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Free for iPhone, iPad and Android
Watch the gameplay clip
Downloads
Picture pack (zip, 8.4 MB)
The app icon, the header art, five iPhone screens and the fact sheet.
Fact sheet
What it is: A satirical arcade game. Cartoon tyrants pop up from holes in a field and run for the stage; you flip them away with a tap. Each time a tyrant reaches the stage they take control of the bully pulpit and spread their propaganda with their entourages, including bodyguards, backup dancers, bears, and banners with their political slogans. Pursue your first campaign victory at level 30 and then continue as long as you can hold out. Three difficulty settings.
The tyrants: Every one is an invented type: the Propagandist, the Rebel Leader, the People’s Colonel, El Presidente, Il Bombasto, and more are revealed as you climb.
Price: Free. No ads, ever. No data collected, no account, no sign-in. Optional Game Tokens for power-ups: $0.99, $4.99 or $9.99 packs, or earn them for free by playing the game.
Release: Released October 28, 2026 for iPhone and iPad; now on Android too. Available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom
Platforms: Available now on iPhone and iPad (App Store) and Android (Google Play)
Rating: 13+ on the App Store · ESRB Everyone 10+ on Google Play
Who made it: Antisthenes LLC is a one-person studio founded in July 2026. Its founder often wonders if a more technological world will strengthen tyrants’ grip on power, or if it will help people avoid tyranny — probably some of both.
How it was made: The concept, the mechanics and every design decision are the founder’s. The code was written using AI coding tools, and some of the art was made with AI image tools, both working to his explicit instructions.
The satire: No character is a real person and no flag belongs to a real country. The tyrants are always the joke.
Store links: App Store (iPhone and iPad) · Google Play (Android)
“There’s never a bad time to flip off a tyrant!”
— Overheard in 1776
In the press
COGconnected: “Flip-a-Tyrant! Flips and Lands on iPhone and iPad Today” (October 29, 2026)
Games Press: the launch press release (October 29, 2026)
Press release
One-person studio with no coding experience ships Flip-a-Tyrant!, a satirical arcade game built with AI tools, now on Android as well as iPhone and iPad
SHERIDAN, Wyoming — October 30, 2026 — Flip-a-Tyrant!, the first game from one-person studio Antisthenes LLC, is now on Android through Google Play, two days after its iPhone and iPad launch on the App Store. The free satirical arcade game is available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The game’s made-up cartoon tyrants pop up from holes in a field and race toward a stage in the town square. Players flip them away with a tap before they arrive. Any tyrant who reaches the stage seizes the bully pulpit and spreads propaganda along with an entourage of bodyguards, backup dancers, bears and banners carrying political slogans. Players pursue a first campaign victory at level 30 and then hold out for as long as they can. There are three difficulty settings, plus a Hard start at level 10 for adept players.
Every tyrant is an invented type, including the Propagandist, the Rebel Leader, the People’s Colonel, El Presidente and Il Bombasto, with more revealed as players climb the levels. No character is a real person and no flag belongs to a real country.
The idea came together in the summer of 2026. “Two thoughts converged in my head toward the end of July,” said Troy, the studio’s founder. “First, I wished there was a whack-a-mole style mobile game where the antagonists weren’t stuck standing in the holes they popped out of. Second, I carry no ill will toward moles or groundhogs. If I had to make my own game to scratch that itch, I figured I ought to pick an antagonist that I, and perhaps others, would get more satisfaction out of flicking off a screen. Tyrants, dictators, autocrats and other power mongers who tend to make the world a worse place fit the bill, so I invented cartoon versions of those types, drawing on snippets of what they tend to look like and sound like.”
Built without a programmer
Troy is not a programmer. The game’s code was written mainly with Anthropic’s Claude, and some of its art was made or polished with Google’s Gemini, all working from his plain-English instructions. The concept, the mechanics and every design decision are his. He tested the game on an iPhone and on a Samsung Galaxy A37 Android phone.
“I had read that professional software coders were using AI to do a lot of the heavy lifting to meet their requirements, so I wanted to see if I could build something that way with zero coding experience,” Troy said. “I was pleasantly surprised that it actually works really well, and some people seem to be doing far more amazing things with AI tools than I am. It’s pretty exciting to know that people with a vision of what they want software to do can make it happen. A nurse, a city manager, a teacher, a researcher or a farmer with an idea could, in many cases, just build the software they want or need. We live in an amazing time.”
He added: “I looked for this game mechanic in a few places and it didn’t seem to exist, so the fastest way to play it was to build it. Even after countless hours of testing, I still play it while waiting in line or riding a stationary bike at the gym.”
Free, with no ads and no data collected
Flip-a-Tyrant! is free to download, shows no ads, collects no data and needs no account or sign-in. Optional Game Tokens buy power-ups and come in $0.99, $4.99 and $9.99 packs, but players can also earn them for free just by playing and climbing levels.
“At first it felt like a new way to share an idea somewhat artistically, a bit like graffiti art on a wall or a bridge,” Troy said. “Eventually I realized that if I want to keep improving the game, and maybe make other games, I’ll need some income to help pay for things like the additional phone I bought to test the game on Android, a couple of AI service subscriptions and the costs of standing up and maintaining an LLC. So I added Game Tokens that can be earned for free or bought in bundles. But I wanted the game to be enjoyable for anybody who chooses not to spend any money on it at all, and I figured the more fun experience would be a game that was free and had no pop-up ads. Just silly, free, action-packed fun.”
Asked what he hopes players take away from it, Troy said: “I hope players enjoy the challenge of the game I made, I hope they don’t get in trouble playing it when they’re students in a classroom, and I hope most people share my opinion that tyrants past and present are a major nuisance for the rest of us.”
The studio takes its name from Antisthenes, the ancient Greek philosopher who is believed to have said, “States are doomed when they are unable to distinguish good men from bad.” His words inspired the game, whose slogan puts it more simply: “There’s never a bad time to flip off a tyrant!”
Availability
Flip-a-Tyrant! is available now for free on Google Play (Android) and the App Store (iPhone and iPad). It is rated ESRB Everyone 10+ on Google Play and 13+ on the App Store. Screenshots, a 51-second gameplay clip and a fact sheet are on this page.
About Antisthenes LLC
Antisthenes LLC is a one-person game studio founded in July 2026 in Sheridan, Wyoming. It makes retro arcade-style mobile games that occasionally include a bit of satire. Flip-a-Tyrant! is its first game.
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