🧩 Unlocks, Progression & Meta Systems We’ve completed the core implementation of the new skin and rider unlock system. Players can now clearly track their progress thanks to a new widget that shows how close they are to unlocking a rider using tokens.
Different claim sequences have also been implemented depending on the unlock state:
Owned fragments are converted into currency
New fragments are added to a visual puzzle
Fully completed unlocks trigger a final reveal sequence
In parallel, we’ve begun work on the rider unlock flow, following the same system as skins. Animations for random token claims and final polish are planned for the next sprint.
⚙️ Core Gameplay & Technical Improvements This sprint brought important improvements both in gameplay and on the technical side:
Improved enemy spawn validation, ensuring monsters appear correctly based on the level state
New enemy behavior in open areas, improving control and movement for flying enemies
A new collision editing tool that greatly simplifies the creation and iteration of level colliders
Colliders for Planet 2 are now fully completed, and we continue iterating on new planetary layouts. Enemy navigation graphs have also been updated to better support more organic level shapes.
We also carried out a major build-time optimization:
Build times were reduced from ~30 minutes to under 6 minutes
Finally, tutorial analytics tracking has been implemented, allowing us to analyze the player funnel and identify where players drop off during the early experience.
🧠 Characters, Enemies & Animation This sprint saw major progress in characters and enemies: Several new skins were added and updated for Jack, Sky, and Corrin, with visual improvements using our finalized low-poly workflow.
On the enemy side:
A new Armadillo enemy with three variants (A/B/C)
Initial animations implemented and tested in-game
Early development of desert kamikaze enemies
We also tested different enemy animation approaches (rigged, non-rigged, and vertex animations) to optimize performance. Additionally, an improved Katie character model has been integrated, with a clear in-game quality upgrade. We continue progressing on UI and meta animations for selection and overview screens.
🌍 Environments & Level Design Planet 2 is now fully finalized, including the Epoch level. We’ve also started development on Planet 2.2, a new desert biome.
To visually differentiate sub-planets without increasing asset count:
New foliage variations were added
Base assets were reused while adjusting rocks and vegetation to give each biome its own identity
Several levels (Balance, Marina, and others) were updated with this new foliage pass, maintaining gameplay consistency while improving visual readability.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support and feedback ❤️
➡️ Wishlist Raiders Rise on Steam ➡️ Join our Discord and take part in upcoming playtests
See you in the next update — and until then… keep raiding! 🚀