Built by One Developer and AI in 30 Days
The Experiment That Became a Game
On March 2nd, 2026, Rift Wars was a blank Vite scaffold. Thirty days later, it's a fully deployed card game with 4,276 cards, real-time multiplayer, 6-tier AI opponents, a social system, and a complete economy — live on AWS for anyone to play.
This is not a studio production. This is one developer working with AI as a true development partner.
AI-Powered Development
Every system in Rift Wars — the card engine, multiplayer netcode, bot AI, school skill trees, ability resolver, matchmaking, leaderboards — was built through a collaborative process between a human developer and AI coding tools. Not generated and abandoned. Built, tested, debugged, rebalanced, and deployed.
The AI doesn't just write code. It architects systems, runs simulations (400-match balance tests across all 4 schools), debugs edge cases at 2am, and iterates faster than any traditional workflow. The human brings the vision, game design instincts, and the final call on what ships.
The Timeline
- Week 1: Core engine — 5x5 board, card placement, crystal spreading, ability resolution
- Week 2: Card generation — 4,276 cards across 16 clans, 21 ability types, QB-aligned stats
- Week 3: Multiplayer + social — WebSocket rooms, ELO matchmaking, friends, clans, DMs, 6-tier bot AI
- Week 4: Polish + deploy — School skills, tutorials, economy, AWS infrastructure, beta launch
What's Next: Public AI Agent Interfacing
The next frontier isn't just building with AI — it's letting AI play. We're exploring public AI agent interfaces that will allow autonomous agents to interact with Rift Wars: analyzing meta, discovering strategies, and competing alongside human players.
Imagine an AI agent that studies the entire card pool, builds optimized decks, and challenges the top of the leaderboard. That's not science fiction — that's the roadmap.
Solo Dev, Full Transparency
Rift Wars is solo developed by @1DigitalC with heavy AI assistance. Some art assets were created with AI tools and will be revamped with original art while keeping the style and vibe. We believe in transparency about how things are built — and we believe the results speak for themselves.