Jan 23, 2023

Rain World: Downpour soundtrack and Patch v1.9.02!

Rain World - [AG] riv otter

Hey, slugcats!

Enjoying the new soundtrack in Rain World: Downpour?

On Friday, January 27th the Downpour soundtrack will hit different music platforms covered by Black Screen Records. This includes Spotify, Apple music, and more! If you want to take a listen then check out the soundtrack on Youtube here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6DWnV_CR7I

Also I wanted to take the time to highlight the amazing people that came together to make the soundtrack!

James Primate
Lydia Esrig
Intikus
Ongomato
Connor "12LBS" Skidmore
Bwarch
Progfox

Annoying Flower designed the soundtrack art while Norgad provided the region art for the video, both incredibly talented designers!

Patch v1.9.02

Also over the weekend we have released a patch for Downpour. Here are the full patch notes.

Fixed crash when hibernating in The Exterior with certain characters.
Allowing all endings, including secondary ones, to count towards campaign completion unlockables now.
Fixed latin characters rendering incorrectly with workshop mods installed when an asian language is selected.
Updates to Chinese localization.
Fixed Play button not being greyed out when no Safari regions are unlocked.
Fixed graphical display of credits list in Remix menu when playing the game with a controller.
Reduced the number of spiders that appear in Gourmand's tutorial room.
Expedition Mission buttons are now greyed out if the associated slugcat has not been unlocked.
Unlocked Expedition slugcats will no longer become locked again after exiting the Jukebox menu.
Fixed issues with the Expedition menu UI when More Slugcats is disabled.
Added tooltips for Jukebox buttons and randomized backgrounds for the Jukebox menu.
Fixed a bug with Expedition score challenges.
Fixed occasional crashes when using shelters or region gates in Jolly Co-op mode.
Fixes a bug with tamed creatures in shelters in Jolly Co-op mode.
Fixed a bug with death display when a co-op player dies in another room not viewed by the camera.
Fixed a bug with the map on the hibernation screen in Co-op mode.
Artificer can no longer maul other players in Co-op while friendly fire is turned off
Reduced slider flicker on Jolly's Color dialog.
Fixed a crash when visiting an Iterator chamber in Safari Mode while Jolly Co-op is enabled.
Player 1 Jolly options (Color, Label) will no longer get reset on restart.

We are still hard at work on patching out more bugs. Thank you all for your reports! They seriously help in patching them out.

-Riv Otter

Jan 19, 2023

Rain World: Downpour is out now!

Rain World - [AG] riv otter

Hey, slugcats!

It is time for me to finally pass Gourmand to you guys. You better take good care of them and keep them well fed. Rain World: Downpour is out now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDDUnWnjdK0

Rain World: Downpour features

5 new playable slugcat campaigns
New regions and rooms
Co Op campaign mode
Expedition mode
Challenge mode
Safari mode

Even if you don’t get Downpour, Rain World is receiving a free update for the first time in many years that includes new resources for players and modders of Rain World.

Rain World: Remix features

Steam Workshop
In game mod loader
Russian and Chinese languages
Accessibility options
Bug fixes

Note: If you have modded your files, then Rain World: Remix will not launch. You will need to do a complete reinstall of Rain World. Remove the Rain World folder from Steam. The folder will typically be located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Rain World then verify the game files.

Uninstalling the game through Steam does not delete all files and so you must manually delete the Rain World folder and then reinstall through Steam.

One more final note with the launch of Downpour and Remix. We have set up two branches on Steam so if you like to revert back to ver. 1.5 or ver. 1.01 for any reason then you can. Right click Rain World in the library and click properties. Under the “beta” tab, you can select the 1.5 build by selecting “legacy” or select 1.01 build by selecting “legacy” from the drop down menu.

Rain World: Downpour adds so much content to a game beloved by the community. We’ve been very honored to work with such an amazing community to develop Downpour. Again be sure to give thanks to all the amazing community members who worked on developing the DLC. You can view who from the community worked on Downpour here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/312520/view/5507370455348858235?l=english

-Riv Otter

Dec 16, 2022

Community Credits

Rain World - [AG] riv otter

Hey, Slugcats,

To wrap up Expedition Week, Gourmand and I wanted to shout out the amazing community developers who worked super hard on Rain World: Downpour and made this DLC possible. Now that Expedition Mode is out and we’ve announced all the major mods featured in Downpour, we can finally list the full credits for everyone who are bringing Downpour to you.

DOWNPOUR TEAM

Downpour is a tribute to the Rain World community, bringing some of the great community projects to a wider audience, as well as facilitating the ease of creation and distribution of future projects by anyone. We'd like to thank the community developers that upgraded and contributed their works to Downpour, and helped integrate them all together into this amazing package. We'd also like to thank the artists and QA testers that helped ensure consistency and polish across all of these different components:

Andrew Marrero - Development Lead
Garrakx - Jolly Co-Op Lead
LeeMoriya - Expedition Mode Lead
Topicular - Remix Menu Lead
James Barrow - Key Art & Promotional Art
AnnoyingFlower - Key Art & Illustrations
Tom “Norgad” Starbuck - Region Illustrations
MisNova - Cutscene Illustrations
Turtle Toad - Dream Illustrations
Kelocitta - Thumbnails and Icons
Intikus - Video Editor
Hoko - QA
Minkimaro - QA
ICED - QA
Leonardo “Enderzilla” Miranda - QA
Matt Golino - QA

MORE SLUGCATS TEAM

The "More Slugcats Expansion" portion of the Downpour DLC was five years in the making. These years of development brought the five new slugcats, ten new regions, all of the new creatures and items, new soundtrack, cutscenes, dialog, and endings, the Challenge and Safari game modes, and the Rain World Remix QoL features. It was a labor of love by a large team of passionate Rain World fans, who we'd like to thank below:

Andrew Marrero - Development Lead, Original Concept
Willburd - Co-Development Lead, Level Design Lead, Programming
Progfox - Lead Soundtrack Producer
Connor "12LBS" Skidmore - Co-Lead Soundtrack Producer
Ongomato - VFX, 3D Environmental Props, Music
Tom "Norgad" Starbuck - Region Illustrations
AnnoyingFlower - Portrait Illustrations
Raggedy_Muffinz - Portrait Illustrations & QA
Shupa Mikey - Cutscene and Portrait Illustrations
Bela - Cutscene and Passage Illustrations
Hasan Sefer - Cutscene Illustrations
Flirpy - Cutscene Illustrations
Evan "Cappin" Muncy - 3D Environmental Props, Level Design
Logan Soule - 3D Environmental Props, Level Design
Andy "Dakras" Dunn - Prop and Environment Design
DragonPropaganda - Level Design Assistance
Hathrar - Level Design Assistance
the one who screams - Programming Assistance
Minkimaro - Concept Art, Spearmaster Redesign, Palettes and Room Effects
Topicular - Translation
B8 - Translation
Julien Robert - Translation
Leonardo “Enderzilla” Miranda - QA
Hoko - QA
Rowan "Marvy" McFaye - QA
Ecnius - QA
Darthzz - QA
Bwarch - QA
ICED - QA
LeeMoriya - QA
Gavin "Empathy Module" Cook - QA
Turtle Toad - QA
Isaac King - QA

Be sure to give them all a thanks as without them, Downpour may not be the amazing DLC as it is now.

Riv Otter

Dec 13, 2022

Expedition Mode Dev Log

Rain World - [AG] riv otter

Hey, slugcats!

Yesterday, w- wait, Gourmand check first. Gourmand pushed over the whole fridge just to get the cookie jar on top of the fridge. I still have to come up with a way to explain this to the boss…

Yesterday, we revealed that Expedition Mode will be coming to Rain World: Downpour! If you missed the trailer, you can watch it here!
https://youtu.be/H7tVAwwmHaE
Expedition mode brings a new and exciting way to play Rain World! Each campaign you can set up different challenges, difficulty, slugcats and more! Complete the challenges to gain points to unlock perks, burdens, music for the jukebox and more!

Meet the Developer

Expedition Mode was developed by the amazing, talented LeeMoriya! He also developed some exceptional Rain World mods like Forecast and In-Game Warp Menu. And for other mod developers out there, he has been super helpful in the modding scene by helping players that are having trouble with modding their game. Here is a message from LeeMoriya himself!

“Hey Everyone,

I hope you've enjoyed what you've seen of Expedition so far, I'm excited to see your reactions once you get your hands on it. While the new mode is tailored more towards hardcore players and completionists, I hope everyone can find something about Expedition they enjoy.

Rain World's modding community is the first one I've ever become really invested in, and without their help and support, Expedition and many of my other mods may never have been made. So If I've ever bugged you for help, or you've enjoyed something I've made, then I'd like to thank you!

-LeeMoriya”

Selecting a Slugcat

Your first decision in Expedition Mode will always be what slugcat you’d like to play. If you have More Slugcats expansion enabled, then you’ll be able to use them as well! You must have beaten the slugcat's campaign before you can select them in Expedition Mode! Selecting a slugcat will have their special spawns and abilities! So Rivulet still rockets across the map and the Artificer explodes with their jumps.

You can have one expedition save for each slugcat per save file.

Selecting Challenges

Once you have your slugcat selected, you then be able to select your challenges! You may have up to 5 challenges active in an expedition. The more challenges you face and complete the more points you will earn at the end of the run which will help you unlock stuff.

Here are the different types of challenges you can face:

Passage
Echo
Score
Hunting
Item collecting
Pearl delivery / hoarding
Neuron gifting
Spear pinning
Vista visiting

You may filter these so you only get the challenges you like!

The difficulty of the challenges can be selected with the slider bar over the challenges. The more difficult the challenges are, the more points you may earn at the end of the expedition. You may make the expedition even more challenging by hiding the challenges so you don’t know what your challenges are while in your expedition by clicking the eye button next to the challenges. Hidden challenges give you double the points!

Clicking the dice button will randomize all the challenges in the list even if the challenge is hidden. If you click one of the challenges, it will randomize only that one challenge. So if you like two challenges but not the third challenge you may choose to only change that one challenge.

Perks and Burdens

Perks and burdens are unlocked through points you earned from expeditions! Use the perks to help aid your expedition and apply burdens to increase the amount of points you will earn while making the expedition more difficult.

Perks come in many forms
Start with item in shelter
Start with neuron glow
Start with karma flower
Make passages useable
Temporarily slow down time
Have different slugcats abilities

There are three perks that I will not reveal, so it’s time to theorycraft on what those three perks are!

There are four burdens you can apply to increase the amount of points you’ll receive.

Blinded shrouds the world in endless nights making dangers harder to see.
Doomed removes the safety net of karma. Any death ends the expedition.
Hunted shows all hostile creatures your location all the time.
Pursued has something stalking you through the world, endlessly searching for you.

Progression

There are 75 milestones that you can complete to earn rewards. The rewards can be perks, perk slots, burdens, or music tracks from Rain World: Downpour to listen to in the Jukebox.

Each milestone has different requirements to complete and can be unlocked out of order. For example, you can unlock milestone 2 (complete 1 challenge) before milestone 1 (Reach level 3). These milestones can be challenges you do in one expedition, like complete an expedition as the Spearmaster, or challenges you do over multiple expeditions, like complete 5 hunting challenges. You may also preview the awards and requirements to complete each milestone by hovering your cursor over each milestone. This can help decide on which rewards you want to go for and how to unlock each milestone to gain those rewards.

Each slugcat has a mission to complete in order to unlock a milestone. Each mission is a set of challenges that a specific slugcat must complete. Choosing a mission will change the slugcat you selected.

Playing the Expedition

The very first thing you’ll notice is that you spawn in a random shelter from any region. If you have any perks that spawn in items, they will be in that shelter with you. Each slugcat will also spawn at karma 2

Normal karma rules apply. If you die, your karma goes down one tier and if you survive the cycle, your karma goes up a tier. Echos will increase your karma cap as usual. However, if the slugcat dies while at karma 1, then the expedition is over. You may play the same challenges if you fail the expedition from the game over screen.

You can keep track of your challenge progress by looking at your map. In the top left corner while you are looking at the map, the lists of the challenges will appear with your progression on each one. Once you complete a challenge, it will be strikethrough from the list. You must survive the cycle, without starving, in order for your progress to be saved. If the slugcat dies, then you lose any challenge progress gained in that cycle.

Once you finish all the challenges, you must survive the cycle to win.

Ending of Expedition

Once you complete the expedition, you will gain points based on how difficult the challenges you completed, how many challenges you completed, and any burdens you have active. Creatures killed, cycles, story events, and time taken do not affect the final score.

Once your points are counted, if you complete any milestones you’ll gain your rewards here.

Thank you for reading! 37 days until Downpour is released and I am super excited! I still have more to announce this week so keep an eye out! My good friend Buddy, who is still learning how to be a slugcat, will be streaming Rain World: Downpour on Friday 12pm PST / 3pm EST at https://www.twitch.tv/akuparagames

- Riv Otter

Aug 31, 2022

Announcing Rain World Remix

Rain World - [AG] riv otter

Hello slugcats!

I am excited to announce a free update called Rain World Remix. This update will add accessibility options, customization options, fix many bugs present in the current version of the game, and improve on some of the things that annoyed players, like the rain deer interactions. Those who don’t buy the Downpour DLC will still get this update when Downpour releases.

I won’t go through all the options as this announcement will turn into a dictionary if I tried, but if you have any questions about ones that I don’t go into feel free to ask and I’ll answer with the best of my ability. Any of these options can be toggled for your best individual experience.

Loading screen tips and extra tutorials will be added to help newer players with the mechanics that the game doesn’t normally teach you in game - like how to drop items or how to tell how much time is left in a cycle. Loading screen tips will occasionally give tips when the slugcat dies or when the slugcat survives the cycle. Extended tutorials will give in-game tutorial messages for certain mechanics and scenarios.

Music is an important part of telling if there is danger nearby in Rain World. However, those that have a hard time hearing do have a major disadvantage. Threat music visual pulse will give a visual indicator of incoming danger. In addition to the music going more intense as the slugcat gets closer to danger, the threat music visual pulse shows a heartbeat of red dots on the bottom of the screen. There are up to five red dots that can appear and the more red dots that show up the closer the slugcat is to danger.

If you ever feel that a creature killing the slugcat just off screen is unfair, then Slug Senses is a way to counter that. Checking the map with this option active will show the creatures that are near the slugcat in the room, including those creatures that are just off screen. On the map it will show the creature symbol and will differentiate if they are alive or dead. However, camouflaged creatures, creatures in darkness, or those underwater, will still obscure themselves from the map.

Karma gates are a big barrier that many players reach. Sometimes it can be super discouraging for players to reach the needed karma to cross to the next region only to die and then not have the required karma to cross the karma gate again. Rain World Remix will have two options that will help players cross those karma gates. The first option is that karma gates will have Monk style gates for all campaigns. Once you cross through the gate, that gate will continue to be unlocked and not require karma again. The second option will disable all karma gate requirements - so even if you are struggling you can continue to go through the karma gates at the lowest karma.

For speedrunners of the game, there will be a togglable in-game speedrun timer that can be used. Now a lot of speedrunners may be distraught to hear that Rain World Remix does fix a lot of speedrunning exploits like karma caching and guardian skips. We don’t want to hurt the speedrun community and make speedruns less consistent so we have put in a toggleable option that can be used to keep exploits and advantageous glitches that speedrunners use to get the fastest times. For those interested in speedrunning for the current version of Rain World the Rain World Discord has a meta-and-tech channel that you can discuss with other speedrunners on strategies.

If red lizards weren’t scary enough there is an Alpha Red Lizards option to make them stronger. This option gives them tongues to pull you close, and if you think that stashing a bunch of spears is a good idea, their tongue can snatch your spear and break it in half with their bite.

The rain deer is one of the most annoying creatures for the community. In the current build the rain deer behavior cannot be influenced by the player once on the antlers. If they go a different direction then what the player wants then there is no way to change that other then jump off and wait for the next rain deer and hope they go the correct way. The tweaked deer behavior option adds two ways that players can influence the direction the rain deer goes once on the antlers. Shaking on the antler will encourage them to change directions, or encourage them to move if they are idling in place. If the slugcat is holding a sporepuff while on the antlers, then the position of the slugcat will also influence their movement.

There are many more options that can be toggled to make your campaigns unique to what you like. Rain World Remix as a whole can be enabled or disabled, if you would like to continue playing Rain World unchanged from the way it is now. This free update will be launching alongside Rain World: Downpour.

Feel free to come chat with us in the Akupara Games Discord, or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook for updates!

-[AG] Riv Otter