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Franz

@franzlazerte.bsky.social

590 followers 590 following 150 posts

Amsterdam-based self-taught #Godot #IndieGameDev working on Rift Riff. ⭐ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2800900/Rift_Riff

store.steampowered.com

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Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Oct 25

Quick intro to Franz and his interests:

✈️ From Toronto to Amsterdam with SE, NO, DK and UK in between
🌬️ Took a hard-left into #gamedev after 13 years of stable work as a Wind Power Engineer
🖥️ All things #PCGaming... switch & ps4 are collecting dust
🎲 Player / Collector of crunchy #boardgames

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 19h

These typos are telling me that fixing App Store and Play Store IAP bugs is affecting my inner happiness #godot #indiegames #gamedev

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Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 7d

@adriaan.games is much better than I at explaining what the heck we do in #Godot.

Adriaan @adriaan.games · 7d

Thread on what it took to port Rift Riff, made in Godot, to iOS and Android. 🧵👇

#godotengine #gamedev

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 7d

Nice summary! You made it sound so simple 😂. It was a certainly a great learning experience for me and our next project will get even easier 💪🏼

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 8d

riftriff.com

Steam (Windows / macOS / Linux / Steam Deck):
store.steampowered.com/app/2800900/...

App Store (iOS):
apps.apple.com/us/app/rift-...

Google Play (Android):
play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Rift Riff

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

riftriff.com

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 8d

Rift Riff just released a banger 1.2 #MajorContent update alongside a 30% #DailyDeal on Steam right now:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcrO...

After lots of fun playing with APIs it's also now released for #iOS #AppStore and #Android #PlayStore. Improved optimizations! Vertical UI!

Links in the 🧵...

New Worlds & Towers – Rift Riff (v1.2)

YouTube video by Adriaan de Jongh

www.youtube.com

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Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 8d

... and their kickstarter is already running💫. Backed.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/epi...

Starfinder: Afterlight 💫

Gather your crew and save the galaxy in this party-based RPG featuring Starfinder 2e ruleset where magic meets technology.

www.kickstarter.com

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Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 8d

I am so stoked to hear about a cRPG based on Starfinder, built in #Godot no less! So gutted I'll miss #GodotFest and @epictellers.bsky.social talk this year, but everyone attending should go see it.

GodotFest - GodotCon Europe 25 @godotfest.com · Sep 2

Can #Godot expand beyond indie games, into AA territory? Well, the best way to learn is by doing, so the team @epictellers.bsky.social set out to create an entire full-scale cRPG, all in Godot! Learn more about this crazy endeavour @ #GodotFest!

Image with text, spotlighting a talk or workshop for GodotFest 2025

Building Starfinder: Professional Godot at Scale
Learn about the unexpected advantages, difficulties, workarounds and the resulting workflows of using Godot in AA development, based on real unfiltered production insights from a 30-person development team.
Ricard Pillosu, Felix Rios, Maria Calle
Epictellers

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Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 8d

Major Update inbound!!!

Sim Kaart @simkaart.co · 8d

New things for Rift Riff! TODAY :D #indiegame #godot #pixelart

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 23d

My number 1 error is forgetting to attach a node to the @export in the inspector. This is awesome.

Let's gooo 4.6 #Godot

RobTheFiveNine @robthefivenine.bsky.social · 23d

The drag and drop export variables function that's coming in Godot 4.6 is the feature I need that I didn't realise I need 😅 Really great idea #gamedev #godot godotengine.org/article/dev-...

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.6 dev 1 – Godot Engine

The calm before the storm…

godotengine.org

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Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · 24d

Psst.. we've been cooking

store.steampowered.com/news/app/280...

Rift Riff - Major Update on October 15 - Steam News

More worlds, towers, and monsters, soon!

store.steampowered.com

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 31

Miyazaki's Castle In The Sky is still a banger after all these years.

Re-experiencing the fantastic adventure and wonder from my own childhood's favourite film through my son's eyes for the first time is worth more than all the treasure of Laputa.

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 13

I see this error more than my own family.

110% of the time when I add @export objects I forget to load them with something. #Godot

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 13

I really want to watch this vid, but spoilers and I haven't gotten far enough because of the discussed frustration with RNG. So now I'm at an impasse - I want your video to convince me otherwise, but I'm not playing more to get to a point where I can watch your video... 🤯

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 13

I think there is a large population of social media consumers that are non-English speakers and too lazy to read subtitles: namely kids.

I particularly dislike when big tech forces new features on you though - that should be an option that the view can choose to select if they want it.

Reposted by Franz

Local Heroes Worldwide @local-heroes.com · Aug 7

🧙‍♀️ Jump a rift, fight off monsters, plunder their world. Rift Riff is a refreshing take on the tower defence genre and a collaboration by @adriaan.games, @simkaart.co, @matthijskoster.com, @franzlazerte.bsky.social, and @professionalpanda.bsky.social. We got the chance to plunder their localizations!

Key art of Rift Riff showing multiple towers, the player character and a drone shooting at resources.

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Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 7

Hi, it's me 👋🏼

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 7

Back in May, @adriaan.games and I did a talk on developing Rift Riff in #Godot engine.

We spoke about what to try next: we're elbows deep in optimizing for mobile and so far we've had some great success doing so in Godot - check out Adriaan's thread on it. More on this once we actually release it.

INDIGO @indigo-showcase.bsky.social · Aug 7

NEW INDIGO 2025 TALK AVAILABLE ONLINE!

Adriaan de Jongh (Game Designer, @adriaan.games) & Franz LaZerte (Godot Programmer & Technical Designer)

Talk: We released a game in the Godot Engine and it was great!
Video: youtu.be/Kn6SAIfdPUk

#techtalk #gamedev #indiedev #gameevent #indigo2025 #godot

Franz LaZerte & Adriaan de Jongh: We Released A Game In The Godot Engine And It Was Great INDIGO2025

YouTube video by INDIGO Showcase

youtu.be

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 5

Interestingly but perhaps unsurprisingly, is that Roblox avg session length is consistently less than 10 minutes (Source: romonitorstats.com)

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 5

Old news, but new for me:
Grow a Garden, a game within the Roblox ecosystem, hit 21 MILLION concurrent users in June 🤯

Context:
🔫Steam's top game PubG tapped out at 3.2M CCUs
🛠️Fortnite held the prev record at 15.3M
😶‍🌫️Steam's total CCU record is 41M (March), but only 13.2M were actually playing games

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 4

TIL that octopuses don't actually have tentacles - they are long stalks with a sucker-covered club on the end, and only squids and cuttlefish have them.

Octopuses have arms.

So I guess Day Of The Tentacle should actually be called... Day Of The Arm?

I love learning while reading to my toddler

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 4

And then I watch speedruns in just over 3 minutes involving killing Shadowheart, stuffing her in a flaming box and yeeting her across most of Act 1 and all of Act 2. Hilarious.

Mae's explanation video here (some spoilers if you haven't finished Act 2)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cWN...

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 4

Final finished Baldur's Gate 3 after a whopping 160h playthrough and picking away at it for about 2 years.

One of only 2 games I've ever played where I'm still satisfied after 100+ hrs of a single playthrough. (The other being Witcher 3) - a pretty high testament to the quality of the quantity.

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 3

Nostalgia is firing at 150%

Romain Barrilliot @skacky.bsky.social · Aug 2

This is my favorite bug in any game ever

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 3

Thank you @ricklane.bsky.social for answering the important questions.

More of this top notch investigative journalism, please!

Rick Lane @ricklane.bsky.social · Aug 2

Thanks to @skacky.bsky.social for his fascinating, definitive answer to my incredibly dumb question: how tall is Garrett from Thief? www.pcgamer.com/games/i-emba...

I embarked on a mission to answer the most important question in PC gaming: How tall is Garrett from Thief?

Pinned size at last.

www.pcgamer.com

Franz @franzlazerte.bsky.social · Aug 1

you had that one loaded and ready to go 👏