Rain Maker

How developers make the beloved moist sky bullets.

- Xalavier Nelson Jr.

The water cycle is one of the first scientific concepts you learn about. Water evaporates from the surface of the Earth, rising, accumulating, and condensing before returning to lakes and oceans in forms, such as rain, before beginning the process all over again. I don’t have to explain what rain is to you. You know rain. It’s a part of many of our daily lives, and among the most common stylistic elements in fiction. Considering its familiar nature, it’s surprising how little we know about how rain is created in videogames— and how widely these approaches can vary.

VFX artist Aaron Miller speaks to me about how Fireblade Software created the furious rainfall of naval roguelike Abandon Ship. “In