Rust dev reveals prototype for Deuce, the game where tennis and Street Fighter collide

Reaction to their recent announcement of a new game— Riftlight —involved more flaming pitchforks than Facepunch Studios may have anticipated, but that hasn't put them off from revealing another one.

Deuce(working title) is being described as "tennis crossed with Street Fighter" and—OK, we're going to have to examine that a little bit. Expect over-the-top characters, themed arenas and extravagant special moves: for instance, a teleport power that swaps the direction of the ball mid-flight. *Andy Murray's sullen head perks up in interest*.

Deuce appears to be developer Ian James' baby, so don't expect Garry Newman—or, indeed, Gary Numan—to suddenly divert all of Facepunch's resources to this newest project. (Meanwhile, Gary Numan is probably working on an album or something.) The fact that Rust is in Early Access does muddy the waters a little bit, but development teams work on multiple prototypes all the time—just usually in secret.

Here's how Deuce is looking at the moment, from Ian's post: "So far I've pretty much got a functional tennis game with some placeholder special moves already in place. There's still some issues to iron out such as how and when to trigger special moves but I'm iterating on these ideas all the time. There are also functional multiplayer modes including local and online play."

There will be a "large roster" of playable characters, with concept art showing images of a moustachioed luchador and a Southern redneck—massive stereotypes, in other words.

It sounds pretty fun in a Mario Tennis sort of way, and it's obviously a massive departure from Facepunch's nudey survival sim, though perhaps not quite so huge a departure from the extremely silly Garry's Mod. If you're wondering, like a joking commenter under the reveal post, whether Rust, Garry's Mod and Riftlight have now been cancelled, here's Garry Newman's tongue-in-cheek reply:

"and half-life 3 sorry :("

Thanks, Eurogamer.