Nuclear Throne

Nuclear Throne is a roguelike top-down shoot 'em up with bullet hell elements developed by the Dutch indie studio Vlambeer. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by mutants, the player fights through procedurally generated levels, collecting weapons and radiation-based "mutations" in an attempt to reach the titular Nuclear Throne. The game began as a game jam prototype called Wasteland Kings in February 2013 and was developed largely in public, with most of its two-and-a-half-year production livestreamed on Twitch in a process the studio called "performative development". After more than two years in Early Access, it was released for Linux, Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on December 5, 2015, and was later ported to Nintendo Switch (2019) and Xbox One (2021). The game received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising its tight gunplay, "game feel" and replayability while noting its punishing difficulty; it holds a Metacritic score of 89/100 for the PC version. Commercially, it passed 100,000 units and US$1 million in revenue during Early Access. It is often cited as one of the defining action roguelikes of the 2010s and an influence on subsequent twin-stick roguelikes. After Vlambeer's closure in 2020 and revival under co-founder Jan Willem Nijman in 2024, the game continued to be maintained by community-modder-turned-developer YellowAfterlife. On its tenth anniversary, December 5, 2025, it received "Update #100", which added a thirteenth character, four-player co-operative play, widescreen support and 60+ fps.