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[JLJac]

Hm, well, rather the opposite in that case. When the cycle starts all the rain water would be draining away, so then you'd see a lot of running water, but later it'd be less and less during the dry spell. This would require the waterfalls to be no-collision though, as we took the decision to have static terrain a couple of months ago when the AI started using pre baked map data.

Bringing the update to the next page.

Thanks

Update 372

Waterfalls! Note, work in progress ~ I could still be happier with how it looks under the water line. Things are becoming tricky, as I have like 4 different shaders colliding and overlapping here. The dark bubbles under the surface would be a lighter color if I could choose freely, but I have to draw them in the default sprite layer, and then they'll also get the default underwater color. I'll try to mess around with it some more in the future, but this seems good enough as a place holder to get James started with the new watery area.



The left one is a standard waterfall, as I imagine most of them will look. The right one is a weaker one that's a bit broken up, I want this for cosmetic purposes. The standard one looks very square, so the weaker one can be used to make a room look more alive. Both of them could use some more work though! Let me know if you have any tips

Right now the waterfall affects you while you're in the water - if you're close to the surface it'll pull you in and push you down, further down it will push you down and away. Above water it's purely cosmetic, you don't collide with it but move "in front of it". I'm contemplating making it so that the waterfall hits creatures above water as well, and pushes them down. There are a few things to consider here though. First of all, could I make the creature/water interaction look good enough to be happy with it? It'd want some kind of water splatter, and that seems very difficult to implement in a way that looks good. Also the waterfall should probably be affected somehow. This could probably be accomplished by breaking the sprite up in two where the creature breaks the waterfall, and use the weak shader (right in the images above) below that point. But there are also gameplay implications. Waterfalls generally cut rooms up horizontally, and if they are (somewhat) an obstacle, rooms might feel claustrophobic as you'll find yourself locked into little cells without freedom of movement. This might be okay for the player, but lighter creatures such as bats will get pushed around more by the waterfalls, and be even more limited as a consequence. Bat movement might be incredibly limited if the room is cut up by vertical barriers that the player can move through but the bats can't. So, still thinking about that one. Will consult with James and get back!

In shader news, you might notice a some water glimmer on the walls. Adds some atmosphere according to me! I'm really going crazy with the shaders here, but this one is actually not baked into the main shader, it's just a sprite that's placed on top of everything. So some graphics options can easily be implemented where that sprite is simply not created, and the GPU can be spared some pain and suffering. The effect is not for an entire room, but only above water surfaces and extending a few hundred pixels upwards.

And yeah, I made the leeches red!



An artistic decision I guess. Almost every creature is black already, and it felt nice to spice the leeches up a bit. I really like the contrast between the red leeches and this green water here - it feels a bit more fun and unexpected than just black. Also, the leeches spend most of their time deep under water, where you won't see their color, so it becomes a bit of a surprise when they get closer to the surface.

When they're out of the water for a while they slowly turn black before dying of dehydration.

We were talking about perhaps having both black leeches and red leeches, and giving them slightly different properties, and that's not entirely out of the question, but probably a later issue.

[eblomquist]

This continues to impress - especially on a technological level. I look forward to experiencing this

[JLJac]

Update 373

Making tiles for the new region. It's very time consuming, because of of the several layers of each tile.

[Netsu]

I think it would look better if the water splash/drop particles didn't go to full white, but only about halfway between water body colour and white.

Red leeches look way better!

All in all this continues to be the most impressive and consistently developed project on TIGS, you are like a gamedev god. I remember when this was just a simple movement prototype in the feedback section

[jamesprimate]

Update 373

Making tiles for the new region. It's very time consuming

SOOORRRRRYYYYYYYYYY

[chriswearly]

Just so people know, there is a subreddit for Rain World: http://reddit.com/r/rainworld

I just edited the logo- it's a slugcat now!

Also, the Gamepedia site, which I think I've maintained pretty well so far: http://rainworld.gamepedia.com/Rain_World_Wiki
I wanted to keep a reign on things in the beginning, so most things are protected from being edited. I'll get around to loosening up those walls. Though at the moment there's not any need for anyone else to add stuff anyway.

Also, a /GIF section should be added soon, where every.single.gif I can find will be linked :D

Lastly! I love this world so much I am writing about it! http://lifeofaslugcat.tumblr.com
Also on Twitter.
But, only you guys will like it, so that's why I'm posting this.

I hope the community can centralize in the subreddit, though- I could talk about Rain World for weeks! The game, the code, the art, the unspoken lore, the fanart, my fanfiction (other fanfictions you guys make??), everything!! :D

[jamesprimate]

CHRIS!

You've been doing hard work and we appreciate it man 

[chriswearly]

CHRIS!

You've been doing hard work and we appreciate it man 

When you love something enough, nothing you do feels like work! And I appreciate you appreciating me <3

[jamesprimate]

Little update: bad week edition

Had some minor disasters hit the rain world team the past few days. Joar is out sick, so he's taking some time off, and I got a little taste of rain world in real life with... my apartment flooding Yikes! All is well now, but things may be a little slow this week

So anyway, in the mean time let me go into what I've been up to with the levels and world design. We've made some solid progress into the second region of Rain World, "Drainage System", which as the name implies is a kind of pervasive sewer that spans the near-surface subterranean and connects a few key regions. It is huge rusted pipes, aqueducts and contained water elements, etc., to creep and crawl through.


(Larger: https://i.imgur.com/iJ1i7MC.png)

We've been spending some time getting the mood right, showcasing Joar's work with the water physics, ambient water lighting, the new waterfall element, etc., and i think it has paid off hugely, producing a really distinct vibe


(Larger: https://i.imgur.com/Y8rQ4JO.png)

and then of course we infest the area with nasty leeches!


(Larger: https://i.imgur.com/2phC9zC.png)

Lizards will also be in this area, but probably confined to the parts closest to the surface, as they are afraid of water. (with very good reason  )

Heroically, even after getting sick Joar was able to send me a new tileset for larger "inside pipe" environments, so I'll be experimenting with them the next few days. This is the principle area that will have "water surrounded by tiles", so Im trying to make the most of it!

edit: after posting one of the screenshots and then previewing the post, i noticed a tiling goof and corrected it. so thanks???

[gameaddictwn]

Will you be able to eat leeches?

[jamesprimate]

no way man, thats gross

[gimymblert]

Slugcat now with furry fandom

[ronare]

I am more and more amazed with this. the leeches eating the bats, it's like... a crazy documentary about wildlife !

you sir, have created LIFE 

[Christian]

That new area looks fantastic..but I would expect nothing less from Rain World

A question: So I remember you mentioning the first region having 30 different rooms. So does each region function like a mini-Metroidvania? Distinct areas, but each area is relatively open and free to explore?

Edit: actually two questions. Someone in the NeoGAF thread wants to know if this will be releasing in 2015

[jamesprimate]

Yep! thats the idea: each region is a little open-world metroidvania, usually with a few thematically linked sub-regions, and then the layout of the world is laid out in a similar fashion: world -> region -> sub-region -> room; mazes within mazes! there are 36 rooms for the first region, "suburban", and thats probably a bit more than they will be on average. This drainage area im working on now looks like it will probably be in the 20-something range, and a few might be even simpler than that. We'll see!

as for release date: only timelords know, but it certainly better be in 2015

[Christian]

Yep! thats the idea: each region is a little open-world metroidvania, usually with a few thematically linked sub-regions, and then the layout of the world is laid out in a similar fashion: world -> region -> sub-region -> room; mazes within mazes! there are 36 rooms for the first region, "suburban", and thats probably a bit more than they will be on average. This drainage area im working on now looks like it will probably be in the 20-something range, and a few might be even simpler than that. We'll see!

as for release date: only timelords know, but it certainly better be in 2015

Awesome. That approach just sounds so good

Does one screen equal one room? Or can a "room" be larger, multi-screen areas?

[jamesprimate]

Yep! thats the idea: each region is a little open-world metroidvania, usually with a few thematically linked sub-regions, and then the layout of the world is laid out in a similar fashion: world -> region -> sub-region -> room; mazes within mazes! there are 36 rooms for the first region, "suburban", and thats probably a bit more than they will be on average. This drainage area im working on now looks like it will probably be in the 20-something range, and a few might be even simpler than that. We'll see!

as for release date: only timelords know, but it certainly better be in 2015

Awesome. That approach just sounds so good

Does one screen equal one room? Or can a "room" be larger, multi-screen areas?

a room can be (and often is) multiple screens, yes!

currently were hitting an integer limit at around 4 screens per "room" and only with certain dimensions, so down the line a bit Joar is going to be doing the tedious job of reworking the level editor to accommodate sizes beyond that (among other things), which he is understandably not looking forward to at all. the really large rooms only come into play later in the game, so we should be totally fine working within the current limitations for the next few regions at least.

[chriswearly]

Yep! thats the idea: each region is a little open-world metroidvania, usually with a few thematically linked sub-regions, and then the layout of the world is laid out in a similar fashion: world -> region -> sub-region -> room; mazes within mazes! there are 36 rooms for the first region, "suburban", and thats probably a bit more than they will be on average. This drainage area im working on now looks like it will probably be in the 20-something range, and a few might be even simpler than that. We'll see!

as for release date: only timelords know, but it certainly better be in 2015

Grrr. You're really making my job hard over at the Wiki
/The_World

/Map
-list of Regions

/Region_1
-list of Subregions

/Region_1_Subregion_1
-list of Rooms

/Region_1_Subregion_1_Room_1
-list of Screen(s)

The really tricky part here is gonna be knowing what is a Region, (and if it's actually a Sub-region), and then knowing what exactly is each Room and whether it is multiple screens *sigh*

This'll be fun, though. Yeah, this'll be fun

[jamesprimate]

Hahah yes now imagine BUILDING it all 

Regions should be fairly easy to tell, as not only are they built out of different materials/tiles (so they have their own look) and explore different gameplay aspects ("horizontal", "vertical", various flavors of "water region", "underground", "mazes", etc etc) but they will also have their own color distinct color palette! Joar just sent me this one for the Drainage System region, and man it is GORGEOUS:


Larger: https://i.imgur.com/P6FtdD2.png

Rusted pipes, weird greenish murky water, it sets the dank underground mood perfectly and adds so much to the atmosphere. Sometimes with all the programming and development nonsense, I forget he is originally a damn talented visual artist Im sure he'll talk about that palette a bit more when he's back in action (Feel better Joar!!)

[Torchkas]

How will you handle different resolutions?
Will you just change the size of the camera, or will you scale things down using nearest neighbor or something?
Loving the visual style, I hope the soundtrack will live up to it.