Press Kit — Strait of Hormuz

Fact Sheet

Title	Strait of Hormuz
Subtitle	Naval Combat Roguelike
Developer	Aralel
Publisher	Aralel
Platform	iOS (iPhone only)
Minimum OS	iOS 17.0
Orientation	Portrait only
Controls	One thumb — touch only
Price	Free (ad-supported via Google AdMob)
IAP	None
Genre	Arcade / Roguelike / Action
Age Rating	9+ (Infrequent/Mild Cartoon Violence)
Version	1.0
Release Date	2026
Languages	English
Engine	SpriteKit (Swift, no third-party game engine)
Audio	Synthesized effects (AVAudioEngine) + three bundled music tracks
Art	Programmatic (TextureFactory), except the two faction standards
Sides	Rome and Persia — ancient empires. No present-day country, government or national flag appears in the game.
Contact	games@aralel.com
Website	strait-of-hormuz.aralel.com (English · Deutsch)
App Store	apps.apple.com/app/id6785057111

Description

Short (150 chars)

One thumb. Endless strait. Survive mines, patrol boats, and drone swarms as you navigate the world's most dangerous maritime chokepoint.

Long (App Store)

Navigate the Strait of Hormuz — the world's most critical maritime chokepoint — in this one-thumb naval survival roguelike.

Pilot your vessel north through the narrow corridor, surviving escalating asymmetric threats: drifting sea mines, high-speed patrol boats, and drone swarms. Your radar is your eyes — watch the sweep line reveal what's lurking in the fog before it reaches you.

TAP anywhere to fire a strike missile at the nearest threat. HOLD for a heavy salvo that targets up to three enemies at once. STEER by dragging your thumb. Intercept parachuted supply airdrops to repair your hull or refill your firepower.

Three unlockable hulls. Four escalating legs. Permadeath. 3–7 minute runs. Designed for one hand, one thumb, in portrait.

Key Features

📡Radar/sonar aesthetic with authentic sweep-and-reveal mechanics — threats are fogged until the sweep line crosses them, then ghost-revealed as green silhouettes.
📈Escalating difficulty across 4 timed legs (~90 s each). Each checkpoint clears the board, then raises spawn rate and threat mix.
🚢Three unlockable hulls — Tanker (free), Patrol Boat (600◆), Escort Frigate (1,500◆) — with distinct HP/speed/magazine trade-offs.
💰Meta-progression: every run banks salvage currency. Spend between runs to unlock vessels in the fleet screen.
🎮One-thumb controls: virtual-analog steering + tap-to-fire + hold-for-salvo. Zero on-screen buttons.
💥Full juice: camera shake, particle foam wake, tracking strike missiles, explosion embers, synthesized audio (no file downloads), Taptic Engine haptics.
📦Airdrop supply system: parachuted repair and rearm crates drift down the corridor.
🔒No account required. No login, no cloud, no personal data collected.

Suggested Review Angles

A tight arcade roguelike that proves the one-thumb portrait format still has room for depth. The radar reveal mechanic turns what could be a simple dodge-em-up into something with genuine tactical texture.

— angle for arcade/mobile coverage

No third-party engine. No audio files. No art assets. Strait of Hormuz is written entirely in Swift — SpriteKit, programmatic textures, synthesized sound — and still manages to feel polished.

— angle for indie/technical coverage

Three ships, four legs, permadeath, five-minute sessions. Everything is tuned for the commute window — the run length, the controls, the portrait lock.

— angle for mobile-first coverage

Screenshots

Tap a frame to open it full size. Captured on iPhone in a live run; ad banners and the debug overlay are cropped out. For the full-resolution set (1320 × 2868 px @3x) or shots of a specific screen, ask us and we'll send them directly.

The Two Standards

The player picks a side on first launch and can switch at any time. Both are ancient empires: no present-day country, government, armed service or national flag appears anywhere in the game, and the choice changes nothing but the flags — spawn rates, damage, salvage and scoring are identical either way.