Former Call of Duty Dev’s Extraction Shooter Hits Major Milestone
Brian Douglas, a former Call of Duty developer, launched Rift Raider Extraction in December 2025 as a solo project developed on his laptop. The mobile-exclusive extraction shooter represents Douglas’s response to the challenging fundraising environment for game development, demonstrating how independent creators are finding alternative paths to traditional funding models amid the industry’s investment slowdown.
The game uniquely blends mechanics from Minecraft and Geometry Wars with extraction shooter gameplay, creating an innovative fusion designed to differentiate the title in the increasingly crowded extraction shooter genre while maintaining the high-stakes intensity the format is known for. This hybrid approach showcases Douglas’s vision for bringing fresh gameplay ideas to mobile platforms.
Rift Raider Extraction has recently reached 1,000 downloads on the Google Play Store—a milestone Douglas considers significant for his independent project. The achievement underscores both the viability of extraction shooters on mobile platforms and the potential for solo developers to succeed without substantial capital investment or publisher backing. Douglas’s approach of developing a game independently and iterating based on player feedback demonstrates a viable alternative strategy as larger studios struggle with funding and market saturation.