Press kit
Fact sheet
- Game
- Rival Monarchs
- Developer
- Radiant Protocols DMCC, [city, country]
- Release
- 2027. TestFlight beta first.
- Platform
- iPhone, iOS 26 or later (iPhone 11, iPhone SE 2nd generation and newer)
- Price
- Free. No ads. No purchases at launch.
- Genre
- Real-time strategy, 1v1
- Match length
- 10–15 minutes
- Modes
- Ranked 1v1 online; skirmish against the AI (offline); training campaign
- Age rating
- 13+ (expected)
- Languages
- English at launch; [more planned]
- Website
- rivalmonarchs.com
- Press contact
- hello@radiantprotocols.com
Descriptions
One line
A real real-time strategy game for one thumb: villagers, three ages and counters, in 12-minute matches.
Short (68 words)
Rival Monarchs is a real-time strategy game for iPhone, played in portrait with one thumb. Put villagers to work, advance through three ages and build an army that counters your rival's, then burn their Town Center or hold the Monument. Matches last 10 to 15 minutes. Play ranked 1v1 online with a chess-style rating, or offline against the AI. It's free, with no ads, no energy and no pay-to-win.
Long
Rival Monarchs compresses the classic real-time strategy game into a match you can finish on a coffee break, played in portrait with one thumb.
Every match starts with your villagers already at work. Gather food, wood and gold, and place your camps. Advance from Hamlet to Township to Realm, and build an army that counters your rival's: spearmen stop cavalry, archers shred infantry, skirmishers hunt archers. Win by burning the enemy Town Center, or by holding the Monument at the heart of the map. Overtime starts at 12:00, and a hard cap at 15:00 guarantees a result.
The controls were designed for a phone from scratch. Tap to select, drag to give an order, and see exactly what will happen before you let go. Army cards, a minimap strip and an economy panel keep everything within reach of your thumb.
Play rated 1v1 matches against people with a chess-style rating. Or play fully offline against AI opponents, with pause, speed control and saves. If nobody is in the queue, the game offers a clearly labelled AI match instead of hiding a bot.
Rival Monarchs is free, and it makes a simple promise: no ads, no energy, no loot boxes, no pay-to-win.
Features
- Visible villagers, three resources, three ages and counter-based armies, compressed into 10–15 minutes
- Two ways to win: Sudden Death (destroy the Town Center) or King of the Hill (hold the Monument)
- One-thumb portrait controls with a preview of every order before it's sent
- Ranked 1v1 with a chess-style rating; labelled AI matches when the queue is empty
- Offline skirmish against the AI, with pause, 0.75×/1×/1.5× speed and saves
- A narrated training campaign
- Units modeled and animated in 3D, pre-rendered in eight directions
The Player Promise
No ads. No energy, timers or speed-ups. No loot boxes, gacha or premium currency. No pay-to-win: anything sold later is content or cosmetics, never power. No FOMO passes or fake "limited offers". No notification spam. Works offline against the AI.
How it's made
Rival Monarchs is made by [a solo developer] with a modern version of the classic pipeline:
- Units are built as 3D models, rigged and animated, then rendered in Blender into eight-direction sprites, with separate passes for team color and shadows.
- Buildings, terrain and props are created with image-generation tools under art direction. Each one is selected, edited and fitted by hand to a fixed isometric camera and light.
- Sound effects and voices are produced with generative audio tools and mixed by hand. [The main theme is composed by [name].]
- A provenance record is kept for every asset.
The game itself is native Swift. Matches are deterministic: both phones run the same simulation, and the server only relays orders.
Art
Click an image for the full file. Final screenshots, a trailer and 9:16 gameplay clips will be added with the beta.
Logo
The final logo follows name clearance. Until then, please use the name in plain text, with no stylized logo.
Contact and embargo
hello@radiantprotocols.com. We offer TestFlight seats for coverage before launch. The embargo for launch coverage is [date, time and time zone].