Slime Rancher Hits 3 Million Copies Sold Milestone!
Ranchers,
When we started our journey on the Far, Far Range, it was just a few close friends and a dream to build something new and exciting. Years later, we are beyond humbled to share with you that Slime Rancher has sold more than three million copies!
It’s an understatement to say we have made more friends than we could have hoped for and could never have imagined so many people would become part of Bea’s story.
Today, we want to thank every person who believed in us and took up a vac-pak to explore our beloved Slime Rancher universe and share your stories with us.
To celebrate, Slime Rancher is 65% off on Steam.
We have so many exciting things planned for the world of Slime Rancher, and we thank our lucky slime stars we get to continue our story with you.
To be one of the first to hear Slime Rancher news, exciting upcoming community events like Slimetober, and more, follow us on Twitter: @MonomiPark
Filled with appreciation, Your friends, Monomi Park
Ranchers, rejoice: The Quantum Plush from ForFansByFans.com is available for pre-order!
The quantum slime plush is phasing into our reality August 1 to join the other ForFansByFans plushies available, including the Party Gordo, Tiger Tabby, Lucky Slime, and more!
So pre-order yours today, cuddle up while you play, and create your very own temporal paradox at home. Get yours here!
Pool Party Update
Hey ranchers! Today, we've got a little summer-fun update for you today :slimetabby:
Slime Rancher v1.4.2 is primarily focused on further improving performance, adding a few community-requested features, plus some additional bug fixes and back-end tweaks.
New Fashion & Playset
Party Fashion - With these super rad Party Glasses, your slimes will be the stars of the party! Just note that the Party Hat + Glasses combo is a unique fashion for our VIPG (Very Important Party Gordo).
Scuba Playset - This new Playset includes a Scuba Fashion Pod and Octo Buddy Toy! Slimes that are wearing the Scuba Fashion love to play with their best pool-pal, Octo.
Find two new Treasure Pods to unlock these Fashion Pods!
Workshop Disposal
Things were starting to get a little crowded down in Viktor's Workshop so he built a recycling system to help keep the place tidy. Go ahead and toss any unwanted items or slimes into the water chute and Viktor will see to it that they are recycled or released back into the Far, Far Range!
Minimal HUD
Have you ever wanted to take a little break from ranching and just enjoy the sunset in the Ancient Ruins or the sunrise over the Moss Blanket? Give the 'Minimal HUD' option a try!
Be sure you're extra careful if you use it while exploring! You may find your jetpack has run out of energy halfway through a risky jump across a wide canyon that spans across the Slime Sea... ːslimescaredː
Patch Notes
New Features: - Now every day can be Friday once you’ve unlocked the new Party Fashion Pod (party hats not included). - Make a splash with the Scuba Playset! - Added a “Minimal HUD” feature so you can relax and enjoy the scenery.
Changes: - Added a disposal mechanism to Viktor’s Workshop to help recycle any unwanted items. - Reduced the frequency in which the game will passively auto-save. - Added auto-save checkpoints after: a Slime Gate is opened, a Ranch Expansion is purchased, and a 7Zee Rewards Club level is purchased. - Gamepad now scrolls through menus quicker. Scroll through your dozens of ornaments faster than ever before! - Improve Gadget Mode messaging to better emphasize the ability to rotate gadgets. - A few ranchers accidentally deleted their collection of gold plorts and rare ornaments, so we made it take a little bit longer to demolish Silos. - Range Exchange icons will now change to reflect a slime’s active secret style (from the Secret Style Pack DLC).
Fixes: - Enhanced the delicious, smoky aroma of the charcoal brick toys to make them more exciting for fire slimes. - Added +5 luck to all lucky slimes to prevent them from being eaten by tarr. - Fixed an astrophysical anomaly that was causing phase lemons to shrink in size. - Also fixed a similar anomaly that was preventing phase lemon trees from casting shadows. - Fixed a bug related to the “Boop” achievement. - Fixed an issue with hunter largo mouths. - Fixed a missing music track that should play while relaxing by the Slime Sea at night. - Fixed a rare issue that you could run into while collecting gilded gingers. - Corrected some typos and grammatical errors in the Spanish and Russian translation. - Fixed a very science-y issue with quantum slimes. (It would take at least 6 years of University, plus a deep understanding of Slime Science to understand it fully, so we’ll just call it the “Failure to Duplicate Phenomenon”) - Fixed a bug where Range Exchange reward crates were not persisting between sessions. - Fixed a UI issue so mouse icons will properly display in tutorial popups. - Fixed an issue where the autosave icon wasn’t appearing when the game autosaved after a rancher got knocked out. - Fixed some bugs that were resulting in errors when trying to load an existing save. - Fixed an issue where Mochi’s Nimble Valley tutorials weren’t clearing properly. - [XB1/PS4] Fixed a number of pesky bugs that were the cause of a handful of game crashes. - [PS4] Fixed a graphical issue that was causing water to be extremely reflective.
There are even more Slime Rancher adventures in development, but we’re not ready to reveal them just yet! Look forward to getting a peek of what we have planned… when we’re ready ;)
Until then, stay wiggly!
Community & Dev Update
Hey ranchers!
Hope everyone is doing well and taking care of themselves. I wanted to share a quick update on what we've been up to and to point you towards some great community resources that can help you connect with other ranchers.
A few weeks ago, our studio transitioned to working remotely in order to ensure the safety of our team and our families. While video calls are not our preferred way to collaborate with each other, we are still working hard on building new adventures for you to experience in addition to the next Slime Rancher update.
What's Next
Slime Rancher update v1.4.2 will bring some new bits of content, but is primarily focused on improving performance, adding a few community-requested features, and some additional back-end tweaking. We will be sharing more information on this update in the coming weeks.
Slime Rancher Fan Forge
Last month, we partnered with For Fans By Fans to launch a Slime Rancher Fan Forge!
We’ve already seen a ton of amazing community designs come through, but we would love to see you submit your artwork and vote on all of your favorite designs.
Here are just a few of our favorites, which is yours?
Keep an eye out for another announcement showcasing merchandise from all of the top community designs in just a few weeks!
While the opening round of submissions is all wrapped up, you can still submit and vote on artwork in the Fan Forge. For Fans By Fans will continue to choose top community designs to be printed as official Slime Rancher merchandise!
I'm honestly running out of room on my shelves. They were literally overflowing with slime plushies already and then they had to go and make not one, not two, but three perfect little plushies. How dare they do this to me!?
And the list is about to get longer with all the new community designs coming out later this April... :slimescared:
Staying Connected
We're hard at work on lots of new stuff at Monomi Park and we can't wait to share what we have planned with you.
Remember to sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter if you want to stay up-to-date on any Slime Rancher or Monomi Park news. (Trust me, you’ll want to be the first to know about what we have planned next)
We'd also love to see what you've been up to on your ranch. If you recently redecorated, snapped a cute photo of your pet tabby slime, or created some adorable Slime Rancher art... share it with us! Either in the Steam Community Hub or on your favorite social media channels.
You can tag us directly using one of the @'s above or use #slimerancher on your posts. We're always ready to like, favorite, and share your colorful creations.
Thank you for being such an amazing community. Until next time...
Stay safe and stay wiggly! :slimehappy:
Welcome to Wiggly Wonderland!
Happy Holidays, ranchers!
We’re excited to bring Wiggly Wonderland back again this year! This festive, limited-time event celebrates the end of another year on the Far, Far Range.
Starting December 18, you will receive daily visits from the mysterious “twinkle slime.” Find the twinkle slime and collect its special gifts! :slimeamazed:
Every day between Dec 18 - 30 (local time), the twinkle slime will appear somewhere on the Far, Far Range. Follow the music to find the twinkle slime and receive a collection of musical chimes.
We’ll be posting hints on where the twinkle slime has been spotted, so check our Twitter around 9AM (PT) throughout the event for a hint on each day’s location.
Chime Instruments
Chimes are mysterious motes of energy that are produced by the twinkle slime. If you touch them, they vibrate and emit a musical note! Many ranchers who have collected them like to arrange the chimes in a way that creates song-like compositions.
We’ve recently discovered a way to alter the chimes to sound like different musical instruments! Find the twinkle slime to unlock special instruments for your chimes. Use the Chime Changer to compose new songs and fill your ranch with joy this holiday season!
Remember to share your musical creations by tagging them with #WigglyWonderland on Twitter and Instagram!
Holiday Giveaway
To help celebrate the season of giving, we’ve put together a holiday giveaway for you to join! This year, we’re giving away a MEGABUNDLE of Slime Rancher goodies including:
Autographed Collector's Edition of Slime Rancher (PS4 or XB1)
Key for Slime Rancher on Steam (for you or to gift to a friend!)
Winner will be selected January 6th and will be contacted through the email used on your Gleam entry.
Good luck, have fun, and happy holidays! ːslimehappyː
Patch Notes
New to Wiggly Wonderland: - 5 Chime Instruments have been added to this year’s event. Unlock them by finding the twinkle slime 5 times throughout the event. (For those doing the math: yep, you just need to find the twinkle slime 5 out of the 13 times it will appear over the next two weeks!) - There's a bonus instrument unlock for anyone who finds the twinkle slime on the final day of Wiggly Wonderland (December 30th). - Added a Chime Changer gadget to the ranch so you can customize what your chimes sound like. Once you unlock an instrument, go to the Chime Changer to choose which instrument you like best! The selected instrument will apply to all chimes on your ranch or on the range. - We added a 13th chime, the high C, so you can enjoy a full chromatic scale!
Changes: - Added new Party Gordo ornaments. Look forward to collecting these next year! - Updated the game credits to include new folks who have joined our team. - Added a code flag to help us better parse errors between different game states. - Adjusted how chime sound effects play when multiple chimes are together. - Adjusted how things collide in the ash trough to reduce the frequency of fire slime escapes. - Updated some vac slot colors so they better reflect the objects being vac’d. - Adjusted the Chicken Cloner crafting requirements to be more scientifically improbable. - Moved a treasure pod from behind the Lab to inside of the Lab. - Added a Slimepedia entry for ornaments.
Fixes: - Fixed an error that would appear when the game was being played in some languages. - Fixed a scene loading bug that could cause the game to crash. - Fixed a bug where the fire around fire slime plorts would be extinguished. - Improved gadget sites so gadgets should appear more grounded. - Fixed a visual bug with the slow fields in the Nimble Valley. - [PS4/XB1] Made a change so that phase lemons would look correct in this reality. - [PS4] Fixed an issue that could cause you to lose input control after being knocked out.
We're very excited for this year's Wiggly Wonderland and we can't wait to see all of your decorated ranches and musical creations! (Remember to tag your posts with #WigglyWonderland!)
Thank you for helping us celebrate another year of wiggly fun! ːslimehappyː
EDIT - Dec 25th: Updated the instrument unlock description to be more accurate. The 6th instrument is unlocked on the final (13th) day of Wiggly, not on the 6th day of seeing the twinkle slime.
The Original Soundtrack II is Now Available!
The Slime Rancher Original Soundtrack II + The Casey Sessions completes your collection with music from every update since launch! ːslimeamazedː
Also featured in this album are a collection of "Casey Sessions"
The Casey Sessions are personal songs played by Casey after reading starmails about Beatrix’s adventures across the Far, Far Range. Sit back, relax, and listen to some of your old favorites, re-imagined for this special soundtrack release!
There are 22 tracks (that's over 70 minutes of music) for you to enjoy, so go on, explore the music of the Wilds! Download the bit-tastic Slimeulation remixes! Or spend the weekend jamming along to the Party Gordo theme!
Keep an eye out for Wiggly Wonderland announcements (and giveaways) starting early next week ːslimehappyː
Wiggly Wonderland 2019 - Coming Soon!
Update version 1.4.1 helps prepare Slime Rancher for Wiggly Wonderland!
We're very excited for Wiggly Wonderland to begin and we can't wait to see all of your decorated ranches and musical creations! ːslimehappyː
There will be plenty of fun surprises happening both on the Far, Far Range and outside of the game. Make sure you're following Monomi Park on your favorite media spots so you don't miss a thing.
Stay tuned for more info on Wiggly as we get a little bit closer to the event
December 5, 2019 - 1.4.1b
- Fixed an issue on Linux that was making it impossible to start the game. - Fixed a bug where language settings were not saving between restarts. - Fixed an issue where some regions were not able to open/create games due to regional settings. - Added mono support back to the Windows version of the game.
December 10, 2019 - 1.4.1c
- Fixed some errors that were resulting in game crashes. - Adjusted a text issue that was impacting some regions. - Other minor adjustments and bug fixes.
Collect A Halloween Treat
It's spooky season and the Party Gordo has a sweet Halloween treat for any rancher who is brave enough to find him! Pop the Party Gordo and break Party Crates to get a burst of Jack-o'-lantern ornaments!
But don't delay, as this unique ornament will only be available for TWO DAYS! Collect as many as you can between Oct 30 and until midnight on Oct 31 (local time) before they disappear ːslimescaredː
Share your ornament collection and all of your spooky decorations with us on Twitter @MonomiPark
DLC & OST on Sale!
Plus, it wouldn't be Halloween without a pile of treats! Grab the Secret Style Pack and the Original Sound track while they're on sale this week!
Hello! My name is Ian McConville, and I'm the Principle Artist at Monomi Park.
For Slime Rancher's 1.4.0 update, I rebuilt nearly all of the slime related shaders from the ground up! One of the most notable of these changes is that the slime faces are now more detailed and, at the same time take up less memory.
Let's take a look at how the new shaders work!
Texture - Changing the Channel! The first thing we do when building a slime is we start with a special, custom RGBA texture. A single RGBA texture file actually contains 4 greyscale images, and each image is used as a special mask that will dictate where artist defined colors will go on the face.
The R (red) channel is used for the eyes.
The G (green) channel is a highlight color for the eyes.
The B (blue) channel is a secondary eye color, but not used in this case.
The A (alpha) is used for the Mouth.
For now, we'll focus on the R and A channels. These will be our main face mask.
Now you're probably wondering why the mask is so FUZZY. Well, the reason is that the mask is actually a Distance Field.
These fuzzy masks will allow for much higher detail than a standard rasterized texture could, even at larger resolutions! (The texture itself is only 64x64 pixels in size, which is roughly 1/4th the size of the face textures from Slime Rancher 1.3.0's faces).
This is done by applying a very simple layer style to a high resolution mask of the mouth:
And then in the shader, we use a process called Smooth Step to sharpen the mask. Using the fuzzy values of the image we can find clean, crisp edges hidden in the texture.
This process costs a little performance at run time, but is actually cheaper on texture memory. It also has the added bonus of being extremely sharp, even when the slime is very very close to the player!
A regular texture, at the same resolution, without distance fields would look no where near as good. Even when using the Smooth Step process.
Eyes - Adding some Sparkle! So now we have a super clean, crisp mask to work with for our eyes and mouth! It looks even sharper than the original high resolution version of the mask we started with.
Before we get to the mouth, we'll begin with the eyes. The eyes make use of the RGB channels, but again, in this case we won't be using B.
1) In the first image, we see the original texture file masked by the Eye Mask.
2) If we take only the R channel and multiply that by a dark color (color1) we'll get a flat, black eye.
3) Then we'll do the same with the G channel and add that to the colored R channel.
Then, using a simple node setup in the shader, some glints are generated. A UV offset is applied to the glints so that they move with the player's view.
Once we have this, it's added to the rest of the eyes.
The results: A nice (fake) glint is applied to the eye!
It's super cheap as it doesn't actually take the lighting information in to consideration, but it's very satisfying to look at :slimeamazed:
There's a lot more that goes into the eyes, but that was the main parts. Here's a quick glance at what the entire Eye section of the shader graph looks like.
Now then, it's time to move on to the mouth.
Mouth - Wide Smile! The mouth is just a sticker applied to the slime's body, but we still want it to feel like a 3D hole in the surface.
To start, we need the back of the mouth. The warm red tones! This is simply a gradient with a severe depth offset.
An extra visual treat, new to 1.4.0, is that slimes finally have visible tongues! This is achieved with a little shader trickery to make a circle and then a depth offset to set it in the back of the mouth.
This is added to the previous gradient before it gets colorized. Subtle, but it makes a big difference in believing that the mouth has depth :slimehappy:
The nice thing about using the distance fields for the mouth mask is that we can adjust the smoothstep and get different sizes for the mouth. By layering various sizes of the mouth with different depths, we can get a pretty believable mask.
Then we multiply the mask over our big red gradient + tongue.
And that's the mouth!
Again, same with the eyes, there's a lot more subtly that goes into the effect. Here's a glance at the full mouth shader:
Getting Wiggly - Final Touches! It's time to put everything together. This is almost done, but we're missing a little something to make the face feel gooey-wiggly-wobbly.
The eye and mouth texture has a UV input that we can modify for some extra noise. With a little adjusting of the wobbly values, we can make the static face warble-wander all over the place!
And there you have it!
By swapping out our original face texture into this shader we can make all sorts of slime faces with nice, clean edges and plenty of fake depth.
Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this and other improvements with the Slime Rancher 1.4.0 release!
Stay wiggly :slimehappy:
Viktor’s Experimental Update is HERE!
Login to Viktor’s Experimental Update!
Join Viktor Humphries and test his simulated reality of the Far, Far Range. Well, a work-in-progress version anyway... Watch the trailer here :slimeamazed:
This update is jam-packed with cutting-edge ranch tech including: Advanced Drones to help with daily chores, a (questionably useful) Chicken Cloner, and a whole collection of wacky gadgets designed by Viktor himself! There’s also a new zone, new ranch expansion, and a new slime!
Viktor’s Slimeulation: Viktor has been working on a virtual re-creation of the Far, Far Range and it’s full of bugs. Well, glitches. Well… glitch slimes to be exact.
- Viktor will invite you to his Workshop after you’ve unlocked the Ruins, purchase the Lab Ranch Expansion, unlocked Treasure Cracker MKII, and then successfully complete a Range Exchange request with him.
- Travel to Viktor’s Workshop and login to his Slimeulation.
- Use Viktor's patented debug spray to reveal hidden glitch slimes and vac them up before they disappear!
- Try to collect as many glitch slimes as you can before the simulation becomes corrupted.
- Once the corruption starts to spread, Viktor will open an exit portal for you; make a break for it before things get out of control and escape the Slimeulation safely!
Glitch Slimes: Glitch slimes are hiding everywhere inside Viktor's Slimeulation and it's up to you to help him capture, quarantine, and research them before they spread! Be extra careful while exploring: taking damage from the corruption could give those tricky glitch slimes a chance to wiggle out of your tank!
Glitch slimes will turn into bug reports after you leave the Slimeulation. Turn in your collection of bug reports for unique rewards and mysterious manifold cubes you can use to craft new gadgets.
New Gadgets! It wouldn't be a very science-y update without a ton of new slime science gadgets! Help Viktor wrangle glitch slimes and he’ll reward you with a smattering of useful gadgets he’s been developing!
Advanced Drones These new-and-improved drones can handle not one, but TWO programs! Talk about advanced! Set a primary AND a secondary task to keep these busy bees busy while you’re busy being breezy.
Portable Water Tap Water taps are a small, placeable water source that can be used to refill your tank if there aren’t ponds nearby.
Chicken Cloner This is an experimental gadget constructed by one of Viktor’s scientific peers and, when it works, it creates a perfect clone of any chicken. When it doesn’t, well, that’s a data point at least!
Slime Bait Fruit, Veggie, and Meat Slime Bait can be placed around your ranch or out in the Far, Far Range to attract slimes who favor that type of food.
Portable Scareslime Place this on your ranch to keep slimes away from things they shouldn’t be around or… ːslimescaredː
Dash Pad Ready, set, RUN! Use the Dash Pad to instantly refill your energy levels so you never need to slow down!!!
The Decorizer This new storage device allows you to store, clean up, and manage decorative ranch items (ornaments, echoes, etc.) with the press of a button! Deck out your ranch and then clean it all up in a snap.
The Decorizer can be unlocked via the 7Zee Rewards Club as a mid-tier reward (it will already be available for ranchers who have unlocked or surpassed Silver Storm I).
The Secret Style Pack:
We are also excited to announce that the Secret Style Pack is now available for purchase! It’s an all-new downloadable content pack for Slime Rancher!
Search for special treasure pods throughout the Far, Far Range and discover each slime's unique secret style. Once discovered, you will be able to re-style every slime of that type whenever you choose!
This new DLC pack adds 20 slime styles for you to find and unlock. Learn more over on the Steam store page:
Note: Secret styles do not affect gordos as the gordos in the world, and their appearances, are an important part of game progression and we didn’t want to make it confusing to new players. This may change in a future update after further evaluation.
Visual Updates: - Slimes got a facelift! The art tech we developed for the Secret Style Pack resulted in all slimes getting new, crisper, more detailed faces with added depth. The new, beautified faces are available for every rancher with this update.
- Added a new animation for boom slime explosions (they may be prettier, but they are still very dangerous. Please observe with caution!)
- Added new tutorial popups which replace the old lightbulb animation with stuff like: an even more adorable Beatrix, slimes doing slime things, and so on. Is it worth restarting the game and playing for hundreds more hours just to see these new tutorial images? Maybe...
- Updated Viktor’s Range Exchange icon.
Other Changes: - Added the option to disable basic, advanced, or all tutorials.
- Added new Slimepedia entries for Ogden’s Kookadoba Hunt, Mochi’s Quicksilver Job, and Viktor’s Slimeulation Testing that you can reference if you need a refresher on what to do.
- Lowered gadget fabrication requirements to unlock Treasure Cracker Mk II (from 35 to 20) and Mk III (from 100 to 50).
- Updated the translation of “Tabby Slime” in the Korean translation.
- Updated the game credits to include all the new team members that help make Slime Rancher here at Monomi Park! <3
- chikKns
Fixes: - Drone pathing got an update so they should buzz harder, better, faster, smarter.
- Phosphor largos will now disappear in the sun when the are carried outside.
- Fixed an issue where puddle plorts in silos weren’t being collected by drones when you left the ranch.
- Fixed a bug on Xbox that caused crates to appear blacked out.
- Improved the performance of clouds. This was a very complicated change but technically speaking we made them ‘do cloud stuff better.’
- Other various visual improvements to some terrain and structures.
Let us know what you think about Viktor’s Update and the Secret Style Pack on Twitter!
Until next time, stay wiggly and happy ranching! ːslimehappyː
June 19, 2019 - v1.4.0b - Fixed a visual bug relating to the skybox
- Fixed an issue with Advanced Drones program assignment
June 27, 2019 - v1.4.0c - Corrected a few minor bugs related to dialog boxes getting stuck on the screen. This should fix most cases of this, but if you are still experiencing it please contact support@monomipark.com
- Fixed a graphical issue when running the game with OpenGL drivers.
- Other minor fixes.
Aug 5, 2019 - v1.4.0d - Fixed a Drones catch-up issue with Mochi's and Ogden's ranch.
- Minor translation corrections.
