Riftwake

Our first game

Riftwake

A 3D survivors-like where your spells cast themselves and your job is to stay alive. Collect XP, pick upgrades and fuse elements as the rift grows more crowded.

Devlog

The road so far

Riftwake went from an empty Godot project to a ten-hero beta in about two months. These are the milestones along the way, from the first playable build to now.

1. Alpha 0.1 Sep 11, 2026

   First playable: can you survive the rift?

   The first build had one question to answer: is it fun to weave through a swarm, collect XP and stack six automatic spells? It was a full loop from title screen to run to results and back. Each run was a 20-minute Standard Rift on a wide-open ruined arena, with a rotating, zoomable camera and up to 1,800 enemies on screen. Fireball, Ice Lance and Chain Lightning were among the first spells. Survive the timer and you win, then the Final Surge shows how long you can last after that.

2. Tuning Sep 2026

   First playtest: make it hurt

   The first full playtest run was too comfortable, so pressure went up. Spawn rates nearly doubled, XP requirements climb 15% per level after level 10, and the last 30 seconds became a Last Stand with red-circled bombardments raining down. One loop also had to go: elite kills used to heal you, so more elites meant more healing.

3. Alpha 0.2 Sep 2026

   Nine elements and the Fusion Reactor

   The spell list tripled to 18, two for each of nine elements, and each element got its own personality: Fire explodes, Ice slows, Lightning chains, Earth staggers, Wind makes space, Arcane corrects its aim, Nature lingers, Dark amplifies and Light drains. Burn, poison and charge effects now interact. Three new enemies joined the swarm. The first Fusion Reactor let mastered spell pairs combine into something new. The soundtrack became a layered score that adds instruments as fights get more intense.

4. Systems

   Upgrades you choose

   Levelling up now offers a damage or size upgrade for each spell, instead of a single global Size Up relic. Item drops became configurable. The first elemental spell effects arrived, and enemy steering moved onto worker threads.

5. Progression Oct 2026

   The Sanctuary and a cast of heroes

   Runs now count for something between attempts. XP shards earn essence, which you spend at the Essence Forge on permanent health, damage, speed, reach and spell-size upgrades. Five wizards arrived: the Wanderer, Ember Warden, Tempest Seer, Grove Keeper and Eclipse Adept. Each has their own schools and resistances, and achievements unlock them. Rare battlefield spellbooks let you study a specific spell. The synthesized music gave way to a recorded soundtrack, with voiced intros.

6. World Late Oct 2026

   Beyond the grassland

   Level 1 got its real look: meadow, soil, limestone and grassland props. Clearing a level now unlocks the next one: the Dark Forest, the Stanky Swamp (home of double- and triple-size Crocagators), the Desert, the Snowy Mountains, the Volcano with impassable lava and falling molten rock, and the Caves, lit only by torches and glowing fungi. Every element's impacts, spell trails and enemy hit effects got new visuals, and a beta testing arena made it quick to try any build against any monster.

7. Beta 0.4 Nov 1, 2026

   Loot worth keeping

   A full inventory overhaul: eight equipment slots, a 32-slot bag for each hero and a shared stash for moving gear between them. Gear drops on the ground, and a loot filter keeps the clutter down. The Reliquary lets you spend essence to add new items to the drop pool. The Paladin joined the roster with a healing aura and sword-and-shield attacks.

8. Heroes Nov 4, 2026

   Steel joins the spells

   Four physical heroes arrived: the Warrior, Ranger, Barbarian and Assassin. They fight with attacks like Cleave, ScatterShot, Whirlwind and Backstab. Armor and critical strikes came with them, from the sturdy Warrior to the Assassin's 31% crit chance.

9. Performance Nov 4, 2026

   Building a swarm

   Keeping 1,800 enemies on screen meant rethinking how they're stored and drawn. Enemies now live in packed arrays and are drawn in batches. The hottest code paths moved to native code: steering dropped from 5.3 ms to 0.15 ms per frame, and drawing from 6.9 ms to 0.84 ms.

10. Content Nov 8, 2026

    Treasure caches, relics and bosses

    Some runs now hide a treasure cache behind a gate in the arena wall. Break the gate down and the monsters follow you inside. New relics add critical chance, critical damage and +10% damage for each school, and all 18 relics have new icons. Projectiles are bigger and glow, bosses spawn in the beta levels, and the Armory was reworked.

11. Ultimates Nov 9, 2026

    Every hero gets an ultimate

    Ultimates are the first manual ability in the game, on a 30-second cooldown. The Paladin's Divine Reprisal, the Eclipse Adept's Black Hole, the Ember Warden's Flamethrower, the Tempest Seer's Voltaic Cyclone and the Assassin's Shadow Cartwheel were joined by the Warrior's Relentless Onslaught, the Wanderer's Spellstorm, the Ranger's Reign of Arrows, the Barbarian's Blood Bath and the Grove Keeper's Venom Blast.

12. Up next

    Deeper, and on more screens

    Dark Depths, a pitch-dark level lit only by glowing fungi, is in preparation. Riftwake already runs natively on Steam Deck, has an Android test build and supports full controller remapping. Work is under way to take it to more platforms.