New Soccer Game Heavily Inspired by Kick Off

[Thorsten]

Dear Kick Off Fans,

my name is Thorsten and I am a HUGE Kick off (2) fan. I played it for countless hours - mostly against my best pal - when I was a kid and it is just one of best games ever made. Period.

But it was even more than that for me. Kick Off actually was one of the reasons why I started to get interested in programming. Back in those days, being a kid without a clue how one could ever tell the Amiga what to do, I swore to myself: "if you ever get to know how one could create something like this, you gonna have to do it".

Now, more than twenty years later and being a graduate in computer science, it was about time to make good on the promise I made to my younger self

So, over the last couple of years I sporadically worked on my very personal soccer game, trying to create my ultimate vision about how an arcade soccer game should feel today. Over the recent months, Natural Soccer began to mature to a point I am really proud of it and am planning on releasing it soon.

Having read on this forum for quite some time now, I urgently feel the need to create my very first topic here ever, since I am eager to present Natural Soccer to you guys - being Kick Off enthusiasts and fellow developers.

I am deeply impressed by the work of Steve Camber and about anybody here who contributes to his version of Kick Off.

So I really feel that Natural Soccer fits here and I am very curious about your feedback and ideas!

You can find a short gameplay video and much more information at http://NaturalSoccer.com.

I am really looking for your feedback - THANK YOU everybody!

[Freshmaker]

Hey Thorsten. Watched the video, and the game seems really nice. Kudos!

My only issue, is, as you points out yourselves on your site, that the pace is reduced vs KO2. Any chance you'd consider making a "KO2-speed" option? With that in, I'd be an easy customer...

[Thorsten]

Hi Freshmaker,

thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it!

Actually there already is an option in Natural Soccer to set the game speed It is quite similar to that in Kick Off 2 but much more fine-grained. Additionally, I am planning to add an option to turn of the dribbling assistance. (Both will be "advanced options" and maybe not part of release 1.0).

With a speed of about 110% and the dribbling assistance turned of, my development version actually really feels quite like Kick Off 2!
So dribbling is *very* similar, the only difference is that you have 2 buttons - one for passing, one for shooting, trapping is done by just releasing the stick when you are very close to the ball (as opposed to holding the fire button down). Chipping is also a bit different since it is not done by pushing the stick in the opposite direction as in Kick Off - instead you can now really quickly turn around and use a third button (or maybe long-pressing the pass button, not sure about that yet) to chip the ball.

To make a long story short: my goal is to make it possible - using "advanced options" - to setup Natural Soccer so that it feels very similar to Kick Off 2. But the default settings will be a - in my opinion - perfect mix of Kick Off 2's feeling and Sensible Soccer's better approachability to the casual player - just "natural", that is .

[Steve Camber]

Wow, looking good! Congrats

[Freshmaker]

Thank you for your answer Thorsten. And from what I can read, I'm looking forward to it's release.

Will it be playable online? Or is it just player vs pc?

[Thorsten]

Wow, looking good! Congrats

Thank you ! As I already wrote, I'm really impressed by your work on the original Kick Off and the very nice features you added to it. I really hope you don't mind if I take some of them over to Natural Soccer

So thanks again for your nice feedback - it really means something to me!

[Thorsten]

Thank you for your answer Thorsten. And from what I can read, I'm looking forward to it's release.

You are welcome! Any feedback, questions, ideas and critique are always really appreciated! If you don't mind, I'd be glad if you could vote for Natural Soccer on "Steam Greenlight" (http://NaturalSoccer.com/greenlight) and help to make my dream come true to release Natural Soccer on Steam !

Will it be playable online? Or is it just player vs pc?

Actually, the scenario I support most is - as in the good old days - "local multiplayer", that is up to 4 players on the same computer. They can play in any combination: 1-on-1, 2-on-2, 2-on-CPU, 1-on-CPU, ... So it should make for great party fun!

Having said that, network play really is on my TODO list for later versions. I actually have a working development code for LAN and bluetooth matches (yes, Natural Soccer also is targeted at mobile platforms!) that works well. But it needs a very stable, fast and low-ping LAN connection and is not yet ready for WAN matches as the network code still is very naive.

But a long-term goal, given that Natural Soccer will be a success, is to have real online leagues and tournaments...

[Thorsten]

Dear Kick Off Fans,

I just recognized that I indeed forgot to update this topic with a very important information:
Natural Soccer is available now!

So for those of you who don't already know: Natural Soccer is available on Android and OUYA!

Really looking to your feedback!

Thank you!