Hey everyone,

First of all, I just want to start with a big thanks for playing our game. RAIN Project means a lot to me -- it's a dream I've had for over eight years, and to finally see it come true is truly an experience. For sure, the launch was not perfect. I accidentally let some debug builds slip through, which thankfully got reported by some people in the discussions so I could fix it quickly. While RAIN may not have the professional finish of real game studios, it's a game I can confidently say the team and I have poured our love into.

For a deeper badly-written telling of the RAIN project story, check out a post I just uploaded onto my blog: http://kvfrans.com/rain-project-the-story-of-building-a-touhou-fangame/

Anyway, today I'm pushing the first of a series of bugfixes that should (hopefully!) address the feedback we've been receiving over in the forums. Please, if any of these issues still persist, don't hesitate to let me know!
1. Fixed Tenshi's text to always be visible
2. Fixed Hina's test to always be visible
3. Music Room is now ordered correctly without any song repeats
4. Elevators will no longer move and trap the player
5. You can no longer jump over Past Sanae's fight
6. Kanako's third stage now activates correctly when on her right side
7. The player should not fall through one-way platforms
8. Mouse should be locked to the screen

Also, the OST for RAIN Project is now up! Check is out on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4j9oshEviY&list=PL9qqUhTfSYYpxnxP5FyaqjHVu26ryn5Oi

or download the music at
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14sdnWJRk339R4UwaZ63VhHNDy93aPrGY?usp=sharing

Cheers
Kevin

おはようございます　everyone！

It's an exciting day -- perhaps the most exciting one of all. That's right, as of June 3 2018, RAIN Project is released on Steam!

Two years ago, I would have never have imagined this occasion. But in the words of Sanae Kochiya, "You can't let yourself be held back by common sense".

From the original messy ideas and daydreaming, we've pulled it together. To me, RAIN Project is more than just a game -- it's a love letter to the world of Touhou, and a creation we can proudly call our own.

So I challenge you -- join Sanae and jump into the adventure! Take screenshots, make videos, start a discussion. The trials are hard -- but if you make it through the rainy storms, the view at the end will be breathtaking.

Cheers,
The RAIN Project team.

Good morning!! The big day is almost here. The team is coming together and putting together all of the last finishing touches to polish up for release day.

Since the work in the past week mainly consisted of a million small bugfixes and quality of life changes, I’ll give a big-picture story instead.

RAIN project started three years ago as just a stupid idea in my head. Could we build a platformer game, but in the Touhou style? A game that contains the elements that make Touhou what it is, like overwhelming boss fights and danmaku. For the first year all that came of this were sketches and ideas.

Well, somewhere along the line we decided to make this a reality. And gradually the designs came together. A platformer boss-bash that could capture the thrill and amazement of facing off against Touhou bosses. It’s a hard thing to design, really. Danmaku patterns with millions of bullets doesn’t transfer very well into the platformer setup. So instead, we built spellcards that highlighted the speed and reactions of the player, while still presenting that sense of scale — like giant lasers and fireballs.

Building a game was a lot more work than I’d ever anticipated. There’s a lot of moving parts that need to come together — art, programming, sounds, music, design, even marketing. And convincing everyone on the team to put in their time is a whole challenge of its own. But the RAIN project team consists of some amazing people, and through some kind of miracle we’ve managed to approach the end. To you fans and readers, we really can't thank you enough for the support and motivation.

It’s been a long journey since the start of RAIN project. And now I can proudly say, the game will release in one week!

Sain baina uu! This week on “RAIN project team tries to clean up our mistakes”, the RAIN project team uncovers even more mistakes.

The good news is that the game is in a stable enough state that we can do a full play-through without any debug tools on. The harsh truth is that in the play-through, the buglist only grows.

Anyway, we’re chugging away at this list, and we’re actually making pretty fast progress. A bunch of these are just quality of life changes so the player doesn’t get lost or stuck. We’ve also finally hooked up all the levels in a natural manner (for example, there’s now a large rockslide at the Hot Springs, and you can’t pass through until Nitori is defeated).

Also, we’re doing a quality control pass of every single art asset in the game, which is going to take some time but will hopefully be worth it. The main assets are all working, they just need some long overdue cleaning.

Two weeks until release!!

Joh-eun achim!! This week was the last of content creation. From now on we are a bug fixing team.

The final bit of gameplay we’re adding in are two minibosses: Iku and Tewi. They’ll be optional to fight, but there in case players are looking for a challenge!

Our strategy is simple: play the game a ton and find all the issues. Also we’re going around and touching up all the spritework and animations. The base skeleton and meat of the game is done — now it’s time to garnish and make it all flow.

Things that still need to be done:

• Completion system for quests (% complete)
  
• Connect all the levels so traveling is faster
  
• Balance the bosses
  
• Rework sounds
  
• (and of course fix 20 million bugs)

Now its time to get to work!!

Gooan daginn! This week introduces two bosses with a mean personality: Kanako and Tenshi. These guys will get in up and personal and smash your face in. Ouch.

Tenshi’s boss fight revolves around revolutions. She has a bunch of attack animations (the most in the game!) coupled with a stage that moves and shifts. Dodge her skills and attack her while she’s vulnerable!
Kanako’s fight is the final climax. We’re not gonna spoil anything, but there’s three main stages, involving a section fighting alongside a beautiful sunrise. Kanako’s a god of the heavens, but she’s not afraid to get down and dirty with her fighting style. Who follows the spellcard rules anyways?

On a higher level, this week and the next mark the last weeks of content creation. We’re finishing up our final bosses and quests, including an extra stage (return of Suwako?!). Afterwards, the whole team is joining up on cleanup duty as we polish all the nooks and crannies and smack down bugs.

As always, thanks for the support! Omake:

Buenos dias! We’re late this week on the blog post, oops. But the team continues to steadily move forward.

A big point: we finally created the introductory scene, showcasing Sanae’s story in the world of reality. For us players, we see only a short walk through Moriya Shrine, but for Sanae, it’s her childhood growing up with two gods. Also bonus: short-haired child Sanae!! A super cute addition.

This introduction seed should (hopefully) plant the storyline for the rest of RAIN Project, leading Sanae to explore an unknown Gensokyo. Nearing the end of her adventure, Sanae’s past will return in stunning fashion. Without spoiling too much, let’s say that Sanae will experience a coming-of-age story of her own — overcoming her past to move forwards into a brighter future.

On the topic of the other levels, backgrounds for a bunch of the stages have been drawn and are ready to put in the game. We need to do a bunch of tweaking to make the parallax look nice, but the assets should basically be wrapped up.

The goal for this week: finish the Pillars (Tenshi) level!! And also the boss fight. This has been in progress for like a month now — and this will be the final week. Tenshi has the most hand-drawn animation frames out of any boss, so it’s sure to be a good fight.

Mobs for the Pillars level, and quests for the Cave level are completed as well. It finally feels like we’re reaching the end. Just 6 more weeks to go!

It's an exiting day my friends! We're finally at a point where we can comfortably release a beta build. If you'd like to try out the game and help us with feedback, check out the info below.

We're releasing this beta build so you guys can try out the game, but it's also so we can get feedback on what's fun and what needs more work. Please please please leave your comments after you play for a bit, so we can improve the game. Especially if you see any bugs, let us know where they appeared and we can fix it.

This build contains the Bamboo Forest (Mokou's stage), the Farmlands (Hina's stage) and the Kappa Valley (Nitori's stage).

There's also a bunch of optional side quests spread out through the levels. A little notification should pop up every time you complete one. If you want to make sure you see all the content there is, here's a list of the side quests we have so far:
- Bamboo: Keine's request
- Bamboo: Spike jump quest
- Bamboo: Stone shrine miniboss
- Farmland: Giant Frog miniboss
- Farmland: Harvest festival collect quest
- Farmland: Shizuha and Minoriko miniboss
- Kappa Valley: Toolbox retreival
- Kappa Valley: Bomb-breakable wall
- Kappa Valley: Bomb jump quest

We haven't built a tutorial yet so here's the controls. Use WASD to move, aim with your mouse, and left-click to attack. Once you unlock dashing, use right-click to perform a dash.

This beta is mainly to test out gameplay. The real storyline on release is probably going to change from what it is right now.

Here it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QuX1yr1mI1mE344Vht1ApV1t-if3xKRz/view?usp=sharing
If you're on Windows, make sure you download the Rain_Data folder or the game won't launch properly.

Also, in the popup at the beginning, choose "Fantastic" for the graphics setting or some weird textures might pop up.

To reset your save, delete PlayerDat.dat at (Mac) /Library/Application Support/Kirisame Jump/Rain Project or (Windows) AppData\LocalLow\Kirisame Jump\Rain Project

As always, thanks for the support and encouragement! If any issues arise, just let us know. Enjoy the rainy adventure with Sanae~

Guten morgen! This week comes with an exciting development. We’re aiming to have a playable Beta build of the game by the weekend! If you’re interested in trying it out, feel free to leave a comment below and we’ll set something up.

The big picture for this week was “cleanup”. Since we’re trying to get this playable build out, we had to go back and fix a ton of random bugs and features that never got finished. The game was like a buffet of all your favorite food, except no one had any forks or plates.

Anyway, the list of bugfixes and improvements includes:

• Fix one-way platform collisions
  
• Loading screens for levels
  
• Correct level boundaries
  
• Rework dialogue to support localization + new Suwako cutscenes!
  
• Fix particle system lag
  
• Finalize Aki spellcards

We’re going to continue on this cleanup duty until the build is in a playable state. In the meantime, progress is steadily moving on the next levels.

The Aya fight is basically done. I’m still thinking about how to make her final spellcard stand out — all the bosses so far have had some cool effect like Nitori’s reality marble (you’ll see!) and Hina’s festival. I just need to find one for Aya that also doesn’t make the fight impossible.

The boss fight for Tenshi has been planned out, and the spritework should be done by the end of the week. Let’s look forward to that, the Tenshi fight will be a fun one. Assets for the mobs in Tenshi’s pillar level are a bit behind schedule but they’re getting done.

Finally, the soundtrack for the game is nearing completion! Check out a sample:

Suwako's theme[rainprojectdotcom.files.wordpress.com]