Rain World‘s upcoming The Watcher DLC will, naturally, be adding a variety of flora and fauna to the game. That is to say, Rain World fans can expect more of the game’s iconic approach to environments, creature AI, and procedural animation.
Rain World‘s next expansion, The Watcher, will follow in the footsteps of Downpour when it releases on March 28. Not only will it once again involve members of the game’s modding community, but it will also add swathes of new content to the game—with its new protagonist taking on a variety of new creatures and environments. In an interview with Game Rant, VIDEOCULT co-founder James Therrien spoke about how the DLC will add to the incredibly immersive worlds of the original.
Rain World’s The Watcher DLC Will Be Giving Fans More Immersive Environments With Greater Polish
Developing New Creatures For Rain World
Rain World‘s greatest claim to fame is perhaps its creature AI, with every threat the slugcats face playing a role in a dynamic ecosystem. Good examples of this are Rain World‘s lizard enemies, which offer a great deal of complexity out of the gate. Not only do these lizards come in a number of variants, but a wide range of tactics can be employed against them. These lizards will also remember how the player has behaved towards them in past encounters, even being tameable by players. These introductory foes are just a small glimpse at the incredible complexity Rain World offers.
When it comes to adding onto the dynamic environments of Rain World, Therrien goes into some depth about the process. While he doesn’t talk as much about the AI of these creatures, he does discuss how new creatures have been integrated into the world of The Watcher.
“As far as ensuring that new creations fit into the existing world, that’s a bit easier. Aesthetics for sure, but mostly it’s about understanding the nature of the game, and respecting the agency of the creature and its interactions with the ecosystem. One of the joys of working with a team made from RW modders is that they’ve all lived in this ecosystem for like 10,000+ hours each, so they just KNOW. I’ll get the final say and direct things one way or another, but they hardly ever miss.”
The involvement of modders is an interesting point, as it seems that former community modders continue to make up more and more of the team. This checks out, considering how small the team was when Rain World first released in 2017—in addition to how Downpour was developed. Therrien notes that the team is now made “from the original Rain World devs, devs from Downpour, and other talented modders.” This all serves as a demonstration of how Rain World‘s ongoing development has grown out of the game’s community.
Further to the subject of Rain World‘s immersive worldbuilding, Therrien also spoke about the game’s procedural animation. Another key aspect of the game’s dynamic worlds, Therrien went into how the title’s signature procedural animation has improved with The Watcher:
“Hopefully it’s a bit less buggy? But no promises there. With procedural animation, I think a lot of it is learning the circumstances in which it will work the best and which to avoid: the limitations basically and how to show its strengths. Since it is still such a rare thing, and it’s so case-by-case in terms of implementation, there’s no real understanding of best-practices unless you really get in there and see what works and what leaves a lizard spinning on top of a pole. But we’ve been doing this for almost 10 years now, so hopefully we’ve learned something.”
- Released
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March 28, 2017
- ESRB
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E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Tobacco Reference
- Developer(s)
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Videocult
- Publisher(s)
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Akupara Games, Adult Swim Games