I built Minesweeper once — and it runs on Android, iOS, and Desktop 🚀

Same game.

Same UI.

Same business logic.

Powered by Kotlin Compose Multiplatform.

Why I built this

I wanted to go beyond demos and answer a real question:

Can Compose Multiplatform handle a state-heavy, logic-driven game across platforms?

So I rebuilt Minesweeper — fully playable on:

📱 Android

🍎 iOS

🖥️ Desktop (JVM)

From a single Kotlin codebase.

🧠 How I built it (Step-by-Step)

1️⃣ Shared Game Engine (Common Kotlin)

The core of the app lives in commonMain.

Grid modeled as List<List<Cell>>

Each Cell tracks:

isMine, isRevealed, isFlagged, minesAround

Mine placement deferred until first click

→ guarantees no first-move death

Flood-fill (BFS) reveals empty areas efficiently

Win condition checks after every move

👉 Result: 100% shared game logic

2️⃣ Clean Architecture (KMP-friendly)

I followed a clean separation:

Domain → Game rules & engine (pure Kotlin)

Data → User + high score persistence

UI → ViewModels + Compose UI

No Android or iOS code leaks into the domain.

3️⃣ Multiplatform Persistence

Each platform stores data differently, so I used multiplatform-settings.

Android → SharedPreferences

iOS → NSUserDefaults

Desktop → Java Preferences

Injected via DI, used from common code.

var highScore: Long

  get() = settings.getLong("HIGH_SCORE", 0)

  set(value) = settings.putLong("HIGH_SCORE", value)

4️⃣ Dependency Injection with Koin

Koin works beautifully with KMP.

Shared appModule for:

GameEngine

ViewModel

Repositories

Platform modules provide platform-specific dependencies

⚠️ iOS gotcha:

Koin must be initialized explicitly before Compose UI loads.

5️⃣ Compose Multiplatform UI (Write Once)

UI is written once using Compose:

- LazyVerticalGrid for the minefield

- StateFlow → UI reactivity

- Same Composables across platforms

Only the entry point changes:

- Android → Activity

- iOS → ComposeUIViewController

- Desktop → Window {}

🎯 What I learned

Compose Multiplatform is production-capable for complex state

Sharing UI + logic saved 60–70% dev time

KMP shines when logic is non-trivial (games, editors, tools)

iOS setup still needs care — but it’s getting better fast

🚀 Final takeaway

“Write once, run everywhere” is no longer a slogan.

With Kotlin + Compose Multiplatform, it’s becoming a real engineering advantage.

If you’re an Android dev curious about:

KMP in real apps

Compose beyond Android

Cross-platform architecture

👉 Save this post or comment “KMP” and I’ll share the repo & breakdowns.

Follow Akshay Nandwana for more Android & KMP insights 💚

Repost to help more devs learn 🚀

#Kotlin#ComposeMultiplatform#AndroidDev#KotlinMultiplatform#MobileEngineering#IndieDev