Welcome to the official RIFTHIKER Re-Hike bulletin board! This is where every development progress recap gets published every month.
February 2025 Re-Hike
The Promise
This is the first ever recap made, I’ve missed working on RIFTHIKER for quite a while, and after my long hiatus I’ve decided to come back and finally deliver what I’ve promised (I think) almost a year ago!
I was not satisfied with how RIFTHIKER turned out to be, it’s a very unstable game, with a very unstable backend and with a very lackluster frontend.. I’ll spare the tech mumbo jumbo and get straight to the point, RIFTHIKER Update 2 will completely rework the game from the ground up, allowing for better optimization, experience and less pain while I work on providing new content.
RIFTHIKER
Ever since I’ve started working on RIFTHIKER, I wanted to encapsulate that feeling of a game built in the late 2012, but running on a “reimagined” 2013 Roblox engine.
Graphics
With the restart of developing RIFTHIKER I wanted to start off where I was the least happy with, the looks of the game, the current RIFTHIKER does not reflect what I’ve initially expected the game to look like, I couldn’t manage to capture that feeling of desolation, moody and cold tones, and don’t even get me started on the retro look I was hoping to achieve.
like, what even is this..
So I’ve begun on fine-tuning the lighting, messing around with properties, but I still couldn’t get down that specific “bright” and “shiny” feeling the 2013 Roblox had, then I found out about this obscure post-processing effect… The ColorGradingEffect!
Effect Disabled ^
Effect Enabled ^
Materials
I know it may look like nothing based off of the images, but my god, it makes the game feel different, atleast to my eyes, THIS is what I’ve been seeking to achieve for so long, and I’ve finally got it! But what’s a 2013 Roblox “re-creation” without those old, beloved, materials? RIFTHIKER already has them implemented into the game, but they always looked off, they always darkened the colors and the studs just looked weird, but that was because I was using Roblox’s MaterialService, I’ve decided to go back to the scrapped way of applying materials, which is via a script, and I’ve improved upon that script and made an optimized, efficient material handling system.
just LOOK at how it shines! And how it doesn’t interfere with the original color..
And as for now, I am satisfied with the graphics, do I feel like there’s more room for improvement? Definitely, but I’ve got more important stuff to work with.
UI
I’ve also wanted to make something different for the game’s UI aswell, making it feel like it belongs to the 2013 Roblox era but with some creativity thrown into it, I’ve started by making a custom UI capable of handling Hints and Messages, queue system, and also giving them a typewrite effect.
And obviously, made the Healthbar and Mouse stay the same as current RIFTHIKER, since they don’t need to change.
The Inventory
And then.. I’ve began making the inventory system and.. I’ll let the pictures show you..
HOW DOES THIS EVEN HAPPEN?!?!
But, despite all odds, I’ve managed to make it work IN THE INTENDED WAY (because I know what I’m doing this time..) and the best thing about this is that it is fully compatible with touch screens! Finally allowing mobile Rifthikers to enjoy their handheld experience once and for all.
Mobile support will be implemented in the rest of the game, obviously
And finally, some more show-off of what I’ve done for the UI (and chat commands, as you can see in the background)
In regards to chat commands, I won’t leak what commands I’ve made for the game, as I don’t wanna spoil the March Re-Hike.
Mechanics
I’ve been working mostly on laying the fundamentals, most mechanics that you currently see on the current RIFTHIKER will be coming back to Update 2, There’s not really anything to show off here as it’s boring code mumbo jumbo you probably won’t understand, what I can say is that I haven’t been working on the Rifthiking system because, as I’ve said, I have to “re”-make the fundamentals of the game, what it works off of, and whatever else there is.
Conclusion
That concludes February 2025’s Re-Hike! You can expect another Re-Hike at the end of March, and so on, until this update finally releases! (I’ll probably re-use this format for providing some development leaks in regards to other updates, but eh), and also I’d like to give out an apology for the length this update is taking to release, I wasn’t originally proud with what direction RIFTHIKER was going on, and the hiatus I took and along with your devotion for RIFTHIKER has helped me get back on track - And I also apologize for keeping you guys in the dark for this long! Hope this Re-Hike was satisfying enough, See you on the next Re-Hike!
March 2025 Re-Hike
Introduction
Aaand we’re back in this.. place..
Now, as you can already see, a LOT of stuff has changed, and we will go over them today on this very post!
Fall Damage
Let’s start with the most obvious change first, why are there height pillars? and since the header already spoiled it for you, yes, there’s fall damage in RIFTHIKER now.
bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuh
Don’t be afraid though, it’s not anything too scary, you just lose a small percentage of your life and you only get fall damage if you fall from a very tall height, therefore it doesn’t interfere with pie hiking.
Essences
RIFTHIKER now has pemanently unlockable essences, thanks to a poll posted on the communications server.
Essences have their own unique positive abilities that help you traverse thru the desolate and dangerous interdimension of RIFTHIKER.
We will let Guest -78 demonstrate every essence and it’s cosmetic change! As I don’t want to spoil the perks.
Essenceless
Fishkin
Cloudwalker
Mossbound
Cementskin
It can (and will) crack aswell!
Only one Essence can be enabled at a time, with a 30 second cooldown inbetween, you can switch thru Essences using the Status Tool (might change) or by typing a command in chat.
Collectibles
I’ve also added collectibles, AKA Studs, but it’s not just Studs this time, they’re now an actual currency called §tuds. They have a cool S now.
The amount of §tudParts has been decreased significantly, these are now the §tudParts you will stumble upon every now and then!
But there’s a big gift in the middle! What could it be? It’s a Compass Box collectible, which will grant you extra Hikes when you collect it. (currently a placeholder model)
Collectibles will not be exclusive to §tudParts and Compass Boxes, they will also be capable of granting badges, Hikers Resort props, and so on!
Also, any collected §tudPart will show up in your statistics popup.
Damage System
I’ve also made a global damage system, which made me able to grant Cementskin (and not only) it’s own damage resistant properties instead of just increasing the player’s max health, this also applies to NPCs and should add variety to the game’s NPCs, like for example you could be fighting a NPC with the same Cementskin resistance properties, lowering all of it’s incoming damage.
There’s also a chance that you drop Blood §tudParts once you take damage and you’re not in debt.
The §tuds loss calculation has been updated, making it a little less difficult to go into debt if you’re low on §tuds.
And also, they change appearence based on what Essence you have.
Settings
We’ve also added settings now, and a small little spoiler of what’s to come next month!
They’re all pretty self explainatory and functionality has already been implemented, so I don’t know what else to say here except for more settings could potentially come.
Conclusion
That’s all for this month’s Re-Hike! Apologies for it being a little short, the coding of Essences took most of my time while working on this.
See you on the next Re-Hike!
April 2025 Re-Hike
The Journal
If you’ve managed to get the Relic of Knowledge badge (or you’ve just seen the 2024 leaks) you already know about :iteminfo, AKA. the journal. The new version of the journal I’ve been working on will be mostly the same as the 2024 journal leak, but with a clearer and easier to navigate UI, heres some pics of the evolution below!
EARLY 2024 RIFTHIKER, CURRENT
LATE 2024 RIFTHIKER, “TESTHIKER”
EARLY 2025 RIFTHIKER, “rh2concept”
Zones
I’ve also added zones, a scrapped idea from both RIFTHIKER and TESTHIKER, these zones will allow special effects to be shown on the clientside, such as audio reverb, colorcorrection effects, and even swimmable areas!
As you can see from the second image, you will now be able to swim on water, thus emphasizing on water areas playing a big part in exploring the world of RIFTHIKER instead of just being nocollide deathboxes, and of course, you can and will drown! So make sure to use the proper essences.
Visual Clarity and Keybinds
RIFTHIKER now has full support for certain keybinded actions, now no longer requiring you to type out the command in chat.
Mobile support will be added in the next Re-Hike.
forgot to add the press T to spray command here, whoops!
And along with these keybinds, so do come visual effects to showcase what you’re doing. (except swimming cause duh)
Essence Chant VFX
Journal VFX
And as seen in previous TESTHIKER leaks, and in the March 2025 Re-Hike, we now have spray support!
For player safety, you can hide other’s sprays in the settings, which means spray visibility is disabled by default.
oh also… you can dual wield.. technically..?
Status Effects
Status Effects, as once planned for RIFTHIKER, have now been added along with a potency scale, basically the more you interact with a status effect it now becomes more potent. For example, if you were to touch a spike two times, you’d lose slightly more health. And before you ask, yes, NullSoda will be a potency based effect.
As of currently, the only status effect I’m gonna talk about is just a simple bleed effect to test the potency and the way the system works, the planned status effects are the following:
- Burn
- Bleed
- Poison
- and a few more that shall stay a secret..
Death Prevention System
Once you’re nearing death, and you take more damage than you can sustain (like taking 5 damage at 5 hp), if you have any Death Prevention points left you will completely avoid resetting, making you not lose certain important items and so on.
Death Prevention points are a hidden stat, and also a certain status effect will be triggered once you’re nearing death!
Conclusion
I’ve been doing alot of optimization and bug fixing in the backend, as it stands currently, theres a LOT of optimization to handle the game even on low specs devices and a stable gameplay.
There’s now an internal roadmap about what the May 2025 Re-Hike will be, but that remains a secret.. except for..
NEXT UP: RIFTHIKING!
Also, as of writing this, we’ve hit 73 members on Bluesteel Integrated, 53 members on the communications server, 2,532 visits, 199 favourites and a 95% like ratio! These may look like small numbers on the surface but I’m very grateful and thankful for all of you who’ve been sticking with me during the creation of this project! I stay hopeful into bringing you an actual experience by late 2025. 
See you on the next Re-Hike!
May / June 2025 Re-Hike
Morale
The morale system will be making a comeback on Update 2, being more refined and having more wacky formulas for the Rifthikers to figure out! Unlike the previous morale mechanics being spoon-fed, I want to make the current ones hidden, so not much on this one sadly!
Magic
Magic is a new feature coming to Update 2, the way this new system is meant to work is that you increase your mastery with magic along your journey, therefore you start with very low magic and make your way up to becoming a wizard.
Magic will include chants (spells) and actions, chants require less magic than actions.
Magic will also have passive indicators pointing out how much magic you have left when you perform a chant / action without having to check how much magic you currently have.
OST
Update 2 will bring you a whole new OST (mixed with the previous originally picked music from pre-Update 2) thanks to Wintereisse! You can listen to the new Rifthiking song on the official Bluesteel Int. YouTube channel
Gadgets
With the new update, current items will also recieve a visual overhaul and a functionality revision, heres one of the current new additions to RIFTHIKER..
The Lightpoint
The Lightpoint is a mixture between a lantern and a flashlight, pressing the primary ability button will let you switch between the lantern and the flashlight version, it can be mounted on your hip by pressing the secondary ability button and it also comes with color customization by pressing the tetriary ability button!
Journal Section: Documents
The Documents Journal section has been completed, along with document handling, you can choose to mark as important certain documents, which will give them a blue star on the top left of their image.
And now.. What you’ve been waiting for..
The Rift Opener - New Rifthiking System
The Rift Opener is what Rifthikers are gonna use for their Interversal Journey.
Each Rifthiker has their own unique Psychic Coordinate linked to a System, Discovered Systems will show up on the Starmap.. And that’s about all I wanna leak about the new Rifthiking system as to keep it fresh for everyone!
Wrap-up
Apologies for the long wait on this Re-Hike! I’ve decided to mix together the May and June Re-Hike to include more content in one Re-Hike, as May was focused more on bug fixing, map making, and just stuff that weren’t worthy of being mentioned in the Re-Hike, and I’ve also taken a break to avoid burning out, I hope this Re-Hike was satisfactory enough!
See you on the next Re-Hike!
July 2025 Re-Hike
Progress Report
As probably most of you already know, this Re-Hike marks the official end of the programming front of the update, with an estimated 60% completed update, mapping has now taken full priority, we’re still undecided to leak maps in the upcoming Re-Hikes as to keep everything fresh.
CHRONO
Incase you have missed it, I’ve published an update to the current version of RIFTHIKER. You’re currently tasked with monitoring a new rift property called “Chrono”, more information in-game.
Journal Completion
The journal sections have been completed along with the badge showcase page in the opening page, the latest section being the quests section.
NPC Dialog
NPC Dialog has finally been added, getting completely rid of the previous name-based dialog system (which was pretty bad), it now includes dialog options aswell instead of just being a forced string of text.
Magic Rework
Magic abilities are now divided by sections, any new magic ability you find will be in its appropriate section.
Such as the essences section:
You also can no longer check how much magic you currently have, the passive effect is enough of an indicator now.
Rift Events
Rift Events have been completed, currently its pretty barebones but as the game goes I’ll add more events, here’s the Clown event!
Mobile Support
Mobile support for RIFTHIKER has been finished, now includes keybinds and tool abilities.
Wrap-up
We’ve finally made a big step into the new update, and I’m very proud of how it’s coming out to be,
if all goes well Update 2 may release before 2026, thank you all so much for the support!
See you on the next Hike!
