Videocult have released details of a living ecosystem within Rain World, and they’ve brought a load of new GIF’s with it.
Rain World, the game where the player plays as a lonely Slugcat, separated from its family. They’ll have to take the Slugcat on the adventure of its life, traversing through a now crumbling wasteland, hunting down food and shelter to hide from the heavy rain. While Slugcat may be lost and alone, it’s not really alone. There are other creatures lurking the lands, and Slugcat is on the menu.
Joar Jakobsson posted a blog post detailing one of the unique features of the game, the living ecosystem. A system where creatures exist independently of the player, and autonomously search for food and shelter.
“The slithering neon lizards you encounter have brutally dangerous claws and teeth, but are also individuals that can learn to recognize you. The mighty vultures swooping down from above are fierce hunters of both lizards and slugcats, but they’re not mindless machines — if you wrong one it may decide to track you specifically and you’ll never again be able to pass under open sky without an anxious eye upwards. The scruffy scavengers rooting through the garbage heaps are distrusting and dangerous, but save one from the jaws of a vulture and you might make a friend, or eventually even gain the trust of the entire pack.”
This seems like a very complicated, but well thought out process, treating the player like they’re at the bottom of the food chain, as well as seeing the food chain reacting around you, in fact, Jakobsson mentions the food chain, and as seen in the above GIF, you can see the creature initially chasing Slugcat gets taken down by a bigger creature of some haunting description. You may not always be hunted, other times you may be. It seems to be a random system that evolves around the player and their playing style.
Jakobsson also states that the world is alive around you when you’re not doing anything. If you stay in hiding you’ll see scenes played out around you, with you being able to choose whether to watch the hunt play out, or come out and intervene. Judging by the amount of action going on in the above GIF…I’d be staying away from those…
The game doesn’t offer you stats, nor does it offer you equipment, it seems to encourage the player to learn how creatures act and learn patterns in ways that you can trick them and use their greed to your advantage.
There’s also a bigger picture hiding in plain sight the backgrounds can show worlds created by an intelligent civilisation, and Jakobsson teases that players who succeed in survival will be able to uncover the secrets.
It’s a game that looks like it’s doing really well for itself. we covered the exclusive trailer last year, and are still excited about it. While no date has been announced, we know that it’s coming this year sometime, and will be available on PC and PS4.
Source: Press Release
