Rain World was released in 2017 by indie studio Videocult, casting the player as a slugcat separated from its family and trying to survive predators and flooding rains. The creature never speaks, communicating only through body language and small animal noises, which helped its fan nicknamed wawa vocalisations stand out. As Rain World clips and fan art spread on YouTube, TikTok and gaming forums in the following years, players began isolating those mews as a standalone reaction sound for anything small, lost, sleepy or in need of comfort.