The project started with a successful Indiegogo campaign in February 2014 and entered early access in December 2017.

[2] The scenarios in Riot were partly informed through designer Leonard Menchiari's participation in the Italian No TAV protests.

The game aims to depict scenarios in a neutral manner, allowing the player to explore both sides of the conflict.

[8] Riot emulates a 2D retro look even though the scene is 3D, which gives more realistic lighting, physics, and visual effects.

[11] Although they praised the art, Rock Paper Shotgun disliked the strategy elements and thought it had too little to say about riots.

[12] Nintendo Life criticized the released Switch version for not taking advantage of its controls, and they said it lacked any insight into riots.