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[karahara]

Greetings friends!
We want to tell you about the game we have been working on since 2020 - and we are super excited to do so! (We'll tell you more about the game in the upcoming Devlogs, but let us introduce the game first)


About the game

Rin is a dark fairytale Metroidvania, in which you’ll rediscover your magic, create spells and enchant them to create stronger and more effective spell variants. Explore vast mythical lands as you uncover secrets hidden behind the Aspects of Magic.

Play as Rin, a demigoddess, and obtain the power of aspects to fuel and develop your magic on your journey to save the world.
Rin is a true Metroidvania, in which exploration meets crafting. Thanks to the complex system of spell-crafting and enchanting no playthrough is the same.

Create and enchant spells

Find aspect shards and runes and use them to create spells or enchantments. Tired of good old magic missiles? You will surely find other spells that will suit your gameplay style.

Explore

Deadly volcanic plains, deserts of distorted time, dangerous jungles full of deadly creatures, and many more await your discovery as you explore their lands on your playthrough. What secrets will you find?

To fight, or not to fight

Discover multiple ways to finish off your enemies… or to avoid encounters with them, thanks to the complex spellcrafting system.

Uncover the tale

Find yourself in the middle of a creation myth where, on Teller of Tales’ orders, Rin comes to life and tries to find her demigod siblings, each carrying a piece of the Teller’s magical power. Experience Rin’s tale, and help her discover her true purpose.

Game Features:

• Spellcrafting and enchantment
• Exploration
• Engaging story
• Unique art style

More details

RIN: The Last Child belongs to the Metroidvania genre. Our goal was to create something unique about Rin, her story, and the World surrounding her. We wanted to form and keep the dark fairytale style and vibe around the title - we could not do it without the Magic! Its World is full of the power of Aspects, monsters, and hidden secrets. Exploring it will guide you through The Teller's plans and the tragic consequences of his and other Children's actions. You will discover not only the background of the story, but you will be able to decide about the fate of the mythical World.

Wait - you have mentioned the Magic..? Yes!
Although we did not mean to reinvent the wheel, we still wanted to implement something new. We focused on the spellcrafting system, which allows Rin to create spells using the power of collected Aspects. They might come in handy while defeating various opponents!

The second weapon of this demigoddess is her power of free will. She cannot change the past, but her - that means yours - decisions will affect the state of the World.

RIN: The Last Child on Steam

Main features of RIN: The Last Child:

• Metroidvania
• World exploration
• Unique spellcrafting system
• Player's decisions impact the state of the World
• Challenging gameplay allows different gameplay approaches

Upcoming release: January 25th, 2024 on Steam
Platforms: PC (Steam), PlayStation, Xbox, Switch


Links:

• Steam
• Discord Server
• Website

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube

[Thaumaturge]

I am intrigued, I will say--and the art is lovely! ^_^

[karahara]

I am intrigued, I will say--and the art is lovely! ^_^

Thank you so much! :D We really appreciate that.

[karahara]

Devlog #1 - The Idea

Hi guys!

Welcome to the first Devlog. We have mentioned the game's key features, explained its main story, and showed you some graphics with the released trailer. Today we would like to cover the topic of the idea behind the game because - Yeah, you guessed it! Everything starts with an idea.

After deep research and analysis of the market and game genres, we figured out that we can create a game we are big fans of - a Metroidvania! To make it more memorable and to create a niche for our game, we decided to add spellcrafting and narrative decisions to discern our game among other Metroidvanias. We are big fans of the genre, so it was pure joy (for most of the time) to create such a game! Of course we drew some inspiration from Hollow Knight , Ori, and Guacamelee and analysed other titles to see what worked, what didn't work in those titles in regard to mechanics, level design and story.

One of the first mood boards & color concepts for locations:



Early concepts, ideas:



Concepts for Level Art:

Bring the idea to life

Game dev is not all fun and games (as you may know), and we won't bore you with a lot of details about the less fun stuff that needed to be done to finish the idea for our game. Do not worry, let’s skip it to the good part!

In the first weeks, we spent a lot of time writing, designing, and discussing everything related to the game. Our Fox team: Designers, Programmers, Artists - everyone had their ideas, and we had to find common ground and the best possible solutions. Luckily, we survived the brainstorming era (and still like each other) and came up with a complete plan.

Final idea: Dark fairytale Metroidvania with a demigoddess as the main character!

Old gameplay video:








Game’s prototype - changes:

Prototype’s map:

The game - in our thoughts - was supposed to be quite simple and approachable for every kind of player. We wanted to make the game enjoyable for everyone. We are aware that not everybody likes overpowered monsters or complicated systems. We’ve also decided to give the players a choice of difficulty level, so you can adjust it to your liking.

Our booth and the presentation of the prototype during the PGA 2021 - Polish Games Fair:

We kept the systems easy to understand. We are creating games for other people and they have to get a grasp on what we offer - so we had to balance originality and other factors. The best ideas are not worth much, if your players can't understand the point of what you present to them. And to give it more flavour, we created rich game lore for the player to discover during the playthrough.

Introduction to lore

You have already learned some fragments about the plot in the previous article. You also know about magic, Rin, Teller, and the other kids. But who exactly is the Teller? What tragic consequences were we talking about? Can we tell you more about the fate of the World?

Well. Nothing is worse than an unwanted spoiler! So we will try to bring you a little closer to the story without revealing the secrets you will discover only during your gameplay.

In the game, you will play as the title character - Rin. The title itself certainly tells you that she is the last child. Teller’s child. He brought her to life and burdened her with the mission of saving the dying World. Because he could not undertake it himself, he gave back this burden on Rin. But why? What happened to the World?

We will try to answer this question in the next episodes of our Devlog.

See you soon!

[oldblood]

Really like the art direction and dramatic color palettes you're using. Looking forward to seeing more.

[karahara]

Devlog #2 - Rin & lore

Hello!   

As we mentioned in the previous post, unwanted spoilers are the worst. We would love to tell you about the lore with details, but it is impossible - We want to let you discover the full story on your own! Before we continue, let's briefly summarize the information about the lore from the two previous parts of the devlogs:

• Teller created Rin,
• Rin has no power - her only gift is free will,
• The game is about exploring the World and its story.

Nevertheless, we will try to answer the previously asked questions without spoiling the experience of discovering the puzzles.

So - who exactly is the Teller? What tragic consequences were we talking about? Can we tell you more about the fate of the World? Well. Yes, and no.

Backstory

Teller wanted to form the World, which would be in perfect harmony with him. However, his endeavors were in vain, and the whole World began to fall apart. To save his Creation, he chose to bring to life his Last Child - Rin. He endowed her with the gift of free will, which could change the fate of the once beautiful lands.

The Teller's and Children's motivation remains to be discovered by the player. During your adventure as Rin, you will meet other Children and learn about their stories, which will reveal more about the lore. Exploration will allow you to find out what happened in the past. During this mission Rin’s free will can be your best ally. You will decide what to do with the obtained information and powers: you will create the spells you want to use, and the fate of the creatures you meet will be up to you.

Rin - design, concepts

We prepared the plot, so we had to create the fitting main character. As we decided on the dark fairy-tale atmosphere of the World, we also wanted to stick with it while creating Rin. It was important for us to make her look like a part of it.

There were definitely many concepts for the main character, but the general idea of Rin emerged quickly, so we were left to experiment with her final appearance. We even tried the horror and chibi-style versions (which we finally declined). We tested the look of various details as well as variations of them.

Unfortunately, although we had many ideas for the variations, they turned out to be a bit problematic. We decided to use the 3/4 point of view of the character in-game, so the add-ons like horns were not so well exposed. We had at least a few different add-on ideas, such as a light or a lantern between the horns. But we gave up this concept due to its over-complexity and lack of good visibility in the game. Instead, we focused on glowing hair and eyes. It was simpler to do effectively, but it still looks good! It definitely gives off a magical vibe, so we think it was the best style choice.

Rin’s cloudy hair:

Previously shown old gameplay:

She used to have "cloudy" hair. We tried to make it work with Unity physics: the intention was that her hair would move regardless of the character's animation. Unfortunately, we had a bit of trouble with that. The hair liked to get buggy and fly away.

It turned out to be easier to remake the animation in Spine and then add it to the game's engine. When changing the method of execution, we also changed the way Rin's hair looks. Now, she has hair with the "floating in the water" style!

Rin’s floating hair:

Current gameplay:

Today we brought you closer to Rin, her story and concepts. It is a good introduction to the game’s World, systems, abilities, monsters… which we will describe in the following parts! It should be easier to understand for you next time.

See you!

[karahara]

Recently, we told you about the title character, Rin, and her story. We thought it would be a great introduction to the future devlog entries about monsters, spellcrafting, and Aspects… but all this is still ahead of us. First, we would like to introduce you to Rin's world! Today we want to share with you the creation process of one of the locations in the game.


Inspiration

We already knew what our game was going to be about and what story we would like to tell. We were also sure about the dark fairytale vibe around the title. But we could not forget that Metroidvania is all about exploration! To enhance the player's experience, we decided to add the creation of several different lands to our "to do" list. When it was all planned, it was time to implement the ideas. However, before moving right on to creating the world, we had to look for inspiration in the first place. This was one of the most important and essential steps that let us organize everything properly.

References & mood board for one of the planned locations

We drew inspiration from all kinds of images, nature, and other games. We created mood boards for each of the planned locations. They allowed us to find the right colors for the vibe we were going for. This particular location was supposed to be the least distorted and almost perfect, closest to the Creator's vision (Its appearance is strongly related to the catastrophic events described in Devlog #2). So we have looked for calm, harmonious, and beautiful references in this case.

These mood boards helped us go to the next step - creating a color palette for our game.



Color palette

In the first Devlog, we showed you the color scheme we wanted to use when creating the game. It was based on mentioned mood boards and references and was made to keep the colors in the game consistent. But not only! Defining this palette allowed us to capture the character of the dark fairytale style we wanted to create.

Color palette for one of the planned locations

This color palette was the base for the creation of further works for one of the Location types. Once we had it, it was time for the artists to shine.



First concept arts

The environment (same as the main character) also had its concepts at first. Each artist from our team proposed their own vision of the world and its locations. They created their first concepts based on the color palette shown above.

Concept arts for one of the planned locations

These first drawings let us define the direction we wanted to take.



Choosing the art style

We messed around with the art style for a while. Each of them had its pros and cons. When creating those concepts, we paid attention to several aspects. Not only the overall appearance was important, but also the ease of creating art and implementing assets. Working on a game can be confusing and complicated at many stages, so it is crucial to consider how to invest time wisely. You would prefer not to spend several hours painting one plant, tree, or flower. It could take too many years to build a complete map after choosing the wrong and demanding art style. Especially when we assumed a variety of locations. Creating several variants of many (hundreds) assets could overwhelm us if they are not quick to do.

Art style suggestions

Adjustments

We discarded those less fitting our vision. We slightly changed the style, refined some elements, and introduced minor corrections to make it suit our needs. And we finally chose the final design!



Final version

It was not that easy. But after brainstorming, the entire process of creating the final concept of the location was over.

Final version of one of the planned locations

This specific picture became our official reference. We based our future artworks and assets on this final version. We tried not to make any new changes anymore (just little adjustments when needed). Keeping these restrictions in mind allowed us to create new things like locations or monsters in the same style. By setting these guidelines we kept the game consistent, and everything looks good together.


We will definitely show you more assets in the future. Thanks for reading the article. See you soon!

[Alain]

That was fun, thanks for sharing this breakdown of finding references, a color palette and art style.

[mobilelast]

I love the colors and lighting, especially the bioluminescent parts. Graphical details are dense but balanced, you haven't overused the effects. Rin's innocent appearance and white eyes make a scary contrast; I wonder if it's done by inverting colors of some previous concept.

Being unfamiliar with the genre, I couldn’t quite grasp the spellcrafting system. Perhaps you could bring it out more in your promo material. Devlog with the description about the design and different approaches was interesting, though.

[karahara]

I love the colors and lighting, especially the bioluminescent parts. Graphical details are dense but balanced, you haven't overused the effects. Rin's innocent appearance and white eyes make a scary contrast; I wonder if it's done by inverting colors of some previous concept.

Being unfamiliar with the genre, I couldn’t quite grasp the spellcrafting system. Perhaps you could bring it out more in your promo material. Devlog with the description about the design and different approaches was interesting, though.

That was fun, thanks for sharing this breakdown of finding references, a color palette and art style.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We really appreciate that.
Unfortunately, we know that we did not manage to show Spellcrafting as well as we could in our trailer. We gathered some great feedback on this topic, and we are aware that this is one of the things we still need to work on to make it better. It's one of the points on our "to do & to fix" list. We are also working on improving the animations and combat system.
We will definitely share the results of our work as soon as they are ready, and focus on the trailer more to present spellcrafting in greater detail.

[karahara]

Devlog #4 - Assets

Hi!

So far, we have told you in general about the game, the main character, and presented a plot. Today we want to show you a few things from ...

Behind the Scenes

To spice things up a bit, we decided to share with you some interesting facts about game development. In Devlog # 3, we introduced you to the world of Rin through the process of creating one of the locations available in the game. We want to dedicate this post to this topic as well, but this time we will focus on the details and production elements of our title. We hope you will like this insightful post as well.

Many Things To Do

As you know, a lot of things are needed to create a game. Programming, animations, graphics... but also planning and execution of these ideas. The more complicated the gameplay is, the more mini-projects there are. One overall game design can change up to hundreds, if not thousands, of successive minor projects broken down into different components. (Not to mention the bugs and their fixes...)

Using the example of the plant assets we use to create and beautify available locations in Rin, we will present an example of one such process.

Plants

Plants are an example of a mini-project in our game, which we mentioned above. We use a lot of floral assets in RIN. So... how did it all come about?

In our designed locations, they simply could not be missing. Each place has its charm and character. And, each of these lands needed different types of vegetation. Without it, the areas would seem empty and devoid of life.

In the photo, you can see a water lily. It was one of the reference pictures for our lily asset. Mother Nature creates the best things, so it's hard not to get inspired by her when creating plant designs! Most if not every plant in our game was based on nature.

A similar process - searching for inspiration based on photos of naturally existing lands and greenery - was repeated many times. The reference pictures were therefore the basis for designing our locations and their details.


More Plants!

Each location in Rin's world received not only its graphic design but also lush, thematic vegetation.

Some of them are quite standard, for example, based on vegetation found in rainforests, steppes, or deserts. However, in the case of one of the lands - a thematic mix of space and the underwater world - we allowed ourselves more creative freedom.

Assets

In Rin, you can expect 5 different locations [related to 5 existing Aspects in Rin's World] - in each of them, you will meet many plants and their variants. So, how many exactly are there?

In one of the locations where the vegetation is the most abundant, we have a total of approx. 680 assets of flora (and location details like rocks) alone. From creeper plants to fern leaves, fancy flower puffballs, and so on. In contrast, in the Time, there are far fewer plants due to the desert nature of the place. We have designed only 570 assets for this location.

Fortunately, we didn't have to program or animate the plants in any way. [We are planning some ambient animations - If we make these plans real, we will describe them in one of the future devlogs!]. Plant assets were prepared to beautify and enliven the game world. Most of them are static pictures that we combined into a given scene after preparing the terrain. These assets you could see in the images above are game-ready and just need to be implemented in the game engine.

BUT. With so many plants (around 2500+), we had to find a solution that would make all this work more efficient. There were just… too many assets, and adding them to the map in the standard way was not a quick solution and could cause a huge headache.

To help ourselves, we developed an art tool we call Xochipilli. The way it works is quite simple, but it significantly improves the speed of all the hard work of decorating the area.


Our art tool - how it works?

The artist using the art tool first chooses one of the previously created asset palettes, e.g. flowers, stones, or trees. Palettes are also divided not only into asset types but also into game locations. It makes it easier for artists to start implementing the right and suitable objects at a given location. After selecting a specific palette, the art tool randomly selects one of the objects available. The artist can place this random object directly on a scene (on a path, or wherever else) perpendicularly or not, depending on the effect the artist prefers. An object can also be rotated or resized during placement.

However, this is not the only advantage of Xochipilla. The art tool also ensures that each placed object is correctly added to the folders and sorted in the scene files. Thanks to this, we avoid problems related to the organization of assets. We do not struggle with the mess of hundreds of props tossed everywhere.

Thanks to this tool we have much less manual work related to design implementation. 

*/ Our developer is willing to describe the way the tool works in a more technical way, so we will definitely publish a separate post dedicated to this topic in the future.

Hope you like this article. See you next time!

[oldblood]

Just leaving a comment to say I really like the general aesthetic, color palette and style for all this. Sounds like you've created an impressive amount of flora and its definitely adding to the diversity in your screenshots. Nice work!

[karahara]

Devlog #5 - Monsters

Hi!

We told you about the vegetation found in various locations in the World of RIN, so we must also introduce you to the monsters walking around them!


Monsters

Let us show you the famous and well-known Slime. As befits, Slime is the most basic enemy that you can find during your adventure. It has the form of a worm, and it slowly crawls on the ground. Slime does not have any additional skills and is easy to defeat.

Anyway, you definitely do not want to run into it. Watch out for the spikes!

But they are not the only one popular creatures that can be found in Rin's World. You will often encounter Mosquitoes while exploring - one of the flying-type monsters. Sometimes you will meet them on your way in the company of a hive as their spawner.

Be careful! Especially when they are flying in groups. Although they do not have a lot of HP, they can sting you and tease you by flying past your ear all the time.


Different locations, different monsters

As we mentioned, you can find both Slime and the Mosquito in various locations in the game. We made their appearance fit the areas where they occur. Although their mechanics remain the same, you will meet mosquitoes in the following variants:

All beasts take the appearance that corresponds to the character of a given location.
The mosquitoes in the Void will take the form associated with fiery volcanic terrain, and those in the Final area will take on more crystal shapes.


Bestiary

The monsters mentioned above are one of the basic enemies in the Rin’s World. Of course, they are not the only ones! During your adventure, you will also meet other variants of opponents, such as Spiders, Tanks, and Jellyfish.

Tank (shown in the photo above) is one of the most powerful creatures. It has its own mechanics and specific behaviors during the encounter. They are armed with a large amount of health points, and the ability to create a shockwave by hitting the ground. That makes them more difficult to fight against. You will meet this monster in the lush and poisoned areas of Overgrowth (one of the Worlds). Beware!

In the attached photo you can look at various types of creatures that can be found during your journey in the wild jungles of Overgrowth. However, we haven’t covered all the monsters in the game here. You will also encounter Rats, Spitting Plants, as well as other more or less creepy beasts with abilities such as draining your mana.
Depending on where you go during the gameplay, the beasts will be different and less or more challenging!


Not only monsters

During the gameplay, many creatures will disturb you. Some of them are slow and easy to deal with (such as the Slime worm), while others will become more challenging. For example, Spiders are fast and quite agile, which makes them a more difficult target that is harder to avoid. However, beasts are not everything in our bestiary! 


Bosses

There are also 5 bosses waiting for us. Each of them has its own powers and unique mechanics. After the fight is over, Rin will make decisions about the fate of the defeated opponents. We will definitely tell you a lot more about them in the future! (As soon as it's their time to shine)

In the next Devlog post, we'll show you the process of creating one of the monsters in detail.

See you later!

Just leaving a comment to say I really like the general aesthetic, color palette and style for all this. Sounds like you've created an impressive amount of flora and its definitely adding to the diversity in your screenshots. Nice work!

Thank you so much!

[karahara]

Devlog #6 - Monsters & Creation process

Hello!

The bestiary presented in the previous Devlog is the final result of our concept work. However, before the final versions were made, we went through the entire process. Today, as announced, we will present to you the process of creating a monster with the example of one of them - Shildar.

How were they made?

As you already know, ideas appear at the beginning of the creation. Lots of ideas! Some turned out to be too difficult to implement, and some were less demanding. Flying, glowing, with the ability of teleportation... There were many ideas. We rejected some of them by the method of elimination and compromises. We focused on further implementation of ideas that suited the most to the overall concept of Rin's World, as well as those that were feasible for us.

Shildar was supposed to be a monster requiring some tactics from the player during the fight. We wanted to make him immune to attacks. But we thought of giving him a weak spot that would make him vulnerable. We decided to cover this spot with his front legs, which by default were his shield but also became its weapon.


References

These ideas about creatures became our basis for the first concept arts. The initial assumptions allowed us to set the direction, mood, and specific features of the monsters that we could translate into their design. We also used various reference images that let us illustrate these visions even better.

First concepts

All these guidelines were the foundation for further design. Artist, prepare! Brushes and pencils in motion!

First concept arts

Adjustments

We had the first designs. At this stage, we decided to assess the visual adequacy of the original concept. We also focused on refining its appearance to suit the monster’s planned abilities and started working on minor corrections.

Selected concept art - further works

The Shildar’s design has been pimped out, but we have kept the powerful front legs and glowing weak spot. You can see its final look in the picture below.

Adaptation

Just like in the case of vegetation, we use several variants of the appearance. Monsters look different in each of the locations in the game. Shildar only appears in one of them, but we have adjusted it nonetheless and fitted its appearance to the terrain it prowls.

Next time we will tell you more about the technical aspects of creating animations and their implementation in the game.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

[Alain]

That's a really cool creature, I'm getting a Lovecraftian vibe from it.

[karahara]

Demo Coming Soon

Hello guys!

Today we have great news for you. We are excited to announce that RIN: The Last Child Demo is almost here!

Free demo of RIN: The Last Child will be available in mid-August on Steam.


Experience the story of Rin and accompany her on her journey. In the Demo, you’ll rediscover your magic, create spells, and explore vast mythical lands as you uncover secrets hidden behind the Aspects of Magic. Try the magical adventure and visit the World of Rin!

What will you do in Demo?

• Explore 3 different environments
• Discover the beginnings of Rin’s story
• Craft spells
• Defeat the miniboss

Devlog about monster animations will be a little bit delayed. But it will be published soon!

Thank you for reading. See you next time!

That's a really cool creature, I'm getting a Lovecraftian vibe from it.

Thank you so much!

[Kashdan Music]

Looks simply magical :D Can't wait for release

[karahara]

RIN: The Last Child Demo available!

Hi!

How about some great news? After many months of work, we can finally announce that RIN: The Last Child Demo is here for all of you!

Free Demo of RIN: The Last Child is now available on Steam!

Experience the beginnings of Rin’s story and accompany her on her journey. Rediscover your magic, create spells, and explore vast mythical lands as you uncover secrets hidden behind the Aspects of Magic. Try the magical adventure and visit the World of Rin!

• Explore 3 different environments
• Discover the beginnings of Rin’s story
• Craft spells
• Defeat the miniboss

We hope that you will enjoy the game. We look forward to your comments, suggestions and opinions. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated and will help us improve the final version of the game. If you would like to share your feedback in a more casual way, we welcome you on our Discord. Let us know your thoughts!

Happy exploring, Adventurers!

[Thaumaturge]

Congratulations on the release of the demo! I hope that it goes well! ^_^

If I may ask, is there much chance of a non-Steam version of the demo?

[Alain]

Nice, congratulations for launching the demo!