Jump a rift, fight off monsters, and plunder their world. Rift Riff is a tower defense game noteworthy in two ways: it’s particularly strategic and remarkably forgiving.

Strategic

At the heart of the strategic layer of Rift Riff is a mix of choosing what towers you bring into each rift and being clever about the various monster behaviors. Monsters attack in waves, either going straight for your Extractor (your main tower) or attacking every tower in proximity. To defend yourself, you choose a handful of towers at the start of a scenario and build them on predetermined spots on the map. You obtain juice (your build resource) during monster waves and have the ability to build and upgrade towers before and during each wave. Surviving the onslaught of monsters gives you prisms, which in turn unlocks more rifts, towers, companions, and tower upgrades.

Forgiving

Don’t have enough juice to build your tower? Schedule it. Built the wrong tower? Get a full refund. Lost a tower? It’ll respawn for free after the wave. Lost your Extractor? Only redo the last wave. Having a hard time? Pick flowers for a bit of extra juice.

The 5-person team making Rift Riff came together in 2024 specifically to make the game. Game Designer Adriaan de Jongh has been making games since 2011 with the black-and-white searching game Hidden Folks as his biggest hit. Illustrator Sim Kaart did graphic design for various creative projects from 2012 before joining Adriaan in making games in 2020 — more specifically, the music party game Secret Shuffle. Music composer and Sound Designer Matthijs Koster created the music and sound for Rift Riff, which is his first game.

Credits

Game Design, Programming, Marketing • Adriaan de Jongh
Graphic Design, Game Design, Marketing • Sim Kaart
Programming, Game Design • Franz LaZerte
Enemy Wave Design • Professional Panda
Music & Sound Design • Matthijs Koster