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[Christian]

But I'm already going through Rain World GIF withdrawal...

Have fun on your trip!

[JLJac]

Most of our talk has been about business stuff and how we will handle the logistics of the project - maybe not the most exciting but very necessary, and it feels good to have a more defined idea about how things are going to go. However we've also talked a little bit about how we want the world you play in to work. As you've seen James has made some pretty extensive maps, and we've been trying to flesh out the first areas a bit more which is definitely easier sitting at the same table. On top of that, James has had a crash course in the more intricate workings of the level editor, and we're hoping to be able to switch up to a new gear in actual content creation.

I think this division of work (I use the term loosely as we're both obviously going to be involved a lot in what the other person is doing) feels really good. Ever since the start I've mostly focused on the small scale - how the creatures actually look and interact. The game design issues of the larger scope - how the world will look and how you'll progress through it - I've generally been thinking of as something I'd get to "later", but I've been worrying that this might not give it all the attention it deserved. With James giving those aspects some serious attention, I feel secure in that they will be just as good as they have potential to be.

So, all in all, good productive talk. We're sorry about the gif sparsity though, promise to get right back at it next week when things return to normal!

[Whiteclaws]

Maybe every two secs, you would see the wave thru the tunnel (Very subtely), and when you get near, you'd get the full a bit stronger flash thru the tunnel

I think the arrow would fit, as it would be a trace of how the last civilisation transported maybe, it would flash as if it was an old neon of stuff like that, it would fit in

[jamesprimate]

^agreed on all counts

[JLJac]

Update 351
Back at it! Today I added tools for creating and adjusting water in the level editor - I have high expectations for what's going to come out of that when James gets his hands on it. As so far we've only added the water to already made levels, we haven't created a level designed for water yet. Going to be pretty cool to see what comes out of that.

The rest of the day has been spent trying to get the AI to have some basic understanding of the water's existence. Both flies and lizards are pretty hydrophobic, so in those cases it's just a matter of of marking wet tiles as illegal (which isn't as easy as it sounds, as there are a million references to asking about and setting the legality of AI tiles all over the code). I've also created a marker for creatures that enables me to give them a somewhat more sophisticated relationship to water, for example they can be air dwelling but accept touching water at the surface though not diving into it, or water dwelling, or completely amphibious.

Somewhere in the process I managed to break some parts of the code that saves AI data to the level file, which really was the last thing I wanted to revisit this week, but it doesn't seem all that bad so let's keep our hopes up. I'll probably sort it out pretty quickly as it doesn't seem to be about the hexadecimal data storage, which would've been the true nightmare situation...

[Paul]

I'm slowly making my way through this whole devlog. Everything about the game is excellent, looking forward to it so much now!

[JLJac]

Thanks :D

Update 352
Finally managed to make the AI understand water, and patch up everything I broke during that process. There are a few things still that need to be addressed, such as some system for saving whether a node in abstract space is submerged. Without knowing that, a room that exits abstract space could end up spawning a bunch of fish on land and a bunch of flies under water, or similar. Also it would be necessary in order to avoid weird off-screen diving by creatures that shouldn't be able to dive.

Other than that I've added a health state to the lizards, finally enabling them to be injured and die. The injured state is handled by a per-frame chance of getting a bit stunned, which increases with how damaged the creature is. This works pretty well in my opinion, as it means that a very injured lizard will be mostly incapacitated, but if the random numbers line up it can get a sudden burst of movement, making sure that you never feel completely safe around it.

For death condition I'm doing a similar thing, the lower under 0 the health is, the greater the per-frame chance that the lizard will finally shut down. However, there's also a 50% chance of death when reaching 0 health, and a 100% chance when health reaches -100%. It looks good so far, with some lizards collapsing immediately when hit by a spear while others manage to crawl a step or two.

Lastly I've finally made sure that spears don't duplicate when off-screen, but thinking of how many time I've written that already the gravity of the wording "made sure" seems to be dropping quickly. Well, at least the spears seem to stay un-cloned in the situations I can create right now.

[Caspar2000]

Starving. Must...see...gifs...so hungry.

[DarkWanderer]

Wow, those death mechanics sound really fluid & organic, like everything else in this game. I too second gifs. I can't wait to play this game

[JLJac]

Hahaha ok, I'll post a gif for you!

Update 353
Polish, polish, polish. I'm trying to wrap up the mechanics I have to a playable state now, before moving on. That means a lot of tiny little things that needs fixing. Today I revisited spears - how they stick, how they do damage, etc. The new spear stuff in combination with the lizard damage stuff means that the game is much more of a game recently, which feels kind of cool.

The player has also finally got a throwing animation, if you look closely you can see the slugcat lean into the throw a bit, and some hand movement as well.



Other additions of the day include lizards being able to understand that they should return to their holes when injured, and the ability for lizards to casually attack some close by creature they're not actively hunting if they think the creature looks tasty, or are just generally pissed.

As it's becoming more of a game the differences in difficulty between Unity and Lingo version also becomes more obvious, and I've been trying to tune that a bit. The difficulty was way too low, and now it might be a bit too high - but I've implemented it so that it's dependent on a few breed-specific variables in the lizards that can be tuned up and down very easily, so we'll get there.

[jamesprimate]

Hahaha ok, I'll post a gif for you!

Update 353
Polish, polish, polish. I'm trying to wrap up the mechanics I have to a playable state now, before moving on. That means a lot of tiny little things that needs fixing. Today I revisited spears - how they stick, how they do damage, etc. The new spear stuff in combination with the lizard damage stuff means that the game is much more of a game recently, which feels kind of cool.

The player has also finally got a throwing animation, if you look closely you can see the slugcat lean into the throw a bit, and some hand movement as well.



Other additions of the day include lizards being able to understand that they should return to their holes when injured, and the ability for lizards to casually attack some close by creature they're not actively hunting if they think the creature looks tasty, or are just generally pissed.

As it's becoming more of a game the differences in difficulty between Unity and Lingo version also becomes more obvious, and I've been trying to tune that a bit. The difficulty was way too low, and now it might be a bit too high - but I've implemented it so that it's dependent on a few breed-specific variables in the lizards that can be tuned up and down very easily, so we'll get there.

WOOOOW! That GIF looks like a quicker, smoother version of the classic lingo ones. Suuuper impressive!

[Wlad]

@JLJac: Gif looks really good. I want to ask, how will throwing spears/objects work? I mean can you throw just in one direction - in front of you? Or can you aim with mouse/gamepad stick?

[jamesprimate]

throwing is just forward. keeping it simple! rain world is no twin stick shooter 

[Caspar2000]

That lizard would have been much better of, if it had moved away from the slug cat BACKWARD.  Poor careless lizard.

[Christian]

Much more fluid


Why do the spears bounce off the lizard?

[Lucs]

Why do the spears bounce off the lizard?

They have tough heads maybe.

[cainex1]

Much more fluid


Why do the spears bounce off the lizard?

The spears seem to bounce only off the head which is understandable
and OMG the smoothness and the apparent pain in the movement, it really has a more living feel
One very small gripe, could the slugcat not completely close its eyes on the throw, as a hobby shooter keeping your eyes open if really important, perhaps a squint would give a little more agency to the critter

[jamesprimate]

we've been working on the next gen version for so long, you forget how it used to be. its crazy to see the same sorts of scenes side by side. The frame rate difference is RIDICULOUS. And the gif is only at 30fps i think? in game its like 100fps+, laser crisp and smooth. Plus notice how much more depth and detail is present in the backgrounds?

The lizards in the new version are still lacking a lot of the "personality" behaviors that were in the lingo, so they look a bit "im running straight towards you to bite you", but other than that WOW what a difference! The arm motions, the limping, the escape behavior. There is still TONS more to do with that stuff and it compares well already.

Still feel the throw motion is a bit off somehow. Maybe not quick enough arm? Also the spear rebound animation is pretty wacky, haha. BZZZOOOM! Could probably be slowed down if possible.

Yep, the lizard heads are armored to various degrees. The point being that you shouldn't REALLY be taking them on head to head unless as a last resort.

ANYWAY!

I just got back from a week in Korea studying rain world tiling with Joar, and i think the results are looking pretty nice:



non horribly compressed version here: https://i.imgur.com/55PL17h.png

Finishing up the first tiling pass on the initial area of Rain World proper: the ~25 room "suburban" region that will be teased in the first build... which we are planning on having ready pretty soon!

Gentlemen, it looks like this might actually turn into a videogame after all! 

[Canned Turkey]

PC release ETA?
I've been waiting for this for so long.

[jamesprimate]

None yet. Despite my enthusiasm above, I should note there is still quite a way to go!