- The Demo Just Got a Lot Better - 5 September 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,We had this update written on Monday, and we did not send it.The demo had gone live, thousands of you were playing it, and we could see there was work to do. Rather than tell you how well it was going, we put our heads down and got on with it.Today's build is the one we wanted you to have.What changedPerformance is significantly better than it was on Monday. If the game ran rough for you earlier in the week, it is worth another look.The blurry picture is gone. If everything looked soft no matter what you did in the settings menu, that was a bug on our end, not your graphics card. It is fixed.A great many bugs have been squashed, a good number of them found by people playing the demo this week and telling us about it.A new building interfaceThis is the one we are most pleased about.Players told us the building interface was getting in the way. Not in a small number of rep…
- The Trail Continues, and the Demo Arrives Monday - 28 August 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,We have got some big news from the frontier.First up, a lot of you have been asking for a little more time with the current playtest. So we are extending it by another 48 hours.That takes the playtest through to Sunday 30 August at 6:00pm Eastern (EDT), which is 3:00pm Pacific (PDT), or 22:00 UTC if you are further afield. A couple more days to explore Overlook Lake, expand your homestead, venture a little further into the wilderness and, of course, keep sending us your feedback and bug reports.And speaking of feedback.The playtest has been a huge step forwardOver the last few weeks more and more of you have been heading out onto the frontier, playing the game, reporting bugs, telling us what you enjoy and showing us where there is still work to do.It has been enormously useful.We still have plenty ahead of us. There are bugs to squash, performance improvements to make,…
- The Playtest Is Open to Everyone - 27 August 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,We said we would keep opening the trail wider if things kept going well.Well, here we are.The Red Rust Pioneers Playtest is now open to everyone who has signed up on Steam.So if you requested access, go and check Steam. Your time has come.One thing before you go. This round of playtesting closes on Friday 28 August at 6:00pm Eastern (EDT), which is 3:00pm Pacific (PDT), or 22:00 UTC if you are further afield.So if you have been meaning to get your boots dirty, this is your window. Feedback from these last hours still lands straight in front of the team.And keep an eye on this page tomorrow. We are not quite finished for the week.One last big pushOver the last few weeks we have welcomed more and more Pioneers onto the frontier: our original Trail Guides, then the first waves of Steam playtesters, and now everyone who put their name in the hat.Every hour played, every piec…
- 1,000 Pioneers on the Trail - 24 August 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,A quick one from the frontier.First, a proper thank you to everyone already out on the frontier: over 400 of you now, between the Trail Guides from our Discord community and the first 350 invited from Steam.It has been a real pleasure watching so many of you take your first steps out there, sharing feedback, reporting bugs, and helping us make this a better game.It has gone well. So we are not hanging about.We have just expanded the playtest to more than 1,000 players.If you signed up on Steam and haven't had an invitation yet, now is the time to check your email and your Steam account again.Last time we said your turn was coming and that it wasn't far off. We meant it.Not signed up at all yet? There is still time. Head to the store page, request access to the playtest, and your name goes in the hat for the next wave.And if you are heading out onto the frontier, come and…
- The Playtest Trail Is Opening Wider - 23 August 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,Go check your email.Today we sent Playtest invitations to the first 350 players who signed up for the Red Rust Pioneers Playtest on Steam. If you put your name forward, there may be an invitation sitting in your inbox right now.Go and look. We'll wait.How we got hereFor the last two months we've been running a closed playtest with Pioneers from our Discord community. More than fifty hardy folks have braved the frontier, built camps, tackled quests, found bugs, and broken things in ways we never expected.They're the reason we can open the gate today. Thanks to them, the frontier you're stepping into is in far better shape than the one they found.This is only the first batchAs our new arrivals settle in and we see how the build holds up, we'll be opening more places. So if no invitation arrived today, don't fret. Your turn on the frontier is coming, and it isn't far off.If…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #11 - 6 August 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,Right now, while you’re reading this, there are Pioneers out on the frontier.Not in a trailer. Not in a mock-up. Real players are playing Red Rust Pioneers today, chopping wood, boiling water, building camps, getting into trouble, and dying in ways we absolutely did not design for.That’s why it has been a little while since we last checked in.Playtesting is underway, and these have been the busiest six weeks this game has ever had.So pour yourself a coffee, settle in by the fire, and let’s get into it.300 Tickets, 100+ Bugs, and One Very Suspicious BucketIn the six weeks since our last update, we’ve closed more than 300 tickets.Over a hundred of those were bugs, and our Trail Guides are the reason we found most of them.That works out at around fifty tickets a week. Reports come in, they get read, they get triaged, and they get fixed, often within days. The build our play…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #10 - 15 June 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,Let's get straight to the headline.Playtests are coming.Yes, actual playtests. We know a lot of you folks have been waiting to hear those words, and we're very excited to finally say them.By the end of this month, we plan to open playtest registration here on Steam, followed by several rounds of testing, and our Discord community will be the first place to hear how it will all work, when it begins, and when you can throw your hat into the ring.This is a big moment for us. We're itching to get more of you into the world of Red Rust Pioneers, but we also want to be very honest about what kind of build this is.A playtest build isn't a polished demo. It isn't the finished Early Access experience. It's a working development build, with rough edges, unfinished bits, strange bugs, awkward moments, and the occasional chance that the wilderness wins in ways we didn't intend.In ot…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #9 - 12 May 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,This is a special one.One year ago today, we launched the Red Rust Pioneers store page and shared our announcement trailer with the world. We had an idea for a game we believed in, a small team with a lot of ambition, and absolutely no idea how many of you would want to come along for the ride.It turns out, quite a few of you did.To every one of you who has wishlisted the game, joined our Discord, voted in our polls, shared your thoughts and your excitement; thank you. Your support over this past year has meant more to us than we can properly put into words. This is a game we're building for you, and we mean that. The conversations we have with you, particularly those of you in our Discord community, genuinely shape the direction of development. When you tell us what matters to you, we listen. You'll see proof of that in this very update.So, to mark the occasion, we've b…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #8 - 2 April 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,Spring's in the air and the team's been heads down on something we've wanted to talk about for a while. This month we're pulling back the curtain on a system that touches nearly every part of the Red Rust Pioneers survival experience, and we think it's going to change the way you think about life on the frontier.Let's dig in.The Equilibrium EngineOne of the things we care most about in Red Rust Pioneers is making survival feel real. Not punishing for the sake of it, but meaningful. We want every decision you make out on the frontier to matter, from where you set up camp to what you eat for supper.That's why we've been building what we're calling the Equilibrium Engine, and it's shaping up to be one of the core pillars of the survival experience. The name says it all: survival on the frontier is a balancing act. The world is constantly trying to tip you one way, and your…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #7 - 28 February 2026
Howdy, Pioneers,Spring has sprung out here on the frontier, and the valley is lookin' better than ever. We've been putting in some serious work over the past few weeks, and this month we're excited to pull back the curtain on some big changes happening under the hood, and right there on the surface where you can see them.Let's get into it.A New Engine Under the HoodWe have some news we've been sittin' on for a while now. Red Rust Pioneers has been upgraded from Unreal Engine 5.4 to Unreal Engine 5.7, and it's been a game changer for us.This wasn't a small undertaking, but the results speak for themselves. The upgrade has opened the door to a whole suite of next-generation features that are helping us deliver the kind of visual quality we've always wanted for this game. We've begun leaning into powerful Unreal Engine systems like Nanite and Procedural Content Generation (PCG), which are…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #6 - 2 February 2026
Howdy Pioneers, and welcome to our first development update of 2026. January’s was another busy month on the trail, even if we’ve been keepin’ a few cards close to our chest.Trail Guides and PlaytestingIn January, we quietly released our first external test build of Red Rust Pioneers to a small group of players from our Discord community, known as the Trail Guides.These fine folks have been ridin’ the trail ahead of the wagon train, playin’ through the build and sendin’ back thoughtful feedback that’s already helpin’ shape our ongoing roadmap. We want to give them a heartfelt thank you for their time, insight, and good spirits, your input is genuinely makin’ the game better.Since we first announced Red Rust Pioneers last May, we’ve said we’re building this game with our community, not just for it. That hasn’t changed. We’re payin’ close attention to the features and moments that resonat…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #5 - 2 December 2025
Howdy, Pioneers, It’s been another busy month on the trail, and we’ve got plenty to share before the year wraps up.Artisan Craft FairEarlier in November, we had the chance to visit an artisan craft fair, full of skilled folks who build museum-quality replicas from all sorts of historical periods. It gave us a rare opportunity to get hands-on with a Kentucky Long Rifle, as well as meet wheelwrights and blacksmiths who were generous enough to share their knowledge.Pioneer gear!A few sharp-eyed Pioneers pointed out that some of the equipment in our early screenshots and videos wasn’t quite period accurate. You were right. We’ve been using placeholder models while building out the game systems and environments. Armed with everything we learned at the fair, we turned our attention this month to updating those assets to bring them closer to authentic 1842 gear.Here’s a look at the modeled and…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #4 - 31 October 2025
Howdy, Pioneers, Another month’s flown by faster than a runaway wagon, and would you look at that, it’s Halloween already! Now, if there’s one thing folks love when the nights draw in, it’s a good ghost story told around a cracklin’ campfire. Heck, my grandma used to spin yarns about a spectral locomotive that would rocket past the farm where she grew up... wait a second, that‘s from Ghostbusters. Anyhow, now feels like the perfect time to introduce you to Red – one of the colorful characters you’ll meet out on the trail in Red Rust Pioneers. Red’s a trapper who makes regular trips out West to Red Rust Valley to hunt, trade, and spin tall tales over a bottle of whiskey. He’s a man with a hundred stories, and we thought we’d share one that’s perfect for this time of year. Watch Red’s Halloween Campfire Tale right HERE Behind the Scenes While Red’s been telling tales, we’ve been busy too!…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #3 - 26 September 2025
Howdy, Pioneers,It’s high time we shared another update from the trail - and boy, have we got some exciting news from the Rusty Robot team!We’ve been hard at work shaping Red Rust Pioneers with the help of your feedback, and it’s been a real pleasure building this game together with such a fine community. Let’s dive right in.3rd Person CameraA fair few of y’all mentioned that the first-person camera was makin’ you feel a little green around the gills. So we rustled up a new option - and we’re thrilled to announce that Red Rust Pioneers now supports both first-person and third-person camera views!Whether you want to see the world through your pioneer’s eyes or watch your boots kick up dust from behind, the choice is now yours. Yeehaw! User Interface OverhaulThe UI’s had a bit of a cleanup and a polish. We’ve removed the tool display from the bottom left and introduced a quick slot system…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #2 - 1 August 2025
Howdy, Pioneers, It’s August already! How in tarnation did that happen?Anyhow, I just wanted to drop y’all a little development update from me and the whole Rusty Robot team. Development UpdateOverlook LakeWe’re still beaverin’ away on Overlook Lake, focusing on dressin’ and optimizin’ the environment, gettin’ things lookin’ cleaner than a preacher on Sunday.There’s a whole lot we’d love to show you, but we don’t want to go spoilin’ the tour of Overlook Lake we’ve got in the works. So instead, we figured we’d just tease you a little with a screenshot from the trail that winds through the canyon into Overlook Lake. Big Tent News (yep, news about the big tent)Now, I know a few of y’all have taken a real likin’ to that big ol’ tent of ours. So, here’s your big tent update!We’ve done some remodellin’ on the original design to give it more of a true frontier feel, and to better show off the…
- Red Rust Pioneers - Development Update #1 - 27 June 2025
Howdy there, Pioneers!First off, we just wanna tip our hats and say a big ol’ thank ya for the overwhelming response to our announcement trailer. Truth be told, we couldn’t be happier to see how many of y’all are just as fired up to play Red Rust Pioneers as we are to bring it to life.If you haven’t already, we’d be mighty grateful if you could wishlist and follow Red Rust Pioneers right here on Steam. That way, you’ll be the first to know when we post new updates, trailers, and demo announcements.Development UpdateWe’re all as busy as beavers workin’ on gettin’ the game to a place where we can share a demo with y’all. We want it to be slicker than a pig in mud—and that kind o’ polish takes time. So, it’s gonna be a little while yet before it’s ready to ride.But rest assured: every day, we’re buildin’, testin’, tweakin’, and wranglin’ code to make sure this here game feels just right.To…
