Set in a post-apocalypse, players are tasked with killing enemies by using various weapons and characters' special abilities to progress through levels and eventually reach the titular Nuclear Throne.

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.

[2] 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.

[5] Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismael were invited by Notch, to participate in a 48-hour charity game jam called Mojam Humble in 2013.

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.

The livestreams offered opportunities for the developers to interact directly with their community and increase their game's exposure to new audiences.

Rami noticed a significant boost in exposure when other live streamers on the Twitch platform were interacting with and playing Nuclear Throne.

Once the walker reaches the end of its randomized distance it will place an item or object of interest such as an ammo crate or explosive barrel.

[2] In January 2016, Vlambeer teamed up with the subscription box company, IndieBox, to offer a physical release of Nuclear Throne.

This limited collector's edition included a themed USB drive with DRM-free game file, soundtrack, instruction manual, Steam key, and various custom-designed collectibles.

[12] Alexander Chatziioannou of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 4 out of 5 saying, "Nuclear Throne is impeccably presented and tightly designed.