What it is
Hive Strike is a vertical shooter. You are one bee. The bee fires on its own, so the game is about where you put it: drag anywhere on the screen and the bee rides just above your finger, out from under your thumb. Each world ends in a boss, and every boss changes what it is doing halfway through the fight. The Centipede Mother splits into two snakes that pinch. The Scorpion King plants its tail as a turret and flanks you with its body. The Atlas Moth turns its wings into shields you have to break.
It is written in plain Canvas 2D JavaScript with no game engine, and it runs the same build on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Who it's for
People who play one-handed
Firing is automatic. Movement is a drag anywhere on the screen. The bomb button sits bottom right, and in-game help says the bomb also fires itself when you are about to be hit.
Arcade and shmup fans
Score chains up to x8, grazing bullets for points and bombs, sixteen weapons with five levels each, a Daily Hive seeded from the date, and eight Queen's Contracts that trade risk for a score multiplier.
Kids and anyone who hates ads
Rated 9+ on Apple and Everyone 10+ on Google Play. No ads, no chat, no accounts, nothing collected. The Bug-Dex gives each bug one true fact about the real animal.
Screenshots
The current screenshots from the App Store listing.
What's in it
Sixteen worlds, sixteen bosses
From the Meadow to the Crystal, through the Night Wood, the Hive, the Cave, the Tide Pool, the Volcano and the Rooftops. No two bosses are the same species.
Bosses that change jobs
Each boss gets a second phase at half health. Some get angrier, and some turn into a different fight.
Sixteen weapons, five levels each
Honey Spray for a crowd, Stinger Beam to pierce, Pollen Seekers that home in, a Propolis Wall to hide behind, Guard Bees that hunt for you, and eleven more.
Seventy-five kinds of bug
The Bug-Dex fills in as you beat them, each card with one true fact about the real insect.
A reason to come back
The Daily Hive picks the roster and rules from the date on your device. Queen's Contracts let you pick harder terms for a higher score, up to x3 for Death Wish.
Sound made from scratch
49 bug voices, every one synthesized live from oscillators and filtered noise, with no sample files. Each world has its own music.
Runs on budget phones
If frames start dropping the game lowers its own detail in steps, down to a bare-bones mode, and raises it again when the phone keeps up.
Stops when you stop
Lock the phone or switch apps and the game, music and sound all pause together. You come back to a 3-2-1 countdown. Quit from the pause menu and resume from the home screen later.
Controls and accessibility
These are what the game does today, taken from its code. Where something is missing, it says so.
| Touch | Drag anywhere. Auto-fire. One bomb button, bottom right. Pause, top right. |
|---|---|
| Keyboard | Arrows or WASD to move, Shift for slow precise movement, X or B to bomb, P to pause. |
| Game controller | Stick or d-pad to move, A, B, RB or RT to bomb, LT or LB for precision, Start to pause. |
| Sound | Music and effects mute separately (M for effects, N for music, or the on-screen toggles). |
| Haptics | The phone taps back on pickups, bombs, getting hit and boss moments. Muting effects turns haptics off too. |
| Danger colours | The how-to screen teaches two signals: green means grab it, glowing magenta means dodge it. Enemy shots glow red from the inside. |
| Not there yet | No screen reader support (the game is drawn on a canvas), no setting to turn off screen shake, and no colour-blind mode. |
Privacy
Hive Strike collects nothing. There are no accounts, no sign-in, no analytics, no ads and no trackers. It does not use your location, contacts, photos, microphone or camera.
Your scores, unlocked worlds, Bug-Dex, settings, saved run, the date you first opened the game (that is how the free month is counted) and whether you have bought the unlock all stay on your device. Deleting the app deletes them.
The game plays offline. It only goes online when you tap Unlock or Restore, and then only to talk to the App Store or Google Play, which handle the payment. The developer never sees your card or account.
FAQ
How much does it cost?
The download is free and the whole game is playable for thirty days. After that, one in-app purchase of $1.99 unlocks it for good on every device signed in to the same store account. There is nothing else to buy.
Is there a subscription or ads?
No subscription and no ads anywhere in the game.
Does it work offline?
Yes. The network is only used to buy or restore the unlock.
I bought it on another phone. Do I pay again?
No. Tap Restore Purchase on the unlock screen while signed in to the same App Store or Google Play account.
What is "Enter a code"?
The unlock screen takes short gift codes from the developer. A valid code unlocks the game on either store, offline.
Can I play with one hand?
Yes. It was designed for one thumb: auto-fire, drag-anywhere movement, and a single bomb button. A keyboard or game controller works too.
Will it run on an older or cheaper phone?
The game measures its own frame rate and steps detail down automatically when a phone struggles, then back up when it can.
Is it OK for kids?
It is rated 9+ on the App Store and Everyone 10+ on Google Play for cartoon fantasy violence. No blood, no chat, no user content, no ads, no data collected.
How was the art and music made?
Every sprite, background and music track was generated on one Mac, offline, with open models: FLUX.1-dev from Black Forest Labs (through ComfyUI) for the bugs and worlds, Depth-Anything-V2 for the parallax, ACE-Step 1.5 for the music, and Qwen3-VL running on Apple's MLX to help check sprite orientation. The sound effects are synthesized in code.
Is the code open?
The code is MIT licensed on GitHub. The art, music, icons and the Hive Strike name are not open licensed.
Press and contact
Made by Matt Macosko at Nice Dreamz. Review copies and gift codes are available on request.
info@nicedreamzwholesale.com · More apps from Nice Dreamz · Feature graphic · Icon (512px)
Built on open work by others: FLUX.1-dev (Black Forest Labs), ComfyUI, Depth-Anything-V2, ACE-Step, Qwen3-VL (Qwen team) via Apple's MLX, and Capacitor for the iOS and Android shells.