Why is it called risk of rain?

[!HotCakeX]

looks like an alien fighting game, nothing about rain

[LunarGatta]

Aliens are made out of rain.

[Aidal]

Risk of Rain's name is not apparently decipherable from the gameplay. The developers told us that it's more about the feeling that it evokes, and it's hard to argue with the logic behind what they called "the most asked question" about the game.

As a metaphor, it's a perfect encapsulation of the odds that tiny players face in a gigantic, random world. It's also emblematic of the way Hopoo Games approached development, with feelings and influences in mind, and then iterating on those to make their own mark.

"Starting on, we wanted something that was easily 'google-able' so people could identify us," they told Polygon. "Eventually, we were set on the idea of idioms. After we looked through idioms meaning 'chance,' we both mutually agreed that Risk of Rain was the coolest sounding one. We felt this name fit the game; there is a risk of rain, a risk of failure or bad things happening."

https://www.polygon.com/2013/8/28/4664064/risk-of-rain-hands-on-impf

[labtob]

I like the name. When I ask my friends if they wanna co-op, I ask "Would like to Risk some Rain today?"

[Shurenai]

I covered this in another thread awhile back, I'll just quote my answer here. But it pretty much is inline with the polygon post. A risk of rain is a chance for things to go to hell.

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Originally posted by RiisWolf:

Chance. It's all about chance. It might get bad. Might not.

It's a metaphor/idiom; A risk of rain is metaphorically a chance for things to turn from a bright sunny day into a dismal rainy one. To literally go from a great day to the worst day, and you don't know for sure if or when it will occur.

Fundamentally speaking, It's referencing the Chance (as RiisWolf put it) for everything to get worse as time goes on.

There's also some other loose things that could be cited; In an anime/manga/etc sense, a risk of rain could be inferred as a potential coming scene being very sad or depressing; Or more literally that the character might be caught out in the rain when crying about something happens (Think FMA's Colonel Mustang at Hughes' funeral; Crying over the gravestone.. 'Ah, It looks like it's beginning to rain...')

[B〄F Altonator]

rain of blood, not water

[Aidal]

Originally posted by t:

One theory was that the chests that you see on the ground, which were originally cargos, were "raining" out of UES Contact Light before it went missing, or something like that. Lore experts please correct.

The devs answered this question directly in my response.

tl;dr: rain is a metaphor for things going south, it could have been anything, but risk of rain had a nice sound to it.

[Corkyboot]

Make it rain

[FAMILY_MAN]

You know
There really should be at least one stage where it is actually raining heavily
There isn't ONE

[Slayer Slayerson]

Because when it rains, our characters turn into a puddle of goo.

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

This game is intended to be a weather forecast for your area. As always with any weather forecast, the results may actually vary.