Nitrome is Working on a Roguelike Called Rust Bucket

Nitrome has been producing and publishing a significant trickle of tip-top content lately. So it doesn’t take much effort to get excited about the studio’s next project: A turn-based roguelike game called Rust Bucket.

Rust Bucket may look a touch familiar to anyone who’s been with Nitrome since the beginning. That’s because it’s essentially a re-imagining of one of the company’s earlier titles, Turnament. Going by what little we know of Rust Bucket, it seems to share Turnament’s tile-based exploration mechanics and simple battles — to say nothing of the fact both games share a limbless hero who is literally all helmet.

In fact, Aaron Steed, Turnament’s original programmer (and the main programmer behind several of Nitrome’s games) is working on Rust Bucket. So why not just call the game “Turnament 2” or something? Well, Nitrome boxed that idea.

“We did toy with Turnament SD,” Nitrome founder Mat Annal wrote on the studio’s blog, “but a big problem with the name is that it was terrible for search as it was hard to spell.”

No argument here!

Look for Rust Bucket on mobile platforms soon.

Nadia Oxford

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In the early aughts, Nadia fell into writing with the grace of a brain-dead bison stumbling into a chasm. Over the years, she's written for Nerve, GamePro, 1UP.com, USGamer, Pocket Gamer, Just Labs Magazine, and many other sites and magazines of fine repute. She's currently About.com's Guide to the Nintendo 3DS at ds.about.com.