Steam Game Festival 2021: Rain on Your Parade hands-on preview

Of all of the genres to become popular, few expected the troll simulator to become a hit. One might think that the type of game hit its peak with 2019's Untitled Goose Game. If you're one of those people, developer Unbound Creations is here to Rain on Your Parade. That's the title of this unique comedy game, where the goal is to introduce storms of misery onto unsuspecting people. We grabbed our umbrellas here at Shacknews and gave this game a look during this week's Steam Game Festival.

The premise for Rain on Your Parade is simple. Players take on the role of a cardboard rain cloud. The object is to bring down showers onto any humans in the area, giving them the soaking of a lifetime. That's as simple as hovering over a target and holding on the right button to turn on the showers. However, judging by what's in the demo, Unbound Creations mixes up the action beyond a simple soaking.

Players will find a series of levels, each with different objectives. Some of those will involve pouring water on "hoomans" trying to go about their normal routine. New and more complex objectives are introduced over time, including some that require filling the cloud with a different substance. Hovering over objects like oil or toxic waste barrels will change the cloud's liquid. This allows players to cause fires or corrode objects, which will complete some specific level requirements.

While many of Rain on Your Parade's stages are straightforward "soak the object" objectives, Unbound Creations does show some creativity in spots. For example, there's a "Dust" level that will look familiar to Counter-Strike fans. Here, there's a bomb that players must allow to explode. To do that, players must soak any of the counter-terrorists rushing onto the scene, which will send them walking away for a wardrobe change. While none of the demo's other stages stood out like Dust, it shows the potential of the fun that this game can offer.

The Rain on Your Parade demo ends with a more open world setting, closer to what's seen in the aforementioned Untitled Goose Game. But for this demo, I saw a lot of bite-sized levels and they show strong potential for mischievous fun. Those who like messing around with pesky NPCs may have a good time with this game, which could be a breakout indie title. Rain on Your Parade will release later this year on PC, but in the meantime, the demo is available to play as part of the Steam Game Festival.

This preview is based on an early Steam demo build. Rain on Your Parade's demo will be available in the Steam Game Festival 2021 and the game will launch in 2021 on PC via Steam.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?