Inspiration

This document contains inspirations that will support the core pillars of this game. It contains ideas and references to existing games. It should provide enough context to understand and feel the motivation for this project.

Basketball

I really love basketball and have since for the past 30 years. I follow the NBA, I have played basketball videos games since the early 2000s, enjoyed playing in real life and of course fantasised about playing in the NBA myself. I idolised players like Lebron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan and Nicola Jokic.

Basketball Video Games

I primarily played the NBA 2K video game series. I always enjoyed playing sport simulation videos games, primarily the FIFA series. Trading players & drafting players and trying to find the best team, was always something that I found highly interesting and satisfying, though ultimately too repetative, so that I stopped playing them a few years ago. I would always tend to build younger teams, because I found potential and player development more interesting than combining established players, where you know what you would get. In the last couple of years I have enjoyed focusing on a single player in the simulation modes and NBA 2K’s MyPlayer mode. The MyPlayer mode I ultimately found required too much grinding or pay to win. Also the focus was more on the mode working in a PvP online mode rather than simulating an actual NBA career. But customizing your player, experimenting with interesting niche characteristics that make them effective, like very tall playmakers or extremely long and atheletic players, is what drove me.

Roleplaying Games

I always have been playing RPG-style video games, like the Elder Scrolls series, Gothic, Cyberpunk 2077 and the Baldurs Gate series. The customization aspect, from the appearance, over attributes, skills, perks and such, finding a combination that would be smart and effective within the game is really interesting to me. The RPG genre is inherently centred on a single protagonist whose growth and story are the core of the experience, which naturally pushes this game concept towards a single-player focus rather than team management.

City Building Games

Another one of my favourite video game genres is the city building game genre, especially the Anno series and Civilization - which is not truely a city building game. With Civilization, but for both games, I enjoyed the exploration aspect: discovering the world, finding new resources and special locations that can be used in a smart way.

Pokemon

While I haven’t really watched the Pokemon tv shows and movies and wouldn’t consider myself a Pokemon fan, I always enjoyed the video games. What stood out to me, was the exploration of the world, finding and collecting seemingly hidden pokemon and train them to become better and work well within their team.

Roguelite Games

Recently I have also discovered the roguelite video game category, especially Net.Attack() I find well made. The idea of smartly combining skills or perks to build your player and try to beat the game through that and trying to discover new ways is something I enjoy.

Deck Building Games

While sports trading card games exist, the more relevant overlap here is with the collection mechanic from Pokemon: collected cards form a roster, which can be upgraded, combined for synergies, and optimised over time. A well-known deck building video game is Slay the Spire, where strategic card combination and synergy discovery drive progression.

This mechanic opens two possible directions: cards could represent skills, perks, and items that augment a single player’s progression — consistent with the RPG influence — or they could represent players recruited into a team, shifting the focus towards roster building and team synergy management.

Captain Tsubasa

As a child I liked to watch the Anime Captain Tsubasa. What really intrigued me is to see athletes more as personalities, considering their unique circumstances and stories, that influence their attributes and abilities.