Hello Riftbreakers!
We hope that you’ve enjoyed what the Metal Terror World Expansion has brought to The Riftbreaker so far. This release doesn’t mean we’re going to slow down, though. Far from it! Here’s an update to our development roadmap and a short presentation of our plans for the future.
A lot has happened already since the launch of The Riftbreaker. We have released a total of 18 updates, both big and small, leading us to where we are today. With the first two major items on our old list checked off, we can talk about the next one - which is online co-op. This is THE hot topic regarding The Riftbreaker. We have already published a detailed article about it, but we can reiterate some basics for a quick tl;dr. The multiplayer mode has been in development since the beginning of this year. While a part of our programming team has been helping with developing the first World Expansion, others started reworking underlying game systems to accommodate multiple players. As of right now, we can tell you the following:
- We have the game running on multiple PCs connected over a network. There are still a lot of systems we have to port and lots of optimizations to be done.
- The project is far from over, but the most important things are already in place.
- The current implementation of co-op is really bare-bones and not ready for public scrutiny.
- We have shifted more programmers to the multiplayer project.
- We still don’t have any dates that we could announce in terms of when it’s going to be available for testing.
You can find the in-depth article about the development progress of the co-op mode right here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/780310/view/3381659291157676103
…but hey, that only takes up the work time of the programmers, so what are the rest of you going to do?
We are continuously working on improving the overall game experience and expanding the world of The Riftbreaker. You can still expect regular updates and patches from us. When it comes to the bigger picture, we have mapped out a few of the most important developmental milestones that we are working on in the general order that we expect them to be finished.
EXTENDED MODDING SUPPORT
Allowing our players to freely mod The Riftbreaker has always been very important for us. Many of you have already tried the possibilities that the Schmetterling Engine and our World Editor Suite give you with amazing results. However, we agree that mod distribution through Discord and multiple external websites is not the optimal solution. Not only does it limit mod discoverability, but also leads to a multitude of problems after a game update makes a mod incompatible with the game.
We are working on integrating an in-game mod browser that will benefit both mod users and mod creators. Users will be able to discover the latest mods and download them with just a couple of clicks. The built-in mod manager will let them choose which mods they want to run and inform them about any incompatibilities or potential issues. Creators, on the other hand, will no longer have to wonder where to upload their mods. They will also be able to easily update their mods as the development of the game progresses.
We are also planning to make modding even easier for you. The Riftbreaker World Editor Suite is a set of tools that we used to create the game. It is already available for download either through the Steam Tools section or directly through our GitHub - https://github.com/exorstudios/riftbreaker-tools. Thanks to all the feedback we’ve got from you on these tools, we have been able to make major improvements to our editors, introducing a multitude of new functions, as well as stability and performance improvements. The Editor Suite will keep receiving updates, extending its capabilities even further. We are also planning to release our Blender plugins for exporting/importing custom 3D meshes into the game. And for those of you in need of some guidance - more tutorial videos are coming to our YouTube channel. Subscribe not to miss them!
EXTENDED STORY CAMPAIGN
The Riftbreaker is the kind of game where you can spend hundreds of hours optimizing your bases, fighting alien hordes, and searching for the last possible resource deposit to mine out. Some players are happy to do just that, but there are also those who have signaled to us that there is not much to do after the main storyline is finished. We agree - there is a lot of room for improvement and expansion when it comes to the Story Campaign mode.
We are planning to introduce new, far-reaching campaign goals and a new system for generating additional randomized missions through the Orbital Scanner interface. We have received a lot of feedback stating that the Metal Terror campaign branch is much more varied and interesting than the base campaign. We’d love to bring the campaign missions to this level of quality or beyond.
Naturally, such missions would not be much fun if they didn’t pose any kind of challenge, and, let’s be honest, in the endgame, not many things could stand in the way of a fully powered Mr. Riggs. We are planning to continue rebalancing Campaign Mode difficulty, including a major difficulty management system rework. This does not mean we are going to make the game harder for everyone - you will still be able to enjoy the relaxed pace of the Campaign on lower difficulty levels, while long-time veterans should be able to enjoy a real challenge on the higher settings.
Such major changes to the Campaign structure are also a great opportunity to add more world-building elements to the storyline. We heard your feedback - we know it’s been lacking at some points. We would like to tell you more about the world of Galatea 37 as well as Ashley’s motivations for going there. What are the strange bioanomalies that are encountered around the planet? Why are there so many moons around the planet? What’s causing the strange magnetic field anomalies?...
WORLD EXPANSION II
Finally, we are also working on a new World Expansion update. This time we will take you on a trip underneath Galatea’s surface in search of the source of an anomalous crystalline growth that keeps infecting the Galatean wildlife and posing a threat to your presence on the planet. The mission will be long and dangerous, but the plentiful rewards will more than make up for your efforts.
The World Expansion II will be released in the same formula as Metal Terror. Once the expansion is launched, all users will receive a free update, adding all the new technologies, weapons, buildings, and creatures into the game. You will be free to use them in Survival Mode, as well as in your own mods. The story part of the World Expansion will be available as an optional paid DLC.
This time we would like to take a less secretive approach to the development of the next World Expansion. We are working on new gameplay mechanics that we’d like to expand with our community through early playtesting on the experimental branch. We don’t have a release date for the new World Expansion at this time, but since the first one took about 6 months to develop, we expect this one to take a similar amount of time to finish. At this point, we can only share some early concept screenshots of the underground biome to give you a general feel of where we’re going:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2108630/The_Riftbreaker__World_Expansion_II/
You can expect regular updates on our progress and all the new features that we’re planning to add. Be on the lookout for those in the future!
That wraps it up for today. Thank you for the continued support of The Riftbreaker! None of these things would be possible without your input and willingness to work with us to make the game better. We are very grateful for all your suggestions and feedback. Join us at www.discord.gg/exorstudios to always be on top of all things Riftbreaker.
Cheers,
EXOR Studios