jamesprimate on August 30, 2012, 12:07:08 PM:

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

jamesprimate on September 07, 2012, 10:35:16 PM:

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 on September 10, 2012, 01:51:19 PM:

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 on September 12, 2012, 04:25:57 AM:

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.

JLJac on September 13, 2012, 01:30:35 AM:

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.

JLJac on September 15, 2012, 12:36:30 PM:

Hey people! A gameplay video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV7HNKWeHVQ&feature=youtu.be

jamesprimate on September 15, 2012, 05:39:17 PM:

My girlfriend was watching the gameplay video and MAN does it look good fullscreen on the iPad! Just sayin'.

jamesprimate on September 19, 2012, 05:41:08 AM:

Chiming in with some new Rain World tunes! They'll make more sense in context, but never hurts to show some WIP 

A break-centric fidget piece for a mid-difficulty level hunt:
http://soundcloud.com/james_primate/rain-world-sketch-6d

A more "positive" emotive tune for a near-end level hunt:
http://soundcloud.com/james_primate/rain-world-sketch-4

i really love working on this game!

JLJac on September 23, 2012, 09:27:01 AM:

Update 88
Working a lot lately, and what I've been doing is mostly level layouts for the world mode, which is why I haven't posted anything in a while. Still, there's slow but steady progress.

I have a world map which I think is working decently. Some of the levels on the map are more or less decided how they're going to look, while some are not started on yet.

For the first time in rain world history my work is more about creating content than about making the engine run, which feels weird. Still, it's a good thing, because it means we're actually getting there, and that I might be able to estimate how long this is going to take some time soon.

Then again... I've made the estimation that the game will be out in "about a month" for five months now, so you never know. Still, I've gotten much, much further now than five months ago!

JLJac on September 25, 2012, 12:41:18 PM:

Update 89
Did a little work on the yellow lizards, the ones working in teams. They actually work now, and do a little bit of surrounding the player.

I also made lizards able to see a thrown object (rock or spear) and calculate from where it might have been thrown. The calculation isn't perfect, so it's possible to fool them by throwing a rock in front of their faces and hope that they will go looking for you somewhere behind where you were actually at while throwing.

JLJac on September 26, 2012, 02:46:05 AM:

Update 90
Made the lizards able to pick up objects. Depending on color and mood they might pick up spears, or in some cases a rock, and dispose of them either by carrying them back to their holes or by dropping them out of the level.

The spears are a very real threat to the lizards, and it would be stupid of them to not do anything.

The next thing I need to do is make the lizards respond AI-wise to a player holding a spear, but I'm not sure how to do this. If all the lizards flee as soon as they see you picking a spear up a spear will be pretty much an infinite invincibility power-up, as you would never have to actually use it. On the other hand, as it stands the lizards just run straight at you when holding a huge thing that should be easily visible and that can neutralize most of them in one blow. They will have to still attack, but in a more sneaky manner. We'll see what I come up with.

JLJac on September 26, 2012, 11:10:53 AM:

Update 91
The more intelligent lizards now act more carefully around a player with a spear.

The solution I found was that a spear carrying player is attacked from above rather than from the side. Instead of climbing straight at you the lizard will climb upwards until it's in a suitable position above you, from where it will attack.

JLJac on September 27, 2012, 11:29:26 AM:

Update 92
A player isn't instantly dead once caught by a lizard any more, but can be alive a little while when carried. This means that if two players are co-operating you can save your friend from the gap of a lizard with a rock (or a carefully aimed spear).

Also did a little graphical work.

jamesprimate on September 27, 2012, 02:16:25 PM:

WOW, that sounds brutal!

which makes sense because this game is brutal.

 

JLJac on September 29, 2012, 09:40:10 AM:

Haha yeah, it's pretty brutal!

Update 93
Finally got around to working on some art today, which enabled me to send two "final" levels (there's always more changes to be done) to James, so he can start getting some feel for what this game will look like.

Made it so that dead lizards fall through platform type terrain, sometimes the corpses would end up with their torso on a platform and their hips below it and get stuck in a vibrating motion, now they just fall straight through to the ground.

JLJac on October 01, 2012, 05:56:28 AM:

THANK YUO!

Update 94
Making levels, making levels. For the first time like, ever, I've done something according to my policy - recognizing a demand for a feature when making a level and then adding it, rather than adding features with abandon and then trying to cram them into the levels. The feature in question is the ability to mark a tile as forbidden for flies to swarm, form chains or hang around unecessarily on. A level I made had a room that was only accessable to flies, and quickly turned very boring when all the flies decided to just hang out in that one room (why shouldn't they, right?). Also made it possible to mark tiles for spawning flies on level startup.

Have been working with a lot of juicy palettes and light options as well. The idea that the game will be monochrome is given up, it will have pretty vibrant colors actually. I'm eager to show you some of the stuff, but at the same time don't want to spoil the whole game in here. Soon I'll give you something though, I just want to have enough material to feel that whatever I'm giving away is not a substancial part of it.

JLJac on October 01, 2012, 12:29:28 PM:

Update 95
Made a little more art for the levels.

Gave the lizards a "jaw strenght" stat, that regulates a random chance of how often a player that is caught is killed instantly and how often they are alive to be saved. This is to not make the players too comfortable with always surviving a lizard bite - I'm worrying that players in co-op mode might find ways to exploit it. For the pink one, that I view as the "standard" lizard, it's a chance of 1/12. On top of this there's a small chance of death every frame you're being held in a lizard's mouth, so that the player who's supposed to save you doesn't relax too much, but has a reason to chase frantically. The games get pretty hectic!

jamesprimate on October 01, 2012, 10:32:18 PM (Last Edit: October 01, 2012, 11:09:42 PM):

Hm! Is this going to be a multiplayer only thing, or can i flail about on the buttons for a chance to escape the jaws in single player as well?


oh and just for the official record: i AM doing things update ;] 34 minutes of music in usable form and we're beginning to stitch together background ambiance audio. JLJac's level design for rainworld is *really* cool in that everything is connected with an underlying logic and many areas can be accessed a few different ways. I would like the ambiance audio to reflect that by thinking of it first as world-wide 'geographical regions' with specific sound qualities rather than simple discreet levels.

Simple example: there are many "high" levels where the protagonist animal is totally "outside" and heavy buffeting wind will be used as an aspect of that sound design. It would be cool if the areas that were geographically close to these "high" levels could still vaguely hear those buffeting winds, etc., etc. So basically, Im looking to create a cohesive sound-world that, in addition to reflecting the specific level design, also gives the player a subtle sonic picture of where they are at in the overall game world.

or maybe it'll just sound like a messy garble and suck! we'll find out

/audio nerd ramble ramble

JLJac on October 05, 2012, 02:17:25 AM:

Thank you! Now some of the bigger graphical assets are coming together, and the visual style of the game is slowly taking another direction. I think you'll like it!

James, I think that thing will be kept to co-op play, because no matter how hard I would make getting away by yourself someone would eventually learn to master it, and then the most dominant game play element (getting away from lizards) would be taken away from the game.

Update 96
A lot has happened. James has been creating a set of super awesome ambient sounds, that really help setting a mood. Next up is implementing those. Together with the music I'm convinced they'll make magic happen and take the game to a level which is higher than the sum of the parts.

I've done a few things programming-wise. Most importantly I've added a new "creature", that is a .... bubble barnacle - or rather a bubble coming out of a short cut entrance (the source of all life in this world, it seems). The bubbles just sit around there, and when flies touch them they are trapped inside. Once a few flies are trapped the bubble retracts, and the creature inside the short cut presumably consumes the flies.

The fun thing is their self defence, which consists of popping violently. This can throw a player around pretty far, and is generally hated by lizards.

Other things added:
Blue lizards (which are the lightest, and most vulnerable to rocks) react the same way to a player holding a rock as to a player holding a stone - by attacking from above. In some situations it's really fun to watch, like if you're being hunted on the ground by a lizard and makes it to pick up a pebble or a spear from the ground. The lizard can then turn away from you, climb up a wall, climb on the ceiling out above you and then drop down on you. It looks pretty smart!
Red lizards can destroy spears.
Fixed a bug in the level renderer which made short cuts invisible if there was a blurred light overlapping them.
Created a dynamic system for how each level can have a "light behaviour" attached to it - right now there are "no light", "static", "clouds" and "thunder" to choose from.
Fixed some random bugs concerning light not being displayed over the entire screen.
Fixed some bugs in the level renderer.
Made it more reasonable what lizards tend to pick up what objects.
Added features in the level editor - such as a slider to decide how much dripping water a level will contain. More of those are needed.

There are a few important things on my to-do list that I need to get to ASAP, but I keep pushing forward. Among those are:
An acutal look for the hives, so that you can see where a fly will be able to burrow down.
Settings for max amount of flies and fly respawn rates for a level.
Ambience sound and music implementation.
Start on building the actual main menu.
Active decorative objects for the world to make it appear more alive.

Hopefully the upcoming things will magically progress 6 times faster than the things I've already done, and the game will ever be finished!

JLJac on October 05, 2012, 11:58:49 AM (Last Edit: October 05, 2012, 02:41:04 PM):

Screenshot!

This is the swarm level of the "Canopy" area, which is high up and set during the sun set/rise. This is the second last area according to the recommended order.



The blue of the lizard will probably switch to the blue effect color of the level (seen here in the signs) to create visual consistency, if I ever get around to it. It's a hassle because some of the lizards have colored body parts that are bitmaps unchangeable from the code.

On that - I've been doing a little bit of variety among the lizards look-wise, they have a little different looking eyes and so on. The red one has huge teeth.

For those of you who have been around a long time it might be fun to notice the little machine boxes with 2x2 grated holes in them, those have been around for a looong time and were originally made mostly to check out that the voxelly graphics renderer thingy worked properly. I grew fond of them and now they'll probably make it into the final thing.

EDIT: Added a new plant, along with a new way to add plants - one by one. This framework will come in real useful later.