Battlefleet Duo 2026
A naval duel built from the ground up for iPhone Duo: their grid on the top screen, your fleet in 3D on the bottom one. On the App Store since October 23.
- Date
- 2026 (1 month)
- Role
- Art Director, Design Engineer
- Experience
- Side project
- Platform
- iPhone Duo
01
Built for the fold, not ported to it
One hinge, two boards
The iPhone Duo opens onto 2 screens split by a hinge, like the folding case of the original board game. An app could simply stretch across both. The idea was to start from the posture instead: half-folded on a table, their grid on the top screen to aim, your fleet in 3D on the bottom one to defend. It began as a 3D naval diorama in the browser, became an iOS prototype, then a game on the App Store on October 23, 2026, ready for the iPhone Duo launch. The challenge: a game that reads at a glance on 2 small screens, and is ready on day one.
02
A light interface over the 3D, built piece by piece
The HUD, the loop, the kit
In battle, the interface stays out of the way of the 3D: 2 player tags on the line between the boards, whose turn it is under the thumb, 3 manoeuvres that charge turn by turn. As Apple recommends for the iPhone Duo, every control stays off the hinge and sits on an outer edge, at the same size as on iPhone. Controls sit in Liquid Glass; information gets no capsule at all, only a shadow. Around each battle, a light loop gives a reason to play the next one: XP fills the ring toward the next rank, daily orders pay a few coins, and coins unlock skins at the Shipyard, celebrated more the rarer they are. 3 battles a day are free, Unlimited costs €4.99, once. I drew it in Figma as a kit, then built it as a SwiftUI prototype to try on a phone: every piece below is its real component, taken out of its screen.
03
A fleet worth watching between shots
3D art direction
Behind that interface, the bottom screen is the one you watch while you wait for your turn, so it carries the art direction. Nothing in it is a model or a texture: the hulls, the sea, the sky and the smoke are generated in code when the game loads, and each hull is exactly as long as its squares. One low sun, long soft shadows, haze toward the horizon, and the grid drawn on the water itself, so it rides the swell. Every effect has one job: a hit hull keeps burning, a radar sweep brings up their echoes, a plane leaves the carrier for their grid, a star shell lights the squares beneath it, a sunk ship goes under where it was hit. The weather is 4 lights on the same sea, from a glassy morning to a storm with 7.8 m of swell, and a battle can turn from one to the next. The same hand draws the rewards: 5 rank medals that go from steel to gold, and a coin stamped with the anchor.
04
In the reviews on launch day
Featured by Apple
When the iPhone Duo reviews went live on October 21, the game was in them. The Tech Chap played a battle at the bar, MrMobile featured it, Tom’s Guide called it a standout, Gizmodo and TechRadar showed it in the half-folded pose it was designed for, and T3 ranked it first among the apps to download on day one. In all, 9 videos and 9 articles, in English, French and Italian. At launch, Apple’s editors listed it among the great games of the App Store’s iPhone Duo story, in the 18 European stores checked. A side project made in a month, next to the apps chosen to show the device.
No. 1
in T3’s list of the best iPhone Duo apps, and featured by Apple on 18 European App Stores
16,000
downloads in the first 3 weeks
October 23
2026, on the App Store 2 days after the first reviews
In the press
The game showed up in the iPhone Duo reviews and launch picks: 9 videos and 9 articles, in English, French and Italian. Each video starts where the game appears.
