I love a post-apocalyptic setting, because it’s a world where we can start over. Redo city life, live with nature and heal whatever happened that got us into this mess in the first place. Rusthaven is a cozy management game about second chances, found family, and building a better tomorrow, one rescued robot at a time. Set in a verdant post-apocalyptic world, the world below is broken, but not beyond repair. Your journey is to prove it—by transforming your ship into a soaring sanctuary and offering a new start to every soul you find.
Play as Scoot a robot given the helm of a rusty skyship and a simple, profound mission: explore, salvage, and rescue. If you’ve played Spiritfarer before you might get some familiar vibes from Rusthaven. It is cozy management with heart and depth, in a genre that tends to slip under the radar but is no less important. Rusthaven channels that same spirit of emotional stewardship into a narrative of optimism, environmental recovery, and found family that I loved in Spiritfarer.
“Our vision has always been to give players great games that inspire hope,” said Nico King, Creative Director at Chaos Theory Games. Rusthaven is that vision realized—a game that asks: if you were given a ship and a chance to rebuild, what kind of future would you craft? Rusthaven is expected to come out sometime next year, in 2027.
A Robot’s Quest for Hope
Scoot is a Captain-model robot who awakens aboard a ramshackle skyship to a devastating reality: their best friend, Bipp, is beyond repair. Adopted by the ragtag Rescue Crew, Scoot is offered the helm. Together you’ll explore a stunning, overgrown world in search of lost bots and old technology, transforming both your ship and the world itself from forgotten ruins into a beacon of hope.
If you enjoyed games like Spiritfarer, then you’ll fit in nicely with Rusthaven. Cozy manage your ship and collects the lost robots in need of salvation. This time, though, you won’t be saying goodbye; you’ll be building them a home. The “anti-apocalypse,” as the developers call it, focuses on regrowth, community, and belonging. Your primary drive is to give hope—to the allies you rescue and to the planet quietly reclaiming its beauty.
Rusthaven is a pressure-free zone, there are no enemies or fail states. You can spend your days gardening, cooking, fishing, or simply decorating and talking to your robot friends.
Gameplay: Salvage, Craft, and Grow Your Found Family
Rusthaven’s core loop is a deeply satisfying blend of cozy management, tactile crafting, and heartfelt storytelling.
Rescue New Robot Friends
Scout the world for broken-down robots in need of repair. Each new crewmate has lost memories, personal arcs, and rediscovered passions. Help them recover their lost memories, overcome their past, and fulfil their dreams. As you help them overcome their past—perhaps by unearthing a forgotten recipe or restoring a lost plant—they unlock new abilities and ship upgrades.
Manage Your Skyship
Pilot your skyship across vibrant, abandoned landscapes, use it to explore the ruins of a forgotten planet and discover remnants of past civilisations, find robots that need rescuing and salvage material.
Just as Stella’s boat evolved in Spiritfarer, your solarpunk skyship is your base of operations. Run your garden, workshop, and growing home. Start with a rusty hull and transform it into a thriving, airborne commune. The management loop is comfortingly familiar: you’ll build new rooms (like machine shops and greenhouses), craft upgrades, cook meals in a communal kitchen, and tend to gardens—all to support and please your unique mechanical crew.
You can design personalised quarters for your crew and decorate your floating home to reflect your community’s personality. Crucially, your actions have a lasting, visible impact. As you clean areas and restore balance, you’ll witness forests grow denser, and waterways run clear— the world changes with your journey.
Salvage & Craft
As you explore the beautiful, biome regions, you’ll unearth “ancient” human tech like cameras and MP3 players. Through engaging, hands-on mini-games, you’ll dismantle these items for parts. This “upcycled” tech is used to craft new tools, upgrade your robot chassis, and customise your skyship. This act of “upcycling” trash into treasure reinforces the game’s theme: nothing is beyond repair.
Rusthaven
Rusthaven is a cosy management game about rebooting the world in the anti-apocalypse. Journey across an abandoned planet on a solar skyship, salvaging broken-down bots in need of rescue. Clean up the world, upcycle retro technology, and build a peaceful sanctuary where all can thrive and belong.
Rusthaven is expected to come out some time next year in 2027 and can be wishlisted now on Steam.
