an animal," it's some stranger entity which doesn't belong to the world we know.

They are already pulsing their color sometimes. Make them flicker instead (or in addition to, depending on situation), like an old fluorescent lamp. That should be vague enough to not be immediately and unambiguously interpreted as artificial, but familiar enough to hint towards that.

[gimymblert]

Hey!

How will unity5 will affect your technical design?

Also you can simulate eyes trouble with post process filter and verify yourself if it works or not, I'll see if I find some data about it.

[Crispy75]

You say that "practiced observers" have an easier time seeing the flashing lights, and I think I'm certainly one of them at this point   That said, I personally don't have a super big problem tracking the lizards. I do experience some of it though, but I think that bit sort of enhances the experience - the lizards become a bit of an alien, unpredictable threat because of it, similar to some ghost in a horror movie

...

This is my reasoning! Nothing is set in stone obviously, and if this is indeed a big problem we'll have to tackle it. Just wanted to let you in on why I'm feeling good with this design decision as it stands.  

Thanks for the detailed reply!

I get it

It ties in perfectly with how the game handles progression. There aren't HP bars floating over enemies heads, and they're hard to keep track of. But the more you play, the better you get at integrating the novel sensory input. Eventually you "see the matrix" and it's not an issue any more. You didn't buy a Lizard Detector spell, your actual brain got new skills.

Even if it does turn out to be an issue in playtesting, there's all sorts of ways you could add variability that are more subtle, so it's not a big deal.

[RainWorldIsAwesome]

So i know this is a it late but i believe i've found a repeatable bug because every time i go through the tunnel/thing that takes you to the next room, it continues to stay on that room and doesn't switch to whatever is on the other side that is i get stuck in the tunnel and cant get back out but play resumes. Another thing i just noticed by accident is that you can throw the bats that you've caught and they stay dead but then fly away, is this intentional? i know this is super late since the alpha came out a while ago but thought it was worth mentioning. 

[jamesprimate]

ah yeah there were def some problems with camera switching in that first build. its been fixed in a lot lot lot of instances, but still some occasional weirdness. let us know if you still see it in the next build! the bats should be much less undead too 

[JLJac]

I'd imagine a biotech lizard would be really sleek: no frills, no spines or ridges, smooth, lithe, and efficient kind of how the slugcat is. An "iLizard" so to speak.

I'm not really going for the Tron look, I want way more biological presence than that. These things are to some degree creatures, but they have some alien element as well. It's a fine balance, and I think it'll require a lot of tuning still!

@Teod flickering like a light bulb for the default behaviors would be a bit too "nuts and bolts", I think! But they're supposed to flicker when they're injured, let me know if they're not haha!

How will unity5 will affect your technical design?

Oooah I don't know. But basically we're still only using Unity for Futile sprites and input, so if that stuff will still works, not all that much I'd say 

It ties in perfectly with how the game handles progression. There aren't HP bars floating over enemies heads, and they're hard to keep track of. But the more you play, the better you get at integrating the novel sensory input. Eventually you "see the matrix" and it's not an issue any more. You didn't buy a Lizard Detector spell, your actual brain got new skills.

Yep, this is exactly what we're going for. Potential to "level up", but not through some actual scripted functionality but rather through getting more familiar with this alien world and the game mechanics used to represent it. 

@RainWorldIsAwesome, ohh, undead flies sounds menacing! Are you playing the old build, or the one just added? I.e. do you get fullscreen and a region select screen, or are you just thrown straight into the game? In the new build the bats should behave better, and the dead-end exits that take you nowhere and break the game should be fixed as well.

People, I'm getting on the plane in a few hours! So, those of you that are attending PAX, I'll see you tomorrow  For the rest of you, stuff might get a little more quiet here for a while, but I'll try to check in when I have opportunity, and once PAX is over I'll get back to devlog interaction. Happy weekend!

[Christian]

Looking forward to the PAX footage and interviews and such!

[RainWorldIsAwesome]

I'd imagine a biotech lizard would be really sleek: no frills, no spines or ridges, smooth, lithe, and efficient kind of how the slugcat is. An "iLizard" so to speak.

I'm not really going for the Tron look, I want way more biological presence than that. These things are to some degree creatures, but they have some alien element as well. It's a fine balance, and I think it'll require a lot of tuning still!

@Teod flickering like a light bulb for the default behaviors would be a bit too "nuts and bolts", I think! But they're supposed to flicker when they're injured, let me know if they're not haha!

How will unity5 will affect your technical design?

Oooah I don't know. But basically we're still only using Unity for Futile sprites and input, so if that stuff will still works, not all that much I'd say 

It ties in perfectly with how the game handles progression. There aren't HP bars floating over enemies heads, and they're hard to keep track of. But the more you play, the better you get at integrating the novel sensory input. Eventually you "see the matrix" and it's not an issue any more. You didn't buy a Lizard Detector spell, your actual brain got new skills.

Yep, this is exactly what we're going for. Potential to "level up", but not through some actual scripted functionality but rather through getting more familiar with this alien world and the game mechanics used to represent it. 

@RainWorldIsAwesome, ohh, undead flies sounds menacing! Are you playing the old build, or the one just added? I.e. do you get fullscreen and a region select screen, or are you just thrown straight into the game? In the new build the bats should behave better, and the dead-end exits that take you nowhere and break the game should be fixed as well.

People, I'm getting on the plane in a few hours! So, those of you that are attending PAX, I'll see yoeu tomorrow  For the rest of you, stuff might get a little more quiet here for a while, but I'll try to check in when I have opportunity, and once PAX is over I'll get back to devlog interaction. Happy weekend!

Wait a sec, is the new alpha already available? If so how do I gain access to it? Do I just resend my key again? Sorry for the bother but yeah the undead flies was the old alpha .

[Christian]

I'd imagine a biotech lizard would be really sleek: no frills, no spines or ridges, smooth, lithe, and efficient kind of how the slugcat is. An "iLizard" so to speak.

I'm not really going for the Tron look, I want way more biological presence than that. These things are to some degree creatures, but they have some alien element as well. It's a fine balance, and I think it'll require a lot of tuning still!

@Teod flickering like a light bulb for the default behaviors would be a bit too "nuts and bolts", I think! But they're supposed to flicker when they're injured, let me know if they're not haha!

How will unity5 will affect your technical design?

Oooah I don't know. But basically we're still only using Unity for Futile sprites and input, so if that stuff will still works, not all that much I'd say 

It ties in perfectly with how the game handles progression. There aren't HP bars floating over enemies heads, and they're hard to keep track of. But the more you play, the better you get at integrating the novel sensory input. Eventually you "see the matrix" and it's not an issue any more. You didn't buy a Lizard Detector spell, your actual brain got new skills.

Yep, this is exactly what we're going for. Potential to "level up", but not through some actual scripted functionality but rather through getting more familiar with this alien world and the game mechanics used to represent it. 

@RainWorldIsAwesome, ohh, undead flies sounds menacing! Are you playing the old build, or the one just added? I.e. do you get fullscreen and a region select screen, or are you just thrown straight into the game? In the new build the bats should behave better, and the dead-end exits that take you nowhere and break the game should be fixed as well.

People, I'm getting on the plane in a few hours! So, those of you that are attending PAX, I'll see yoeu tomorrow  For the rest of you, stuff might get a little more quiet here for a while, but I'll try to check in when I have opportunity, and once PAX is over I'll get back to devlog interaction. Happy weekend!

Wait a sec, is the new alpha already available? If so how do I gain access to it? Do I just resend my key again? Sorry for the bother but yeah the undead flies was the old alpha .

Yup, out now. Your Humble Page should be updated

[chriswearly]

So the PAX/2nd Alpha build is on Humble? Cause I'm not getting anything, email or humble-wise.

[Christian]

So the PAX/2nd Alpha build is on Humble? Cause I'm not getting anything, email or humble-wise.

My Humble page says it was updated 3/4/2015.

[chriswearly]

So the PAX/2nd Alpha build is on Humble? Cause I'm not getting anything, email or humble-wise.

My Humble page says it was updated 3/4/2015.

Well I don't use the Humble site ever, so I'm lost as to where to go :/

[Christian]

So the PAX/2nd Alpha build is on Humble? Cause I'm not getting anything, email or humble-wise.

My Humble page says it was updated 3/4/2015.

Well I don't use the Humble site ever, so I'm lost as to where to go :/

But how did you download the previous alpha build? It was through Humble

[chriswearly]

So the PAX/2nd Alpha build is on Humble? Cause I'm not getting anything, email or humble-wise.

My Humble page says it was updated 3/4/2015.

Well I don't use the Humble site ever, so I'm lost as to where to go :/

But how did you download the previous alpha build? It was through Humble

Yeah I know. But it was so long ago. I think I figured it out with a resender, though.
Actually yeah that worked so yay :D

[jamesprimate]

well we havent announced it yet, so thats probably the reason.

[oldblood]

This game looks so much better full screen...

[Christian]

One of my favorite aspects of Rain World's visuals is that region has its own unique style and atmosphere while always feeling like it's part of the same world.

The vultures are something else. Lovely in motion, and so cool seeing one swoop down from above onto the lizard that's chasing you,

And Joar, the lizard traits are great. Really gives each one a distinct visual personality and seeing lizards fighting with each other when you enter a room makes the world feel alive

[Canned Turkey]

This game looks so much better full screen...

They all do.

[DarkWanderer]

Latest build is unplayable on my laptop The last one had issues with the white background but this is a whole other level of weirdness