Deep Dive: The art and science of creating weather in Slime Rancher 2

gamedeveloper.com:

Game Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing series with the goal of shedding light on specific design, art, or technical features within a video game in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.

Earlier installments cover topics such as how indie developer Mike Sennott cultivated random elements in the branching narrative of Astronaut: The Best, how the developers of Meet Your Makeravoided crunch by adopting smart production practices, and how the team behind Dead Cells turned the game into a franchise by embracing people-first values.

In this edition, the creators of Slime Rancher 2's new weather system provide personal insights into the development process and the experiential impact they hope it will have on players.

The new weather system is a dynamic element that adds depth to the game world without compromising its core aesthetic. It introduces a layer of atmosphere beyond slime interactions, allowing players to experience the same zones in different ways depending on the weather. It provides players with more ways to immerse themselves in the game world, encompassing a range of weather elements, from pollen and wind to rain and lightning bolts.

Each team and its members had a unique role in bringing the weather system to life, and we’d like to walk you through how we collaborated to bring this experience together. By way of introduction, we are:

What sets the weather system apart from previous updates in Slime Rancher 1 and 2 is how our teams explored various environmental changes. Experimentation helped us refine what sorts of experiences we wanted to deliver with weather, making it a perfect fit for the game's evolving world. Delivering fresh experiences