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[JLJac]

Glad to have you on board!

Update 82
Resolved several minor issues in the level editor and the game. Added some graphical stuff that makes it clearer when a lizard has spotted you.

[JLJac]

Internet connection will be a little shaky for a few days, but I'll still be able to work on the game.

[JLJac]

Hi!
I'm writing this from my phone, you'll get more insight into what's been going on once I get to a computer with an internet connection. Just wanted to let you know that stuff is still happening.

[JLJac]

Update 83
Still no stable internet connection, but at least I can upload some pictures.
Most of my recent work has been on the editors:



Some of you probably recognize them, it's the level overview, the geometry editor, the tile editor and the effects editor. They are brushed up UI-wise, functions are added, projects can be saved and loaded, and the whole thing actually works as a stand-alone-application for the first time, as almost all the functions can be accessed through actual UI-solutions instead of by feeding lines into the debug code window.

Apart from this there has been a lot of small stuff in the actual game, which you never knew was missing but had to be added in. Such as up-pickable objects blinking when approaching them only if your hands aren't full, the ability to let go of flies in order to pick up spears, some work on the lizards, and so on and so on.

Art-wise there hasn't been a ton of progress, but at least some. For example these are in:



The signs are randomly generated from a set of parts:



Long ago I promised that I wouldn't make graphics and then try to fit them into my levels, but instead make levels and then create graphics for them. This didn't happen, I'm still making a lot of loose tiles. I'll try to shape up though. Now is the time to start actually building the world.

[Ashkin]

Why doesn't this get more attention? This needs more attention, it's pretty and wondrous.

[mokesmoe]

Yeah what he said.

[Nate_G]

This looks fascinating. I'm going to go back and read from the first page but for now I'm posting to subscribe.

Intriguing!!

[Franklin's Ghost]

Why doesn't this get more attention? This needs more attention, it's pretty and wondrous.

I've always wondered the same thing

[jamesprimate]

its got my attention!

 

[JLJac]

 

Announcement
After a few days of mailing back and forth James and I have decided to collaborate. James is an awesome artist who has made the score for several famous games, and I'm much looking forward to what he'll bring to the project. Check out his page!

At this point it looks like James will not only make the music, but also the sound effects for the game. He sent me an amazing sounding sketch, and I have sent him a beta version of the game.

This feels great, because as I've mentioned sound is really one of my weaker spots. The work I had done up until now I felt was just passable, but with someone who's really good dedicated to it I think it'll be not only passable, but a really good element that will add to the game.

Of course it's scary to let a part of the project out of my direct control, but it's a leap of faith that will likely bring a lot of good stuff. Now this part can develop more independently, and hopefully the whole will end up greater than the sum of the parts in a way that wouldn't be possible if I did everything myself. I'm much looking forward to seeing where this goes!

Welcome James! Say something to introduce yourself!

Update 84
Thank you people for your attention!

Once again I've been wrestling the seemingly (to me) impossible task of capturing and uploading a video. Stuff just will not work. Finally I managed to get a .avi file, but it's uncompressed and too big to upload. I also have an .swf, but that one got some buggy lines in it when I uploaded it. Once again I simply got too tired of it and decided to quit, but if anyone has any tips of how capturing video and uploading it can be done they're very welcome to tell me

In other news there has been a little progress here and there, as usual. There's now a very simple function for making cracks in walls, so that you can make a passage while at the same time conveying that a structure was actually meant to look in another specific way. For example if you want to make a level that has two identical pipes at each side, but want the player to be able to pass through one but not the other, you can use the function to create a crack through one of the pipes. It'll then be passable, while it will still be conveyed that it was meant to look like the other pipe. It doesn't look awesome, but it does the job.

Also started to get back to the game engine for the campaign game mode. This needs to be finished in order to get to the long promised building of the actual world that we should be getting to soon now, I hope.

[jamesprimate]

Thanks JLJac! These guys know me, I'll let the music do the talking ;]

If you've been following along, you know that the game is a fairly brutal struggle for survival set in the dilapidated ruins of a post-apocalyptic city. You play as a small creature searching for food in between torrential downpours, dodging the hazzards of the local flora, perpetually hunted by vicious creatures. 

From my perspective, the music needs to both set the emotional tone of the protagonist animal and immediately “describe” the fascinating world that JLJac has created. This is a start to that. The ambiance, sfx and music will of course be separate assets in the actual game, but with this I wanted to convey the overall "sound experience" that I have envisioned. Hope you enjoy!

http://soundcloud.com/james_primate/rain-world-ambiance-sketch

[Joshua]

Congrats on snagging an artist/musician! I'm always keeping an eye on this thread. 

[SolarLune]

This looks cool, indeed. The movement's really smooth, and it's almost creepy how they slither / trot along. Really awesome work! By the way, it'd be cool if one bear could jump off of others.

[Nate_G]

I like what you're doing there James, seems like the right direction. Looking forward to hearing more!

[Franklin's Ghost]

Great musician pickup, know from experience James is awesome to work with. Liking the taste of sound so far so looking forward to seeing  what you guys come up with.

[jamesprimate]

thanks guyssssssss! Im really stoked, this is going to be a great.

Looks like things are shaping up! Been talking back and forth with JLJac and the levels look pretty structured. For sound stuff, we're stitching ambiance stuff together and I've got a few tracks together that sound nice and cohesive. But I just spent like 2 days working on a new piece that Im really excited about...  and it totally isn't going to fit the gameplay haha. OH WELL, BONUS CONTENT!

[JLJac]

Update 85
Hi! Sorry it's been a while - real life stuff has been occupying me, but I've also been able to do a little Rain World work. Here's a screenshot:



This level contains some custom graphical assets - for example the machine the player is standing on is drawn explicitly for this purpose. The idea is that if I want to use something like this in another level as well that's allowed, and this way the library of graphical assets will grow and make the levels more and more diverse.

As the levels can be loaded and manipulated I can go back to levels I've already done and add in new assets as they are made.

James has been doing some cool stuff on his side, even though it was some time since I heard from him... How's it going, James?

The world is starting to take shape, and for example the above screenshot is from an actual area in the game. This means I'm a little more hesistant to show everything I do at this point, as I don't want to give too much away. Hopefully I'll manage to find a balance between keeping the devlog interesting and still making the final release exciting with a lot of stuff that hasn't been seen before.

[JLJac]

Update 86
Further work on the engine that will handle the *game* aspect of this thing, the one which will divide the world into levels, lead you to places in a certain order, remember what places you've already visited and so on.

What's up an running right now is this:
The player are free to access the swarm rooms in whatever order they see fit. There is, however, a recommended order. This means that each of the seven hunts has an assigned swarm room, and during that hunt you will be lead to that swarm room by the lead flies. If you play like this the game is basically linear.

But, you can visit any swarm room any time. However, once you've hunted in a swarm room it won't swarm the next hunt - meaning that if you go to room 5 the first thing you do, there'll be trouble once the game arrives at hunt 5, because the recommended room is already used up. In this case it'll just lead you to the closest active room (thank god for A*). Then there are other interesting alternatives, such as the player cathing a few flies in one swarm room, then visiting another one before going back to the den ...

The effect of all this is supposed to be that the first time you play the game it'll be all dandy, and the game will you lead you by the hand and show you all the levels. The next playthough, when you're looking to break a high score, you have the possibility to be tactical in your play style instead.

This is supposed to effectively be two difficulties in one - if you play by the rules it's easier, but you can also go rouge and lose the help the game was providing, in return for a potentially higher score.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Really liking the colours in the latest screenshot.

[JLJac]

Update 87
Tons of progress! Been working with inter-level consistensy, and have accomplished quite a few things I'm happy about. First of all, objects are now saved between levels. This means that if you pick up one specific pebble and move it a few tiles and then exit the level, it'll remain in the same position when you get back, an there is no new pebble spawned in its original position. You can also pick it up, move it to another level, put it on the ground, leave, then come back... yeah you get it.

The great thing is that objects that are not touched are not saved, so if you enter a room with 100 rocks on the ground and pick up two, the remaining 98 won't be occupying any memory. Still, if you re-enter the room, there'll be only 98 rocks on the ground.

Technically this is done by assigning each object an ID, which consists of what level it belongs in, and where on that level it's spawned. When entering a level the objects check a list of all the moved/destroyed/held objects in the world, and if it finds its own ID on that list it doesn't spawn.

About the same thing is done with lizards. They have the same basic functionality with having their positions saved as you exit a room, and re-loaded when you get back.

As some of you might remember lizards are trigged by catching flies. Now, if I enter a room having caught 4 flies, and the lizard in that room was triggered at 3, it will now appear out in the level from the start, instead of emerging from its hole, as if it crawled out while you were not there yet. Lizards' health condition is also saved across levels.

To give some fairness to the system lizards that are loaded from memory or generated out in the environment are never spawned too close to the hole from which the player is emerging.

All this functionality makes the world seem more like one place rather than a couple of stiched-together levels, and it also adds gameplay aspects. For example, now the world only has a set amount of spears and rocks, and you have to manage them carefully.