Patch 0.10 – Beyond the Arena
Four months of development. A new way to play. New characters. New armies. New lore. New systems. And a whole lot more chaos.
Riftborn has grown beyond the arena.
Since April, I've been continuously building, testing, breaking, rebuilding, balancing, recording, optimizing, and expanding the game. Some ideas started small and became entire systems. Others changed completely along the way.
The biggest of those experiments became Covered Wagon Mode, a persistent journey that takes Riftborn's battles onto the road.
But that was only the beginning.
Magitings have arrived. Fate Drops have expanded the Gilgamesh lore. New armies are entering the Rift. AI and targeting have been reworked. The battlefield has been visually rebuilt. Audio has undergone a massive pass. New status effects have been introduced. And months of performance work have gone into supporting increasingly ridiculous battles.
This is the biggest Riftborn update yet.
Four Months in the Rift
April – The Arena Begins Changing
New creatures entered the battlefield. Melee feedback improved. The arena itself started transforming, and the first pieces of the Bull of Heaven were put into place.
May – Fate Takes Shape
The Fate Drop system was born.
The battlefield received a major visual overhaul, new lore work began, and the first pieces of what would become a much larger Gilgamesh expansion started coming together.
June – The Lore Awakens
Utnapishtim. Ishtar. Ninsun. Ereshkigal. Spirit Enkidu. Shamash. Shamhat. Anu.
The Gilgamesh side of Riftborn expanded dramatically with new encounters, abilities, effects, art, VO, Cataclysm work, and a major audio push.
July – Riftborn Leaves the Arena
On July 2nd, I tested the first version of a strange new mode.
My development note that day was:
"It's fun!"
That experiment became Covered Wagon Mode.
From there came wagons, road events, persistent progression, Luna Blessings, specialists, journey UI, enemy caravan growth, Mega Wagons, Expeditions, Bazaars, and more.
By July 11th, the expanded Gilgamesh Lore was also officially complete.
August – Everything Accelerates
AI rework.
More optimization.
Bombzo.
Pteranodons.
More environments.
Knights.
Skeleton armies.
And then...
Magitings.
King Majax entered first.
Ozzodight followed.
With him came Soul Wither, new ranged status-effect architecture, Bone Archers, Skeleton Warriors, and yet another way for a battle to descend into absolute nonsense.
And that brings us here.
MAJOR NEW FEATURE: COVERED WAGON MODE
Riftborn now has an entirely new way to play.
Covered Wagon Mode turns individual battles into a persistent journey.
Build your caravan, survive encounters, travel the road, improve your wagons, and see how long you can keep moving through an increasingly dangerous Rift.
What started as a small experiment in early July grew throughout the entire month and into August.
Covered Wagon Features
• Persistent game-mode progression
• Red and Blue faction wagons
• Expanding road-event system
• +6 additional road events added during development
• Luna Blessings
• Used as part of the player's campaign survival
• Defeat can permanently cost a Luna Blessing
• Enemy wagon strength grows as the journey continues
• Covered Wagon-specific UI improvements
• Bazaar locations
• Expeditions
• Armorer upgrades
• +1 Wagon Health
• Engineer upgrades
• +1 Wagon Top Speed
• Mega Wagons
• Wagon pickups
• Wagon pickups can also appear outside Covered Wagon Mode
• Boost pickups removed from Covered Wagon Mode to better support its progression structure
• Rolling wheel audio
• Fully animated wagon wheels
• Improved wagon colors and visual identification
• Reduced unnecessary wagon audio overlap during large battles
• Campaign victory distance expanded
Covered Wagon Mode continued receiving updates nearly every week throughout July and August and has become one of the largest systems currently in Riftborn.
MAGITINGS HAVE ARRIVED
A new class of battlefield character has entered the Rift.
King Majax
King Majax is in!
The first Magiting enters with his signature ability:
Rally
Majax can encourage allied forces around him, turning himself into a powerful battlefield leader capable of changing the momentum of a fight.
Additional Majax work includes:
• Full Magiting introduction audio
• Rally ability implementation
• Increased chance for Majax to enter the battlefield
• Improved Magiting announcement presence
• VO timing and pacing improvements
Ozzodight
The evil wizard has arrived.
Ozzodight is complete and brings an entirely new style of army with him.
Rather than fighting alone, Ozzodight brings Skeleton forces into battle and introduces one of Riftborn's first major stacking combat effects.
Soul Wither
Skeleton attacks can now damage more than health.
Soul Wither applies a stacking slow effect to its victims.
As stacks accumulate, affected units become increasingly sluggish and can eventually struggle to move at all.
Soul Wither also naturally alleviates over time, creating a battlefield tug-of-war between escaping the Skeleton army and becoming overwhelmed by it.
Ozzodight's Forces
• Skeleton Warriors
• Bone Archers
• Specialized Skeleton attacks
• Short-range Soul Wither bursts
• Glowing-eye effects
• Soul Wither now supported by ranged attacks
• Ranged status-effect system heavily refactored to support the new mechanics
• Skeleton VO and battlefield audio
They're crunchy.
Very crunchy.
FATE DROPS & THE GILGAMESH LORE EXPANSION
What began as a new pickup experiment became a much larger lore system.
Fate Drops have arrived.
Fate Drops create special opportunities for characters, events, and interventions from the wider Gilgamesh mythos to suddenly enter a match.
The system has received months of iteration to make these moments easier to recognize, hear, catch, and understand during battle.
Gilgamesh Lore Expansion
New lore content includes work surrounding:
• Utnapishtim
• Ishtar
• Ninsun
• Urshanabi
• Ereshkigal
• Spirit Enkidu
• Shamash
• Shamhat
• Anu
• Bull of Heaven
Several characters bring their own battlefield interactions, including summons, boosts, environmental effects, wind, Cataclysms, and more.
Fate Drop Improvements
• Ambient Fate Drop audio added
• Fate Drop movement significantly reduced for better readability
• Increased time available to intercept Fate Drops
• Height and movement behavior adjusted
• Collectible spheres added around pickups
• Major visibility improvement during chaotic battles
• Added protection against rapidly moving Fate Drops being collected twice
• Expanded Fate Drop functionality and event variety
• Extensive VO implementation
Gilgamesh Lore Audio
A huge VO and audio pass was completed across the Gilgamesh roster.
Gilgamesh Lore development was officially marked complete on July 11th.
NEW & EXPANDED FORCES
The Rift continues getting more crowded.
Cows!
Yes.
Cows.
• Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Cows introduced
• Animation issues corrected
• Higher-level Cow acceleration and turning improved
• Fixed Cows occasionally attacking with their butt because apparently that was a problem I had to solve
Bull of Heaven
The Bull of Heaven has progressed from its initial implementation into a much stronger battlefield presence.
• Announcer VO added
• Audio presence increased
• Attack-box fixes
• Improved battlefield announcement behavior
Knights
A new humanoid army has entered development and is now appearing in-game.
• Knight Level 1
• Knight Level 2
• Knight Level 3
• Randomized skin selection introduced for greater army diversity
Bombzo
Bombzo development has entered the battlefield.
• Character implementation and tuning
• Announcer VO
• Explosion investigation and balancing
• Improved explosion scaling against units
• Persistent smoke after explosions
Pteranodons
Pteranodon development has also begun making its way into the build.
• Flight-system work
• Attack-box improvements
• VO implementation
• Audio priority and distance adjustments
And yes, some of the Pteranodon VO features my son.
COMBAT & AI
August brought one of the largest attempts yet to improve how Riftborn's armies actually think and fight.
Internally, this became part of what I called:
The Angel Initiative.
AI Improvements
• Major targeting-system improvements
• Reduced strange targeting behavior
• Improved large-army combat decision making
• Ranged units better recognize when they are actively performing ranged attacks
• Attack-box behavior improved across multiple units
• Melee attack boxes now disable on death
• Dead bodies can no longer continue killing nearby units
• Pteranodon and Myrkbat attack boxes heavily adjusted
• Myrkbat flight behavior now changes depending on its current state
• Bat flight system refactored
• Spawning logic simplified to reduce unnecessary compounded checks
• Updated spawning rates
• Previous unit-cap restrictions removed from the updated system
Melee Feedback
• Melee Hit Poofs added throughout combat
Hits should now communicate more clearly during large fights.
PICKUP SYSTEM OVERHAUL
The underlying pickup system received one of its largest refactors yet.
Pickup Changes
• Pickup selection moved toward a new roll-based system instead of relying entirely on static selection behavior
• Pickup spawning logic cleaned up
• Improved debugging tools for pickup testing
• Fixed a major opening-spawn issue that caused pickups to form a line across the southern side of the battlefield
• Added safeguards against double-collecting fast Fate Drops
• Reworked duplicate/category selection logic
• Special loot-category chances adjusted
• Moonstone, Token, and Collection Wagon chances increased
• Boost values doubled
• Boosts removed from Covered Wagon Mode
• Wagon additions integrated into summon pickup systems
Loot Barrels
• Loot Barrels are now operational
• Drop behavior adjusted
• Size and position improved
• Reward range expanded
BATTLEFIELD & ENVIRONMENT
The battlefield itself has changed substantially since Patch 0.09.
Arena Presentation
• Added a new Arena Backdrop
• Replaces the previous large noisy side elements
• Creates a stronger arena atmosphere
• Bloom and post-processing added across cameras
Terrain Overhaul
Terrain received a major visual rework.
• Reduced excessive terrain-detail noise
• Reduced oversized and overly bright environmental detail
• Battlefield visibility significantly improved
• Terrain prop density reduced
• Terrain layers visually reworked
The goal is simple:
Keep the chaos in the fight, not in the ground underneath it.
New Environment Sets
• Additional seasonal Tree Tile sets
• Fall variations
• Spring variations
• Winter variations
• +3 additional Tree Tile families later added
• Triple Cactus Tile added
• Cactus sizing reduced to prevent units becoming stuck
• Thorncrawl spine VFX added
VIEWING CAMERA
Spectating Riftborn has gotten substantially better.
Follow Mode
The Viewing Camera can now enter Follow Mode, allowing the camera to follow combatants around the battlefield.
This has made watching massive fights, AI battles, and Covered Wagon encounters considerably more enjoyable.
AUDIO OVERHAUL
A huge amount of work during this update happened in audio.
Not all of it is immediately visible in screenshots, but it dramatically changes how characters occupy the battlefield.
Audio Improvements
• Massive VO expansion across Gilgamesh Lore
• Champion VO finalization
• Ereshkigal VO updates
• Gilgamesh VO updates
• Spirit Enkidu VO updates
• Urshanabi VO updates
• Bull of Heaven announcer VO
• Bombzo announcer VO
• Magiting VO
• Ozzodight VO
• Skeleton VO
• Improved spatialization for Champion and Titan death VO
• Run, attack, projectile, and ability audio priority improvements
• Bull of Heaven audio radius increased
• Devastator audio priority improved
• Humbaba audio-presence issue corrected
• Shamash Wind Effect audio added
• Ereshkigal Firefly audio expanded
• Robo ranged attack audio retuned
• Rolling wagon audio added
• Reduced unwanted audio overlap in Covered Wagon Mode
• Maximum real voices increased
• 32 → 64
Riftborn's battlefield should now sound considerably fuller while better respecting which sounds actually need to be heard.
VISUAL EFFECTS
• Ereshkigal Firefly VFX improved
• More visible firefly emissions
• Improved explosion balance
• Deeper explosion audio
• Wagon smoke trails cleaned up
• Bombzo persistent smoke added
• Projectile sizes adjusted across Robo, Mummy, Ereshkigal, and ranged Teddy attacks
• Collectible visibility dramatically improved
• Rain and Snow effects optimized
BALANCE
A large number of units received tuning throughout development.
Collector
• Acceleration increased
• Mass increased
• Additional movement-speed improvements
The Collector should feel considerably more capable of moving through a chaotic battlefield.
Sir Cuddles
• Top Speed
• 14 → 20
• Acceleration
• 130 → 100
Spordy
Spordy received a significant aggression upgrade.
• Movement speed greatly increased
• Acceleration increased
• Mushroom summon frequency increased
• 20 seconds → 10 seconds
• Melee push force increased
• 100 → 300
Mini Collector
• Top Speed increased
• Acceleration increased
• Turn Speed increased
Shamhat
• Scale
• 1.5 → 2
• Health
• 20 → 30
Ereshkigal
• Attack timing slowed
• Impact increased
• Firefly collision heavily refined
T-Rex & Cryorn
• Pickup summon quantity increased
• 1 → 2
• T-Rex summon size reduced for improved battlefield readability
PERFORMANCE
There has been an enormous amount of performance work throughout these four months.
Riftborn keeps becoming more ridiculous, which means the systems underneath it have to keep evolving with it.
Optimization Work
• FPS-based adjustment system repeatedly refined
• AI update flow heavily revised
• Targeting performance improved
• Spawn processing reduced and simplified
• Bat flight refactored
• Rain emission significantly reduced
• Snow emission significantly reduced
• Rain and Snow audio reduced
• Heavy Cataclysm effects optimized
• Lob Teddy counts reduced where necessary
• Projectile and attack behavior optimized
• Particle-heavy pickup effects drastically reduced
• Approximately 1,350 → 450 particles per group
• Unit spawning rates adjusted
• Large-scale humanoid army behavior and counts rebalanced
• Additional late-battle performance safeguards added
Performance remains an ongoing priority as Riftborn continues pushing larger armies and increasingly chaotic interactions.
UI / MENU
• Main Menu terminology updated
• Winner Takes All → Showdown
• Seven Game Series Championship → Championship Series
• Main Menu button sizing improved
• Main Menu presentation adjusted
• MoonRift intro behavior improved
• Video can now be skipped more cleanly before menu interaction
• Team outline and tagging system updated
• Covered Wagon UI received repeated improvements throughout development
• Bazaar and Expedition visuals added
FIXES & POLISH
• Fixed Humbaba incorrectly appearing as a Cryorn pickup
• Fixed Bull of Heaven attack box
• Fixed Champion core attack-box sizing
• Fixed Robo incorrectly entering Rally behavior and standing still
• Fixed Collector VO incorrectly playing during Covered Wagon Mode
• Fixed Covered Wagon audio playing unnecessarily for both sides
• Fixed Cow turning and acceleration behavior
• Fixed Ereshkigal Firefly sizing
• Fixed some death explosions incorrectly playing on Awake
• Fixed Cactus sizes causing navigation problems
• Fixed major NavMesh issue discovered during early Covered Wagon testing
• Fixed projectile audio ranges on multiple ranged units
• Fixed several animation-loop issues
• Fixed pickup opening distribution issue
• Fixed several attack-box and collision inconsistencies
• Multiple rounds of testing, tuning, cleanup, and balancing across the entire roster
Dev Message
"Wow.
The last few months have been crazy.
Riftborn keeps evolving further into the hysteria, chaos, and quirkiness that makes it so much fun for me to build. Covered Wagon Mode started as an experiment. Fate Drops kept growing. New characters appeared. Magitings became a thing. Skeletons started damaging people's souls. At one point I had to fix cows attacking people with their butts.
You know. Game development.
If you actually read through all of these notes, you can probably tell I've been going at it.
There were great days, frustrating days, ideas that worked immediately, ideas that needed to be rebuilt, and even things right at the finish line that sent me straight back to the drawing board.
But that's been the process.
One step at a time. One strange idea at a time. Keep building.
And somehow, four months later, Riftborn has become a much bigger game than it was when this update began.
Thank you for playing, watching, giving feedback, or simply following along with this weird project of mine.
Enjoy the chaos.
More on the way!"
– Leo