Why Early Access?

“RIFTSTORM is built around an expanding combination of Weavers, weapons, Lythograms, Periapts, and Mythic enemies. Every new addition creates new builds, team compositions, and balance challenges. In particular, we want to avoid a cycle where newly released Weavers or weapons make earlier choices feel obsolete or restrict play to a single gameplay meta.

While we can test numbers internally, we cannot reproduce the sheer variety of strategies, unusual builds, and co-op interactions that a wider community will discover. The last three years of playtests have shown us that players continue to astound us with novel build-crafting and unexpected gameplay. Early Access allows us to tune that expanding combat sandbox alongside players, using their experiences and ingenuity to balance new and planned content against what is already in the game.

Player feedback will also help us refine Mythic enemy behaviors and difficulty, improve higher Threat levels, and shape the long-term progression provided by the Periapt system.

RIFTSTORM will launch into Early Access as a playable co-op action game with a meaningful amount of content. It will also remain a game in active production, with systems, balance, progression, performance, and content continuing to evolve.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We currently expect RIFTSTORM to be in Early Access for approximately 18 to 24 months.

This estimate may change over time as player enjoyment, feedback, technical stability, and the quality of the complete experience are our top priority. The development timeline may change as we learn how players engage with the game and which areas require the most work.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“During Early Access, we plan to expand and refine RIFTSTORM across its characters, enemies, weapons, progression systems, missions, events, narrative, and technical performance.

Our current plans for the full version include:
- Additional playable Weavers.
- Additional weapons across the game's weapon families.
- New and reworked Mythic enemies
- Deeper and more refined Weaver skill and Periapt progression systems.
- Additional Lythograms and continued build balancing.
- Narrative integration.
- Expanded briefings, character dialogue, and voice lines.
- A Weaver cosmetic system.
- The RIFTSTORM endgame Threat experience: an evolving, high-risk, high-reward mode with changing conditions and challenges.
- Continued improvements to matchmaking, stability, performance, accessibility, and the overall player experience.

As with any Early Access release, our development goals and may change as the game evolves. We will communicate significant changes to the plan openly as continue with production.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“As of our Early Access launch, RIFTSTORM includes:
- Five playable Weavers: Rook, Starling, Hertz, Botsy, Thistle.
- An onboarding campaign introducing the game, its systems, and the Mythic Protocol.
- Curated and procedurally generated missions at Threat Levels 1 and 2.
- Threats 3 and higher is also available for players who want to test themselves against more experimental and less tightly balanced challenges.
- Online co-op play via Lobby and Code invites
- Lythograms as a major part of in-mission build development, with their balance continuing to evolve.
- An initial, work-in-progress version of the Periapt Augment system.

Higher Threat levels, progression balance, enemy balance, and some supporting systems should be considered works in progress. Bugs, balance problems, major system changes, and progression resets may occur during Early Access.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes, we plan on increasing the price of RIFTSTORM when the game reaches its full 1.0 release, reflecting the additional content production, features, and polish added during Early Access.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Discord will be our primary channel for Early Access communication and feedback. Early Access players will receive access to a dedicated community space where they can share feedback more directly with the development team. We will also monitor the Steam discussion pages directly throughout.

We plan to use community feedback, gameplay data, surveys, balance discussions, and direct play sessions to help us:
- Identify overpowered and underused Weavers, skills, weapons, Lythograms, and Periapt gem combinations.
- Prevent new content from making existing choices obsolete.
- Improve Mythic enemy behaviors, difficulty, and encounter composition.
- Refine the balance and rewards of higher Threat levels.
- Prioritize technical issues, quality-of-life improvements, and accessibility needs.
- Understand which activities and progression systems players find most enjoyable.

We will also share development updates through Steam and Discord so players can see what we are working on, what we have learned, and when community feedback has influenced a change.”