Pixel game · iOS · made with AI

RetroStrikers — a football game that's really about the world.

It looks like a 16-bit World Cup. That's the vehicle, not the point. The heart of it is the Countries Atlas: a growing gallery of hand-designed pixel scenes celebrating what makes each place beautiful — its landscapes, landmarks, cities, and food.

64unique pixel scenes — 4 for each of 16 nations
100%art drawn in code — zero image files
~5,700lines of Swift, built and running on iOS

The idea

I wanted to make something that was pure craft — no business case, no metrics, just beauty. RetroStrikers is a retro arcade football game where all 16 teams are fictional, so the spotlight can stay on the real star: pixel art inspired by the countries of the world. The tournament is just the friendly frame that gives sixteen places a reason to gather.

The Countries Atlas

Each nation has a four-card profile — a natural wonder, a monument, its capital skyline at dusk, and an iconic dish — every one a small pixel scene with a warm paragraph of history. Sixty-four scenes in all, from Sugarloaf Mountain to the Eiffel Tower to a plate of feijoada.

Six of the game's 64 scenes, reproduced here pixel-for-pixel from its own art code — each a 24×16 grid.

How it's built

Why it's here

Two reasons. First, I love it. Second, it's the same instinct that runs through my AI work: sweat the craft, make something people remember, and build the whole thing end to end. Different medium, same person.

Project facts
  • Status: v1 feature-complete, builds and runs (verified with xcodebuild against the iOS simulator).
  • All teams and players are fictional — no real federations, kits, or likenesses.
  • Local-only, no dependencies beyond the build tooling; ~58 Swift files.
  • Tech: Swift · SwiftUI · SpriteKit · AVFoundation, MVVM with a single observable game state.