After 23 years and more than 150 shipped projects for the BBC, Disney, and Activision, Fish in a Bottle had never put its own name on a game.
One year ago, that changed. The Leamington Spa studio announced Red Rust Pioneers, its first original IP, and stepped into unfamiliar territory: building something of their own, shaped by community feedback, shared storytelling, and a belief that games can create meaningful human experiences in ways no other medium can.
Today, to mark one year since Red Rust Pioneers was first announced, Fish in a Bottle and its Rusty Robot publishing label have released a brand new teaser trailer, refreshed screenshots, and Development Update #9, showcasing how far the game has evolved over the past twelve months.
Developed by Fish in a Bottle and published under the studio's Rusty Robot label, Red Rust Pioneers is a co-operative frontier survival adventure set in 1842 at the dawn of the American West. Players explore an untamed wilderness, build frontier homesteads, travel by wagon, survive shifting environmental conditions, and gradually carve out a life on the edge of civilisation, either solo or with up to four players.
For the studio, however, the game has always represented something larger than its setting.
"We've been making games for 23 years, but this is the first time we've made one for ourselves," said Drew Wilkins, founder of Fish in a Bottle and Rusty Robot. "We know how to ship. We've done it over 150 times. Now we're learning what it means to ship something that's truly ours, and the community we're building around it is a huge part of that journey."
That philosophy shapes every part of the experience, from the co-op design built around meaningful shared moments to the game's interconnected survival systems where weather, shelter, exhaustion, food, warmth, and preparation all influence how players experience the world around them. Red Rust Pioneers is built around the belief that survival games can reward engagement rather than punish oversight, creating frontier life that feels grounded and purposeful rather than frustrating.
The project has also been heavily shaped by its growing community. Since first announcing the game last year, the team has built an active Discord community around monthly development updates, direct player feedback, polls, and community-driven iteration. Features such as frontier homestead building have become major development priorities directly because of player response and engagement.
Rather than treating Early Access as a soft launch or funding strategy, the team sees it as a collaborative part of development itself.
"We're going to learn things, we're going to iterate, and we're going to keep building alongside the community that's gathered around the project," Wilkins added. "That openness and honesty is really important to us."
Over the past year, the game has undergone a significant technical and artistic evolution. The team migrated development to Unreal Engine 5.7, introduced MetaHuman characters and expanded world-building systems, overhauled the visual presentation of the frontier, and continued expanding the game's survival, exploration, and building systems.
That progress was recently recognised through support from the UK Games Fund, which awarded the project a Content Fund grant to support development.
The anniversary milestone also reflects a much larger transition for the studio itself. Red Rust Pioneers is the first original IP developed by Fish in a Bottle after more than 23 years of work-for-hire development. The studio chose to self-publish the game under its Rusty Robot label.
Ultimately, Red Rust Pioneers has become more than just a game project for the studio. It represents a belief that independent developers with a strong creative vision, a close relationship with their community, and a genuine passion for games can still carve out a place in the industry on their own terms. In many ways, that mirrors the spirit of the game itself: stepping into unknown territory, facing uncertainty head-on, relying on the people around you, and building something meaningful together despite the odds.
Red Rust Pioneers is currently in development for PC, with Early Access planned for 2026.
Watch the new teaser trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/@redrustpioneers
Wishlist Red Rust Pioneers on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3664440/Red_Rust_Pioneers/#:~:text=Planned%20Release%20Date%3A%202026
Read Development Update #9:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/3664440
Join the Discord community:
https://discord.gg/QdZvTNB3