RiftwalkerLegacy || Sandbox Basebuilder (CANCELLED)

edited in Projects
PLEASE NOTE: Riftwalker as a basebuilder has been canceled due to a lack of funding and the sheer complexity that I am unable to complete it alone. I will be referencing the basebuilder as Riftwalker Legacy as I have been developing a tower defense with the name of Riftwalker in the same universe. Please keep an eye out for Riftwalker, you can join the Steam Community hub here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/929910/

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Deeplink Studios presents: Riftwalker

Greetings MGSA, on behalf of the Deeplink Studios team, I would like to welcome you to the updated post for Riftwalker!

Riftwalker is an in development, lore-immersive sandbox base builder for Android and eventually iOS, PC and Microsoft Hololens. It's a big undertaking that brings into play incredible new mechanics, minigames, augmented reality and A.I. and has such, drawn the attention of big names such as Facebook, we're being funded by Facebook and government, as well as seeking new potential investors.

The game puts the player in the position of a Riftwalker, a survivor of the shattering - an event where the world was torn apart by a cataclysmic magical event known as the Shattering. You choose one of three factions, the Dryads, Thaumaturge and Necromancers, each capable of only producing their own unique resource. In order to progress you will need to "acquire" the other resources from both players and NPC's while defending and fortifying your own island.

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[Alpha] Riftwalker Gameplay Trailer - Island Building
Early gameplay footage of the island building mechanics of Riftwalker.

Players must form guilds and alliances and form trade routes - while raiding and defending their base. Islands are connected via portals, the more you upgrade your portal and increase its capacity - the more units you can send through in your raiding parties, but also increases the number of potential troops you have to defend against.

Each faction has it's own balanced pro's and cons, as well as unique art style and ethics - as well as deeply immersive characters and planned AI implementation, meaning you will be able to speak to the NPC's in chat and ask them for help or try dig out some of their backstories with meaningful conversation, which will improve as A.I. improves.

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There's a lot to talk about regarding Riftwalker, and we'll be sure to cover it all as we progress - join us on this incredible journey and be sure to follow us on Facebook.

Be incredible and feel free to drop your comments, or email me directly "Dylan@DeeplinkStudios.com". Stay awesome MGSA!

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Kind Regards,
Dylan Engelbrecht
Director & Lead Producer
Deeplink Studios

Comments

  • This looks really cool, and I love the art style!
    You mentioned it being a phone game, and then Facebook. Does Facebook have an appstore now? (sorry if this is a dumb question!)

    To answer your question of whether I'd play it...I have no clue without a gameplay video.
    Thanked by 1Mexicanopiumdog
  • @Roguecode Facebook has a funding program for mobile startups, initially, we will support facebook (as well as google logins) and that will integrate with content sharing on Facebook.

    At a later stage we plan to support the following:
    Facebook Web
    iOS
    Steam
    Augmented Reality
    Microsoft Hololens
    Windows Phone

    Regarding the gameplay video we are hoping to have an early one available by either this weekend or next (you know how it goes with delays.)

    Regards,
    Dylan Engelbrecht
    Director & Studio Manager, Deeplink Studios
  • Necromancer portal - In engine footage!

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    Feedback would be much appreciated :D we're so excited to bring you all this game.
  • edited
    Question: How can I add images to a spoilers box so it doesn't take up the whole page? Adding it in spoilers doesn't work.

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    So much fun XD... My team has done a great job with the island and basebuilding - we've got some minor bugs to fix before we release an early Testers build.


    Once the test build is live, we'll finish up the save states - clear out more bugs and begin with the bases and resources :D

    MAKING PROGRESS! :D

    Gameplay Pics:

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  • Hi @VoidFletcher, I like the look of this. You mentioned above that you'd be targeting other platforms, do you have a playable demo/prototype you can link to for feedback?

    I like the idea of resources being limited per faction, forcing you to interact with other players. How will you get around an initial lack of other players? And how do the required resources limit the player-ie what's the incentive to the player for that interaction? Also, how are you balancing that with the threat of hostility from players early on that already have sources of the other factions' resources?
  • edited
    Hi @Mattbenic thanks for the interest!

    There is a lot to cover and a lot of these features will only come at a later stage as we're focusing on what is within our capabilities at present. Also note that some of these things will be tweaked for balancing as we test them.

    Regarding early on lack of users - we will be having NPC bases spawn of the different factions to supply an early amount of resources. For endgame there will be PvE areas called Derelict Sites, ruins of the old order. They are rare spawns which contain research notes for skill trees (I'll get to that in a bit.)

    In order to keep things balanced, we've done away with "levels" in the traditional sense, instead the user will be able to upgrade their portal, depending on a portal's capacity, it limits the outgoing "payload", be it troops or resources. This also means that if your portal is a low level and has a low capacity, someone with a huge army won't be able to fit that army through, only a few troops.

    All buildings in the game - as well as units later on - will have skill trees which change the way they work. For example, a Techmaturge has a turret at level 1 - it automatically gains a unique tech passive. When the player wants to upgrade it, they will have three choices. Spend blood (necromancer) to increase it's damage, spend mainly truesilver (techmaturge) with a small amount of the other resources to say increase it's HP, or spend Soulstone (Dryad) to increase it's rate of fire. At higher levels, an upgrade will require that specific research note which the player will need to find a derelict site or buy it from another player for Recognition.

    Recognition is a fourth resource that everyone has, it is earned (stolen) from enemies including npc bases in small amounts. It can also be purchased for real money. Depending on how much recognition you have, it places you on the leaderboards. People at the top of the leaderboards at certain intervals will receive rewards. For the more casual players, recognition can be spent on decorative items and effects.

    My goal is together with my team, create a game that is simple enough for the casual player to be able to enjoy - but deep enough to challenge even the most hardcore of gamers.


    EDIT: Regarding playable demos. We will have an early playable proof-of-concept of the island and base building in a few days. Once that's working nicely, we will turn on the save states and force logins to our server and begin testing. So far our server is brilliantly designed, we did an initial stress test simulation of 33,000 online players and didn't peak 2% on our main server. After that you can expect to see a live release, once we have all the systems in place we will begin the port to iOS and PC. At a laaater stage we also want to have a Hololens build available :) .
    Thanked by 1mattbenic
  • I will be following. :)
  • Early Riftwalker Gameplay Trailer out now!

    Riftwalker Gameplay Trailer - Youtube
  • 1337 Alpha slots now available! https://goo.gl/r45Mgs
  • Migrating to AWS has been a really pleasant experience! Anyone know if AWS is coming to South Africa anytime soon? Googling just comes up with people saying they are, but nothing seems to be happening.

    Would love to host a local server node :D
  • I've updated the main post :) If anyone has any questions, please feel welcome to drop a comment!!!
  • Hello - I will be following Riftwalker :)
    Is there a specific way/time you would like to receive the feedback in future?

    (Downloading the game right now - will try to give useful feedback as a player)
  • GiGGa said:
    Hello - I will be following Riftwalker :)
    Is there a specific way/time you would like to receive the feedback in future?

    (Downloading the game right now - will try to give useful feedback as a player)
    Well in future we'll have the bug tracker running properly - which can be accessed from the game's main menu, however, it's pretty terrible in its current state. So feel free to drop any bug reports or suggestions in this thread, or message our Facebook page and I'll personally look over it and add it to our internal issue tracker.

    Live build is quite a bit behind while we work out some kinks - the next update will introduce the new control system (allowing for easier placement and control of objects using gestures) and an AR mode! :D

    Facebook page can be found: HERE

    If you don't mind, please also let me know what performance you are experiencing, as well as your device model and android version - I'd like to keep tabs on that, thanks!
  • edited
    Riftwalker now holds the spot of the FIRST ever fully A.I. composed game ambient soundtrack to my knowledge!

    Check it out: https://goo.gl/SCHWvd
  • Riftwalker now holds the spot of the FIRST ever fully A.I. composed game soundtrack to my knowledge!

    Check it out: https://goo.gl/SCHWvd
    Hey, can you expand a bit on what a A.I. Composed soundtrack is?
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    @RogueCode The ambient soundtrack is composed by using a Neural Net provided by Amper (check them out, incredible new startup!) basically the AI is given specifications by the creator, so, for example, it needs to be 2 minutes and 30 seconds long, and must follow a dark atmospheric vibe and be played in a C Major.

    The program then takes that input and runs it through a neural net that pairs hundred of different notes together and essentially renders a song from nothing but the parameters and knowing what notes go with what.

    This is essentially google AI duette on steroids.

    For an example of what Amper is capable of, check out this song: composed by AI, but the lyrics and singing done by singer and songwriter Taryn Southern.

    Also while I'm here, would like to share another screenshot of the game, UI is almost completely polished, lighting needs a few tweaks and some new models are coming in soon:

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  • This is very interesting, thanks for a detailed answer!
    That song is very impressive. If I didn't know better I would have guessed that the lyrics was the A.I. generated part :P
  • roguecode said:
    This is very interesting, thanks for a detailed answer!
    That song is very impressive. If I didn't know better I would have guessed that the lyrics was the A.I. generated part :P
    Yeah! It's utterly incredible where technology is going, I'm honestly so excited!
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