Silent Shark

Silent Shark is a tactical and realism-focused WWII submarine simulator built around plotting, estimation, and submarine command, set in the Pacific Theater.

Track contacts by hydrophone, work out their course and speed, identify ships through the periscope, estimate range with a stadimeter, and build your firing solution from imperfect information. The game is played on a tactical chart with period-inspired instruments and deliberate controls.

A good attack takes preparation. You need to approach from the right angle, manage depth and speed, account for visibility and sea state, set up the torpedoes, and leave yourself a way out before escorts respond.

If destroyers do locate you, be prepared for evasive maneuvers and paying attention when to go hard and fast, or slow and silent.

Core Features

Map tools like compass, ruler, timestamped points, and angles help you to hunt for the perfect course to intercept.

Realistic replicas of historical instruments such as the engine telegraph, depth meter, and stopwatch.

Periscope with 1.5x and 6x zoom shows a stylized 3D view of contacts within visibility range.

Hydrophone for tracking ships and convoys by sound - tell the difference between freighters and escort by pitch.

Manual range estimation of ships with a fully functional stadimeter: identify the ship to get its mast height, then auto-calculate the distance by observing the angle to the top of the mast.

Torpedo Data Computer (TDC) with a Position Keeper: Enter angle-on-bow, target speed, target bearing, and target distance to fire torpedoes that will hit their targets.

Torpedo tube flooding, gyro angle, spread, and salvo control with a torpedo firing box modeled after the real thing.

Sea state, weather, time-of-day, all have a significant effect on visibility and stealth

Dynamic thermal layers based on time of day and region, measured by bathythermographic readings

Destroyer escorts, aircraft, merchant traffic, and convoy encounters. Destroyers act on their own predictions of your location based on a realistic sonar model and their own hydrophone readings.

Tutorials, standalone scenarios, and a scenario editor

Dynamic music based on Holst's Planets.

Full Campaign

Pacific Theater patrol campaign with assigned patrol zones and long-range mission planning

Radio intelligence updates providing situational awareness and contact hints

Historical events affecting strategy, including early-war base losses in Manila and Sumatra

Reputation-based progression system featuring 6 submarines, from Porpoise-class to Balao-class

Resource management across extended war patrols, including fuel, torpedoes, and fresh air

Dynamic base operations with relocation as the war progresses

Aircraft threat management requiring careful dive timing and surface discipline

Evolving enemy presence with changing convoy routes, escort strength, and patrol density

Historically named enemy ships with persistence - sunk ships do not return later in the patrol

Long-term survival challenge: navigate the full duration of the Pacific war campaign

Cribbage mini-game for some variety on long patrols.

Silent Shark is designed for players who like naval history, tactical simulations, manual targeting, and games where the interesting part is keeping a clear head despite incomplete information.

The Developer

Silent Shark was created with lots of love by John Goering - indie developer from Berlin. John is the creator of the head tracking app SmoothTrack and the thought organizing app Mindscope. He thinks it's a bit strange to talk about himself in the third person, but doesn't really know how else to write this section.

He grew up playing the sub sim Silent Service II on Atari, then later discovered Silent Hunter IV, and more recently, UBoat - he then decided to take the parts he loved most about these games - the map mode - and double down on that and turn it into the sub sim of his own dreams.