Upgrading The Rain In My Indie Game - Nectar Devlog 12 

The little details like drips and splashes make such a difference! Love this devlog series!

idea: have tiny physical cloud moving around and water dropping only from those clouds, to have rain only in a few spots :) it could be really nice looking to see some cute clouds moving, and it's good for puzzle. (some levels can be with global rain like you did, and some with only those tiny cloud for specific level design purpose)

Wow, i already thought that the old rain looked good, but seeing the two side by side shows how much better the new one is!

Looks really good. I like the linetrace solution for blocking the rain. You can add a trace channel for rain btw and disable it on certain objects to not block the rain at all. For example if you implement grates into the scenery the bars might block all line traces even though logically you wouldnt be safe from rain.

Been lurking for a while but it's inspiring to watch your progress. Can't wait to see your future additions! 🦋🌸🐝 Wishlisted!

This is such a great little update. Lots of nuance and depth, and all being presented so well. Thanks for sharing!

It's amazing to see all the progress you're making! Keep it up!

I was genuinely ecstatic to see you've released another video. Your devlogs are fantastic; please keep up the amazing work. Creators like you are the reason I'm so passionate about pursuing game development.

The face on the vace is cute and hilarious. lol

I like the way your rain looks!

WOW! This looks SO good already! I've watched your devlogs as they release, and I always thought it looked promising but still had some way to go. This looks INSANE, and actually excited to buy and play it already. Keep up the amazing work!

Very cool. I think I left a comment about Ultra Dynamic Sky in your last video where you covered weather. Glad to see you went for it and the results look great!

Cool idea

your game looks amazing, wish you all the luck with it and hope it's been a great experience to make

Loving the rain effects, some of the best I've seen! 👌

One thing that you could do is that when it is raining your bee friend goes and takes shelter under your flower. Bees will not fly in the rain at all because it is bad for the hive.

you could keep one line trace for the rain, and instead use special layermask to use :) raycast are expensive stuff (but 4 raycast mean higher precision, so it's better anyway for other stuff. But if you wanted to fix this issue for rope or grid or special plants that have "holes" in it, you could still use a special layer that do not block water, even if the 1 or 4 raycast touch it :)

I cannot wait to play this! I love your devlogs so much

I love your devlog, how you focus it on the core mechanics

Cool stuff! Though I think how you assessed the outdoor detection problem just inverts the issue, so now if you have even a tiny gap in your roof you are considered to be outdoors. I think a more simple and robust solution would be to use a custom collision response channel for blocking the rain, and exclude the ropes and similar objects from that. This would allow you to use a bigger sphere trace to avoid issues with tiny gaps in the roof, which will inevitably come up once you start building more complex levels.

i like your system more actually it fits the game light vibes. plus its your is unique to you

Just seen that you uploaded and that has already made my day 10x better❤

You got a sub. Im making my own game too and eventually I want to start sharing what Im up to. I was nervous at first but you show me how easy it can be. This game looks great. Keep it up.

Gonna be honest, I'm not a fan of the glowing nectar meter, same with the blue healing glow. They seem a bit out of place to me. Might I suggest adding small bits of nectar to your pot soil as a way to show how much nectar you have? 5 bits of nectar, each indicate 20% of your max carried nectar. So if you're running around with 3 full and one smaller nectar in your pot, you'd know you have somewhere between 60% and 80% nectar.

I find it so cozy in games to hide under things to escape the rain. This game looks fantastic. Great work!

this looks really nice!

Amazing progress, keep it up

Just wow man! So freakin cool

Great video, was fun to see how it all came together!

Wow its like night and day difference! Very cool. Also i like the blue visual indicator for healing, but i think the nectar indicator is probably a bit harder to understand. Great work tho!

Watching the video and observing the different weather types that Ultra Dynamic Weather offers, I couldn't help but ponder an intriguing concept: What if the progression of game levels revolved around changing seasons? Imagine starting in summer, with mostly rain-free levels. These calm and clear skies would allow the player to master the game's mechanics, introducing puzzles and plants gradually without overwhelming them with weather effects immediately. Perhaps a couple of rainy levels could be thrown in to introduce the mechanic for later use. Summer would serve as a "World 1" of sorts. Then, the player would transition into fall, where levels could focus on dust storms as a mechanic, with occasional rain levels. As the world is already ravaged by the human-robot war, fall wouldn’t have too much of an effect, leaving high winds in the form of dust storms as the primary mechanic. Perhaps the wind could affect the player's movement while using a dandelion, requiring them to use the wind strategically to make jumps they couldn't otherwise. Or maybe the wind could push objects that you set down. Moving on to winter, levels would primarily focus on snow. It would be interesting to introduce a mechanic where all water sources are frozen over, and players must use their robot tech to melt the ice and access the water for puzzles. Emerging from the depths of winter, players are greeted by the vibrant renewal of spring, with nectar available in abundance. Yet, this season brings its own challenges, as violent rains threaten the landscape, potentially leading to flooded levels. Adaptation becomes key as players navigate waterlogged terrains, finding ways to access the nectar amidst the challenges. Through this immersive journey guided by the seasons, players would not only experience the dynamic range of weather but also embark on a transformative adventure where mastery of nature's elements is the key to success. Ultimately, it's your game, and the direction you choose to go in is entirely up to you. I simply wanted to share this concept as I believe it could offer an intriguing avenue for exploration. I'm eager to see the path you choose for this project and look forward to witnessing its evolution.

That is so cool!!!

You need more subs

The grand adventures of Herb and Geri. This time, when life throws water at them, they splash back!

Game is interesting and I'm waiting for the level design devlog

This reminds me of A Bugs Life the game, that was such a good game

I really want to play this game!!

It's looking great! One idea I have is that you can use the night time feature of the sky system to make a time trial mode. In that mode it could use the sky getting darker as a visual indicator you are running out of time. Additionally you could try to use that feature to make night time levels where nectar only works in areas lit by lamps.

you are a genius!

It would be very cool if the sunflower faced down during rainy weather🤣

The rain looks great! I was wondering if you considered having the rain affect your bee companion instead of the nectar directly? I guess it depends on what puzzles you have in mind, but maybe it would be more intuitive to have the bee not able to fly/carry nectar in the rain. Either way, looking forward to seeing where you take it! Keep it up!

I think the rain looks incredible! Especially around the edges of cover. I do agree a bit with the comments that the glowing effect for pollen/water is a bit too strong, the nectar especially. When I water my plants, I know the terracotta pot is actually porous and becomes a darker colour when it absorbs water, so maybe something like that could be used as a more subtle indicator of being wet? Maybe even a slow transition (~1 sec) between the states, where the pot gradually becomes darker from the bottom, so the player is able to tell that the transition has happened. But don't let any of the comments here compromise your design vision!

Amazing! I love the look of the splash-lines. I just don't like the look of the blue aura much. Maybe it could be more of a "slurping up effect" on the base of the pot?

4:16 Instead of using multiple line traces, you could use a box trace or a sphere trace. (Anything in the shape gets hit)

Hi! I'm really impressed with your game's progress. The grass looks fantastic! Did you create it yourself or did you get it from a marketplace? Could you please share the link or guide you used?

The rain looks really nice, will the music change in the future when you in and out of cover from the rain?

Very cool! How did you create the rain dripping effect on the edges of rain blockers? Is it a scrolling texture placed underneath the edge? And if so how does it know where edges are or is it manually placed?

I find it cool all the stuff you managed to do in this game. I was wondering if there is a place somewhere that helps you develop the blueprints for this game? Because I am making a game but I am having trouble with the coding part.

I think the low poly nectar models you have don’t match the rest of your games artstyle, but I love the new implementation of rain!

I loved everything about this episode except for the glowing blue thingy when you re under the rain, i think it looks weird with the rest of the game vibe, maybe theres another way to show you re healing

The blue ring seems out of place. Maybe less-glowy blue sloshy water that covers the top of the pot would look nice

make it so beyond a certain point of you being under rain you start taking damage or something like that like a drowned plant

That’s the default skybox in unreal?? Damn, Unity’s default skybox is lacking.

i believe sphere-casting would do you a little better than using 4 rays for every object

What puzzles me is how hard would it be to pry the source code from you and how long to uh.. borrow your services to teach me how to make a RimWorld spiritual sequel with it

I suggest only glowing blue while healing, and not while the player is at full health. Less distracting

Hey very curious how u ended up implementing the rain border between rain and no rain areas, was this procedural or manually placed?

You made a game looking like a crapy home made engine, but using Unreal? What a magic did you used?

It looks good, but shouldnt the player also get hit by rain?

This game looks very similar to that one indie game with a dog.

Honestly the thing that seems most out of place right now stylistically is the pot itself. It doesn't mesh with most of the other assets you've shown off. Maybe that's just me.

hello, dynamic weather system alone was the best looking.

I think the sky is still to bright. Please make it at least a bit darker

I love following your progress. However, this time, I don't think you really made an improvement. The mechanics might be good, sure. But visually, this was a downgrade. I really liked the happy feeling of the not so dark rain scene before. Now it looks very depressing. It's so stuffed with particles. Sometimes less is more. And also the glowing for healing and nectar meter don't really fit your game style in my opinion. If you want to keep the indicators on your character, consider making them more subtle. Otherwise, do it in the HUD. Of course, this is all just my opinion and others might love the visuals :)

Amazing work ! It looks great ! May I ask a question ? Wouldn't it be simpler if, instead of adding an invisible plane between the leaves : you added a very small timer before the rain deactivates the nectar effect ? This way, you won't have to add a plane every time you want to be able to change cover, no matter its type (tree, leave, roof, etc.). Also (quick thought) : A waterfall would be the perfect obstacle that the player can get through, but not the bee !