Kickoff

Kickoff is a life sim about a kid from the outskirts who wants to play football professionally while facing the costs of rent and his mother’s treatment. Rent starts at $90 a day and rises by 25% every two weeks. Her treatment costs $50,000 in installments, and buying the house costs exactly the same amount, so you cannot afford both.

You wake up, clean your room, eat what you can afford, work and return home tired. You also train and take penalties. Energy, hunger, hygiene and spirits drain as time passes, but the clock advances only when you take an action. Sleeping is free; everything else costs money.

Make ends meet

You can earn money in three ways:

• Factory shifts: play a quality-control minigame, with pay based on your performance.
• Coding gigs: take jobs on your PC and reinvest in equipment to grow your income.
• Penalty tournaments: compete from the dirt pitch through to the first division.

Take the penalties

The penalty shootout is a 3D game within the game. You aim and lock the power bar to shoot, then defend with the glove. It has six tiers with four rounds each. Your opponent improves if you stop training.

Choices and endings

A convenience-store clerk remembers your conversations. You can also pursue a shortcut to money involving a capsule, which can land you in jail. The game has four endings, determined by what you have accumulated, including how much you paid, how many afternoons you showed up and where you chose to be when the final and the surgery happen at the same hour.

There are three independent careers, and each saves automatically.