Rift Riff

Strategy· Tower Defense· Minimalist· Base Building

Released May 2025

Jump a rift, fight off monsters, plunder their world. A strategic mix of juicy tower loadouts, varied monster behaviors, and forgiving mechanics.

94% positive · 393 reviews

Done

All announced content has been released

High confidence

Done

All announced content has been released

High confidence

Where to buy

Steam Updated 10 Oct 2026 $12.99

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Evaluation

Rift Riff launched on May 9, 2025 and received active post-launch support through its first several months. The team shipped a major free content update on October 15, 2025 (v1.2.2), adding 5 new towers, 5 new worlds with 10 new scenarios, 2 new monsters, and 10 more challenges. A final bug-fix patch (v1.3.0) followed on October 30, 2025. However, the October 15 update post included a frank statement from the developer: the game had not sold enough to make continued development financially sustainable for the team, and all members need to move on to other projects. The developer explicitly said that active work on Rift Riff "will likely halt," with no promises of further content — only a willingness to continue maintenance and bug fixes. There have been no developer communications since October 30, 2025, consistent with that announcement. There is no unreleased DLC, no roadmap, and no subsequent post walking back or updating that statement. The October 15 update appears to be the final content release, with the October 30 patch being the last maintenance fix. The game launched as a complete product and received one meaningful content expansion before the team signaled it was moving on.

Evidence

Developer explicitly stated that active work on Rift Riff will likely halt due to insufficient sales to sustain the team financially. All team members are lining up other projects. No further content is promised, though spare-time contributions are not ruled out.

news post · Oct 15, 2025 source development ending

high

Major free content update v1.2.2 shipped: 5 new towers, 5 new rifts with 2 scenarios each, 2 new monsters, 10 new challenges, new music, and mobile release on iOS and Android.

news post · Oct 15, 2025 source content shipped

high

Content

1 of 1 released · no outstanding content

Released

Rift Riff OST & Soundpack

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Media

Details

Developer

Adriaan de Jongh

Publisher

Adriaan de Jongh

Achievements

Platform

Windows, macOS, Linux

Controller

full support

Steam Deck

Verified

Players

Single-player

Tower Defense Minimalist Strategy Base Building PvE RTS Nonlinear Action Controller 2D Colorful Isometric Post-apocalyptic Survival Real-Time with Pause

About this game

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.

Content

The full game currently features ± 15–20 hours of gameplay:

20 worlds with 2 or more scenarios each.
17 tower types with 7 overpowered upgrades.
25 monster types with varying behaviors.
6 companions who'll assist you and your towers.
45 challenges for die hards.
All the good Steam stuff: achievements, stats, controller support, cloud saves, etc.

Have a suggestion or want to report a bug? Talk to the developers on the Steam Forums or on Discord.

Made by…

Rift Riff is made by game designer Adriaan de Jongh (best known for the indie hit Hidden Folks), graphic designer Sim Kaart, enemy wave designer Professional Panda, music composer and sound designer Matthijs Koster, and programmer Franz LaZerte. Rift Riff is made using the open source game engine Godot.