Planned Release Date: Q4 2026

About This Game

▌ Two teams. One river. No one crosses.

Riftwater is a top-down team shooter where a river splits the arena in two. Nobody can cross it, so every fight comes down to aim, timing and reading your enemy. Every shot is visible, every shot can be dodged, and one hit ends you.

▌ Read it. Dodge it. Win it.

• No hitscan, ever. Every shot flies across the river where everyone can see it, and none takes longer than two seconds to land. Fast enough to punish, slow enough to read.

• Charge, bounce, dash. Hold to charge a faster shot, grab a ricochet to bank it off the walls, dash out of a volley at the last moment.

• The arena fights back. Cover breaks under fire, the banks close in as the clock runs down, and late in the round the fords open.

• River relics. A relic drifts down the river. Win the tug-of-war for it and your whole team gets its power.

▌ 11 heroes

Every hero has one ability that changes how you fight across the water. Nyx sees which enemies are ready to fire and where their shots will go, Thornwarden raises a living barrier, Maris summons a wall of water across the river, Kesh leaves a decoy behind, Corvus fires a cloud of miasma that hides anyone inside, and more.

▌ 12 modes, 6 maps

Nine ways to fight other players: Elimination, Captain, Duel 1v1, Team Deathmatch, Relic Rush, Tide War, Hero Rotation, Trickshot Only and Draft Battle. Three against monsters: River Defense, River Siege and Rift Clash. Fight across Kingdom Meadow, Sunscorched Oasis, Moonlit Grove, Night Bastion, Sun Arena and the wide Kingdom Riverlands.

▌ Draft your build

In Draft Battle, everyone drafts five cards before the match, one a round from three: a keystone, a shot, a spell, a step and a ward. Thirty cards in five archetypes (Charge, Bounce, Bulwark, River and Tempo) and a spell on its own key. Build a wall-kicking trickshooter or a tide-turning river mage, and play the whole match with it.

▌ Matches that can turn around

• Win by two. A round match goes on until one team is two rounds ahead.

• Revive. Stand on a fallen teammate's mark to bring them back into the round.

• Comeback help. A team two rounds behind starts the next round with an Extra Dash each, its power-up first and a ward on one player.

• Round cards. Keep a small upgrade after every round, from quicker hands to a ward at the start of each round.

Each of them is an option you can switch off.

▌ Hold the river together

In River Defense, 1 to 4 players hold their bank against waves of crawlers, leapers, archers, shieldbearers and brutes, with a boss every fifth wave: twelve bosses in four tiers, each with its own attacks and summons. Elite monsters each have a trick and show it before they use it: a charger stamps before it runs, a sniper locks its line, a mirror shield sends your shot back. Pick an upgrade card after every wave, and go Endless to see how far your team can last.

▌ Or command the horde

In River Siege, one player is the Monster Master against a team of four: spend each wave's points, choose where your creatures land, buy elites, focus a defender, then pick your boss and control it yourself. In Rift Clash, two masters face each other across the river, each sending creatures and bosses at the other's crystal.

▌ Play your way

• Online up to 8v8 through Steam: public rooms, friends-only rooms or a room code, or Play Now to jump straight into a match

• LAN play, and bots at every seat (easy, normal or hard) to practise or fill a team

• Set the rules: match length, hits to eliminate, ricochet for everyone, fog of war, Revive, comeback help and round cards

• Lessons: three basics, then one for every mode

• Quick chat and emotes, a slow-motion replay of each round's deciding shot, and the MVP's highlight after every match

• Level up your account and every hero: styles, frames, emotes, titles and 20 Steam achievements, saved with Steam Cloud

• Keyboard and mouse or controller, with no aim assist, and keys you can rebind

• Streamer mode: your Twitch chat votes on your upgrade cards

• Interface in English, Thai, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and German

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Generative AI tools were used during development to assist with the creation of selected visual assets, concept artwork, and development content. AI-assisted programming tools were also used during development. All content included in the final game is reviewed, selected, edited, and integrated by the development team. The game does not generate AI content during gameplay.