Welcome to 2026! We are still pumped after all the chaos and excitement that the events of last year brought us. As you already know, we are planning to open the year strong - World Expansion IV with Open Campaign mode and an all-new ice biome, which we have decided to call Cryo Fields. We have already completed a significant amount of work, as you can see in our Survival streams on Twitch. With such a head start, you should have the new content in your hands within a very reasonable timeframe. Still, we have learned not to make promises, so no ETA just yet.

One of the new loading screens for the Cryo Fields biome. Just a little sneak peek of what's coming!

In fact, we want to kick things off with an article on what we learned over the past year and how we will apply the lessons from 2025 to our development practices in 2026 and beyond. This article is a supplement to our 2025 in Review article. We hope you enjoy this reflection before we fully dive into what’s coming to The Riftbreaker this year.

If you prefer a TL;DR, here's a short video!



We never thought we would live the gangster film cliché of “I’ll do you a favor, but I’ll come back for payment later,” but it happened multiple times during co-op development. During the beta period, we focused on Survival Mode because it allowed us to test and iterate on the core gameplay mechanics in a relatively simple environment. When we started testing the co-op campaign, however, we noticed a pattern. All the basic game mechanics worked flawlessly, but whenever we encountered any custom elements that were only present in the Campaign, things would start to break. This is not surprising on its own - we didn’t test these solutions in beta, so, logically, bugs would follow. Still, we were surprised by the sheer number of one-time solutions that were good enough for single-player purposes, but came back to bite us now.

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We wanted this cutie to be the centerpiece of the combat scene, so we decided to do a little bit of camera manipulation. Two years later, this decision generated some problems.

Let’s take the boss fight in the Into the Dark expansion as an example. When the player enters the boss arena, we detach the camera from Mr. Riggs and move it to a central point overseeing the battlefield. This is the only place in the game where this happens. We achieved this effect using a very simple and dirty trick. The camera movement was baked into the mission's logic flow. This logic block instructed the game to take control of the player’s camera and move it to a custom point we placed over the arena. This worked fine for single-player, because there was only one camera to take over. With multiple players present, things went very wrong. Errors included, but were not limited to:

• The camera only detaching from player one, but not player two
  
• The camera detaching for both players, but not coming back after the fight
  
• The camera breaking for player two forever
  
• …not to mention crashes and other bugs

This example is just the tip of the iceberg. These ‘mistakes’ often stem from the fact that we didn’t want to take away programmers’ attention from their other tasks. If we can ‘hack’ a solution for a problem, this will save time for everyone. Only after adding co-op did it become clear that we had merely delayed our payment. It also often came with additional interest, since some of our custom solutions were ‘baked into’ save files and would cause incompatibility, increasing the complexity of the problem by a factor of 10. Fixing all the individual custom solutions in the Campaign took a very long time. It couldn’t have been avoided, since the game was SP only for the longest time. However, we now know what to do going forward.

Since you're a kid you're being told to be independent and solve problems on your own. However, asking for insight from others may reveal problems that you wouldn't have thought of and save you trouble later. APES TOGETHER STRONG!

Conclusion: Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Think about your tasks in both single- and multiplayer contexts.



Rushing headfirst into overwhelming enemy forces and using your mech’s death explosion was one of the first tactics that players discovered, way back in the days of The Riftbreaker’s pre-alpha test. We weren’t particularly happy with that, as it’s not how we envisioned combat to play out, but if you were okay with it, we were too. It was a single-player experience, after all, and you should be able to play however you wanted. Things took a bit of a turn when players started doing it in co-op. One exploding mech is quite a lot of firepower, but it comes at a cost - you are out of action for a moment, and it is often enough for the enemies to deal at least some damage. Four mechs repeatedly exploding had the potential to neutralize the entire enemy's firepower without breaking a sweat. We decided to step in.

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We didn't want to take away your ability to run head-first into the enemy horde. We simply wanted to limit its effectiveness a little.

First, we tried the carrot - we offered a powerful boost as a reward for reviving players who fell in battle. We reasoned that players would prefer to win a fight with standard firepower, so we offered an additional incentive to do so. It worked pretty well, but some people still preferred the brutal efficiency of charging forward and exploding in Canoptrix’s faces. If the carrot wasn’t enough, stick it is then. We designed a new system, called the Death Skulls. We thoroughly explained it in an article (you can read it here), discussed the implications with our community members, and began testing it on the game's Beta version. It was crucial to us to communicate that we did not want to punish you for playing the game. We tried to discourage an unwanted behavior pattern and to make clear that this system is entirely avoidable.

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The new system requires a more tactical approach to combat and brings back the importance of base defenses, without decreasing the mech's power outright.

We were hesitant to publish these changes, as we feared you wouldn’t be happy with such fundamental changes to game mechanics. However, thanks to our clear explanations, our willingness to listen to feedback, and our ensuring the system did not interfere with regular gameplay (and the fact that this system can be turned off in gameplay settings), you welcomed the change and adapted quickly.

Conclusion: Be clear, transparent, and open to discussion. You’re designing the game for the people - let them know you are not against them.



The beta version of The Riftbreaker Co-Op encountered significant growing pains. We released updates regularly, carefully explaining our rationale and leaving room for discussion. The goal was always clear to us: to act in the best interests of players and demonstrate that we are open to change if any problems arise. Unfortunately, some people viewed our updates and transparent communication style as a sign of weakness. They thought we only did these write-ups to cover our backs in case we inevitably fail to deliver the promised co-op mode. We heard their concerns. They were not unfounded and likely the result of frustration after waiting a long time for co-op. However, we knew that when the update arrived, they would change their minds.

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We wanted to include special, more powerful creature versions in the game since the very beginning. The 2.0 update seemed like a good time to do so, and you helped us bring them to life!

One of the best examples of what transparent communications can achieve is the development of the Omega creatures. To recap: we have developed a new class of enemies with significantly higher base stats and a set of additional randomized abilities to increase their threat. We provided a detailed write-up on how they worked, a gallery with all the extra skills explained, and asked for your help in identifying the most effective combinations of these skills. We preemptively banned some combinations of the Omega skills from appearing, but we knew that these wouldn’t be the only problematic combos. Some viewed this as a weakness and claimed we couldn’t even handle bosses on our own, failing to recognize the real reason why we asked for help.

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Your help during the beta test allowed us to identify what worked, what didn't, and what was a bit too much to deal with. Thank you!

Open dialogue with the community got us tons of valuable, actionable feedback. We could immediately start improving our initial iteration of Omegas. Thanks to your help, we avoided several overpowered or downright unkillable Omega creatures that would otherwise ruin the experience in the full release of the game. You helped us tweak the values that were not quite right and played a major role in deciding what should be buffed and nerfed. You were happy to play mission after mission, even though we didn’t guarantee that the next wave wouldn’t end your run. Eventually, the Omega creatures reached their current form - one that is in line with our initial idea, and also one that is an exciting addition, not an unpleasant chore. We knew that you knew what you wanted. You knew we could deliver it. This mutual understanding and respect were crucial for this.

Conclusion: Clear communication helps bridge the gap between the developer and the community.



There is no denying that players are the best at finding ways to break the game. Each and every one of us has a different playstyle and ideas. If you multiply the number of players in a session, you also multiply the number of opportunities for something to break. Sometimes players' actions have little to no consequence and don’t prevent them from completing the game as intended. However, in other cases, the game hurts itself in its confusion, leaving players stranded at a point of no return. You can’t always predict when that will happen, but you can do your best to prevent it. Even if you don’t plug all the holes, getting 95% of them might be just enough.

Click to zoom in! This is the mission logic flow diagram for the Swamp Harvest mission. It is as non-linear as it gets - all the events can happen in any order, and it was our designers' job to figure out how to handle all the possibilities. We know it's not the best image, but it's enough to recognize the structure is complex and multi-layered.

An excellent example of a mission where a lot of things can go wrong is the first Poogret encounter in Heart of the Swamp. The mission requires you to find the Garlimonium fruit, find a Poogret, feed the fruit to a Poogret, and then extract the sample from the Poogret's “product.” Sounds simple, but… the map and its creatures live, even if you’re not looking. The behavior of creatures, the map generation algorithm, and the player’s path are all impossible to predict. As a result, any event in our mission sequence can occur in any order. To ensure this mission worked properly, we had to cover more than 10 scenarios, each with its own dialogue. Seriously - try this mission several times, making sure to do things in a slightly different order each time - the results will vary. We are big fans of small details like these, and we know many players appreciate these moments. Solving such a puzzle is incredibly rewarding when everything goes right.

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Who would have thought that this beauty was responsible for one of the most complex missions in the entire game?

This might seem like a direct contradiction to lesson number one and another case of “a million custom-made scenarios”. That would be true if we tried to hack it all together by any means necessary. However, it was carefully planned and executed using a systematic approach, which ensures all cases are handled properly, regardless of circumstances. When handling multiple cases is your goal, and not an afterthought, it is much easier to plan and execute on your vision.

Conclusion: Time spent brainstorming is not wasted. Design robust systems that can handle exceptions.



Every once in a while, a community member posts a hot take and an emotionally charged post, voicing their opinion about the game and suggesting what we should do. Such posts generate significant buzz in the community and spark lengthy discussions. We know that the sentiment behind them is nothing but positive - players spend time discussing the game because they care about it. Knowing that and seeing the discussions is a surefire way to grab our attention. However, more often than not, these issues do not represent the views of the majority of the community.

POV: you just announced you will be changing something in the game and open your inbox.

Many players were afraid that the radical changes we introduced with The Riftbreaker 2.0 would destroy the game. Discussions about this always became very emotionally charged, despite our best efforts to explain that there was nothing to fear. However, the topic kept coming up across various channels. Ultimately, we offered to keep the pre-2.0 version live on a legacy branch so it can be accessed regardless of the changes introduced with the 2.0 Update, and we observed the results. As a reminder, our peak concurrent player count for the 2.0 Update was over 18.000. Place your bets on the numbers for the legacy branch.

The answer is 7. No, that’s not how many percent played the legacy branch. That’s the number of individual players. Also, that’s maximum DAILY players, not concurrent. We think it’s safe to say that, despite provoking many heated arguments, leaving things as they were before the 2.0 update was not the most important issue for the community as a whole. This does not mean we regret doing it. It required minimal effort, and if we made at least one person happy, it was worth it.

Conclusion: Emotions are important, but they do not always lead you to the best conclusions. If an issue is critical to the community, sentiment will be almost unanimous.

We want to use this opportunity to promote this video from BoffinBrain. It will allow you to take a look at the world of The Riftbreaker from a fresh perspective - literally! BoffinBrain used the debug "free look" camera to film these scenes, which is not easy at all. After that, they added the sky simulation in post-processing. Very nicely done and worth a watch.

We hope this article has been both valuable and enjoyable. We are back on schedule, so that you can expect more news and previews each week. Unfortunately, we can’t offer you streams for the next couple of weeks due to personal circumstances, but we will be back very, very soon to show off the new Cryo Fields biome in all its glory. If you want to have a chance to beta-test the World Expansion IV update ahead of its official release, sign up for our newsletter here[www.exorstudios.com], or join our Discord at https://www.discord.gg/exorstudios. We always post our latest announcements there first.

See you next time!
EXOR Studios

It’s almost the end of 2025, and all we can say is: “Wow, what a year it has been”! The main highlight was, of course, the August release of The Riftbreaker 2.0 Update, featuring Online Co-Op mode. It was the finishing touch on our multi-year journey, reworking the single-player game into a fully featured, stable, and most of all, fun multiplayer experience. We can’t possibly express our gratitude to you for the fantastic reception of The Riftbreaker 2.0 Update. All we can say is that you showed us it was worth it, and it will fuel us for years to come. Today, we’re taking a look back at 2025, sharing the most significant highlights, most interesting stats, and what we’re going to do moving forward.

Let’s kick things off this year with a portion of stats and facts about the development process itself:

Like we mentioned in our previous yearly roundups (here’s the one from 2024 if you’re interested), the majority of our work is stored in two repositories: The Riftbreaker game repository, which holds the game’s assets and data, and the Schmetterling Engine repository, holding all the code that is later compiled into the actual program you can run on your system. The stats for these two repositories look like this:

The Riftbreaker:

• We started the year on revision number 50473. The last change in 2024 shortened the duration of the acid explosion effects.
  
• At the time of writing, we are on revision 56722. This revision contains nothing of interest; it’s purely technical.
  
• This means there have been 6244 commits to the repository, averaging 716 per month.
  
• Commits themselves do not tell the whole story, as they often contain multiple file changes and additions. This year, we made a total of 55501 file changes.

• We began 2025 on revision number 31536. That revision fixed duplicate event handlers in the engine’s event queue.
  
• We are finishing the year on revision 32826, reverting a try fix for a bug in GuiItem. We’ll nail it next year.
  
• A total of 1291 commits were made to the engine repository over the course of the year, averaging 171 per month.
  
• The total number of file changes in 2025 is 17578.

As is often the case, interesting insights emerge when we present this data as graphs.

There are clear four peaks on The Riftbreaker graph - that usually happens when our work intensifies and we are doing a lot of bugfixing.

The peaks for the engine are more or less aligned with the graph for the main game.

These graphs show the number of commits over time. The higher the peak, the more changes made. Naturally, the number of changes increases as a milestone approaches, due to increased focus on testing and bug fixing. There are four of these peaks on The Riftbreaker repository graph, which align with our four story arcs of the year: Co-Op Closed Beta development process, the Co-Op Open Beta launch, the launch of the complete 2.0 Update, and the work we’re doing now on the Dedicated Server and the World Expansion IV.

A 'beautiful' scene from one of our earliest multiplayer builds. Shadows pop in and out of existence, many effects are missing, players move as if they were submerged in syrup, all marinaded in hundreds of millisceonds of delightful lag (on LAN). Good times! May they never come back.

At the beginning of the year, we began distributing more invitations to the Closed Beta version of the game to volunteers who signed up via our form. We increased the scale of the operation by an order of magnitude. Instead of manually serving keys to anywhere between 50 to 100 people every couple of weeks, we started sending out thousands of keys each week. Thanks to Discord's anti-spam mechanisms, this process would take a long time. This is why we started using emails instead (and started a mailing list! This allows us to share information unrelated to The Riftbreaker and not necessarily tied to a single platform, so if you’re interested, consider signing up! You’ll get a bonus Mr. Riggs skin as a welcome gift). By the end of April 2025, we have distributed keys to everyone who signed up to test the Beta, for a total of 12075 unique users. We sent each user a pair of keys so that they could immediately gift one to a friend and start playing. If someone wanted more, we gave it to them. Overall, we distributed more than 25000 beta keys during our closed testing period. Massive thanks to each and every one of you - your help and feedback shaped the final release.

Once we started the Closed Beta, each build brought back another portion of features known from the single-player version. In this example, the game runs like a geriatric tortoise with a broken leg, but at least it looks half-decent!

In mid-June, we released the experimental build of the 2.0 Update, marking the start of the Open Beta test for the game. This was the final proving ground before the official release, and one that we were pretty anxious about. The thing is, even if the game worked perfectly fine for us, there are virtually infinite network and PC configurations you would try it on. We expected lots of errors, crash bugs, and connection issues. However, things looked suspiciously okay, and not for the lack of trying on your part - over the course of the next couple of days after release, the number of concurrent players consistently increased, peaking at more than 2800. Yet, the game just worked. Thanks to the thorough testing during the closed beta phase, we managed to fix most of the errors. We estimate that about 200,000 players participated in all of the closed and open Beta phases that we held for The Riftbreaker 2.0 update. All that was left was the final polish in preparation for the big day.

Let's not forget the unsung hero of the entire Co-Op project: our PvP connectivity test. You have no idea how much useful data we got from your participation. We know this didn't happen in 2025, but it laid the foundation for what would eventually happen. Press F for the accidental PvP mode.

In the blink of an eye, we were there. August 25th, 2025. We knew we had a solid game on our hands. We knew that the work we’ve done was good. The question was - would the players care after almost four years of waiting? Was ‘coop when’ just a meme, or were you truly excited for it? We hoped that the new content and the free update would attract both new and returning players. Our optimistic predictions assumed a slight uptick during the Open Beta and enabled us to reach 4000 concurrent players on Steam.



EXOR team realizing that people cared, even after all this time. 2025, colorized.

The Riftbreaker received a second life. Thousands of players, new and old, began their conquest of Galata 37 - together. You broke milestone after milestone. One million copies sold on Steam - smashed. Two million players across all platforms and subscription services - done and dusted. To say that we were ecstatic is an understatement. We kept our promise of expanding our single-player game with a co-op mode, and you showed up for us when we did. Thank you!

Thank you for years of support. We know it took longer than expected and you had to go on 'trust me bro' all this time. We hope that you are satisfied with the result. We know we are!

Initially, we planned the 2.0 version to be the last update for the game. We expected that many of you would appreciate the effort, but it wouldn’t be enough to make further work on The Riftbreaker feasible. We were ready to move on to something new. Oh, how wrong we were! Your continued support and love for the game convinced us to extend The Riftbreaker’s story with a couple more World Expansions. The World Expansion IV is just around the corner - it will feature a new game mode, which we call Open Campaign (you can learn about it here), a new biome, and it’s entirely free! It will arrive in early 2026. World Expansion V will focus on an endless form of Survival Mode, with creatures scaling way past what we are used to. The expansion will also be free, and the release date is to be determined.

This is one of our favourite scenes we captured for the Co-Op trailers. Lasers Swords flying left and right, tons of Mushbits being eradicated, countless pieces of debris - pure chaos.

This is how we arrived at our latest story arc: by working on the Dedicated Server app, World Expansion IV, and improving the game based on your feedback. We initially planned to release the Dedicated Server alongside version 2.0, but encountered more issues than anticipated; you can read all about them in our progress report. By the time you read this, we will likely have published the first version of the app to the experimental branch for you to try.
We’re looking forward to your feedback! We have also started previews of the content you can expect to see in World Expansion IV. You can expect them to continue after we are back from our holiday break.

We are taking a couple of weeks off. We expect most of the team to be back on January 7th. It's quite close to our planned release date for World Expansion IV, so we're gonna have to go into the year like these mechs - no hesitation, no fear, push forward!

2025 was a huge year for us - one that sets our course for the foreseeable future. 2026 is going to be our eighth year of work on The Riftbreaker, that’s a big, happy chunk of life :) If you want to know what we are planning next, please join our newsletter here and hop into the Discord server at https://www.discord.gg/exorstudios. We’ll keep you up to date - you can be sure about that!

We wish you a great holiday period and a fantastic start to the new year!
EXOR Studios