RimWorld : Update #10

**Lemmy1916** Ven 13 Déc - 17:37

Enfin des nouvelles ! Voici la newsletter des backers reçue ce jour Wink

Project Update #10: Creative rewards system, Rhopunzel, modding

Posted by Tynan Sylvester Like

There's a bit of a news backlog to get through. Let's get to it!
Creative rewards system open
Hey, all you people who got the name-in-game or backstory-in-game rewards! We're finally ready to accept your wild and wacky creations! Web wizard Hypolite has created an online system that will allow you to add your character names and backstories into a database. Each time we release a new version of the game, I'll pull the data from the database and put it in the game itself. Here it is:
RimWorld Creative Rewards System
As a reminder, please keep the Creative Rewards Guidelines in mind while coming up with your creations. I can't wait to see all the wild ideas you put in.
Also, I'm still looking for creative rewards moderators. If you're a solid, clear writer and interested in helping, please contact me. Thank you!
Rhopunzel in the house
I’m happy to announce that we’ve got eminent game artist Rhopunzel working on the in-game art for RimWorld! Rho has worked on several awesome indie games. The most recent was Starbound, with pieces like this scary skeltal dragon or this crunchy mech. Before that, Rho did pretty much everything for Gnomoria.
Here's a shot of some of the new character art:
RimWorld : Update #10 F6defdccae6b2bfae0fdbed67f1bfe61_large

RimWorld : Update #10 F6defdccae6b2bfae0fdbed67f1bfe61_large

I think someone forgot their clothes.
Some people have asked how much the final art will change. Up until now, I’ve done all the art in a simple, iconic style. Rho will be working in a similar style (though at a much higher level of ability). We’re sticking with the vector look because it satisfies RimWorld’s design constraints very well. The goal with this art isn’t just to look good – it must satisfy a specific set of design goals.
First, it has to convey a lot of complex gameplay information in a really intuitive way, even when compressed to a tiny space on-screen. For example, looking at a character will tell you:

Their identity (who, exactly, is it?)
Their team (raider, colonist, trader, etc)
Their general category they fall into (fighter, worker, researcher, farmer, etc)
Their facing
Their apparel (possibly several layers)
What they’re doing
Maybe, in the future, their current equipment or weapon

Packing that all into a space as small as 32×32 pixels and making it look good is tough!
Second, it has to balance abstraction with specificity. If it’s too abstract, people can’t intuitively understand what’s going on. If it’s too specific, it fills in too many gaps so players have no room to subconsciously interpret what’s happening. We need to leave room for players to interpret, because player intepretation is the real engine of game-driven story generation.
Third, it has to be lightweight in content, so it runs and loads quickly, can be iterated quickly, can be modded easily, and can be expanded to a wide variety of objects and characters. We’d rather have 100 kinds of characters with 3 frames of animation each than 3 characters with a hundred frames each. Because what matters is the final experience of the game, which (in the case of RimWorld) is best served by variety, not detail.
I’m happy to say Rho has been rising to the challenge. We’ve already been passing pieces back and forth and watching the style develop.
RimWorld : Update #10 C23ee8ccd27973bdc04b48b5acefa993_large

RimWorld : Update #10 C23ee8ccd27973bdc04b48b5acefa993_large

What the heck else are you doing?
Yeah, I know, it's been a month since the last update. But I've been working hard on the modding and sound infrastructure for RimWorld.
Up until now I’ve created simple sounds myself from free source files found at freesound.org. The code would then just play the appropriate sound file directly. This filled the gap enough for my own pre-alpha purposes, but now that we’re getting serious about audio it’s clear something much more is needed.
Upon starting the system for authoring real sound definitions, it became clear that it is really just a particular kind of modding. So that work has also become work on the modding system in general.
When the whole mod system is done, you'll be able to mod the game, including changing and adding animals, weapons, foods, buildings, and other object and content definitions, while the game is running. This will also support adding and changing images, again, without closing the game.
The sound system itself carries a lot of fun features beyond just playing sounds.

You can randomize the pitch and volume of a sound within a range.
You can add filters like high-pass/low-pass or echo.
You can add several sound files and determine how they're selected between (including algorithms that avoid repetition).
You can tie the parameters of the sound to parameters generated by the game. For example, you could tie the cutoff of a low-pass filter to the camera altitude, so sounds seem more muffled as the camera moves away. Or you could tie the pitch of a sound to a random Perlin noise generator, so it yo-yos around while you play it.
Parameter mappings are done through editable curve graphs that map values in the in-parameter to values in the out-parameter.
You can create sustained sounds and one-shot sounds.
Sustained sounds can crossfade back and forth between different sound files, allowing you to create continuous sounds that never loop.
Lots more!

Here's a picture of it:
RimWorld : Update #10 75530c449e35467e1146585634aab8ff_large

Editing the mapping between camera height and low pass filter cutoff on the pistol shot sound.
So sorry there haven't been monthly updates. There's some infrastructure and ramping-up work to do over here. I'm really hoping that as we move into next year I'll be able to get back to month-over-month content improvements.
As always, I'd love to chat on my Twitter or at the Ludeon forums.
Cheers,
Ty