I like the idea of the "crocodile" lizard. How are you planning to handle it with the leeches? If it is a water dweller, would they have some kind of symbiotic relationship?

Also, just a kind of cool idea, but I have been looking at pictures of the Kowloon walled city. What are the odds of having a region like that? Kind of a cramped urban area, kind of like a jungle gym.

These remind me of frogs. And yes, poop fish!

Was he making some of the stuff up? I don't remember reading anything about breeding in this thread (although that would be totally rad to have).
And he killed lantern mouse and called it a spider.

I know right? I was going, "what"!?

I am liking the latest one. If I may make a suggestion, the overall dirtiness of the place is not really communicated, because the slugcat is always pristine. Maybe have some kind of "dirt patches" applied to it, as it moves around. It could also be used a camouflage maybe.

EDIT: Also, I feel like the kind of aesthetic seen in the first one could have a place, but maybe not in the suburban area. Maybe in the rooms leading to the surface from Shadow Urban, where there is some sunlight, but it is still kind of dingy.

Heyo. Just wanted to say nice job on the rain! Looks amazing, can't wait for the next alpha. Speaking of which...

So, I don't mean to sound like I am complaining, but prior to releasing the next one, could you guys make it so that it saves which shelter you are in, so that when you hide in another, you aren't always respawning in the same place? Also, the disappearing spears when lizards go through shortcuts, and the vultures fitting through them would also be nice.

Also, are the transition gates going to be in? Because that would be epic.

Great work so far though!

That's good, but games shouldn't force anyone to leave the game to figure things out.

That's what I really dislike about Pokémon. There are all these combinations you have to look up online.

That's not good game design IMO.

And not very nice towards people who can't go online all the time (like in certain countries). They should be able to just get this through the game itself.

Dark Souls and Bloodborne don't have maps

This situation with maps brings to mind an old game from the gameboy color days I was playing recently. Because this was in the days before save, (remember those awful "codes" to resume where you left off?), they included a "cheat/developer mode" option. It had some cheat options, but the main reason it was there was for the "unlock world" option, so that you could go wherever you wanted without having to progress through the story line. Maybe without having a direct menu for this, but a short combination of keys to get into "cheat mode" for rain world would be in order. This would unlock all the things that might ruin the experience, such as maps/hunger meter, but at least it is there for those people who really want it. Thoughts everyone?

Slightly unrelated note, but what exactly happened to that Life of A Slugcat fan fiction? I just reread what is there now, and it looks good. Any hopes of continuation?

Still looking like an alien parasite to me. I feel like it is the eyes, and the mouth tentacles. Having them flop around just doesn't feel right. Animals that have tentacles tend to have some control over them I would think. Like, they would open to eat, but otherwise would curl or bunch together. I can see that being an impediment, so it only makes sense.

Edit: Also, what is the blue thing on top of the white cicadas' heads? Giving me a very "minnie mouse" theme here, kinda looks like a bow.

Note on the last one, as far as I know, squids themselves also bunch their tentacles.

So, just a brief suggestion. Something I noticed in the alpha is that there ARE multiple dens, but when you are well fed, and sleep in them after the rain, you still spawn in the original one. Could you put some kind of rough "save" system in place for the next alpha?

Also, for the cicada, segmented for sure. More "insect-like" over "squid-like". The thing already reminds me of some kind of alien mind probe, making it look more like a squid definitely heightens that impression.

Huzzah! For the great Joar graces us with another glimpse at His divine boxes, the very core of all creatures in this World of Rain! We must spread the word of His mighty power and benevolence, for He breathes life into simple images and shapes, simply for our entertainment. Has a greater being ever existed?

Well... Maybe, but screw those guys anyway, am I right?

Careful Joar, after a while you might have a cult on your hands...

Took a small pause from overhaul to implement a bloom filter for the Sky Islands palette:



The shader is active, so when stuff moves in front of it the bloom is affected by the sprites:

I am not sure I like the look of sky islands. It has an almost fairytale-like quality, with the ornamental ace shaped things in the background, and the overall cleanness. Couple this with the light and it creates a rather rosy impression, which, (this being Rain World), I personally don't like. Obviously there are the usual vines, and caked on grime in some areas, but it looks kind of mashed together, if you know what I mean.

Just my 2 cents.

Sweet damn, this game is coming along so well. I can already lose myself in the first alpha, (can't play the second one for whatever reason), and once there are these opening art scenes and waking up animation, along with the music, it is gonna be simply awe-inspiring. 

I second that.

I am with Woodledude; it really makes no sense if you think about it. the whole nature in action, eat everything you can mentality.

Lets say you need to eat 8 bats per rain cycle in order to be properly fed, +/- 3 (one for each pup). Let's also say there's a starvation timer with a value of 4. If your bat consumption for a given rain cycle is less than the required 8, the difference is subtracted from the starvation timer. When the starvation timer reaches 0, you die. For each value of the starvation timer, from 4 (you're fine) to 1 (you'll die if you don't get enough bats), there is a different signal - perhaps when you wake up in your den you range from getting up with a sprightly step to groggily waking with a terrible rumble in your tummy.

I like this idea, of it being in the den. Remember the "bat calendar" or something similar mentioned a few pages ago? It would have been in the den. If hunger is to be communicated through the slugcats idle moments, then a good place to make it really noticeable is the den. It doesn't impact gameplay, so you could have some status effects, say for 2 seconds immediately after you wake up. Think "monday morning". Then have the slugcat be normal throughout the gameplay after that, so that you could still count on its movements being the same.

What tasks should UI solve? Only hunger display function? You could achive it without any additional graphics. You've done so much work with with shaders, so I can't see why you can't display hunger through vision of a world around slugcat. What happens to a person when he is hungry? Feeling nervous, more sharp but more narrow, more desperate and less sure. It starts to affect how you see everything around you. You can make world look more flat, more desaturated, more chipped, more jaggy, less contrast. Use vignette, shrink view, make it be helping to find food and not very comfortable. You could make slugcat see food more pulsating, warm, needed, so when you are full it wouldn't bother you much. Be a slugcat.

  Good idea! I second this. Then again, would it really convey that the slugcat is hungry? And if this is the route that is ultimately taken, could you use it for other sensations, say fear? This would be interesting to play around with. It would be easy to misinterpret. Also, it might interfere with gameplay. Hypothetically, it could also impact the slugcats physical movements as well. Not profoundly, but say, being stunned longer, or not being able to throw rocks as hard, clambering over when you are hanging from a ledge takes slightly longer, etc. Not enough to be frustrating, but noticeable. It would have to be very well executed, however, to keep people from raging at something they don't understand.
 

It seems like anything that conveys the information well is obtrusive, and anything that's subtle doesn't convey the information well.

Above is basically tl:dr. It may not convey it well enough. Opinions everyone?

Another idea, we already have the numbers appearing over the slugcat's head. Why not just have that start with how many bats you need to eat and countdown? Possibly have the numbers be red?

I am glad I read this forum. I hear so many interesting things.  

EDIT:

It's a very strong theme throughout that the environment was not designed for you, and the intentions and motivations of the architects are completely separate from the intentions and motivations of the protagonist, so I don't know... The shelters do seem to be specifically a rain shelter though, so it would perhaps make sense. It would become a little bit more explicit than I'd be comfortable with though - it seems so slugcat convenient that people might start hypothesizing that slugcats are actually the architects or something.

Also, I completely agree. It also suggests that you are somehow in control, which is also not good. This feeling of being part of a larger system is kind of undermined by the "indicator in the shelter" idea. It suggests a deeper understanding. Plus, again, it caters to the understanding of the player. A slugcat probably will not know what, say, a row of LEDs mean. Well, they might, but I doubt it.

A thought: say we look into what, say, weasels do in harsh weather. It is not necessarily that the creatures of rain world are based on things in real life, I know, but it might serve as some inspiration. I think I will look into that, and report back.

[It's essentially a metaphor to translate the slugcat's sensation of hunger into something the player can directly and intuitively interpret.]

I'm inclined to disagree. While the slugcat certainly doesn't know what a stomach is or does, at least not in any meaningful respect, it knows what hunger is. Conversely, the player cannot feel the slugcat's hunger - Though they do know, most likely, that the stomach is linked to hunger. It's essentially a metaphor to translate the slugcat's sensation of hunger into something the player can directly and intuitively interpret.

I strongly disagree with this analogy. Those of you that watched the "Shelter 2 review" a page or so ago, you know what I mean. The idea of appealing to the slugcat in you, not the human, is essential. Sure it knows what hunger is, but displaying a stomach is a bad idea, and even if you didn't do that, (because said slugcat does not know what a stomach looks like), then you would have to do something abstract, which would also be un-intuitive. It is, as Woodledude said, something to show the player what you are trying to convey. There should not be a "player". You must be the slugcat. As soon as there is an attempt to try to convey something to the player, then the magic is lost.

This said, I am more in favor of there being a visual cue, or sound prehaps, (maybe a low stomach growl?), that conveys this.

Those of you who didn't see the review:

Slugcat. Not squirrel, slugcat. Also, might want to read the devlog.