About the Game


The Kaisers Fleet approaches! It falls to you to learn the secret language of Morse Code and repel the naval onslaught through timing, tactics and telegraphy.
MORSE is a wave based strategy game elegantly operated with just two controls, Morse and Artillery:
Enter dots and dashes to navigate an ever changing grid of letters and numbers.
Unleash an arsenal of artillery to reveal hidden enemy positions with the flash of your strike and swiftly sink them with precision and speed.
Between waves, upgrade your reconnaissance and firepower and bolster your blockade of sea mines crucial to holding the line. With each wave the waters change, new letters are learnt, shells are spent, ships scuttled and defences tested. Can you prevail?
Telecommunicate. Illuminate. Eliminate. Upgrade. Blockade. Prevail.
Navigate ever changing grid of letters and numbers using the lost language of Morse Code. Learn a handful of simple letters then master the telegraphy tree to fully scale the battlefield. Master different telegraph control schemes such as Iambic and Sideswiper.
German ships are shrouded by the cover of darkness, illuminate their positions using the flash of your artillery strikes. Distant vessels will briefly brighten, land a blast close enough and warships will be permanently revealed.
Rain down salvos of shells on the Kaiser's fleet with your artillery. Deliver direct hits for maximum damage and to save ammunition, consistent precision is rewarded with a faster feed of shells that can breach the hulls of even the strongest ships.
After successfully repelling each assault, pick between a pair of upgrade cards to bolster your arsenal, chosen with either a dot or a dash. Unlock new deadly types of artillery shell, improve your sea mines or enhance your reconnaissance. Upgrades stack so choose wisely!
Deploy a blockade of sea mines to reveal and destroy any ships that slip past your artillery. Mines can be bunched and scattered in various formations. Upgraded mines can withstand damage, have timed detonators and can relay warnings of breaches.
With each wave, a new isogram is chosen, the vertical row extends, the number of units increase and new powerful German vessels emerge from the dark waters. Survive until dawn.
Can you change the world with the push of a button?

"A novel and compelling take on real-time strategy games." ~ Rock Paper Shotgun
"The whole game requires a kind of intentionality and level-headedness to succeed at that, when I pull it off, really makes me feel like I’m mastering a skill." ~ Aftermath
"A highly complete work with a unique concept." ~ IGN Japan
"MORSE is a game that highlights how simple a game can be while containing depth, complexity and joy." ~ Indiecade
BUILD YOUR OWN TELEGRAPH!

Whilst an enjoyable experience with mouse, keyboard or Steamdeck, the authentic way of playing MORSE is with a telegraph key. Here are some of the different types of "homebrew" hardware that players have fashioned to play the game with. Visit the Steam Discussions for the project to learn about how to build your own, including the newly announced Teaspoon Telegraph.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

A frantic campaign mode featuring a midnight breach of the Blockade of Germany.
A skirmish mode to hone your telegraphy skills on a breadth of different words.
40 different characters to learn in Morse Code.
3 different telegraph types and calibration settings to tune to your needs.
Put your knowledge and skill to the test with Expert Mode.
Mix up gameplay with a growing collection of modifiers.
Connect up a homebrew or commercial telegraph key for the authentic MORSE experience.
Explore the manual to learn more about MORSE but also how to apply and expand your knowledge of Amateur Radio.
Screenshots
7 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
Hey Folks,
\[UPDATE 29/04/2026: After posting the update, I noticed a save bug due to a conflict with the updated demo logic that wiped player progress in the release build, I fixed the bug in question, just make sure when you're updating, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE (23016634), go straight to 23018551. Thanks for your patience.]
As promised, here's the updated build! I've added a couple of small but meaningful changes to MORSE:
+ Iambic Fixed: There was a subtle but fiddly timing issue with the Iambic key that has persisted since launch that I've finally managed to solve! Means that Iambic feels much more fluid and reliable. Thank you for your patience in awaiting this fix.
[img src="https://clan.fastly.steamstatic.com/images//42341374/a0f6d0219cd96099e0af87e375de0a4c9fb4074c.gif"]+ Update revisions: The UI update in the last build I had some complaints about one of the notifications displays obscuring the grid, so I've made that integrate more subtly in the game, popping up only when necessary rather than constantly on screen.
+ Tutorial Disabled for Exercises: Under modifiers, there's the option to disable tutorials, in the last update that didn't turn them off for the learning exercises. That way, you can quickly tweak your telegraph or practice without having to see the whole tutorial on each page.
+ Cursor Toggle: In a previous update I added a cursor for players who were using mouse, but when using keyboard you would see the cursor sitting on the screen. When you press keys, the cursor disappears, when you press either mouse button, the cursor appears.
That's all for now, stay tuned for the demo update dropping in the next few hours!
73, Alex
Hey Folks,
\[UPDATE 29/04/2026: After posting the update, I noticed a save bug due to a conflict with the updated demo logic that wiped player progress in the release build, I fixed the bug in question, just make sure when you're updating, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE (23016634), go straight to 23018551. Thanks for your patience.]
As promised, here's the updated build! I've added a couple of small but meaningful changes to MORSE:
+ Iambic Fixed: There was a subtle but fiddly timing issue with the Iambic key that has persisted since launch that I've finally managed to solve! Means that Iambic feels much more fluid and reliable. Thank you for your patience in awaiting this fix.
[img src="https://clan.fastly.steamstatic.com/images//42341374/a0f6d0219cd96099e0af87e375de0a4c9fb4074c.gif"]+ Update revisions: The UI update in the last build I had some complaints about one of the notifications displays obscuring the grid, so I've made that integrate more subtly in the game, popping up only when necessary rather than constantly on screen.
+ Tutorial Disabled for Exercises: Under modifiers, there's the option to disable tutorials, in the last update that didn't turn them off for the learning exercises. That way, you can quickly tweak your telegraph or practice without having to see the whole tutorial on each page.
+ Cursor Toggle: In a previous update I added a cursor for players who were using mouse, but when using keyboard you would see the cursor sitting on the screen. When you press keys, the cursor disappears, when you press either mouse button, the cursor appears.
That's all for now, stay tuned for the demo update dropping in the next few hours!
73, Alex
Hey folks,
Just a very quick update on the MORSE training update: The white transmission frame in the bottom left has been narrowed slightly to take up less space than before.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/618682888e580073b0325ab3d761b9661c233d09.png"]
Further, I'm going to look into improving the listening mode to be a higher challenge, which I'll get to next week (making it harder to not just lean on mimicking, read my idea for a prototype in this discussion).
Thanks to Cyan for the suggestions, if anyone has any more feedback, bugs or suggestions feel free to reach out! Hope training is going well so far.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/0029ea8b3174102500711c4f720c83fa043bf4cf.png"]
Also just wanted to acknowledge the lovely messages from folks about the update and that MORSE is on the cusp of crossing 100 reviews! Very grateful for all your support.
73, Alex
Hey folks!
I am very excited to share the latest update to MORSE, let's get stuck in!
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/669e4ee44c6cd2b5a16c2abe0e5089e7d63362c8.png"]
A dedicated training mode
The number one request for MORSE has been to add a training mode to allow players to pursue mastery of Morse Code. With that, I've created a dedicated suite of educational tools in MORSE. This is to allow people to specialise in 3 areas; Calibration, Speed and Listening.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/db758b45b735ae54f04831edefd52570497b6b6a.gif"]
Calibration
This is a dedicated mode that explains and shows in detail how to calibrate your telegraph to your skill level. This is set up for each of the different telegraph types, you tweak your cooldown and dot/dash threshold and can test in-game on beacons to see how your settings handle. There's also a visualiser that shows how your dots and dashes are translating as you adjust in real time.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/62cbac70f25b22a27473356da2cb9dc0f82bc3eb.gif"]
Another commonly requested feature was being able to calibrate your telegraph in real time and see how your input of dots and dashes change, but I much prefer players getting to have that tactile ritual of tweaking and refining those settings by hand and chose to keep things manual.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/cdfb7e38118162045052599d1647b3053a2386ba.gif"]
A final feature that I'm very happy with for calibration once you've tuned your key: A words per minute speed test. Words per minute in amateur radio is the unit measurement for how quickly you can enter Morse Code. There's also a degree of competition around it, for example the High Speed Telegraphy championships that happen nationally and internationally. The word PARIS is used as a standard to measure WPM against, so you can keep practicing entering that word to gauge your skill. I may add a mode where you can change the word in question to practice entry with different letters, let me know if that's something folks would be interested in! I have plans in the coming months to expand the settings menu to something more granular so there'll likely be some more settings to follow that will be integrated in a similar manner.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/4214b7b37b68a7b395d59ca6bb779598e930b947.gif"]
Speed
Or more accurately, speed training allows you to practice against enemies approaching from the right, where each kill increases the speed and rate of the enemy advance. This gets extremely frantic when you get above a score of 30 and really lets you hone your skills navigating the grid. If a ship gets by and you've sunk more than one ship, the X Y grid words change, allowing you to try out other letters and words. I'm curious to see how high a score folks can reach!
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/fd3b7938d029a86e88c60c8828fa1cdc8191e815.gif"]
Listening
The third training mode is a "guess the letter" challenge for identifying the sounds of different letters. A submarine is hidden on the grid, you hear the sound of the letter where the submarine is located e.g. (dit dah dit) then you mimic the sound pattern to locate and destroy the submarine (R). After entering each letter of the word, a new word is chosen, so you can get a wide comprehension of letters.
What I like about all 3 of these exercises is each of them tie to the mechanics of the game seamlessly and strengthen both your proficiency of play and also of the skill. It's worth mentioning that these training tools work with all 3 telegraph types, so feel free to experiment and try each out.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/6c59633d2af36c64aae94802f067412123963cdd.gif"]
It's great being able to expand MORSE as an educational tool and I am very open to suggestions for different training modes folks would like to see in there or how these training tools could be improved.
Also of note, this is a pretty substantial addition to the game and with that, there comes increased risk of bugs. Please drop any issues you come across here and I'll try to respond promptly and address any problems that may arise.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/3255476576cc0211bf331514039f7648e61c00e0.gif"]
A spring clean to tidy the UI
A recurring point of feedback for MORSE has been the "ticker tape" notification printout blocking the bottom of the the grid/gameplay. In-keeping with the season, I've refined the placement of the interface to make it less cluttered:
The ticker tape printout has been moved up to the top left.
The "enemies left" tab has been moved to the bottom left of the screen.
The lives have been tucked in the top right.
These 3 changes create a big chunk of screen space along the top for notifications in a non-intrusive manner. An additional benefit allows longer strings of text (nearly double the room), making the tutorials more concise with text in larger clusters. It also fixes the issue of the Morse Output printout being blocked by the ticker tape printout.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/d49ec8e6a3125d9119e680d44fd351e64e4a68e5.gif"]
One other addition I'm quite happy with is integrating a cursor to the game, which in game displays your dots and dashes (and works with the different telegraph types). This means for folks who are playing with a mouse who have dual monitors they don't accidentally click out of the screen and generally to have another visualisation of dots and dashes and adds a nice design flourish.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/8c6b4df1915ed616acb50bbf7d0e1f8b7d4ebb15.png"]
My own training journey!
The last thing I wanted to mention that I am proper stoked about is I've officially started training for my foundation Amateur Radio License. Shortly after the game launch, I had a trip to the Cairngorms planned and wanted to rush to get my license in time, but the more I dug through Essex Ham's incredible free course on the fundamentals of UK Amateur Radio, the more I realised these were really fascinating and useful skills to learn for my career doing electronics and hardware. So, I waited till last month to sign up (now that things have calmed down a little) and I am currently halfway through the course. I'm hoping to get my license in the next couple of months so soon I'll potentially have my own callsign and I'll finally get to transmit my first Morse Code, well overdue!
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/e3c2b412c79fafc989d93a68328e4e154b4e0c81.png"]
That's all for now, thanks again to everyone who has enjoyed and learned about the project so far, I have some very interesting updates coming down the pipe around outreach that I'm eager to share, so stay tuned for that soon.
73, Alex
Hey Folks,
Just a quick update after posting the build yesterday:
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/161456af2ce83b7779ec873923c4c947fec7f61f.gif"]
Fixed the display of an achievement which had the wrong totals associated with it.
Whilst fixing the last mentioned bug, based on Seaman Sneed's suggestion, I've added a "ongoing stats" display now so rather than just getting 15/15 after completing an achievement, you'll get the ongoing figure after a second or so delay. This is particularly exciting for "Perfectionist", which now will record your accuracy all the way up to 100%, I am very curious to see if anyone is capable of achieving that!
Fixed a bug which turned off the printout text (got the bool the wrong way around for the minimalist mode).
That's all for now, got some exciting features to work on over the next month, stay tuned for more and let me know if you have any other requests or suggestions!!
73, Alex
Hey folks,
Thank you all so much for your patience in awaiting an update to MORSE! It's been a very busy month for me. Now that MORSE is post launch, I've gone back to just me maintaining the game solo which means a slower pace of development (though this does not mean I am not enthusiastic to continue work on the project).
A massive, massive thank you
First, I wanted to say hello and thank you to everyone who picked up MORSE in the Steam Typing sale, I was taken aback by the swell in interest in the project and am very grateful for your support.
What have I been up to?
My main focus since the new year has been doing more structural groundwork for MORSE to serve as an educational tool for outreach for Amateur Radio throughout 2026 and beyond. That's reflected in this update in a variety of ways. You can listen to me demonstrating and discussing these topics in this video: MORSE Update: VBand, Ham Radio Outreach Mode and Minimalist Mode! - YouTube
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/f815790c731a249f7ee4e73a66f496e08c003350.png"]
VBand Support: It's finally here!
This is by far the most requested feature for MORSE and after some wrestling with the engine, I have successfully solved the issue of the two ctrl buttons not registering as separate inputs. With thanks to folks on the Stencyl Discord and my own perseverance, you can bind the Left and Right ctrl buttons separately, meaning Vband can be used out of the box without any adjustments/plug ins. I personally don't have a Vband adapter so can't say for sure, so please let me know if it works!
I really really appreciate those who've waited, I'm excited that this may help more people get keys wired up and connect the game to one of the go-to adapters in Ham Radio.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/10961dae73de797058d4861a6e63b34171970c11.gif"]
Fog of war/Line of sight indicator
The latest version of MORSE now has a clear line that indicates where ships will become visible. When showing the game at expos, players will often just stare at the blank map not really understanding when or why enemies become visible. By having an explicit line that shows where they become visible, that hopefully makes things clearer.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/843591f0d362fab84886e376ea726c03d8354709.gif"]
MORSE Modifier: Minimalist Mode
This has been another requested feature, most recently by player Luniya, who highlighted that the UI blocks a lot of vertical space of the grid which is critical on later levels. They wished the UI could be hidden to create more visual space.
In response, I've added a Minimalist Modifier which cuts out the Morse Code interface along the bottom, freeing up that space to sight ships further down the screen. I really love this new feature for two reasons:
- If you as a player have reached a level of proficiency at MORSE as to not need this UI, that gives you an edge in gameplay in having a wider sightline for enemies, similar to the help sheet that can be collapsed once you've memorised the Morse letters for a wider field of view.
- Within Amateur Radio, it is widely considered more effective to learn Morse Code through sound rather than visuals (and that visual learning can actually slow/incorrectly teach the process) so this provides a non-visual version of Morse input for those keen to learn though audio only and opens up the game to more people.
Investigating this also made me realise as well that the red flash for the dot/dash indicator wasn't correctly synchronising with the beeps, therefore potentially confusing players, should now be much more snappy and visually responsive.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/8cc6cb2bedc4282d88bdab6fa7aa4ef885fa527e.gif"]
MORSE Modifier: Outreach Mode:
This is a pretty straightforward addition to the project but hopefully has some useful cultural impact: This is a modifier of MORSE that tailors the game to be suitable for exhibition, it's what I use when I show the game off at events. it includes the following functions:
- Timed reset/Button reset: If the game is left idle for too long, it resets back to the main menu and defaults to straight key, Novice Mode and Campaign. Holding both the launch and Morse key for 5 seconds resets the game, which is useful if someone wants to navigate back to the start without having to use the mouse/keyboard.
- Lower number of waves: When I was testing the game in Strasbourg a lot of people were struggling to last to wave 10, so providing a more achievable target that also lowers the chance of someone hogging the game. With museums, this is commonly described as a pinch point, where realistically you don't want a museum interaction to last more than 2 minutes lest it create congestion. 6 waves is definitely longer than that, but still a comfortable amount to see the elements of the project.
- Attract Mode: When the game is left idle for a prolonged period, it resets and if left on the main menu goes into attract mode, where enemy ships cross the map under the hail of artillery and background sounds of dots and dashes. I'm particularly happy with this because of...
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/211b4b9ba8514dbd44493cd53ed63ebbaeb3cdc1.jpg"]
In game promotion of local Amateur Radio & Random Bazar:
As part of the Outreach mode, I now have dedicated pages for encouraging people to find their local amateur radio group: This is a developing feature, but currently upon either beating/losing the demo or watching the attract mode, a message displays encouraging players to find their local club via the IARU. Right now it's a little clunky in that it's a lot of text on screen, but where it'll become more elegant is working directly with Amateur Radio clubs, where I can provide them with a tailored version of the project.
Case in point, MORSE is currently exhibiting in Strasbourg for 3 weeks as part of Random Bazar, a festival filled with strange and wonderful Alt Ctrl games installations. As part of that, I have added on-screen promotions for local and national Amateur Radio communities, namely Strasbourg club REF67 and the French National Society Réseau des Émetteurs Français. I've reached out to both organisations to put it on their radar and hopefully REF67 get chance to visit whilst the game visits the city and failing that, the project hopefully sends potential local amateur radio enthusiasts their direction.
I'll likely be doing a writeup for delivering the project in Strasbourg in the coming month, I am very excited for MORSE to be there and am grateful to Henri and the team for hosting the game! Find out the details of the event below if you fancy visiting it over the next month. The setup they provided for MORSE is absolutely wonderful: Festival 2026 – Random Bazar
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/29c7b79b4c5dc09449c37c8dc84912f2b9a222ac.png"]
Localised "Cheat Sheets":
Finally, connected to MORSE's use as a tool for outreach, a number of community members contacted me about a "Cheat sheet" to onboard players quickly with the project in communal, arcade or educational settings. In response, I've put together a help sheet in English and French, I'll be hopefully expanding this help sheet to more languages in the coming months as the game tours more international events and reaches more clubs around the world. The French translation in the middle was used at Random Bazar and proved effective in giving French residents a language tether to engage with the project for those unfamiliar with English. Steam user Alpha has also very kindly translated this sheet to Korean, which I really appreciated.
That's all for now, thank you all again for your posts over the last month, I enjoy reading and responding to them. Do let me know if there's any other future ways I can tailor the project or if your club is interested in a custom demo for local outreach.
73, Alex
Hey folks,
Just thought I'd sneak in just one more small update in 2025 that's fitting for the end of the imminent end of year festivities:
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/4d34e523a2f75ff143b731cc9bebb6956978ecfc.gif"]
EXPLOSIONS!
I commissioned my good friend and talented pixel artist Sinclair Strange to do a bunch of VFX for the project, overhauling the explosions in MORSE. Instead of featuring just a static circle (and basic water animation), explosions now have a bunch of animated variations, splash variants have been added (with more to come) and smoke clouds emerge from the blast. The smoke and water plumes also have variance of frame rate, which creates a bit more dynamism.
I'm very happy with how they've turned out, the new VFX brings more spectacle to combat with explosions visually packing more punch. It's even more cathartic blowing up cruisers.
[img src="{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42341374/b98160e7060f1f081e306e878dbb12c01118a4a3.gif"]
Bug-wise, I fixed an issue of duplicated letters on one axis (K) on one of the later levels, (thanks to those who helped me track it down) and I've added some more entries to the manual, looking forward to populating this further next year.
Just wanted to give one more signoff before the New Year to thank everyone who's supported MORSE so far, I'm hyped for what 2026 will bring for myself and the project and I'm eager to share some of the new features coming down the pipe!
Happy New Year to all, stay tuned for more soon.
73, Alex
Just a small but important patch for two things:
+ Fixed the issue that a number of people had on the last update where the row wouldn't load in.
+ Cloud Saving: Took me a while to troubleshoot it, but Cloud Saving should now be working on both PC and Steamdeck, thank you for your patience in me sorting it out, please let me know if you encounter any issues.
That's all for now, larger announcement coming soon!
Just a small but important patch for two things:
+ Fixed the issue that a number of people had on the last update where the row wouldn't load in.
+ Cloud Saving: Took me a while to troubleshoot it, but Cloud Saving should now be working on both PC and Steamdeck, thank you for your patience in me sorting it out, please let me know if you encounter any issues.
That's all for now, larger announcement coming soon!
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Uploaded Feb 06, 2026
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• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
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