Bring a convoy home, and remember who did not make it.
The Long Retreat is an iPhone survival game played from the bridge of the UNS Defiance. You choose a route, stretch the supplies and answer calls for help when you may not have much help to give.
I wanted the losses to stay with the player. The Memorial keeps the names of people who did not make it home, even after a run ends and another begins.
Along the way
What’s changed, what I’m trying, and what comes next.
The Long Retreat is now available free on the App Store for iPhone.
I couldn’t quite get The Long Retreat to where I wanted it to be. I’m not sure. I just can’t figure out how to make it “fun”. I guess I’m just not the best at tying together a text-adventure-ish game.
It’s been sitting around in a completed state for months and months… and months. Rather than let it continue to rot, I thought I’d just go ahead and release it for free.
The Long Retreat is now on the App Store. My previous note ended with a submission waiting for review; version 1.0 is now publicly available for iPhone, running iOS 17 or later.
I built it around the orders that stay with a captain. Across the 24-jump retreat, a distress call or a route change can affect the people travelling with you. The Command Journal, manifest and Memorial keep those decisions and their consequences in view when you return.
The game is free, with no ads, in-app purchases or account to create. It runs offline and keeps the retreat on your device, with local backup export in Settings. I made the September launch panels from iPhone simulator screenshots.
A Command Journal, more focused character stories and a first App Store submission.
The Long Retreat asks you to remember why you made an order as well as what it cost. The new Command Journal brings recorded choices and their aftermath together, with search and a way back to a pending transmission. If you return to the game after a few days, the retreat should still feel like your story.
New retreats now give two character stories more room to develop, with quieter watches between the larger decisions. Mercy’s public appeals and private ward lead to different crises; Cipher’s shared evidence and sealed investigation lead to different problems. Earlier preparation can open another order later. When a ship or captain is lost, the account records the interruption instead of quietly pretending the story finished.
Running out of fuel is now an explicit command decision. You can convert particular reserves at a stated cost, or refuse, with clear limits on what can be used. The route view compares known consequences, and an optional reading view keeps a transmission and its orders in one scroll. I have also refined the title, Records menu and larger-text layouts around those changes.
I submitted version 1.0 build 9 to the App Store on 29 September. I plan to release it free, with no ads or in-app purchases. The game website, support page and privacy information are live; I’m still waiting for the App Store release. These screenshots are from the September submission build.
Earlier versions of the project. Select any image to look closer.