Rain World

Last updated

Rain World
Rain World logo.jpg
Title card with the slugcat
Developer(s) Videocult
Publisher(s) Adult Swim Games
Akupara Games
Engine Unity
Platform(s)
ReleasePlayStation 4, Windows
March 28, 2017 (2017-03-28)
Nintendo Switch
December 13, 2018 (2018-12-13)
PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
July 11, 2023 (2023-07-11)
Genre(s) Platform, survival
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Rain World is a 2017 survival platform game developed by Videocult and published by Adult Swim Games and Akupara Games for PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, and MacOS in March 2017, and for Nintendo Switch in late 2018. Players assume control of a "slugcat", an elongated felid-like rodent, and are tasked with survival in a derelict and hostile world.

Contents

The game features a simulated ecosystem. The slugcat uses debris as weapons to escape predators, scavenges for food, and tries to reach safe hibernation rooms before the deadly torrential rain arrives. The game's developers intended to give players little explicit guidance on how to survive so that they would feel like a rat living on subway tracks, learning to survive in an environment without understanding its higher-level function.

Rain World received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its art design and procedural animation but criticized its brutal difficulty, inconsistent save points, and imprecise controls. Some of these criticisms were addressed with later updates. Despite the aforementioned mixed reviews, the game garnered a cult following.

In January 2023, a downloadable content pack titled Rain World: Downpour was released for PC. [1] [2] Downpour was released for Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox on July 11, 2023. The expansion pack received generally positive reviews from critics.

Gameplay

Rain World animation - Blue Liz sm.gif
Rain World received early attention for the "uncanny fluidity" of its animations

The slugcat can use spears and debris to defend itself from predators in the hostile, ruined, and obtuse 2D world. [3] [4] The player is given little explicit guidance and is free to explore the world in any direction [4] by entering pipes and crawling through passages that span across over 1,600 static screens that each spawn their creatures in set locations. These creatures can then move freely around the region. [5] [6] The slugcat can jump, swim, and climb poles to avoid enemies while foraging for sparse food, which is used to hibernate in scarce, designated safe rooms called shelters. Hibernating resets the time limit and saves the player's progress. If the player does not reach the shelter before the end of the day cycle, the rain will come, crushing the slugcat or causing them to drown in one of the many now-flooded rooms. Additionally, if the slugcat does not eat sufficient food by the end of the day, the game will not save, and the slugcat will wake up in starvation mode. In starvation mode, the slugcat is much slower, does less damage when throwing spears, and faints if it jumps too much. Starvation mode can be exited mid-cycle by completely filling up the hunger bar, but if the slugcat doesn't fill up the hunger bar by the end of the said cycle, it will starve to death when it tries to hibernate. [4]

Upon death, the slugcat returns to the last save point. The player also loses one karma, which is indicated at the bottom of the screen. Karma is gained upon successfully hibernating, and the player can shield their current karma level by eating a yellow karma flower. The flower appears in set locations around the map and is re-planted wherever the slugcat dies while under its effects. The player needs to meet a specific karma level to go through karma gates, which lie at the borders of every region in the game. [3]

Predators range from camouflaged plants to large vultures to Komodo dragon-like lizards and large aquatic creatures. Many enemies can incapacitate the slugcat in one hit, and some species have different variations, such as the different colors of lizards, which all have unique characteristics. Creatures spawn from dens in set locations and can move freely throughout the region, meaning the player is sometimes faced with problems that they can't avoid. [4] All the creatures in the game possess dynamic AI and exist in the game's world perpetually, even when not on the same screen as the player. [7] Players are expected to mainly evade the enemies [8] , but they do need to experiment with spears to climb walls and knock fruit off of vines. [3] It is possible to kill predators by repeatedly hitting certain parts of them with spears, though attacking them is mainly used as a way to ward them off. However, killing creatures becomes almost a requirement in the base game's hardest campaign, Hunter, where the slugcat is a carnivore and must eat the flesh of other creatures to get meaningful amounts of food. [9] The slugcat, if holding an object in each hand, can swap their places by pressing the grab button twice. [5] It can also eat mushrooms, which grant status effects, [4] such as faster reaction times (shown in-game as time slowing down) and increasing how far the slugcat jumps. [3]

The player can choose between two campaigns at the start: Monk and Survivor. As Monk, creatures are less aggressive and the slugcat needs less food to hibernate. Beating either Monk or Survivor unlocks the third character, Hunter, with a difficult campaign featuring more powerful and hostile creatures, as well as a 20-cycle time limit to beat the game. Monk and Hunter were added in the 1.5 update, and Monk was created to address concerns about the game's difficulty. The 1.5 update also added a local multiplayer arena mode and a sandbox mode where players can spawn objects and creatures from the game. [9] [10] The game offers very little to guide the player aside from the overseer, who gives some hints about where to find nearby shelters and lore-related events. The player can also view a map to check their location in the vast in-game world. [11]

Downpour

The Downpour expansion adds five new campaigns, which are set during different points in the timeline, and enables local multiplayer for story modes. Each campaign features a new slugcat with new abilities. Spearmaster can create an infinite amount of spears at will, but throwing them at other creatures is the only way that it can eat. Rivulet is nearly twice as fast as Survivor, has a higher jump and overall increased agility, and is a much more adept swimmer, but has extremely short day cycles. Gourmand has access to a crafting system and can damage creatures by falling or sliding into them, but excessive physical activities cause them to enter a weak-winded state where they must stop to catch their breath. Artificer can double jump and create explosives, but can't hold their breath underwater and is locked at the lowest karma level, forcing them to use other methods to pass karma gates. Saint has a grappling tongue that gives them large amounts of mobility, but is unable to throw spears or eat meat. [12] Downpour also adds three new game modes. The first is Safari mode, which lets players freely observe the world without worry and control any living creature within it. After that is Challenge mode, which provides 70 unique scored challenges with preset conditions. Finally, there is Expedition, which is a semi-roguelike mode with random missions that award experience points upon completion. Downpour's release was accompanied by the free Rain World Remix upgrade, which added accessibility options, ways to customize game difficulty, and better modding support. [13]

Plot

Rain World's setting is destroyed by ecological catastrophe and illustrated in pixel art. Its story is communicated through details in the environment, dreams that the slugcat can have during hibernation, and holograms from the worm-like overseer that guides the player. [4] In-game, the player assumes the role of a slugcat, who wakes up in an abandoned, desolate world. They can choose to play as the Monk, the Survivor, or the Hunter, each of which has a different narrative and set of abilities. If they select the Monk or the Survivor, their plot follows the same basic outline. When a group of slugcats is caught off-guard by the rain, the Survivor is flushed into a pit, becoming separated from the others. The Monk is the Survivor's sibling and jumps after the Survivor.

Eventually, the slugcat reaches Five Pebbles, a massive, decaying, semi-biotic supercomputer called an "iterator". After climbing up Five Pebbles' exterior or traversing through the bulk of the superstructure, the slugcat falls into Five Pebbles' puppet chamber. Five Pebbles explains that, like all creatures, the slugcat is trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth and wants it to end. He then directs it to a place where it can free itself from the "great cycle." Following his guidance, the slugcat travels underground and enters a sea of "Void Fluid" where it can ascend, escaping the cycle. With the Downpour DLC, both the Survivor and the Monk can instead go to Outer Expanse, a lush jungle without lethal rain, and reunite.

More information about the setting can be obtained by bringing pearls to another damaged iterator named Looks to the Moon. She explains that the ancient civilization that once inhabited the world sought to escape the eternal cycle and succeeded, collectively ascending from existence and abandoning the iterators. She and Five Pebbles are two of thousands of artificial intelligences created by them to calculate a way for every living organism to ascend. Iterators use vast quantities of water as a coolant, which they then release as vapor. This vapor then falls back down in the form of deadly rain. The iterators' functions are also the only source of heat on the surface.

Eventually, Five Pebbles decided to create an organism to overwrite the "self-destruction taboo," a law written into all of the cells of all iterators to stop them from escaping the cycle of death and rebirth themselves. To achieve this, he needed to run an extremely large amount of parallel processes, which caused him to use much more water to stop himself from overheating. Because of this, Looks To The Moon, who shared a water source with Five Pebbles, no longer had enough to sustain herself. In an attempt to save her life, Looks To The Moon sent a forced communication to Five Pebbles as a last resort. This resulted in him fumbling his experiments, which released the Rot inside of his structure, a cancer-like collection of cysts that can spread inside of iterators. Looks To The Moon was unable to make Five Pebbles cease his increased water intake in due time, and she ended up collapsing, leaving her in a comatose state.

The Hunter's narrative takes place before the other main campaigns. In-game, the Hunter starts with a pearl, a green "Neuron Fly" containing "slag reset keys," and a 20-cycle time limit before the Hunter permanently dies. The Hunter delivers the Neuron Fly to Looks To The Moon, reviving her and restoring some of her basic functions. If the Hunter gives Moon the pearl as well, its message reveals that a third iterator, No Significant Harassment, sent the Hunter to help Moon. Looks To The Moon warns the Hunter of its shortened life that will end in just a few cycles. If the player ascends in the Void Sea before the time limit ends, a black substance is seen oozing out of the Hunter. If the player doesn't ascend, the Hunter dies and grows into a red version of the Rot that becomes available as an enemy in the DLC's Gourmand campaign. [14]

Downpour

Promotional art for Downpour. From left to right: Spearmaster, Rivulet, Saint, Gourmand, Artificer Rain World Downpour Promotional Resized.jpg
Promotional art for Downpour. From left to right: Spearmaster, Rivulet, Saint, Gourmand, Artificer

In the Downpour DLC, the player can assume the role of one of five new slugcats, each of which has a different narrative. Although the story is not told in a sequential fashion in-game, this section is in chronological order.

Development

Before creating Rain World, Joar Jakobsson was a graphic designer in Sweden who taught himself how to animate sprites. He had played few games and had little industry experience [8] when development began in 2011. [7] He began with a sketch of an elongated cat, which was named "slugcat" by one of his YouTube viewers, though the character has no official name. Jakobsson had a previous interest in derelict environments, and what they reveal about the humans who previously occupied them. [8] Partly inspired by his feelings of foreignness while living as an exchange student in Seoul, South Korea, a core idea in the game's development was to recreate the life of "the rat in Manhattan". This rat understands how to find food, hide, and live in the subway, but does not understand the subway's structuring purpose or why it was built. [7] Jakobsson and his development partner, James Primate, hoped that players would similarly feel as if they were close to making sense of the game's abstraction of an industrial environment without fully understanding. [8] Jakobsson designed Rain World's enemies to live their own lives, in which they hunt for food and struggle to survive, rather than serve as obstacles for the player. Enemies dynamically wander around without a set path, [15] and in final playtests a week before release, the developers noted how some players became more or less interested in the game based on how lucky they were with enemy behavior. [7] The developers expected players to learn to avoid combat and play the game primarily through stealth and flight. [8]

Jakobsson served as the game's artist, designer, and programmer. His levels are made by hand in a standalone level editor. The designer brushes recurring, cloned elements, such as plants and chains, onto the map. The software combines and processes to add shadow. [8] At one point, Rain World included a multiplayer mode, and separate story and custom modes. [8] The development team successfully crowdfunded some development costs via Kickstarter in early 2014. [16] By early 2015, about four years into development, the team had switched to the Unity game engine and released a test version of the game to its Kickstarter backers. [17]

Music

Primate, who is also known as James Therrien, [18] wrote Rain World's soundtrack, handled the indie studio's business, [8] and designed levels. [7] Primate first found the game on an indie game Internet forum and sent Jakobsson 12 tracks as a successful pitch. He originally composed a chiptune-style soundtrack with his musician partner Lydia Esrig, but turned to field recordings of litter for otherworldly sounds. [6] Rain World's music is lo-fi and electronic. Primate wanted the music to approximate the game's eclectic visuals, which mix industrial, science fiction, jungle, and various architectural elements. In lieu of traditional character dialogue and narration, Rain World's story was partly communicated through its soundtrack. [19] The early game sound is primitive and based on the slugcat's feelings of fear and hunger, and eventually builds to describe new areas. [8] Rain World has over 3.5 hours of recorded music across 160 tracks. At any given time, between eight and twelve tracks will simultaneously layer to create ambiance and respond to the slugcat's in-game context. [6] [19] In December 2018, a vinyl edition of the soundtrack was released by Limited Run Games. [20]

Release

The team announced that it was in the last phases of development in early 2016. [21] Animations from Rain World was popularized on social media in praise of their "uncanny fluidity". [4] The game was developed by Videocult, published by Adult Swim Games, and released for PlayStation 4 and Windows on March 28, 2017. [3] Previews compared Rain World to predecessors, including the difficulty of Super Meat Boy , the soundtrack of Fez , [8] and the puzzle-platforming to Metroid and Oddworld . [22]

After its release, Videocult announced a series of major content updates, which were planned for release later in 2017. Slated features included local multiplayer functionality, featuring over 50 new rooms; and two alternative slugcats, which make the game easier and harder respectively. [23] Subsequently, the '1.5' patch, which contained all of those features, was released on December 11, 2017. [10] An additional "1.7" update in late 2018 added two new play modes that either increase or decrease the gameplay's intensity. This release also brought the multiplayer feature to PlayStation. [9]

In 2018, Videocult and Adult Swim Games released Rain World for the Nintendo Switch platform on December 13, 2018. [24] Limited Run Games released a physical edition of Rain World for the PlayStation 4 later that month. [9]

In January 2022, Videocult announced that due to publisher issues with Adult Swim Games, Rain World was now being published by Akupara Games after a prolonged legal dispute. [25] On March 28, 2022, the first DLC was officially announced, to be published by Akupara Games. Named "Rain World: Downpour", it contains five new slugcat characters with their own campaigns, over 1000 new rooms across ten new regions, and three new game modes. [26] [27] Downpour is an expansion of the "More Slugcats" mod and was developed by several community modders. [13] It was released for PC on January 19, 2023, while it released for consoles July 11, 2023. [28]

On March 28, 2024, the development of a second DLC titled "Rain World: The Watcher" was announced, featuring multiple new regions, creatures, and a new playable slugcat. [29] [30]

Reception

The game, before reaching cult status, [13] [37] received mixed reviews on its release, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. [31] [32] Reviewers praised the game's art design and criticized the harshness of its gameplay mechanics, [4] [3] [35] [11] particularly its unpredictable deaths, ruthless enemies, and time-consuming hibernation requirements. [35] [34] Eurogamer compared its savage, survival elements to Tokyo Jungle . [5]

Rain World's punishing gameplay frustrated reviewers, [4] [3] [35] [11] who often descended into apathy. [35] [3] Considering the random enemy spawns, one-hit kills, infrequent game saves, frequent repetition, crushing rain, some inexplicable enemy movements, and sometimes clumsy controls, IGN wrote that any of the game's challenging elements taken alone would be "tough but fair", but when considered together, "the odds are stacked so high against the player that it risks toppling the entire structure of the game". [4] Reviewers were bored by the repeated navigation of rooms with random enemies after each death, which tempered their strong urge to explore. [4] [11] Polygon 's reviewer was miserable following the loss of her multi-hour progression. She wrote about futility as a central tenet of Rain World, and felt that she was not given the proper tools to survive. [3] Reviewers lamented, in particular, how the slugcat's jerky animations and imprecise throwing mechanics led to many unwarranted deaths. [4] [3] [11] [36] [5] Multiple reviewers concluded that while some hardcore players might enjoy the tough gameplay, Rain World excluded a large audience with its design choices, [4] [11] [5] as its choice of emergent enemy strategy would feel unfair to most players. [36] Rock, Paper, Shotgun called the game's checkpointing among the worst in modern platformers, and its challenge, unlike the similarly punishing Dark Souls , without purpose. [11] Rain World's karmic gates, which require players to have a positive hibernate to death ratio, were arbitrary goals "disrespectful" of the player's time, according to GameSpot . [35] Making players trudge through an area a dozen times, IGN argued, is "antithetical" in a game in which exploration itself is the reward. [4] PC Gamer 's reviewer, with time, began to see Rain World's cumbersome controls less as "bad design" than as "thematically appropriate", given the game's intent to disempower the player. [36]

Some reviewers fondly recalled serendipitous in-game encounters as they learned the game environment's unwritten rules. [11] [35] Not knowing how foreign figures would react, Rock, Paper, Shotgun's reviewer treated new encounters as puzzles. This experimentation led to moments of fearful scrambling across a room to avoid a new, encroaching enemy type, and discovering that other enemies are harmless if left alone. [11] Rain World was abundant with opportunities for a player to demonstrate ingenuity and improvisation, according to GameSpot's reviewer, whose highlights included making a mouse into a dark room's lantern, using weapons as climbable objects, and luring enemies into battle to distract from the slugcat's presence. [35] Those critics considered these mysterious, perceptive interactions to be among the game's best features, [11] [35] though far outweighed by Rain World's punishing game mechanics. [35]

During development, Rain World animations became popular on social media for their "uncanny fluidity", [4] which reviewers continued to praise at release. [4] [34] IGN described slugcat's animations as beautiful and reactive to the angle and physics of movement, from clinging to poles to squeezing through ventilation. [4] The reviewer said it was among the best aesthetics in a 2D game, with each screen showing abundant detail and meticulous craft. [4] The graphics were more interesting than beautiful to Polygon's reviewer, who also praised the limited color palette's role in distinguishing the slugcat, prey, and enemies from the environment. [3] While some journalists compared the game's aesthetic to that of Limbo , Rock, Paper, Shotgun's reviewer felt that Rain World had more in common with Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee 's aesthetic: both featured similarly dark yet attractive worlds, scary yet fascinating characters, frequent inter-enemy conflict, and frustrating or masochistic controls. Oddworld, though, had more frequent saves. [11] Rain World successfully depicted "the cruel indifference of nature", according to GameSpot. Its imaginative and compelling landscape—surreal inhabitants in a bleak, alien atmosphere—recalled the spirit of games like BioShock and Abzû , in which the reviewer was too attracted to the artistic detail to contemplate the credulity of the man-made environment. [35]

Accolades

The game was nominated for "Best Platformer" in PC Gamer's 2017 Game of the Year Awards, [38] and also for "Best Platformer", "Best Art Direction", and "Most Innovative" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards. [39] [40] [41]

It was also nominated for the Statue of Liberty Award for Best World at the New York Game Awards 2018, [42] and for "Excellence in Audio" at the Independent Games Festival Competition Awards. [43] [44]

Notes

  1. ↑ The player may meet Five Pebbles before taking the rarefaction cell. If this is the case, Five Pebbles will request that the Rivulet take it, knowing he will die. The story continues normally afterward.

Related Research Articles

<i>Dungeon Keeper 2</i> 1999 video game

Dungeon Keeper 2 is a strategy game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1999 for Microsoft Windows. In the sequel to Dungeon Keeper, the player takes the role of a 'dungeon keeper', building and defending an underground dungeon from the would-be heroes that would invade it, as well as from other keepers. In the campaign mode, the player is charged with recovering the portal gems from each area in order to open a portal to the surface. The player can also construct a dungeon without strict objectives, and multiplayer is supported over a network.

<i>Giants: Citizen Kabuto</i> 2000 video game

Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a third-person shooter video game with real-time strategy elements. It was the first project for Planet Moon Studios, which consisted of former Shiny Entertainment employees who had worked on the game MDK in 1997. Giants went through four years of development before Interplay Entertainment published it on December 7, 2000, for Microsoft Windows; a Mac OS X port was published by MacPlay in 2001, and the game was also ported to the PlayStation 2 later that year.

<i>Two Worlds II</i> 2010 video game

Two Worlds II is an action role-playing game developed by Polish developer Reality Pump and published by TopWare Interactive as a sequel to 2007's Two Worlds. It was released on 9 November 2010 in Europe for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and on 25 January 2011 in North America for the same platforms. Two Worlds II is a real-time role-playing game that takes place in an open fantasy world where players take the role of a single character with whom they can explore and undertake quests.

<i>Sniper Elite V2</i> 2012 video game

Sniper Elite V2 is a 2012 third-person tactical shooter stealth video game developed and published by Rebellion Developments. It is the sequel to its 2005 predecessor Sniper Elite, which takes place in the same timeframe and location—the Battle of Berlin in April–May 1945—but with an altered narrative. The game's story follows an American OSS officer who must eliminate a group of scientists involved in the German V-2 rocket program before the Red Army captures them. Another sequel named Sniper Elite III was released in 2014. A remastered version for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One was released on May 14, 2019.

<i>Dead Space 3</i> 2013 video game

Dead Space 3 is a 2013 survival horror action video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360. It is the third and final main entry in the Dead Space series. The game's story follows player-character Isaac Clarke and his allies as they explore a frozen planet, Tau Volantis, to discover the origins of the growing threat from their enemies, the Necromorphs. Players control Isaac and explore the environment, solve puzzles, and find resources, while fighting Necromorphs and hostile humans called Unitologists. The game supports online cooperative multiplayer sessions in which a second player takes the role of new character John Carver.

<i>Dont Starve</i> 2013 video game developed by Klei Entertainment

Don't Starve is a survival game developed by Klei Entertainment. The game was initially released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on April 23, 2013. A PlayStation 4 port, renamed Don't Starve: Giant Edition, became available the following year. Don't Starve for iOS, renamed Don't Starve: Pocket Edition was released on July 9, 2015. An Android version was released on October 20, 2016. Downloadable content titled Reign of Giants was released on April 30, 2014, and a multiplayer standalone expansion called Don't Starve Together became free for existing users on June 3, 2015. On Steam, this game is able to be purchased with a free copy for a friend. A Nintendo Switch port came out on April 12, 2018.

<i>A Hat in Time</i> 2017 video game

A Hat in Time is a 2017 platform game developed by Danish game studio Gears for Breakfast and published by Humble Bundle. The game was developed using Unreal Engine 3 and funded through a Kickstarter campaign, which nearly doubled its fundraising goals within its first two days. The game was self-published for macOS and Windows in October 2017, and by Humble Bundle for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles two months later. A version for the Nintendo Switch was released in October 2019.

<i>Puyo Puyo Tetris</i> 2014 crossover puzzle video game

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a 2014 puzzle video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game is a crossover between the Puyo Puyo series and the Tetris franchise, and features various gameplay modes incorporating both aspects. The game includes characters modeled and named after the seven Tetrominos, which are different puzzle pieces each made of four blocks.

<i>Fallout 4</i> 2015 video game

Fallout 4 is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fourth main game in the Fallout series and was released worldwide on November 10, 2015, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The game is set within an open world post-apocalyptic environment that encompasses the city of Boston and the surrounding Massachusetts region known as "The Commonwealth".

<i>Alien: Isolation</i> 2014 video game

Alien: Isolation is a 2014 survival horror game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Based on the Alien film series, the game is set 15 years after the events of the original 1979 film, and follows engineer Amanda Ripley, daughter of Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley, as she investigates the disappearance of her mother aboard the space station Sevastopol. Once inside, Amanda discovers that the station has fallen into disarray due to an Alien creature on the loose and must find a way to escape. The game emphasizes stealth and survival horror gameplay, requiring the player to avoid, outsmart, and fight enemies with tools such as a motion tracker and flamethrower.

<i>Crypt of the NecroDancer</i> 2015 video game

Crypt of the NecroDancer is a roguelike rhythm game by Brace Yourself Games. The game takes fundamental elements of a roguelike dungeon exploration game and adds a beat-matching rhythm game set to an original soundtrack written by Danny Baranowsky. The player's actions are most effective when moving the character set to the beat of the current song and are impaired when they miss a beat, so it is necessary to learn the rhythmic patterns that the various creatures follow. The mixed-genre game includes the ability to import custom music, and the option to use a dance pad instead of traditional controllers or the keyboard. The game was released for Linux, OS X, and Windows in April 2015, being co-published by Klei Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4 and Vita in February 2016, for the Xbox One in February 2017, and for Nintendo Switch in February 2018. Crypt of the NecroDancer Pocket Edition, developed for iOS, was released in June 2016.

<i>Darkest Dungeon</i> 2016 video game

Darkest Dungeon is a roguelike role-playing video game developed and published by Red Hook Studios. The game was first released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in January 2016, which followed a year-long early access development period. Later that year, it was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Linux, with a port for iOS being released in 2017, and ports for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One being released by 2018.

<i>Vainglory</i> (video game) Multiplayer online battle arena video game

Vainglory is a free-to-play video game with in-game purchases, developed and published by Super Evil Megacorp for iOS, Android and PC. The game is a version of the MOBA wherein two opposing teams of three or five players fight to destroy the enemy by controlling the path between the bases, which is lined by turrets and guarded by AI-controlled enemy creatures called minions. Off the path, players battle for control points that provide resources. The game was released for iOS on November 16, 2014, after being soft-launched for over half a year, with the Android version being released on July 2, 2015. A Mac and Microsoft Windows version of the game was released in July 2018. Through cross-platform play, players on all four platforms can play together simultaneously.

<i>Ark: Survival Evolved</i> 2017 video game

Ark: Survival Evolved is a 2015 action-adventure survival video game developed by Studio Wildcard. In the game, players must survive being stranded on one of several maps filled with roaming dinosaurs, fictional fantasy monsters, and other prehistoric animals, natural hazards, and potentially hostile human players.

<i>Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide</i> 2015 video game

Warhammer: The End Times – Vermintide is a 2015 cooperative survival video game developed and published by Fatshark. The game is set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe. The game is multiplayer-only, and its structure is similar to Valve's Left 4 Dead series. Set during an apocalyptic event called the End Times, players can team up with three other players to fight against the Skaven, a race of rodent-like creatures, in the city of Ubersreik. At the end of each match, the players are given the opportunity to roll dice, which determine the weapons they will receive as reward.

<i>Battlefield 1</i> 2016 first-person shooter video game

Battlefield 1 is a first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the tenth installment in the Battlefield series and the first main entry in the series since Battlefield 4 in 2013. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in October 2016.

<i>Hollow Knight</i> 2017 video game

Hollow Knight is a 2017 Metroidvania video game developed and published by independent developer Team Cherry. The player controls the Knight, an insectoid warrior exploring Hallownest, a fallen kingdom plagued by a supernatural disease. The game is set in diverse subterranean locations, featuring friendly and hostile insectoid characters and numerous bosses. Players have the opportunity to unlock abilities as they explore, along with pieces of lore and flavour text that are spread throughout the kingdom.

<i>NBA Playgrounds</i> 2017 video game

NBA Playgrounds is a 2017 sports video game developed by Saber Interactive and published by Mad Dog Games for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and for Microsoft Windows, and is a spin-off title of the NBA 2K series published by 2K and a part of the Playground Sports series. Bearing similarities to previous related titles such as NBA Jam and NBA Street, NBA Playgrounds is an arcade-style basketball game officially licensed by the National Basketball Association.

<i>Dead Cells</i> 2018 video game

Dead Cells is a 2018 roguelike-Metroidvania game developed by Motion Twin and Evil Empire, and published by Motion Twin. The player takes the role of an amorphous creature called the Prisoner. As the Prisoner, the player must fight their way out of a diseased island in order to slay the island's King. The player gains weapons, treasure and other tools through exploration of the procedurally-generated levels. Dead Cells features a permadeath system, causing the player to lose all items and other abilities upon dying. A currency called Cells can be collected from defeated enemies, allowing the player to purchase permanent upgrades.

<i>Dungeons 3</i> 2017 Construction and management simulation video game

Dungeons 3 is a video game developed by Realmforge Studios and published by Kalypso Media. It was released on October 13, 2017, for Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and for Nintendo Switch on September 15, 2022. It is the sequel to the 2015 video game Dungeons 2 and the third installment of the Dungeons series.

References

  1. ↑ Chatziioannou, Alexander (January 20, 2023). "Rain World's Downpour DLC cements it as a fascinating and underrated beast". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on July 21, 2023. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  2. ↑ Galekovic, Filip (January 11, 2023). "Indie Survival Game Rain World Getting Price Increase". Game Rant. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Hawkins, Janine (March 27, 2017). "Rain World review". Polygon . Archived from the original on March 29, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Skrebels, Joe (March 27, 2017). "Rain World Review". IGN . Archived from the original on March 29, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Parkin, Simon (March 29, 2017). "Rain World review". Eurogamer . Archived from the original on April 18, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 Webster, Andrew (February 21, 2017). "How the composers of Rain World created an alien soundscape using old cans and pipes". The Verge . Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Priestman, Chris (March 27, 2017). "'Rain World' Is Like 'STALKER' but a Platformer and You're a Rodent". Waypoint . Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Cook, Dave (January 22, 2014). "Rain World: a ray of indie sunshine in a murky January interview". VG247 . Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Romano, Sal (November 29, 2018). "Rain World PS4 update to add new modes and multiplayer on December 21, limited run physical edition announced". Gematsu. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  10. 1 2 Therrien, James (December 11, 2017). "UPDATE: Rain World 1.5". Steam . Archived from the original on December 12, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Caldwell, Brendan (March 27, 2017). "Wot I Think: Rain World". Rock, Paper, Shotgun . Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  12. ↑ Ferguson, Liam (January 31, 2023). "Rain World: Downpour's New Slugcats Explained". Game Rant. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 Dominic Tarason (January 19, 2023). "Fans of survival sim Rain World have spent 5 years making an expansion so big, it's practically a sequel". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  14. ↑ Zucchi, Sam (February 27, 2018). "Rain World's Brutal Metaphysics". Unwinnable. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Crafting the complex, chaotic ecosystem of Rain World". www.gamedeveloper.com. Archived from the original on May 15, 2023. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  16. ↑ Birnbaum, Ian (January 24, 2014). "Rain World celebrates successful Kickstarter, Greenlight campaigns with new alpha footage". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
  17. ↑ Priestman, Chris (January 18, 2015). "Try To Avoid Becoming Someone's Next Meal In Platformer Rain World". Siliconera. Archived from the original on December 19, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  18. ↑ Agnello, Anthony John (March 28, 2017). "Like playing Metroid as a wild animal: the making of Rain World". Gamesradar. Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
  19. 1 2 "Road to the IGF: Videocult's Rain World". www.gamedeveloper.com. Archived from the original on April 3, 2024. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  20. ↑ "Rain Worlds gets a physical edition!". Limited Run Games. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  21. ↑ Smith, Graham (January 6, 2016). "Rain World Video Shows Maps, More Physics Wonder". Rock, Paper, Shotgun . Archived from the original on January 10, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  22. ↑ Narcisse, Evan (March 14, 2015). "Natural Selection Has Been Very Kind To Slugcat. Now You Need to Help". Kotaku . Archived from the original on February 9, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  23. ↑ Prescott, Shaun (July 30, 2017). "Rain World expansion will usher in difficulty options and multiplayer". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on December 13, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  24. ↑ Romano, Sal (December 13, 2018). "Rain World now available for Switch in North America, launches December 27 in Europe". Gematsu. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  25. ↑ Cunningham, James (January 29, 2022). "Rainworld Ready to Live Again with More Slugcats Mod Becoming Official". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  26. ↑ Chalk, Andy (March 28, 2022). "Rain World is getting 5 new Slugcats in surprise Downpour DLC". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on December 13, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  27. ↑ "Rain World Joins the Akupara Family!". Akupara Games . March 28, 2022. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  28. ↑ Romano, Sal (October 27, 2022). "Rain World DLC 'Downpour' launches January 19, 2023 for PC". Gematsu. Archived from the original on October 29, 2022. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  29. ↑ Director, Graham Smith Deputy Editorial; Smith, Graham (March 30, 2024). "Rain World is getting a new DLC starring the mysterious Nightcat". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on April 1, 2024. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  30. ↑ "Announcing Rain World: The Watcher | The second Rain World DLC". Akupara Games. March 28, 2024. Archived from the original on April 1, 2024. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  31. 1 2 "Rain World for PC Reviews". Metacritic . Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  32. 1 2 "Rain World for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic . Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  33. ↑ "Rain World for Switch Reviews". Metacritic . Archived from the original on November 29, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  34. 1 2 3 Rowen, Nic (March 28, 2017). "Review: Rain World". Destructoid . Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
  35. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Concepcion, Miguel (March 31, 2017). "Rain World Review". GameSpot . Archived from the original on April 18, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  36. 1 2 3 4 Prescott, Shaun (March 27, 2017). "Rain World review". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on March 31, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
  37. ↑ "Rain World finally slithering onto Xbox with Downpour expansion". TrueAchievements. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  38. ↑ PC Gamer staff (December 8, 2017). "Games of the Year 2017: The nominees". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  39. ↑ "Best of 2017 Awards: Best Platformer". IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on December 31, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  40. ↑ "Best of 2017 Awards: Best Art Direction". IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  41. ↑ "Best of 2017 Awards: Most Innovative". IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on January 2, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  42. ↑ Whitney, Kayla (January 25, 2018). "Complete list of winners of the New York Game Awards 2018". AXS . Archived from the original on January 27, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
  43. ↑ Faller, Patrick (January 5, 2018). "Independent Games Festival Awards Nominees Announced". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  44. ↑ Whitney, Kayla (March 22, 2018). "Complete list of 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards Winners". AXS. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Rain World at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.