The Most Complex Ecosystem in any Game

Discover the most complex virtual ecosystem I’ve ever seen in a video game. An exploration of the unexpectedly brilliant worldbuilding of the indie game Rain World. (Part 2: ) --- If I were to tell you ‘Rain World has the most complex ecosystem of any game,’ you might go… ‘What?’ Because Rain World doesn’t seem particularly advanced — it’s a 2D pixel art game where you play as a weird slug, how complicated could its world really be? While there are other games with fancier graphics and denser lore, Rain World’s unique system of procedurally generated animation and complex AI come together to simulate the feeling of a living ecosystem better than (almost) any other game I’ve played. From the lizards, to the scavengers, to the daddy long legs, it’s an incredible feat of worldbuilding. So, for this entry into the archive, we’ll uncover the fascinating intricacies of Rain World’s pixeled biosphere. Now, let’s become part of this virtual food chain… 0:00 Welcome to Rain World 0:54 Animation and AI 2:04 The Outskirts 3:56 Industrial Wastes 5:11 Drainage System 6:24 Garbage Wastes 8:03 The Shoreline 10:20 The Scavengers 12:36 Shaded Citadel 14:14 Five Pebbles 16:06 The Wall 18:16 Farm Arrays 19:57 Void Sea 21:58 Beyond the Light? Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary. I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners. ♫ Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio: Mysterious Green Fluid, Sanity Unravels, Haddonfield Horror, Alone in the Dark, Dusk, The Witch, The Vanishing, Tenebrae, The Guardian ♫ Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (): Beauty Flow Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 #CuriousArchive #Rainworld #Worldbuilding