Rain World with Creator Joar Jakobsson
A great evening to learn how indie game Rain World got to cult status - was it luck, or perseverance and doggedness of its creator Joar Jakobsson.
In-person tickets releasing 2nd January
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Additional Information
Abstract
This talk is a retrospective on the development of the cult video game, Rain World. Presented by its Swedish creator, Joar Jakobsson, the talk will focus on procedural animation, creature AI, and the intersection between the two.
The event is interactive and plenty of opportunity to ask Joar questions as he progresses.
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About Rain World
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 Nintendo Switch. Players assume control of a "slugcat", an elongated felid-like rodent, and are tasked with its survival in a derelict and hostile world.
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Reviews and Accolades
Before reaching cult status, the game received mixed reviews on its release. Reviewers praised the game's art design and criticized the harshness of its gameplay mechanics, particularly its unpredictable deaths, ruthless enemies, and time-consuming hibernation requirements.
But time prevailed, and was nominated for "Best Platformer" in PC Gamer's 2017 Game of the Year Awards, and also for "Best Platformer", "Best Art Direction", and "Most Innovative" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards.
It was also nominated for the Statue of Liberty Award for Best World at the New York Game Awards 2018, and for "Excellence in Audio" at the Independent Games Festival Competition Awards.
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Guest Speaker, Joar Jakobsson
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 when development of Rain World began in 2011. Partly inspired by his feelings of foreignness while living as an exchange student in Seoul, South Korea, along with interest in derelict environments and what they reveal about the humans who previously occupied them, his 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. Jakobsson served as the game's artist, designer, and programmer.
Currently in Dublin, Jakobsson is developing his next game!