If you are looking for academic papers specifically about the prototyping process or the language used to build the game, these are highly relevant:
Our November 2022 patch is now live:https://rust.facepunch.com/news/prototype-17 Rust on Steam: YouTube·Facepunch Prototype 17 - Rust Wiki - RustClash
: Published on arXiv , this paper explores the "Prototype" nature of learning the Rust programming language's memory safety models.