Kick is an anime football platformer made by solo developer Peter Soerensen, inspired by Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous December 2020 launch. What began as a reaction to AAA incompetence has become a surprisingly polished 2D side-scrolling sports game that blends precise football mechanics with hand-drawn anime visuals and fluid physics.
Key Takeaways
- Cyberpunk 2077’s broken launch motivated Soerensen to quit his job and pursue game development full-time.
- Kick combines side-scrolling platforming with soccer mechanics, anime aesthetics, and destructible environments.
- The demo has over 10,000 downloads on itch.io with 88% positive Steam reviews from 300+ players.
- Soerensen is self-taught in Unreal Engine 5 with no prior professional game development experience.
- Full game planned for PC via Steam; console ports unconfirmed.
How Cyberpunk 2077 Accidentally Launched a Game Developer
Peter Soerensen was working a non-gaming job when Cyberpunk 2077 released in a state of legendary failure. Rather than despair, he saw opportunity. “Cyberpunk 2077’s launch was a wake-up call,” Soerensen said. “If a game that big could ship broken, maybe my little football game didn’t have to be perfect either.” That mindset shift became the spark. He quit his day job in early 2021, picked up Unreal Engine 5 with no formal training, and spent two years prototyping football mechanics from scratch.
The irony is sharp: one of the most expensive video game disasters in history inadvertently created the conditions for a scrappy indie developer to risk everything. Soerensen’s gamble rested on a simple observation—if massive studios with massive budgets could fail spectacularly, then smaller, nimbler teams had a genuine shot at succeeding. “I saw that mountain of bugs and thought, ‘Okay, I can climb my own version of that,'” he explained. That confidence, born from watching AAA collapse, became his foundation.
What Makes Kick Different From Soccer Games
Kick is not FIFA, Rocket League, or Super Mega Baseball with anime skins. Soerensen describes it as “Celeste meets Captain Tsubasa, with a ball that feels alive.” The game is a 2D side-scrolling platformer where football is the verb, not the setting. Players dribble by holding an action button to chain combos while dodging tackles, time power shots to shatter goals or destructible environments, and unlock special moves—super kicks and aerial juggles—via a skill tree.
The demo, released on itch.io in 2023, shows a game obsessed with precision and flow. Each level is a side-scrolling pitch populated with obstacles, power-ups, and escalating rival AI styled as boss fights. The hand-drawn anime aesthetic is vibrant and dynamic; character animations are fluid, and the physics respond to player input with the kind of snappiness that separates polished indie games from half-baked ones. This is not a narrative-driven sports game or a tactical simulator—it is a platformer that happens to use a football.
Demo Reception and Development Status
The anime football platformer has already proven its appeal. The itch.io demo surpassed 10,000 downloads, and the Steam page attracted 300+ reviews with an 88% positive rating. For a free prototype from a completely unknown developer, those numbers signal genuine interest in the niche Soerensen has carved out. The full game remains in development with no release date announced, though a Steam wishlist is live for those tracking its progress.
That measured pace reflects Soerensen’s approach. He is not chasing hype or investor deadlines. He is building something he believes in, on his own timeline, with tools he taught himself to use. The contrast to Cyberpunk 2077’s crunch-driven, promise-everything-deliver-nothing trajectory could not be sharper. One game launched in chaos; the other is arriving when it is ready.
Why This Matters for Indies in 2024
Kick arrives as indie developers are reclaiming narrative control in gaming. The post-Cyberpunk era has been unkind to AAA bloat—massive budgets, feature creep, and unrealistic timelines breed disaster. Smaller teams with singular visions, constrained scope, and honest communication are eating into the space that once belonged exclusively to major studios. Kick is a microcosm of that shift: one person, one engine, one bold idea, executed with discipline.
The anime football platformer also rides a wave of renewed interest in niche sports games and anime-influenced indie titles. Games like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and the continued cultural dominance of anime in gaming create an audience hungry for genre mashups that mainstream publishers would never greenlight. Soerensen is filling a gap that exists precisely because major studios are too risk-averse to explore it.
When Will Kick Release?
No official release date has been announced. The full game is in active development, with the Steam page available for wishlists. Soerensen has prioritized quality and completion over speed, a philosophy hardened by watching Cyberpunk 2077 implode.
How Does Kick Compare to Rocket League or FIFA?
Kick is structurally different. Rocket League is a physics-based multiplayer arena game; FIFA is a tactical team simulator. Kick is a single-player 2D platformer where football mechanics serve precision-based level design. The closest spiritual ancestor is Celeste—a game about mastering a single mechanic through increasingly challenging scenarios—applied to soccer instead of climbing.
Can You Play Kick Right Now?
Yes. The free demo is available on itch.io and has attracted over 10,000 downloads since its 2023 release. It provides a genuine sense of the full game’s mechanics, art style, and feel. Playing the demo is the best way to understand what Soerensen has built and why the anime football platformer has generated quiet but genuine enthusiasm.
Kick’s existence is a reminder that the worst AAA disaster can become an indie developer’s best motivation. Soerensen saw Cyberpunk 2077 fail and asked not “why would I even try?” but “why shouldn’t I try?” The result is a game that, by all accounts so far, understands the value of scope, polish, and honest delivery—lessons that apparently needed a $300 million cautionary tale to teach.
Edited by the All Things Geek team.
Source: Creativebloq
