Building Rainfall: bluesky exploration of world, characters and story

“Rainfall” is one of the internal IP initiatives currently being devised with the Canada team. The inspiration for the project actually came from an Environment Design process article by Lead Artist, Louis Laurent! You may have read about it already. This moodpiece from Louis that caught the eye of Francis, who immediately began developing several different concepts and ideas in his head for what would become Rainfall. After sharing these with Adam, the two were able to work together to hone ideas and create a compelling vision for the wider world Louis’ train station could exist in.

When asked what that process looked like, Francis stated that he would, “throw spaghetti at the wall, and Adam would help determine what stuck”. Adam added that it, “took a lot of back and forth over many iterations and lots of bowls of ramen for us to figure out what the story would be”. As is likely clear, the team at Atomhawk Canada always have food on their minds!

Below you can see some of the blue-sky exploration work that was done in the very early stages of Rainfall.

[Content Warning] Please note that Rainfall deals with themes of trauma, distress, and illness, and that some of these topics will be discussed below.

The story of Rainfall revolves around our main protagonist Clementine, a once lively and curious young girl whose world began to crumble upon falling gravely ill with a mystery illness.

Her father, a scientist and revered university professor, embarks on a series of high-risk experiments with the goal of saving his daughter. After exhausting all aspects of conventional medicine, he makes the fateful decision to incorporate a rare element known as “Necroforge” in a last-ditch effort to try and manipulate the growth inside Clementine, in order to tap into the locked regenerative potential that resides in its core.

The results of this experimentation is both tragic and extraordinary. In his increasingly desperate attempts to try and save his daughter, the miscalculated use of Necroforge causes a seismic mutation at a cellular level that triggers a Chimeric shift, transforming Clementine into something just as much beast as human. Tormented with her new reality, Clementine grapples with the physical and emotional scars left by her father’s experimentation and struggles to understand who or what she now is.

When asked about the deeper, darker themes of the story, Francis stated that, “The story of Clementine is a story of loss, segregation, and feeling alone,” in the world of Rainfall.

He added that, “We really want to emphasize consequence as a result of our characters actions, and the impact of those consequences on the world around them.” With Adam stating that it’s, “unlikely you’ll see the typical ‘happy ending’ in many other stories.” The team’s creation has focused on maximizing the emotional impact of the story at every major turn.

In terms of theoretical gameplay, the team’s goal is to manifest aspects of Clementine’s trauma and demons into a wide variety of memorable boss fights, leveraging the uniqueness of her mutation through Necroforge to deliver dramatic and exhilarating combat abilities. She comes to discover that her new abilities are so powerful, they run the risk of society seeing her as a villain for being noticeably different. Designing these abilities and characters is something everyone is excited about, with a wide variety of ideas already on the table for consideration.

Beyond the boss fights, there is a core thread that of intrigue that weaves both gameplay and story together through blood, a pandemic, and the creation of other Chimera leveraged by the upper class for their own societal protection and gain.

While the narrative of Rainfall will continue to evolve, the collaborative approach we have taken so far has been very successful at bringing people together and surfacing a wide variety of different ideas from people on the team.

The interest, passion, and drive to move the project forward has been inspiring to see, and with so many great seeds of creativity being planted, we will continue to nurture what we have and look forward to seeing it grow over the coming months and sharing it with you all!

A huge thank you to the entire art team for their incredible work on Rainfall. This project came to life through their talent, dedication, and creativity. Special recognition goes to all contributing artists: Jin-Young Song, Louis Laurent, Hwhuaj Lee, Francis Lafleche, Travis Anderson, and Russell Jones who poured their hearts into this project!

Follow Atomhawk Canada on LinkedIn to see Rainfall updates first, along with all the news and updates from our studio.