With the World Cup just weeks away, it's tempting to fire up a footie sim at the same time. But just like Despelote managed to find a more personal way of framing the beautiful game along with a unique blend of aesthetics, Kick is another game that offers a different take on virtual football.
This anime-style side-scrolling action-platformer is the debut of Switzerland-based solo indie developer Peter Soerensen, also known as nospacelost, who has no prior experience in game development, though judging by his Instagram account, you would assume Destiny was his preoccupation.
The Cyberpunk 2077 influence
As for what kicked off (pun intended) the desire to make Kick, Soerensen admits that making a game had always been a dream of his, but he just didn't know where to start. "In 2023, I bought a PC to dabble in Unreal Engine because I hated my job at the time, and I didn’t see a future or career for myself in it," he continues. "Really, I was just at a point where I had nothing to lose, so I learned how to make games in my spare time."
The inspiration for Kick, however, didn't come from football but rather Cyberpunk 2077, more specifically, an arcade mini-game added in an update called Roach Race, where you play as the eponymous horse from the Witcher universe. That simplicity appealed to a first-time developer like Soerensen, so he came up with a similar side-scrolling game about a boy running to school after missing the bus, until he stumbled upon something even more interesting.
"In the first iteration, there was a soccer ball that was just an obstacle to avoid," Soerensen explains. "During testing, when I ran into the ball, it would bounce in front of me, which pushed it forward, and it looked like I was dribbling the ball. That visual inspired what Kick is now."
And a little anime inspiration
Over the two years of development, which included quitting his job to focus on making Kick full-time, more ideas have filtered into this platformer, which is still about a kid trying to get to school while dribbling his football across more than 20 levels. The anime presentation certainly stands out, while the location is also ostensibly of a Japanese town, even though it may still take you to various places, like a construction site or the beach.
"I had just started watching anime at that time, and the aesthetic felt pleasant to me," says Soerensen. "When the game turned into Kick, I also remembered the anime series Captain Tsubasa and Kickers, both of which I used to watch as a kid."
But while it's a side-scroller, it's more accurate to call this a 2.5D game, as its hand-drawn characters are set in 3D environments and interact with 3D objects. This came naturally since the game was being made in Unreal, and it started off with Soerensen modding one of the engine's starter 3D demo levels using Blueprints.
"I didn't know how to make and animate 3D models, but I knew how to draw a little bit, so I drew a 2D character and locked the camera to a side-scrolling view in that 3D environment," he explains. "That’s how that came about. But I kept the background 3D because it felt better for immersion into the world."
Even as a solo dev, the announcement trailer already teases a variety of ideas in each of the levels, including one moment you'll be traversing rooftops, another where you're suddenly inside a giant pinball machine, as well as even a few boss fights that will make use of your footballing skills.
"I’m really just kicking around ideas like I'm kicking around the ball in my game," Soerensen jokes, though he's also conscious of his limits both in terms of skill and the time to execute them "That’s just the reality of being a solo developer early in my career working on my first project. But I have put in the work and have gone through a lot of frustration and headaches to make the things I really want in the game work."
Kick is coming soon to PC. We don't know whether it will be out in time for the World Cup, but you can wishlist it on Steam.
