Independent
·
2026
Strike 11
(working title)
A fast, expressive arcade-football game for iPhone, with its feel shaped through repeated playtesting.
Role
Game design & development
Timeline
2026
Team
Solo, with AI-assisted development
Platform
iOS / Game / Systems
Overview
Arcade football, tuned by playtesting
This began as a personal project to bring a classic arena game I used to play back to iOS, and it turned out to be the perfect foundation for a football game. On a holiday, I used the prototype to show my football-loving nephew how AI could help make a game, and we pivoted it into football together: we planned features, then used his repeated playtests to work out what felt right on a phone. The arena sport gave way to 11-a-side football, with its own pitch, rules, teams and visual language, and the classic game Sensible Soccer became our benchmark for the speed and depth I wanted in a two-thumb game. I designed the game, its controls, rules and visual identity, and built it as a native iOS game, using AI coding tools for much of the implementation.
11-a-side
A substantial 11-a-side ruleset, with teams and restarts, on a phone screen
Two controls
A floating stick and one contextual action, with depth in timing
Playtested builds
Successive TestFlight builds, played by my nephew and me
Challenge
Making speed feel intentional
Arcade football can become unreadable chaos on one side or over-technical friction on the other. On a phone, with two thumbs and no controller, the margin is even smaller. The challenge was to keep the pace and aggression of classic football games while making every pass, tackle and shot feel like the player's decision, not the game's.
How could I preserve the aggression and one-button immediacy of classic football games while introducing understandable rules, reliable controls and opponents that feel intentional rather than arbitrary?
Approach
Depth from two controls, tuned by play
Finding depth in two controls
The game uses a floating stick on the left and a contextual action on the right. A tap can pass or make a standing tackle; a hold can drive a shot or commit to a slide. Aftertouch lets the player curl the ball after striking it, a small moment of joy that rewards finesse; the aim throughout was to get as much expression as possible out of two thumbs. Automatic player selection, quick restarts and a camera that follows play keep the game moving without adding more buttons.
The challenge has been to make those few inputs readable and responsive while leaving room for timing, direction and skill. Every extra button would have made the game easier to explain and harder to play on a phone, so the depth had to come from how the same two controls behave in different moments. The ruleset makes its own arcade choices for flow: there’s no offside, a deliberate decision that keeps attacks moving on a small screen.
Left How to Play: one stick to move, tap to tackle, hold to slide. Right In play: a tackle, and a shot on goal.
Letting playtests challenge the rules
My nephew has played successive TestFlight builds, and I playtest the game myself. His feedback has exposed some of the most useful problems. When tackling felt like it produced a foul on every tap, the problem wasn’t simply difficulty: the simulation could register contact with a player before a legitimate challenge reached the ball, while ordinary taps could cross the hold threshold for a sliding tackle. Adjusting challenge reach and the tap-to-hold boundary fixed the behaviour.
Repeated heavy defeats prompted a separate balance pass on speed and team shape. When play felt too quick, I looked at the moments where the player needed control, improving nearby pass choices and goalkeeper responses while keeping the game’s overall tempo.
Left Hold to slide: the ball carrier goes down, the ball runs loose. Right A shot into the box, keeper set.
Giving the football game its own identity
The pitch, club kits, score display and menus now speak football. The game differentiated itself from the base it started from, while making good use of it: starting from something already built showed what to keep and where to pivot. I simplified the front end around a single prominent action and a restrained green-and-mint palette, so the next step is always clear. The match renderer uses SpriteKit and shader-driven lighting for day, sunset and night conditions, with shadows tied to players and the ball.
The front end: one home screen with the next fixture, and clubs chosen by kit and rating.
Left A career: pick a club and conditions, then climb the division. Right Cup draw and the Knockout survival run.
Player artwork is still evolving, with the current generated sprites a step towards a more authored final style. Teams already carry real variety, with different hairstyles, skin tones and kits. Shadows give the ball height and life as it bounces, and crowd sound, ball strikes and bounces add to the feel of a match, with more to come. The gameplay AI sets teams in formations and varies how they play, so matches don’t fall into the same patterns again and again.
Friendly and Training setup: sides, match length, time of day, a practice pitch.
Build
A deterministic match engine in SpriteKit
SwiftUI provides the shell and SpriteKit runs the match, with shader-driven lighting for day, sunset and night conditions and shadows tied to players and the ball. The simulation runs at a fixed 60Hz with deterministic random seeds, so rules can be tested headlessly and balance checked with scripted AI-versus-AI matches. The opponents use gameplay AI for positioning and decisions; there is no generative AI in the match.
SwiftUI
SpriteKit
Game Center
60Hz deterministic sim
Headless tests
01
Tap or hold
One action button that passes, tackles, shoots or slides depending on timing and context.
02
Fair tackles
Challenge reach and the tap-to-hold threshold retuned after playtests showed fouls on every tap.
03
Fast, not frantic
Better passing and goalkeeper moments, instead of slowing the whole game down.
Outcome
Playable, tested and still sharpening
Strike 11 is in development, with playable friendly and training modes, cup and knockout competitions and a career-style league, tested through successive TestFlight builds. Each round of feedback has changed the game: fairer tackles, better-balanced matches and a pace that stays fast without running away from the player. Gameplay feel, opponent AI and artwork continue to develop.
Two-thumb depth
A floating stick, a contextual action and aftertouch to bend the ball after the strike.
Playtest-driven tuning
Tackling, balance and pace each reworked from real play.
Its own identity
A pitch, kits, menus and lighting that speak football, clearly differentiated from where it started.
A full game structure
Friendlies, training, cup, league and knockout modes.
Status
In development · TestFlight
In development · TestFlight
Reflection
Judge the feel by playing, not by the rules
A ruleset can look right on paper and feel wrong in the hand. The fouls-on-every-tap problem was invisible in the rules and obvious the moment someone played. For anything interactive, I treat hands-on use as the real specification: build it, play it, watch someone else play it, and let what they feel decide the next change. The pivot itself taught me the same thing. Starting from an existing game gave us a working base, and playing it showed which parts to keep and which to rebuild for football.
