Nuclear Throne

Nuclear Throne is a top-down shooter roguelike game with bullet hell elements. The game consists of two main game modes: single-player, and a local cooperative gameplay mode. There are also daily and weekly challenge modes, allowing the player to compete against others via the Steam platform for the best score (determined by the number of kills in the playthrough), on the same set of randomly generated levels. The player controls one of a total of 13 characters, 11 of which must be unlocked through play.

Two additional secret characters can only be played under special circumstances during play. Each character has an ability unique to them, adding an additional element to the gameplay. These individual abilities allow for different play-styles, improving the variety and replay value of the game. Alternate sprites or skins can be acquired for the characters played if the player completes special or secret tasks.

Nuclear Throne has a minimal plot. The game's community has formed theories about Nuclear Throne's story by analyzing the game's world, environment details and loading tips. Most canon information shared by the developers was revealed during development livestreams.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, characters called mutants have gathered together with the aim of travelling throughout the world to reach the Nuclear Throne. The developers theorize each new run is a new alternate universe, where everybody is alive and they have yet to decide who will attempt to complete the task.

Vlambeer's Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismail served as the game's designer and producer, respectively, and shared the development work. Paul Veer, who had previously animated Vlambeer's Super Crate Box, returned to contribute art to Nuclear Throne. The game's promotional art was drawn by Justin Chan, an art student hired on the basis of his fan art for early releases of the game. Nuclear Throne's music was composed by Jukio Kallio, who had composed for several previous Vlambeer titles. A friend of Kallio's, Joonas Turner, worked on the sound effect design.

Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismail were invited by Notch, to participate in a 48-hour charity game jam called Mojam Humble in 2013. During this game jam the two created a game called Wasteland Kings which later became the prototype to Nuclear Throne. At the beginning of development, Nuclear Throne was created in Game Maker 7 before transitioning to Game Maker Studio to develop the rest of the product, a decision the team later found cumbersome. Nuclear Throne's development was secondary to their other project at the time, Luftrausers, and the team often found themselves progressively adding new features before considering taking the game seriously as a commercial option.

Nuclear Throne received "generally favorable" reviews; the PC version holds 89/100 on Metacritic. IGN's Chloi Rad scored it 9/10, calling it "an enjoyably tough run-and-gun with tons of energy and variety to justify hours and hours of replays." PC Gamer's Edwin Evans-Thirlwell gave it 90/100 and "a crowning achievement for Vlambeer, and one of the finest action-roguelikes ever made," while Eurogamer rated it "Essential." Game Informer was more measured at 7.5/10.