Overview
Strait Escape is Minesweeper reimagined as an adventure. You play as a ship captain navigating treacherous waters, revealing the seabed cell by cell to safely reach your destination and clear shipping routes of mines.
Why I built this
I wanted to transform Minesweeper from a static board puzzle into an adventure where you're exploring and clearing mines across famous waterways around the world. There's something compelling about the idea of "mine clearance operations" in real maritime locations.
I'd never built or shipped a mobile game before, so this was both a creative and technical challenge I couldn't pass up.
How I built this
It took me 2 weeks (15 hours/day)-complete with iOS, Android, and web versions, 800+ automated tests, admin tooling for map editing, and full monetization integration.
The core challenges were game design balancing and cross-platform adaptation; I solved them with AI at every layer: ChatGPT for creative direction and asset generation (brainstorm -> generate -> edit in Photopea/Figma), ElevenLabs for audio, and custom prompt workflows to transform satellite imagery into pixel-art game maps.
Tech stack and Tools
- React, TailwindCSS, Capacitor
- ChatGPT, Claude Code, ElevenLabs, Photopea, Figma