Back in July I showed a preview of 3D Maze Tower: a labyrinth wrapped around a giant cylinder, so the maze had no left or right edge. Roll far enough sideways and you came back to where you started.
The wrap was the good idea. The rolling ball was the wrong shape for it. So I kept the cylinder and changed everything that moved on it. It became a ship, and the ship became Hull Runner.
From rolling ball to fighter pilot
You fly a single fighter along the outer hull of a gigantic cylindrical warship. Each sector is held by an enemy flagship. Find it at the far end of the hull, destroy it, and you are carried straight into the next sector.
The hull is the arena. Its superstructure blocks your path and stops your shots, so you weave through the trenches between the plating. And because the hull wraps all the way round, there is no edge to back against and nowhere to fall off.
What's in it
- 25 hand-built sectors, then endless ones. Each sector ends in a flagship that keeps its distance, circles you and fires in spreads, tougher and faster the deeper you go. Clear sector 25 and the fleet keeps coming: from sector 26 on, every hull is generated and never runs out. The same sector number always builds the same hull, so you can send a friend "sector 40" and race it. The flagships come back as a second fleet (Warden II, Bulwark II…), then a third, each one stronger, up to a limit so no sector becomes impossible.
- A hunting squadron. Enemy fighters hold a firing ring around you and shoot back. You don't have to kill them, though. Only the flagship has to go.
- Proximity mines. The lamp on each mine beats faster the closer you get. One shot clears a mine, so shoot them rather than fly into them.
- Meteorites. Debris falls on the hull throughout a run. It isn't aimed at you; the danger is being underneath it. Every strike scorches the plating, so a long sector slowly shows where it has been hit.
- The Shade. An enormous armoured sphere on a slow spiral orbit around the ship, about six minutes per lap. Its limbs reach down and feel across the hull, over the walls, so cover doesn't help. You can't kill it and you can't outrun it, because it isn't chasing you.
- Five checkpoints along the route to each flagship. Fly through one and, if you lose the ship, you come back there instead of at the launch bay.
- Upgrades. Fly near the gold salvage canisters to bank credits, then spend them on Shield and Cannon upgrades from Mk1 to Mk7. The cannon gains a second barrel at Mk3 and a third at Mk6. Credits are yours, not the sector's, so they carry across sectors.
Play it your way
Five difficulties, from Rookie to Ace. The squadron is 4 fighters on Rookie, then 7, 11, 15, and 20 on Ace, with more mines and heavier debris as you go up. You can change it any time from the menu and the squadron re-deploys straight away.
Three comfort settings, all free and always available:
- Zen: no hostiles, mines or Shade at all. Just fly the hull at your own pace.
- Gentle: keeps the squadron, but sends fewer fighters, slower, and firing less often.
- Checkpoint: if you lose the ship, respawn at your last save instead of the launch bay.
There's also a Hint that draws the route to the flagship on the map and leaves it glowing on the hull for a few seconds, a Headlight you can switch off for a darker, moodier run, several hull colour palettes, and a Screenshot mode that hides the HUD so you can frame a shot and save it as a picture.
No ads, no accounts, no launcher
There are no ads. The Hint used to cost a rewarded video; now it's simply free. There's no sign-in and no analytics. Type a name to keep your own progress on a shared device, or play as a guest. Saves stay in your browser, and Save and Load in the menu let you pick up exactly where you stopped.
Controls
Keyboard: WASD or the arrow keys to fly, Space to fire, M for the map, P to pause, L for the headlight, Esc to close a panel.
Phone and tablet: arrows in the bottom left to fly and the fire button in the bottom right. Drag to swing the camera, pinch to zoom.
The ship flies like a vehicle: up is throttle, down is reverse, left and right steer. A tap nudges the nose a few degrees and holding sweeps it round. It carries momentum, so ease off before a junction. You can even turn on the spot to line up for a side corridor. Auto-fire is on by default and shoots whenever a hostile is in front of you.
The maze is back, too
The cylinder maze didn't disappear. 3D Maze Tower is back as its own game, now with endless levels and Hull Runner's plated hull on its walls. If you want the same wrap-around world at a slower pace, start there.
Tell me how you get on
I'd love to hear how it plays for you. Is the difficulty right? How does sector 1 feel? And what did you think the first time the Shade came over the horizon?
