As game developers, we have the incredible pleasure of building games that we would want to play and sharing them with millions of people around the world to enjoy. As awesome as that is, we are often quite anxious about every new release. After all, the release day is always the ultimate test for the game - not only when it comes to the technical side, but also from the game design standpoint. Luckily, playtesting exists, and players are usually more than happy to play the game early and share feedback. This allows us to fix the vast majority of serious errors, but also reveals that real players play the game very differently from developers. Today, we would like to share some things we observed when watching you play the game - what we saw in live playtests, streams, YouTube videos, and co-op sessions. Some of these things really were eye-opening!


Going back to the 2019 demo was an experience for sure. We didn't even remember that old Sentinel Towers did not need any power back then.

The Riftbreaker was first revealed on the 8th of March, 2019. The first opportunity to play the game itself came just three weeks later, at PAX East in Boston. We prepared a special “event demo” for the show. It was a very early version of the Prologue we have in the game today, but it had one significant difference: you started with a pre-built basic outpost. It wasn’t anything fancy - just a couple of factories, some walls, and a couple of Sentinel Towers. Our intention was to let you jump into the action straight away, skipping the building phase. We assumed that the trade show floor was not really optimal for staying longer and building up a base on your own. However, while observing our visitors play the game for the first time, we realized they put a lot of effort into the building phase, actively upgrading the structure we had made. Sometimes, players would go even further and sell all buildings to build the base on their own. We were surprised, to say the least, but we were determined to learn from this experience.


We made the effort to make all the buildings look nice, and players dismantled them anyway :(

The event demo remained largely unchanged for the rest of the 2019 shows we attended (shoutout to anyone we met there, also RIP in peace, E3). Back at home, we were already preparing to come back better and stronger. We all know how those plans ended, as 2020 had thrown us all a curveball. Still, the game industry tried to fill this gap with online showcases, including the very first Steam Next Fest. We presented our new and improved Prologue during that event. The biggest difference was that the player had no buildings at the start. The ‘new’ first objective in the demo was to dig up some carbonium and build a Headquarters. It gave us a natural opportunity to teach players these mechanics while also allowing them to build everything on their own. More importantly, it was the players themselves who showed us a good way to do so. Two birds, one stone!


This is the 2019 final Prologue wave, considered unbeatable and completely overwhelming. We had no idea what our own game had in store for us!

Observing our players' behavior is also a useful tool for tailoring the difficulty. Before we launched our alpha test, we invited some gamers to our office to try out the early version of The Riftbreaker. They all had one thing in common - they were not fans of top-down, real-time-strategy games. The task we gave them was simple: just play the game as if we weren’t there. They could comment on what they wanted and ask questions, but we would not say a word. After the test concluded, we gathered their feedback and tuned the game accordingly. The idea behind inviting players who were not expert at the genre was to make the game accessible and easy to pick up for anyone, without any prior knowledge of this type of games. This allowed us to tweak the difficulty to a level suitable for as many players as we could. We also made a conscious decision to allow difficulty customization and all sorts of cheats and mods. This allows you to adapt the game to your expectations and needs, increasing accessibility.


In 2021 we would have had no chance at beating today's Cryo Fields Brutal survival. Luckily, you taught us how to play!

We took a different approach when it comes to the Brutal difficulty mode. At a couple of points during the game’s development, we “overtuned” the difficulty ramp and the general power of the enemy creature attacks in Survival mode. Our intention was to purposefully give the players too much to handle, and then dial it back just a little to keep it challenging. We got close to the final wave on several occasions, but ultimately always failed. We got so confident that no one would be able to beat the game on Brutal that we even issued a challenge to our community: beat the game, record a video, and receive a prize. We didn’t expect anyone to complete it, but many people did - with ease. We had to know how it’s done, and we had video evidence, so we started analyzing the footage.


Back then there was no co-op and no buddies who could help you with organizing the base, exploring, and fighting. Still - you showed us it was all possible!

As it turns out, we played our game completely wrong. We got completely schooled on how to play Survival. Instead of building and fortifying a relatively small base as we did, the “pro” players cleared the entire map and claimed all of the resource deposits. The early game was more difficult for them due to a less structured defensive setup, but in the late game, they crushed their enemies with an overwhelming economic advantage. By the time the final waves arrived, these players could afford to build an absolutely incredible amount of defenses. We thought our Survival mode encouraged a more careful approach to gameplay. Instead, we learned that aggressive industrialization was one of the keys to victory. What is even more important, it was not the only difference between our and our players’ styles. They were much faster, chose a build order that suited their needs, and pushed to get the maximum out of every resource. In short, they showed us how to play the game on Brutal. Naturally, we continued tweaking the difficulty levels well after the event, but it gave us a fresh perspective on the game's skill ceiling.


Sometimes, all you want to do after a hard day at work is chill and build a megabase - and that's completely cool! We made sure you always had the tools to do so at your disposal.

After the game's release, we continued monitoring how you played and where we could introduce features to improve the overall quality of life in The Riftbreaker. These observations, combined with tons of feedback we received from you over the years, resulted in a multitude of changes and additions that made the game simply more fun. However, we also discovered something much more interesting. A large portion of our player base preferred to customize the game’s difficulty rather than choose one of our presets. They either made the game significantly harder by increasing the number of enemies and their damage, or built their own creative mode by shortening building and research times and making resource deposits infinite. We expected that to some degree. In fact, the sandbox and custom difficulty modes were present in the game from the very first day. We also kept adding more and more decorations to use over the years to give those players more tools to play with.


Please excuse the unacceptable behavior of the red mecha. We will take disciplinary action.

However, the real shock came after the release of the online co-op mode. While reviewing streams and other videos, we realized that mission objectives were not a priority for many co-op player groups. Again, this is somewhat to be expected among returning players, but many new players also preferred this playstyle. Completing missions was a means to an end for them; the players were more interested in unlocking new biomes and decorative elements than in progressing the story. We realized that for a large portion of our playerbase, the main source of enjoyment was hanging out with their friends, smashing through a horde of creatures every now and again, and building cool fortresses. It was about the journey, not the destination. Somehow, The Riftbreaker became a much more popular social experience than we expected. It was a heartwarming feeling for us. After thousands of hours we spent with the game over the past couple of years, it is sometimes difficult to take a step back and look at The Riftbreaker from the perspective of a fresh player. You know the saying - after this much time, you stop seeing the forest, and start cataloging the trees. Moments like these pull us out of that headspace and remind us why we started making games in the first place. Thank you for that!


I guess we should call co-op Riftmender, because it encourages so many nice interactions (❁´◡`❁)

We guess most of you experience something similar in your day-to-day jobs and activities. Car mechanics always look for things that can break down, musicians can’t listen to their own songs, and workers at a potato chips factory won’t touch another potato chip in their lives. What we wanted to say in this post is: we see you, and we know why you play. Our goal is primarily to give you a break from the mundane and offer a fun experience. We will keep making games with that goal in mind. The fun factor comes first, even if sometimes we’re too deep in analyzing bug reports and optimizing code to acknowledge it. Join our Discord at https://www.discord.gg/exorstudios and our newsletter at https://www.exorstudios.com/blog/#newsletter for more insights like these.

See you next time!
EXOR Studios

It is often said that good game design is largely invisible. It subtly affects your decisions and gives you a sense of direction, without many obvious clues. We do not mean to say that painting ledges yellow is necessarily wrong. On the contrary, overthinking simple scenarios may complicate them beyond what's necessary. Today, however, we won't be talking about simple scenarios. It's the complex moments that truly allow a developer to create something memorable. In this article, we will examine a couple of moments from The Riftbreaker's campaign that posed a challenge for us. We will explain what we wanted to achieve through our design, and show you what we didn't want you to notice. Warning - spoilers ahead!



Even in the prologue mission, you can get into some pretty intense situations. We made sure that everything is under control, though.

We will kick things off by taking a look at the Prologue mission. For many of you, it was the first experience with The Riftbreaker. We had to nail the design on this one, as this one mission carried profound consequences. You only have one chance at making a good first impression. It was a challenging process, as we had to pack the entire Riftbreaker gameplay into a bite-sized demo. Our heads and hearts were engaged in a tug of war. The hearts wanted to show off all the cool things we have been working on. The minds, on the other hand, were doing their best to keep us in check and stick to the good old "less is more" rule. After much trial and error, including several rounds of playtesting, we concluded that we need to balance freedom and guidance while minimizing potential problems. Let this table show you what we mean.


We wanted to give you enough freedom that you can get a taste of building a real base. Did you even know that you could research new tech in the prologue? It has a special, modified research tree!



Apart from building, you can also explore the Prologue map and discover surprises we left for you here and there.


And look, we weren't joking about having storage buildings off the map. It was much easier than creating a separate mech entity only for the prologue.

The list goes on and on. Designing the Prologue meant solving hundreds, if not thousands, of such problems. We solved some of them quite quickly. Others took months of iterating to get it right. However, taking things one step at a time allowed us to build a tutorial sequence that allows you to set your own pace. We don't increase the pressure when it's not necessary, and when we do, it is just a taste of things to come in the full game.

Most players played the demo for more than 40 minutes, which is exactly what we wanted to achieve. The surprising fact is that more than 31 thousand people played it for more than 200 minutes, wow!



This research mission seems simple, but we create tension and pressure by layering various design elements.

Let's now take a look at a moment that is designed to put pressure on you. During one of the missions in the Acidic Plains biome, you have to build a Research Station next to an Acidic Yeast colony root. It is not an easy task, especially when it is your first Campaign run. Not only do you have to protect the Research Station from the ever-expanding Acidic Yeast colony, but you also have to repel attacks from powerful enemies, some of which you might have never seen before. Baxmoths, Bomogans, and Nurglaxes will gladly bombard your station from afar, often with the additional protection of the Acidic Yeast, preventing you from dealing with them face-to-face. What seems like a standard research mission quickly turns into a frantic fight for survival. We wanted you to feel a bit on the back foot - and here's what we did to facilitate that feeling.


From ever-growing yeast, to hordes of angry creatures, this mission has it all.

• The first time you encounter Acidic Yeast colonies, they are just baby roots - they do not spread very far. In this mission, things are different. The roots will try to take over the entirety of the map if you do not spot them.
  
• Before the mission, you gain access to Acid-Resistant Floors. They will prevent the Yeast from growing; however, you have to clear some of the smaller cells first. You will most likely want to use an Area of Effect weapon to do so. That, in turn, may destroy the root, forcing you to find a new one.
  
• The main mission objective seems simple at first: build something, power it up, keep it around for a while, and come back home before dinner. Unfortunately, Galatean creatures have other plans for you. They will attack in large groups, and very often, sometimes forcing you to build up a small outpost to keep the Research Station alive.
  
• The increasing presence of the Yeast cells will limit your available space very quickly if you don't secure it quickly enough - and why would you? This is a simple research mission after all!

It's not all doom and gloom! Once you start scanning the root of the colony it becomes completely indestructible. This prevents sad accidents.

There are plenty of little traps that you can encounter during this mission. They are all there to give you a sense that this biome is not as cozy as the Tropical Zone was. It's not all doom and gloom, though. Once you start scanning the Acidic Yeast root, it becomes completely invulnerable. Thanks to this little trick, you won't blow it up with a stray nuke, and Bomogan bombs won't affect it either. As long as you keep your Research Station alive, you won't have to look for a new root. We probably saved at least a few controllers from a rage-throw incident with that decision. Designing missions like these is always about striking a balance between challenge and fun by delicately twisting the rules of the game.



First, we let you take baby steps with the Gravitational Modulator and sample transportation mechanics.

The core pillars of The Riftbreaker gameplay are exploration, survival, combat, and base building. Most of the missions in the Story Campaign blend these core characteristics to varying degrees. Sometimes you encounter a more combat-heavy objective, other times, you are free to build up an outpost of your dreams and dig up all the resources you want, but you can always rely on Mr. Riggs and the tech you already researched. From a designer's perspective, staying within those four cornerstones of gameplay is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you know how to design missions that fit the narrative and style of the game. On the other hand, an outlandish gameplay twist might feel out of place and alienating to some of your players, limiting your creativity. We don't want to risk any "stealth mission in a fast-paced shooter" or "underwater temple" scenarios, after all, unless it's a side mission!


Second, we give you an incentive to use it on your own.

Optional objectives provide space for experimentation and allow us to stray from the "traditional" bounds of gameplay. Players can complete these objectives for additional rewards, but they are never necessary to finish the game. One interesting side mission in The Riftbreaker takes place during the Heart of the Swamp campaign. At one point in the story, you get an optional objective to find a Phirian Lair. Ashley is curious as to what she may find there, as all the Phirians she faced before were solitary creatures and she never suspected them to be social enough to form packs, let alone build entire lairs. Mr. Riggs warns Ashley that investigating the lair is risky. At this point, you are faced with a choice: abandon the idea or risk it for the biscuit. Obviously, we hope that your curiosity gets the best of you here!


Then, we send Phirians in hot pursuit after you. This is the first time you are defenseless and have to run for your life.

If you do decide to investigate, you must first navigate a maze of rocks, trees, and other natural obstacles deep into the heart of the swamp (see what I did there?). It is a confusing labyrinth, full of false exits and dead ends. At the end, you find something unexpected: a Phirian egg. Here comes the problematic part: the egg can't be scanned on the spot, and sending it through the rift to an Outpost is out of the question because of its size. The only choice is to carry it using Mr. Riggs' Gravitational Modulator. That comes with an additional risk: when carrying something, Mr. Riggs can't use any weapons or movement skills, which leaves our duo vulnerable to attacks. Ashley decides to risk it anyway. What comes next is a mad dash to the Outpost via the twisted maze, running away from an entire swarm of very unhappy Phirians, and juggling a one-of-a-kind egg that you definitely do not want to break.


Escaping the creatures' chase can be quite difficult, but the reward is pretty cool. Plus - this is an entirely optional objective, so if you're not into this kind of adventure, you can safely skip it.

What makes this mission special is our deliberate choice to take away a large chunk of your abilities while carrying things with the Gravitational Modulator. Up to this point in the Heart of the Swamp campaign, you had to transport things utilizing this tool several times, either delivering samples to your HQ or gathering Garlimonium fruit. At those points, you faced almost no danger. This time, it is different. Instead of being the predator, you become the prey. The chasing Phirians require you to not only plan your route through the maze, but also actively observe your immediate vicinity and dodge their deadly dash attacks. This completely changes the game's dynamics and puts you in an unexpected and inconvenient position. This is the ultimate test of your mastery of the new game mechanic. We knew that such a design might be controversial, as it breaks the power fantasy. However, by making this mission optional, we can reward your curiosity and risk-taking nature after testing your skills in an unprecedented manner.


We hope that these examples show that designing a game is not a straightforward process. It is an exercise in patience, planning, and, surprisingly, psychology. However, it is also very rewarding. There is no better feeling than seeing countless players enjoy the challenges you set for them. We will always be grateful for that.

If you'd like to learn more about The Riftbreaker, read our other articles about game development, or get exclusive behind-the-scenes insights, please consider signing up for our newsletter at https://www.exorstudios.com/blog/#newsletter and joining our Discord at https://www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

See you next time!

EXOR Studios