In Hull Rupture, humanity's last hope lies with a spaceship staffed by expendable humans. Players must build the ship, manage the crew, and fend off alien attacks in this tower defense roguelite game from Konfa Games and publisher tinyBuild.
Earth has been destroyed and a spaceship is one of humanity's last weapons: a living projectile racing towards the alien homeworld to deliver final vengeance. As the rogue AI Despot, who is only interested in his own revenge against the aliens and not the human race, players must keep the ship moving forward and defend it from hordes of aliens, so that they do not reach the Despot's Chamber in the spaceship. They must construct modules to produce resources, repair damage, boost efficiency and reinforce defenses — using all available resources, especially humans, as they are expendable. Hull Rupture is essentially a base and resource management game combined with a tower defense roguelite.
The puny humans on board are not a crew to be protected, but a renewable resource that is bred in bizarre breeding and reproduction chambers. The spaceship is constantly being expanded with new rooms and sections from a 2D side perspective, but players must carefully consider where to "build", as the ship's layout and placed modules cannot be changed. Aliens attack regularly in waves and rip holes directly in the ship's hull. However, as the next breakthrough is visible in advance, players must place turrets, traps, barricades and automated defenses skilfully. By building new rooms, players can direct the invaders through deadly corridors, while armed humans serve as expendable cannon fodder. The enemies get stronger and more aggressive with every wave, so players have to constantly adapt and expand teir defenses.
Between waves, players select their route through the galaxy on a star map. Some paths are safer than others, but more profitable ones tend to be riskier. Players also encounter unanticipated dangers in text events and can upgrade their ship with new components in the shop. The game does not strictly separate construction and combat, which run alongside each other in real time. Even when aliens rip open the hull, the economy continues to run seamlessly in the background – fortunately, players can pause the game at this point to issue commands.
Hull Rupture © Konfa Games, tinyBuild
Once players have completed the first few rounds and become accustomed to the crude humour (the tutorial could explain things more clearly), the various systems work well together. Konfa Games' unmistakable pixel art style continues to shine through, showing no mercy to puny humans. While base/resource management and tower defense are good, the roguelite elements are somewhat weaker. On the one hand, the game relies fairly heavily on randomness: those who are unlucky when drawing spaceship modules will quickly be overwhelmed in higher waves. The RNG could have been better balanced here, as advanced weapons and buildings are often tied to specific resources, while the shop pool dilutes the variety of modules. On the other hand, there is a lack of variety and options, meaning the space modules and therefore the runs themselves become repetitive.
The game offers three unlockable ship types, six game modes (including a separate Endless Mode) and four difficulty levels. Hull Rupture is set in the same universe as Despotism 3k, Despot's Game, and Slime 3k, which explains the unique graphics.
Hull Rupture © Konfa Games, tinyBuild
The game was developed by Konfa Games. The studio, founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 2017, was acquired by tinyBuild in August 2022 for up to $5.4m. The Konfa Games team joined tinyBuild's studio hub in Belgrade, Serbia. Konfa Games is known for Despot's Game, a roguelike tactics army battler that left Early Access in 2022. In 2024, they released Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot, a roguelite bullet hell game set in the Despot's Game universe. Hull Rupture is their fourth game.
Publisher tinyBuild is headquartered in the Seattle area of the USA, but has a strong global presence with studios across the US, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe. Starting out as an indie game developer, the company has evolved into a developer-publisher committed to 'creating long-term partnerships'. They have published dozens of games, including Hello Neighbor, Graveyard Keeper 2, SpeedRunners, I Am Future, The King is Watching, ReStory, and many more. Recently, the company had a surprise hit with Probably Stolen – Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim from Questing Goose Studio, which was the first game to achieve six-figure concurrent user numbers on Steam for the publisher.
Hull Rupture was launched on 4 November 2026 for PC on Steam for $14.99/€14.99.
Hull Rupture might have been better launched in early access, as the combination of base and resource management meets tower defense is great, but the roguelite elements could be improved.
