Sea Dice

Three pirate-themed dice games in one app: battle ships, assemble a crew, and shut the box. Play solo or with friends, roll by shaking your phone, and earn achievements.

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Inspiration

Sea Dice began with a simple moment between my son and me.

One day, my son came to me with a small erasable writing tablet and a die. He suggested drawing a Battleship grid on the tablet and using rolls of the die to make our moves.

That moment inspired the original Sea Dice Duel.

I wanted to turn his idea into a mobile game, but with one important principle: the phone should bring us together, not separate us.

Instead of creating another game for my son to play alone, I wanted to build something we could play together on a single phone. A shared activity where a father and son could compete, laugh, make decisions, and spend time together.

The original naval dice game gradually grew into a larger project. With the help of ChatGPT as a brainstorming and development assistant, I explored additional dice games and expanded Sea Dice into a collection of three game modes.

What started with a drawing tablet, a die, and my son's imagination became Sea Dice.

What it does

Sea Dice is an Android game featuring three dice-based game modes:

  • Sea Dice Duel: The original naval-themed dice battle that inspired the project.
  • Gather the Crew: A dice game about assembling a crew.
  • Shut the Box: A classic dice game combining luck and decision-making.

The app also includes two standalone modes: a dice roller and a coin toss.

Sea Dice supports local multiplayer, allowing people to play together on the same device.

Captain profiles, individual statistics, and achievements connect the three main games.

Sound effects and shake controls make rolling the dice more interactive.

How I built it

I developed Sea Dice using React Native for Android.

The three main games share a common application structure, captain profiles, statistics, and achievements. I also added standalone dice-rolling and coin-flipping modes to complement the main games.

I integrated Google AdMob for advertising and RevenueCat Ads for tracking ad impressions and monetization data.

The Android build was tested on a physical smartphone, including gameplay, sound effects, and shake controls.

The source code is maintained on GitHub, and the game has been published on Google Play.

Challenges

One of the main challenges was transforming a simple physical game into an intuitive mobile experience without losing the spirit of playing together.

Another challenge was bringing three games with different rules into one application while maintaining consistent navigation, player profiles, statistics, and achievements.

Integrating monetization and preparing the application for Google Play also required work beyond the gameplay itself.

What I learned

Sea Dice taught me that building a mobile game involves much more than implementing its rules.

It requires attention to user experience, visual consistency, testing, monetization, and release preparation.

Most importantly, this project reminded me that a simple idea can become something meaningful when technology is used to connect people.

What's next

My immediate priority is collecting feedback from players and learning how they use the different game modes.

I want to see how people experience the three main games, particularly when playing together on the same device.

Future improvements will be guided by real player feedback.

The original idea remains unchanged: Sea Dice should be a game that brings people together.

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