Rain World - Blog Posts
I never played rain world but this silly goober caught my attention. I didn't really check the lore in depth but as far as I understand iterators are trying to die? I thought it would be cool to give them digital wings with that context in mind.
I’m so sorry, he’s just so slugable
🧍
WOAH, SLUG! THATS COOL!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
DON’T BE SORRY; THIS IS GREAT!!!!
aint no rain's gonna break my stride
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2857120/Rain_World_The_Watcher/
hgapy 7 year rain world anniversary. Whgat
gunters
[Start ID. A redraw of the official icons of the ten named slugcats from Rain World, arranged in two rows: Survivor, Monk, Hunter, Nightcat, and Gourmand in the first, Artificer, Rivulet, Spearmaster, Saint and Enot/Inv in the second. Each is drawn in roughly the same pose as in the original art and fitted with speculative interpretations of their biology, and the second image is a “dead” version of this. For example, all ten have slug-like rhinophores in place of ears, cuttlefish-like colorful eyes with strangely-shaped pupils, cephalopod-like beak "teeth", expressive barbels or oral tentacles at the corners of mouths, spiny radulas, and the frilly mantle fringes of sea slugs, though otherwise their faces are squishy, simple and mammalian-shaped.
Cream-colored Survivor and yellow Monk both share triangular, bicolored spots matching their eyes (which are tan and brown, and two shades of blue, respectively), small, bumpy fringes, and relatively neutral looks on their faces. Defensive-looking Hunter is mostly a dull orange-pink, though their blobby fringe is a more violent red and their back is purple and marred with lumps. Nightcat is navy blue and flecked with dots of yellow and teal, their rolled rhinophores are a lighter blue, and their shading fractures into stars in some places. Gourmand is almost uniformly tan, their wide, very ruffly white mantle fringe bordered by a spray of white spots, and their beak sticks out from either corner of their smile. Primarily red Artificer, snarling, has yellow markings of multiple sorts, a prominent yellow dewlap and their characteristic dark scar taking out a chunk of its face. Rivulet is a darker blue than usual, with long barbels, red gills and rings, countershading, and a cheerful expression, sticking out their radula. Spearmaster is purple with orange accents, eyes and spots, a large fringe and spines down their back. Saint’s green caryophyllidia are marked by small, yellow diamonds, and their long, thin radula extends far below them. Enot is decorated with mottled red stripes, blue patches, yellow stars, and an uneven and almost cartoonish imitation of blush, though generally the same deep blue as Nightcat, a passive or almost slightly smug look on their face and their rolled rhinophores out to either side.
In the second image, nine of the slugcats’ eyes are crossed out, indicating that these are death icons. They look fairly the same, with mostly expression differences. Survivor is caught in the beginning of a threat display, a karma flower sprouts from Monk’s side, Hunter is burdened with overgrowing, purple and blue rot, Nightcat’s rhinophores are pinned back, and Gourmand looks mildly disheartened. For the final row, Artificer bites its radula between small plumes of smoke, Rivulet drops their expression, Spearmaster looks very startled, Saint looks almost entirely the same besides half-open eyes and their markings greater in number, and Enot grins confusedly. End ID]
If you'll excuse the unusually lengthy ID: the arena meme introduced by @pansear-doodles at long last after a nearly year-long wip status (or, rather, finished a month ago today to honor my own first time playing it!)
Design notes and shout-outs under cut! :]
The following people are some of those who’ve inspired my designs most since I started this eight months ago (or just inspired me to get a little weirder with slugcat biology), among many others for sure, and I thank them for it–but this is simply to bring attention to artists I find cool, and in no way an obligation to interact or anything :]
> @saturncoyote , @carpsoup , @charseraph , @gallusgalluss , @bitsbug , @dopscratch , and @0hmanit (and a special mention to dddeerbo and hunterlonglegs, who’ve since deactivated)!
Survivor: Surprisingly the hardest to pin down the colors for, since nothing with its sibling's palette seemed to match up right (I did have to add in a little blue somewhere for Monk, the beginning of making it clear how much I’m simply going based off of vibes for the colors of scug innards). I consider them, Monk and Gourmand to be part of the same gene pool of slugcats, and even possibly the same colony even if the latter isn't really related, so took a bit of Gourmand's coloring and fit them in with their inspiration: Goniobranchus verrieri. They serve as a bit of an introduction to my ideas of scug traits (i find it really fun how many people have thought to add so many silly sluglike fixtures of biology completely independent of me, buuut here I’m mostly talking about species variation), and like in-game they’re pretty average! They, Monk and Hunter have a couple scars sourced from a piece of Joar's concept art that I'm failing to find, those across the bridge of the nose, under the eyes, and across the rhinophores, respectively, and my Survivor interpretation features many on the back of the neck, as a result of survived lizard bites.
Monk: Their coloring is primarily based off the fact that I associate them with blue fruits, honestly, a bit because I was compelled to establish a familiarity with Rivulet, and lastly inspired by the spots of Goniobranchus kuniei (and geminus, less important to me as one of my characters is a kuniei instead, but more fitting). Between the yellow + blue and the circular marking in the center of their face, they’re meant to bear a little resemblance to an iterator that shares similarities with the characterization I’ve given them, and similar coding of her sibling can be seen on Survivor’s markings around the eyes. As both a “default” slugcat and one whose campaign I haven’t played, though, I can’t say I have much more to point out about em.
Hunter: The whole rot thing made for a really fun time drawing them, and while the color change on their back is a result of this, it’s also an excuse to relate them to Babakina festiva, arguably my favorite sea slug (mostly for sentimental purposes). And to Spearmaster, a fellow messenger slugcat, and it serves as a gradient between Hunter’s pink and the “traditional” color of Rot seen in the DLLs. Aside from their affliction, they’d actually be the plainest in terms of design, as they don’t have any patterns or quirks of body type, just the red + purple and strange lumps + possible malnutrition. I can’t remember if NSH had created them in particular or just...caught + released or something, but it probably wouldn’t be strange for a lab-grown slugcat to be simple like that.
Gourmand: Like the two above, they’re rather plain in terms of coloring and adaptation, and like the two above, I find that fun. I decided it would be nice to avert the “all slugcats being of the same body type, and Gourmand’s out of place as the exception” thing by just...adding more fat to all of them, really. I did want to emphasize their sheer bulk even so, both fat and muscular (not like I couldn’t have still gone further with it, of course, but slugcat anatomy can be a little obfuscating sometimes, and they were intended to look rather plush considering personal size headcanons and therefore the lack of proper gravity), and the thick and flounced mantle looked like a good addition, as per their sea slug Glossodoris hikuerensis. Unlike Survivor and Monk, I didn’t attempt to hold their resemblance to any particular other character (which means a little less to balance out the “default gene pool” thing), so those are all the design notes I have for em.
Artificer: The second slugcat I’ve ever played, or finished the campaign of, my favorite for at least a long time, and the first thing I did was give them yellow accents, the shape of which have troubled me slightly (not quite like the spots or stripes of the others). They’re both a little more appealing and more explosive-looking to me, and considering how early on I played Arti, actually present in some of my older art. It does give them a little resemblance to Saint (completely intentional, two slugcats with strange relations to karma), as well as the fact that its radula is green for familiarity with one of its children (at some point it was going to have all-green markings, even!). I’m generous with their scars, partly because it was fun to overemphasize the one on their face and partly because it does seem like a reckless slugcat, on top of the dangers of its explosive abilities–I’ll probably just keep adding more forever. Mostly-red sea slugs aren’t too common, but Hexabranchus sanguineus works for sure. The ridged, yellow dewlap can expand for combustion purposes, or something along those lines. Arti’s where I began experimenting with a lot of the mildly-offkilter features seen in my interpretation of slugcats, as they’ve once again been a favorite from the start.
Rivulet: I've obviously given other slugcats spots, deeply enjoy the bubbly-soda markings of other peoples' slugcats, and thought seal riv would be cute. Despite not too closely resembling it, they've been government-assigned Hypselodoris bennetti, for color reasons and for a couple sentimental ones. Originally, the colors of every scug were meant to match up with the custom colors I gave them at the beginning of their campaigns, (though Arti, Gourm and Spearmy are the only three who actually apply here, since I've only played through half the slugcats: I gave arti the yellow as mentioned above, gourm brown eyes and spearmy light pink spears, furthered by the outskirts pearl accompanying me and that palette all the way to moon. Tolerance training for eternity in hell cause I already knew about the maroon pearl quest). I initially gave them the colors of the bi flag for fun... but with the limited palette of this image, I was left without pink for a while and decided to see how they'd look in red. I then realized how they now wonderfully matched Moon, and besides, red's a sort of camouflage in deep water! As a side-note, the difference between their eyes and those of others always bothered me a little for anatomical purposes, and the cephalopod eyes were probably influenced by this!
Spearmaster: Inspired as much as possible by @notyourfunnyman ’s wonderful spearmy: designed in a way that helps it fit in with scavengers, at least between the long sensory tentacles, big ruff, back spines and slightly thin/distended anatomy, a form of defensive mimicry. I always had annulate rhinophores in mind, for a little diversity sure, but mostly because the shape reminds me of radio antennae and communication towers (seems fitting for the comms array and being a messenger slugcat)! I started searching for a real-life slug to give them just by looking up their rhinophore shape...and was met immediately and coincidentally with annulate-topped nudibranchs that fit them more perfectly than I could've imagined: Flabellina and surrounding clades, I think Paraflabellina ischitana works very nicely. The orange was completely unplanned, but there wasn’t a place for light pink among the other slugcats’ palettes, and importantly it likens them to both Hunter and Seven Red Suns a little more.
Saint: I am very much a non-furred slugcat enjoyer, with respect to those who aren’t, so figuring out the only visibly furred slugcat was an interesting challenge. I’ve decided that they likely have other, milder adaptations for help in the cold, mainly just more efficient fat storage, and what looks vaguely like fur is instead a bunch of tubercles (called caryophillia, for the second reminder out of three). Their inspiration doesn’t have these, however, Miamira sinuata’s numerous yellow and blue spots (not to mention...whatever’s going on with that shape) and general effect of being the only really green nudibranch I could find were probably perfect for a strange green echo. Not pictured, but their beak-teeth are tiny and flat to make a surface for grinding soft food against with the lack of a functioning radula, which is tipped with a specialized spiny “grapple-hook” for better traction/grip (not to mention the numerous little teeth running down the whole thing).
(Best part of hiding this under a readmore means edits will be seen by all reblogs, I'm mostly sure, because I completely forgot to mention! The spots on their forehead are simple eyes. Their camera eyes appear closed in-game, I like to believe their complex eyesight is rather poor anyways or otherwise reason that they aren't seeing out of those, and while this was far from her REASON for attunement with the world, it does help compensate for mainly viewing it through a canvas of simple light and dark. This, and the fact that their swapped-out "fur" is not only to commit to a lack of hairs but contributes to sensory input!)
Nightcat/Enot: I guess you could say I found the “these two are technically the same person” compelling. (E.g. similar colors, both very strange and enigmatic, and Enot/Inv/Sofanthiel’s remark during the dating sim about getting removed from Arena Mode.) I doubt they’re the only two slugcats in their body, considering humans with DID tend to have more than a few (and I find it very funny that a slugcat bearing resemblance to Nightcat appears in Gourmand’s ending. They’re allowed in the colony and Enot isn’t </3), and I have to credit @faelingdraws ’s art for being what convinced me on it! Their design inspirations come down to trying to balance a few different ideas: making the patterns and palettes of both look oddly similar (special mention to the stars, since those are fun to draw), basing them off of Felimare sechurana and juliae respectively, using blocks of color with the same placement as in Enot’s official art, and specifically making Enot look...biologically reasonable and imperfect, whilst also clearly trying to imitate human displays of emotion (what with...the eyes and blush on that one piece of official art).
Lastly, here’s just a lineup with notes on body shape and size. Most of the nicknames (existing to give a little more space, that’s all) are obvious, and while I can’t remember why I shortened Nightcat to Nox, it is in honor of my friend by the same nickname :]
Finally finished this!!! I started it after I finished artificer's campaign last January...
I want to make similar full illustrations for the other downpour slugcats once I finish them... I've already finished Gourmand's campaign and I'm almost done with Spearmaster, so it should be those guys next!! ^^
one year anniversary of downpour yay!!! thank you for further expanding the world of my favorite game ever
suns is such a funny character, to me
[Start ID. A simple, pixellated drawing of the Survivor from Rain World, perched at the edge of the cliff atop the Wall. They stare off into the cloudy sky and stars above, ears back as if awestruck, centered in the image yet perspective makes them look so small and far-off. The palette is mainly composed of dark, saturated blues and purples, green stars and pale Survivor standing out amongst them. End ID.]
@doodle-birdo heard you didn't have a drawing for today and I've been too tired to participate for most of the month, so I gotcha covered :]
Finally got around to finishing this houugh... it was a lot of work but I really like the end result!! Naturally, I'll try my best to list some of the thoughts I have in mind for these guys below. Long post ahead!
These lizards are intended to be ALMOST fully arthropod-like but due to my lack of understanding of bug anatomy and creative liberties, they are in that gray spec bio area so don't take any inconsistencies too seriously (or rather, fuck logic, and accept them how I describe them regardless)
Inspirations: - my lesser detailed lizard design - my friend's slugcats - wasps for the head contours, various insects for the exoskeleton guidelines, caterpillars, various stylistic slugcats across the #rainworld tag - the burning need for something more detailed and cool in my drawing vocabulary
The actual meat of the post; extra facts: - Lizards are related to slugcats (in my au, if you wanna call it that?) or at least the very early version of them. This idea is borrowed from this post and in my au, lizards evolve a similar tail to a slugcat's to aid in propelling themselves through tight spaces, acting as a 5th limb. - Similar to my old vulture post, lizards share a similar lifecycle. The majority of the larval stage is spent underground and in tight spots, far from their main predator. Lizard larva will undergo pupation similar to how beetles do, leaving behind broken cavities in pipes where carnivorous plants favor to take root. Additionally to the vulture's terrible parental drive, they often mistake their own larva for lizard hatchlings. - A lizard's skin is leathery and retains moisture for quite a while. Some lizards have a thicker layered mantle than others, allowing them to take punctures to the abdomen and still recover. - Not pictured, but will be described, are a few outliers to the standard lizard body plan. Caramels have muscular hind legs akin to a grasshopper but this means their legs cannot slot together and thus they have a wider leg splay than other species. Eels and salamanders are not lizards but lizard mimics. Yellow lizards' antennae attach to a hump on the snout rather than the rear of the head as seen here. Cyan lizards' mantles are more square shaped due to their leap drums on either side of their bodies and have a 3rd mantle that runs the length of their tail and caps the tailtip. - Cyan lizard's organs are called leap drums and act similarly to our lungs. They are a ring of muscle which contracts and acts as a spring loaded mechanism to propel the creature via combustion through a mysterious chemical process. Because the color of debris left behind during a leap share the same color as the lizard, perhaps they are discarded scales, formerly in place to protect the cavities housing the explosion. - They have similar organs to vertebrates within their abdomen, probably surrounded by cartilage. (not that important, I haven't thought that much about this) - (More may be added later as I remember)
mildly, just ever so slightly, belated art fight attacks of the season!! feat. @skyistheground @smangethe @hrokkall @onlineviolence aaand @sophisticated-apple :]
[Start ID. Four drawings of Hollow Knight ocs, in a dull green tone on a small canvas. Taking up the right half is a render of Caramel, a bee wielding a mantis claw across her shoulder and donning a cape in the colors of the aromantic flag. On the left are three colored sketches: the first at the top shows Caramel with her trio of friends, green-mantled bug Hawksbeard talking with her and gray millipede Molini curled around them both. The caption to the right says "Friends who love her" in all caps. In the center-left is a drawing of a tan and brown slugcat with a vulture mask on her face and a spear on her back, captioned "caramel slugcat, what will she do". Last is a sketch of Caramel and the bee nosk Pollux, who's dressed in an asexual flag of their own, and who has taken Caramel's mask to hold it up to its face. Caramel looks at her cheerfully, arm around her back. End ID.]
[Start ID. A rough drawing of Caramel and Hawksbeard in Rain World. They're now a tan slugcat and green scavenger, respectively, seeming less familiar with each other in the image than they are in canon. Caramel now has two spears on her back, holding another spear in one hand and a pearl in the other. Hawksbeard wears a sash of pearls, and offers a lantern to Caramel, the only thing lighting up the drawing in the dim Shaded Citadel. End ID.]
[Start ID. Another drawing of Caramel and Hawksbeard together, sitting down on a blank, dull green background. A cropped tweet by Caramel's head reads "Why are girls allowed to say girlfriend to refer to a platonic friend, but I can't say 'this is my boytoy twink malewife Hawksbeard'", with a spur indicating she's saying it, and the Hawksbeard part being a write-over. Caramel gestures with one hand in a sort of wave and has her other arm around her friend, while Hawksbeard looks at her in slight concern, simply stating "what". End ID.]
Small doodles of Caramel to commemorate the first-ever aromantic visibility day :]
you can INCREASE your PLAYTIME by being a BAD GAMER
[Start ID. A digital drawing of the Artificer from Rain World. They're in midair, black smoke curling around them after two explosive leaps, tossing a spear at one of the two Scavengers on the faraway ground and readying a grenade with their other hand. She's snarling with her mouth wide open, exhaling short puffs of smoke, its throat glows. Scars litter its body, shrapnel and burns and nicks from spears, hands darkened from throwing bombs. The background is solid-color, dull red, but there's a ladder and scattered spears and rubbish in the distance The drawing is completely taken up by a first-level karma symbol, which casts a bright, gold light upon the parts of the image it overlays. End ID.]
started Arti's campaign on April 25 and was immediately enamored > ended Arti's campaign on May 5 and decided to finish this up about it
There seems to be an overlap so I need to ask
Doesn't matter if you have played yourself or just watched someone do it but I gotta know
yknow I play a lot of hard games but usually not "took 73 days to beat" hard
So uuh i have become obsessed with rainworld as of recent, so here is a bunch of rainworld art
[Start ID. A drawing of two scavengers from Rain World, one labelled Sanic and the other one Shrek. Sanic's fur is light brown, with darker extremities, a messy row of pale green spines down its back, and bright blue eyes. They sit contentedly, staring at the screen, with a couple grenades by its feet. Shrek has pale fur, a green head, hands, and feet, and brown eyes. It's facing to the right, with their arms splayed out and an explosive spear on their back. Beside each scavenger are a few woefully-compressed screencaps of their in-game appearance. End ID]
An ode to these silly beasts, who accompanied me on my second visits to Industrial and Chimney
[Start ID. A simple comic in orange and green of the artist's botsona, P3RI, wondering about why there's suddenly a lot more Rain World art than it's ever seen on Tumblr. They chalk it up to the frequency bias, but text pointing to it describes the real explanation as the fact that they happened to start playing right after a major DLC, Downpour, came out. End ID]
this has happened twice
[Start ID. A drawing of the Survivor from Rain World. They're spiralling upwards into the air, clutching a grappling worm with limbs askew, above the lizard den halfway up The Wall. They're facing forward, and while their expression is neutral as always, they seem rather eager. The drawing has a light red tone, primarily made up of siennas, whites and dull teals, and has a fairly dramatic sense of scale. End ID]
call that a jetpack joyride (< got attached to their grapple worm and named it jetpack)
Made some complementary badges for the @nonbiney-swag-competition thanks to @ghostisredacted's V1 request!!
[Start IDs. Four simple circular drawings, each featuring one character from the Nonbiney Swag Competition with the words "I Voted" above them and confetti on either side. All four are drawn almost exclusively in the colors of the nonbinary flag, albeit muted and indigo-toned, with a white base. The first is Pyro from Team Fortress 2 shown chest-upwards, who does a peace sign with a raised hand. Symbols that shape a unicorn horn float above their head. The second is a fullbody of Ghost from Hollow Knight, flaring their cloak open, emphasizing the motion with one hand and raising the other to their mask. The third is V1 from Ultrakill, another bust, where it holds one hand up to the camera to do a thumbs up. Despite a lack of a face, the way its "eye" is shaded suggests a grin. Lastly is the rather amorphous fullbody of the Slugcat or Survivor from Rain World, holding a spear and looking slightly upwards at the bats that hover around its head. End ID]
[Start ID. A digital drawing of the Slugcat from Rain World. It sits holding a spear tipped in orange blood, the source of which are the two severed pods and body of an Eggbug that lay scattered around it. A batnip plant grows behind it, though the rest of the background is blank, replaced by a transparent pale halo behind the Slugcat. End ID]
Little guy :]
(No spoilers, please! I'm very early into the game and have been attempting to play it as blind as possible.)
tumblr what do we call this kind of design
Indie game protagonists will look like this and then have the most mind bafflingly cool game mechanics. Good for them.
Refs and spoons
Silly for day 2 of Funguary 2024: lilac coral fungus!
This guy is Zolli (he/him, one/ones), who has uhh funny symbiotic fungus. The fungus makes little weird fruits as it processes environmental toxins; the fruits are a way to store extra energy and are nutritious :]