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Nuclear Throne: Oh! I accidentally ate my gun.

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So I've been a lurker here for a while, but I only recently started posting here more. I recently picked up Nuclear Throne on Steam, and was surprised to see there hasn't been much discussion of it here.

 

Nuclear Throne is a top-down shooter based in pulp sci-fi with randomly generated level layouts, random gun drops, permadeath, and a perk system. It's similar in a lot of ways to Spelunky in that the general progression is similar every game, but the random nature of different things in the game can change your play style pretty significantly. There's also a lot of characters to play, and each of them have their own special ability and traits.

 

The title is a reference to the robot character who can eat guns to scavenge ammo and HP instead of leaving them on the ground to go to waste. That action is bound to the right mouse button just like all the other active specials, and sometimes that can lead to accidentally eating your gun before you get the hang of it. It sounds really annoying, but I find the whole idea of it pretty hilarious. So I usually just laugh really hard whenever that happens.

 

One key difference from Spelunky is that the game is being designed to loop and increase in difficulty as you move forward through the levels in a kind of Dark Souls-esque way. That difficulty bump is not permanent, though. Most everything except for a really minor thing resets when you die.

 

I thought Thumbs readers might want to discuss this game for 2 reasons. The first is that this is a place with people that appreciate Spelunky, and the second is that the development of the game is being streamed live by Vlambeer on Twitch. Dejobaan Games has also done this really heavily, and I find it fascinating as someone who also develops games in their spare time. They've also committed to and have faithfully carried out a once a week update schedule with patch notes viewable in-game.

 

There's been a lot of discussion on Idle Thumbs about what Steam Early Access makes sense for, and this feels like a game that really nails how good that experience can be. The player feedback feels like it is making the game better week after week. The developers are resolute in certain decisions they've made, but tuning is something they seem to be open to a lot of player feedback about.

 

On the most recent episode Chris mentioned that Spelunky feels like lightning in a bottle, and I have to think that's because of the collaborative nature of its development. There were lots of people playing that game, and giving their 2 cents about their experiences with it. I don't feel like Nuclear Throne is there yet, but I feel like it could get there given enough time.

 

You can get a good idea of what the game is by watching the Northern Lion video below:

 

It's a pretty simple game, but the character abilities give each character a really unique feel. So even if I get frustrated with a death I can start over, and play the game in a different way so that it feels less hopeless. I thought this was going to be one of those games where I pick a character then stick with it forever. I've found myself bouncing around between lots of different characters, though, and that's been great.

 

The one knock against it I have at the moment is that the game seems kind of tuned at Developer Difficulty which is otherwise known as Carmageddon 2 syndrome. In my opinion the current version of the game feels like maybe what the game should feel like after you've looped once. That's a difficult thing to balance, though, because that can make the game feel too boring for too long for a lot of people.

 

I've been playing a lot with Robot, Crystal, and Chicken. 

 

Have any other people here played this game? What kind of thoughts do you have about the live dev process, Steam Early Access, and game design?

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I've really enjoyed following the development of this game. On most weeks, I try to catch one of the development streams, then on Saturday/Sunday I play the game and get to see a bunch of changes and additions that were worked on during that week, sometimes on the stream.

 

It's a really nice system they've adopted, and I hope to see more games made in that way. I enjoyed Amnesia Fortnight for similar reasons.

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I feel like I've not played nearly enough of this yet.

 

Someone advised me that the chicken's slomo power helps when you're new to it, by making some of the game systems a bit more visible, and he was right. It still took about an hour before I felt like I understood it passably, and I still suck. Usually die in the sewers.

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I adore this game, it's a shame my PC is going a bit funny because I can't play it any more. It's also super hard with a controller compared to mouse and keyboard, but that doesn't stop me from being really excited for the console releases. I think the difficulty is completely intentional, and personally I wouldn't want them to change it. 

Paid the higher price of £10 for it and I don't regret it. Vlambeer will do well with this I'm sure.

 

I really like the melting guy. If you get the + HP he becomes incredibly powerful because he loses his main weakness, especially combined with Throne Butt which makes the explosions even larger meaning you can chain together kills through practically a whole level. Also crystal is pretty cool but doesn't have the potential the melting guy has.

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Looks great. I haven't watched much of the streaming since that goes on at like 3 am in my time zone, and I don't ever really feel like watching it after the fact, but I think what they're doing is amazing. I haven't picked it up though as I've almost entirely sworn off early access games at this point.

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Looks great. I haven't watched much of the streaming since that goes on at like 3 am in my time zone, and I don't ever really feel like watching it after the fact, but I think what they're doing is amazing. I haven't picked it up though as I've almost entirely sworn off early access games at this point.

That's fair. I would say that Nuclear Throne is one of the few Early Access games that is worth buying in its unfinished state, but I suppose part of the value is in being able to play new builds which you just watched being made a few days earlier.

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I don't doubt it. My reason for holding off from Early Access games just comes down to the fact that I never seem to have any shortage of stuff I want to play so I figure I can wait on stuff that isn't complete yet, even if it's awesome already.

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Played the holy hell out of this back when it was released as part of the Humble Mojam Bundle under the name Wasteland Kings, picked it up on Early Access, and yet still remain absolutely terrible at playing it. I don't really mind, though, given how stunning it looks and sounds.

 

I have to give serious props to them for dedicating so much time and effort to streaming and answering questions from the public, too. Turning something as regularly toxic as twitch.tv chat into an educational forum is a fucking astounding achievement

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I remember watching the guy who did the audio for this streaming some stuff probably 6-8 months ago on twitch of him doing some work for this, it seemed cool.

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This looks great and I played some wasteland kings from the jam they did, but I am not a fan of early access where you essentially have to re-buy the game once its released...( if you then want the retail game )

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This looks great and I played some wasteland kings from the jam they did, but I am not a fan of early access where you essentially have to re-buy the game once its released...( if you then want the retail game )

You don't? When you buy Nuclear Throne it's in your library forever. Unless I'm misunderstanding something and you're referring to the MoJam prototype, which I think is totally fair to charge for separately.

 

I came home from work last night and played some Nuclear Throne. I was apparently on a hotstreak because I managed to get to the ice world boss twice in a row which is a personal best for me.

Does anybody know how the giant weapon chests appear? I found one while I was playing and I'd never seen one before.

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I almost bought it to get the second copy, then talked myself out of it.  I know its something I really want to wait until its finished to play. 

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Played quite a bit of this some months ago, but I haven't really checked back since. I understand the nuclear throne is an actual real thing by now? Also Rami Ismail mentioned daily runs on Twitter today, anybody have any experience with how different those are?

 

I really like the melting guy. If you get the + HP he becomes incredibly powerful because he loses his main weakness, especially combined with Throne Butt which makes the explosions even larger meaning you can chain together kills through practically a whole level. Also crystal is pretty cool but doesn't have the potential the melting guy has.

 

I usually go for the high-risk, high-reward glass cannons, so Melting is right up my alley. Those explosions can really spiral out of control when there are a lot of enemies around, especially once you get Throne Butt. Gets a bit confusing with all that screenshake, but fortunately I think they also destroy projectiles, so your carpet bombing can actually keep you pretty safe that way.

 

#TeamMelting

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I caved and got this a few months back. The updates are coming thick and fast which makes it really enjoyable to follow week to week. I wanted to get into the daily challenges but got into some other games right around when that update dropped so haven't given it a proper crack yet. Might be worth recording some runs.

 

This game is hard.

 

Tell me about it. I still haven't beaten it.

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Everyone who as Nuclear Throne now has an extra copy of Nuclear Throne. 

 

This is officially the Nuclear Throne begging thread. 

 

I am officially begging for Nuclear Throne. 

 

i saw this announcement, and like bjorn almost bought in to get a 2x copy during the sale.  but the last thing i need to do is buy another nearly endless game.

 

that being said - i'd also love a copy! but will not likely use it in the very-near future

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Yesterday I understood that the key to increasing immediate enjoyment of Nuclear Throne is to hit 'restart' unquestioningly as soon as the option is presented at the end of a run.

 

Now when I play it, I want to play it all the time, but then after I have played it for a while, I don't want to play it for a day. This is pretty good for life balance.

 

[i am also on Team Melting even if my skills aren't quite there yet]

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I've been playing the fuck out of this for the past few weeks. Really good game. I've never ever made it past stage four, though, and rarely do I even make it to stage four. Team Melting is also the team I aspire to be on.

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I've got a spare for a regular who adds me on steam

 

Friended, I'll take it if no one else has already.  I'm super curious about the local co-op in it (and the game in general). 

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Tried the Rogue, the one where the Inter Dimensional Police Department will gatecrash every single level, twice. Good times!

That's by far my least favorite character. I think. It just seems like a lot of shit to deal with for very little reward.

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