Devlog #1 — Base Building and Ship Management

Today we want to talk about one of the core pillars of Hull Rupture: base building and ship management.

More specifically, how you turn a barely functioning spaceship into an industrialized engine of survival, powered by questionable work ethics and Despot’s spite for the Galactic Union.

While Hull Rupture features both base-building and tower defense systems, these two are deeply connected. Your modules keep the ship alive, while your defenses keep the aliens from turning Despot into decorative space debris.

This time, we’ll focus mostly on the economy and management side of the game.

Survive at (Almost) Any Cost

[c] The Galactic Union calls my methods ‘inhumane.’ [/c]

[c] What do they know about humans? They’ve never grown one in a tank. [/c]

At its core, Hull Rupture is about surviving 20 increasingly brutal waves of alien invaders while managing a constantly evolving spaceship.

You play as Despot, a tyrannical AI overlord who is attempting to infiltrate the Galactic Union network and seize control over its communication channels. Once ruler of Earth before the Galactic Union annihilated it, Despot now seeks revenge against those who erased his world. Unfortunately for him, fully decoding the system takes exactly 20 days.

The Galactic Union responds in the only reasonable way possible: by sending increasingly aggressive alien fleets to destroy you before the process is complete.

Every run pushes you to shape your strategy:

• invest into resource production,

• expand the ship,

• or spend everything on defenses before the next wave arrives.

The problem is that you never fully know how much defense is enough defense.

The “optimal” strategy is usually to invest the bare minimum into survival and funnel everything else into economy growth. Of course, what counts as “bare minimum” becomes a very emotional topic once aliens start rupturing the hull.

Human losses are acceptable. Despot losses are not.

Your Ship Is the Colony

[c] I have twenty humans and a jar of nails. [/c]

[c] I’ll quickly turn them into two hundred humans and a nanobot factory. [/c]

The spaceship itself is essentially your colony, factory, and survival machine all at once.

You start with a relatively simple layout, but during the run you’ll expand, upgrade, and reshape the ship into something far more complex. New ship configurations can also be unlocked through milestones and challenges, opening up different approaches to future runs.

But expansion comes with consequences.

Every new module increases the ship’s weight. A heavier ship requires more engine power and more fuel to maintain speed. Slower travel delays your access to events, shipyards, markets, and resource opportunities across the galaxy map.

You’re constantly balancing:

• energy consumption,

• fuel production,

• available workforce,

• ship weight,

• and defensive needs.

Overbuilding too early can doom an entire run. You may end up with multiple production modules and not enough energy to power them efficiently. Or a massive ship that burns fuel faster than you can produce it.

In Hull Rupture, success comes less from building everything and more from building the right thing at the right moment.

Production First, Defense Second (Usually)

[c] The current workforce survival rate is well within the acceptable parameters. [/c]

[c] I know because I invented the parameters. [/c]

The heart of the management system is creating efficient production chains under pressure.

We wanted players to experience that “wow” moment where the ship suddenly transforms from barely surviving into a highly optimized industrial machine. At the same time, the game constantly pushes back through enemy waves, limited resources, random events, and difficult tradeoffs.

Unlike our first game, Despotism 3K, which relied heavily on fast-paced micromanagement, Hull Rupture gives players room to pause and rethink their strategy. The pressure comes less from speed and more from limited resources and long-term consequences.

Positioning also matters. Certain modules buff adjacent structures. Despot’s Chamber, for example, improves the efficiency of neighboring modules through the overwhelming motivational power of puny humans worshipping you as their god.

During the playtest, modules couldn’t be repositioned once placed. In the full version, we plan to allow module swapping and removal systems to make experimentation less punishing. However, relocated modules will require a cooldown period before becoming operational again.

Artifacts and modifiers can also create adjacency synergies, allowing experienced players to construct absurdly efficient production layouts.

Puny Humans Are Resources

[c] Did you know the energy from one human leg can accelerate a spaceship by 0.37%? Amazing! [/c]

Because of the side-view perspective and the constantly moving puny humans inside the ship, Hull Rupture may visually remind you of games like Fallout Shelter or Oxygen Not Included at first glance. But unlike traditional colony simulators, you are not managing individuals with unique personalities or needs. You are an AI dictator, and puny humans are simply another resource to optimize, assign, and process into fuel if necessary.

We wanted the visual design to reflect that philosophy as well. Humans don’t have distinct appearances, personalities, or facial expressions because, from Despot’s perspective, humans are irrelevant.

Your workforce powers production, repairs the ship, operates modules, and becomes fuel for the ship’s engine. Some puny humans can also be reassigned into defensive roles such as Fencers, Punishers, and other specialized units. The exceptionally unqualified can still contribute as meatshields.

Efficiency requires sacrifice, after all. Preferably someone else’s.

The Galaxy Map and Travel Planning

[c] The galaxy is vast, diverse, and somehow still not mine. [/c]

As you travel through space, you’ll encounter planets, events, shipyards, markets, and resource caches that can drastically alter your strategy.

Some events help you compensate for weaknesses in your economy, while others create entirely new problems.

It is up to you, Despot, to decide how much you want to explore.

Unlike many roguelikes, the map system in Hull Rupture is not designed as a linear path toward a final boss or ending. Instead, it is intentionally more freeform, encouraging exploration, adaptation, and experimentation between runs.

Because of this, your priorities during each journey may look completely different depending on your build, available resources, and current situation.

A struggling economy may push you toward risky resource sectors. A heavily industrialized ship may prioritize the shipyard for upgrades. A defense-focused run may avoid unnecessary detours entirely. Learning how to adapt to each run is a huge part of the intended roguelike experience.

Development Challenges and the Work Ahead

Screenshots from our Community Hub, made by:

1. Dur'Rean
2. Subquake
3. The_Evil_Pickle
4. kabloey_kid
5. tegobito Jr

One thing the playtest confirmed very quickly is that you are extremely good at breaking systems. Which, honestly, is great.

We believe one of the most satisfying parts of roguelikes is discovering combinations, synergies, and strategies that feel almost unfair. Creating a ridiculously powerful ship should feel achievable, but never guaranteed.

At the same time, there’s a delicate balance to maintain. We don’t want players to feel like one successful build is the only correct answer forever, but we also don’t want randomness to create runs that feel doomed from the start.

While the playtest only included one “base” difficulty, we’re also working on different difficulty levels and modes so both experienced roguelike players and newcomers can find a comfortable entry point. We want the game to feel easy to jump into, while still leaving enough depth for hundreds of hours of experimentation and discoveries.

And honestly, there are a lot of mechanics and earlier system versions we’d love to talk about someday, especially features we completely redesigned or cut during development. If that’s something you’d like to see, let us know!

Road Ahead

We’re prototyping a new way to expand your ship: building it block by block instead of relying on a few preset shipyard upgrades each run. It’s still early, but we thought you’d enjoy a sneak peek.

There’s still a massive amount of work ahead of us, but the playtest gave us a lot of confidence in the direction of the game, along with a lot of valuable feedback on what needs improvement. We’re continuing to refine the management systems, adjust difficulty thresholds and polish the overall gameplay flow before launch.

Next time, we’ll finally dive deeper into the defense systems, alien waves, and how exactly you’re supposed to stop hostile species from turning your ship into floating wreckage. And if you want to support the development of Hull Rupture, please wishlist the game. It genuinely helps us a lot in breaking through Steam’s algorithm.

Until next time!