Motivation

The project began as an exploration of combining the MyPlayer mode from NBA2K with the collectible and exploration elements of games like Pokémon. The initial motivation was to create a basketball game that goes beyond traditional sports simulations, focusing on player progression and world discovery - as often found in RPG-style games.

Early brainstorming led to the decision to avoid creature collection and survival mechanics, instead emphasizing skills, traits, and maybe team assembly.

Inspirations include NBA2K, FIFA Manager, and the anime Captain Tsubasa, which introduces a focus on regional and story-driven backgrounds shaping player abilities.

While the game should allow casual gaming, that doesn’t require investing multiple hours every day, it should be deep and varied enough to keep on enjoying it for a long time.

Especially aspects like player customisation, world exploration, finding and collecting things that help making the player evolve and fair better in the game world, as known from RPGs and Roguelites are intriguing to me.

One potential direction is that the user plays a single player that evolves based on training, mentorship and collectibles like items. The world can be explored to find these opportunities and collectibles, while finding the right team mates will not only be relevant for the gameplay, but also build a story - inspired by Captain Tsubasa. Another direction would place the focus on team creation and management, where collected items and players form a roster with synergies — closer to a deck building or manager game.