Rift Delver

What is this game?

Rift Delver is a 3D expedition shooter through a lost machine city, built around drafting circuits and choosing when to bank salvage. Three encounters make a depth, with a Warden encounter every third depth, rotating environments and increasing difficulty. Extraction funds a permanent four-track workshop and deeper clears unlock additional weapons.

Rules & objectives

1. After each encounter choose one of three seeded circuits and recover some hull; circuits stack and change weapon or survival behavior.
2. Three encounters clear a depth and open the choice to extract or descend. Every third depth ends with a Warden and escort.
3. Extract to bank salvage. Defeat retains 25% of unbanked salvage plus Insurance upgrades.
4. Firing creates heat; manage bursts and cooling. Dash briefly protects, while shockwave damages/slows nearby enemies and clears projectiles.
5. Depth three unlocks Shard Caster; depth six unlocks Arc Lance; workshop tracks have ten ranks each.

How to play

• WASD/left stick moves; mouse/right stick aims; left mouse/right trigger fires.
• Right mouse/RB shockwave; Shift/LB dash; Space/A jump; Q/X cycles weapons.
• E/Enter starts/descends/returns; 1–3 drafts circuits; at extraction 1 banks and 2 descends; 1–4 buys workshop ranks.
• F5/F9 quick-save/load; Escape pause/settings; F fullscreen.

Story & setting

The player descends through a lost machine city to salvage its technology. The documented progression is expeditions and workshop upgrades; no dialogue campaign is described.

Characters & roles

Depth one in the Sunken Archive, with the Pulse Carbine equipped. First-person Delver viewpoint; no player body portrait.

Delver

The player’s expedition role, assembling circuits and deciding when to extract.

This is the first-person player role, shown through its viewpoint and weapon rather than a separate full-body character model.

A purple flying drone hovering in Ember Foundry.

Flying drones

Airborne machines that hover above the floor, fire aimed projectiles and back away when the player approaches.

A horned charging melee machine in the Sunken Archive.

Melee machines

Charging close-range machines that commit to a direction before rushing; their pauses create room to sidestep.

A large brown brute advancing beside charging machines.

Brutes

Heavy, slow-moving machines with more hull than ordinary attackers and stronger contact damage.

A yellow Sentinel fires from behind cover (partly occluded).

Sentinels

Ranged machines that fire aimed projectiles when they have a clear shot and retreat from a nearby player.

A Warden in the depth-three Glacial Vault encounter.

Wardens

Boss machines encountered every third depth. They launch radial projectile rings and an aimed shot, supported by escorts.

Screenshot gallery

Open an image to see the full capture.

Original human creation prompt

Using the latest BlueEngine, make a high quality 3d game that can be played for hours. I love time sink games so try to make it something that a player can really get invested in. Ensure the gameplay itself and the game mechanics are the core of the gaming experience. Ensure the game feels incredible to play. Once it is done, please publish to BlueEngineGames and create high quality feedback for the BlueEngine project to improve

Original creation request, recovered verbatim from the author’s request history. This records the requested design; the implemented release is described above.