Unique players with a real-life connection

For decades, football gamers have become used to playing with real-life footballers in video games. While there is something appealing in playing with your favorite footballers, it is also a very limiting factor that severely hurts team and player diversity in football video games. Two Mbappés on the pitch, two Neymars… rarely a player with below 90 in the pace stat. Same old meta teams that you have to face over and over again. Even before seeing it, you know roughly what the opponent’s team will look like. What if we could do something new and fresh to create exciting and different-looking teams? What if we could create entirely unique players while keeping the real-life connection?

All GOALS players are generated at the age of 18 in the “G_LAB”, which is the Research & Development facility of GOALS. In the G_LAB, cutting-edge technology is used to generate and develop players and other football-related assets. After years of experimenting in the G_LAB, the DNA system was born in the hunt of creating the best football player there ever was.

The foundation of the DNA system is to create entirely unique players - both visually and performance-wise. Hence, every time a new player is generated in GOALS, they will receive a unique combination of DNA, determining their looks and stats. The only way to generate new players is through gameplay rewards.

Player stats

Every player being generated in GOALS receives a combination of six stats, one for each attribute (pace, shooting, dribbling, passing, defending, and physicality), which determines the player’s in-game skills on the pitch. There are three different types of stats that a player can receive when being generated:

80+ fixed stat

If a player receives an initial stat of 80 or higher for an attribute, it means that they got the DNA strand of a real-life pro footballer, past or present. The generated player will then share the characteristics for that specific attribute with the real-life player, and the stat will not change over time. These are the most exclusive stats in the game, especially the top-tier ones.

40-79 fixed stat

If a player receives a fixed stat between 40-79, it means that the player got a generic DNA strand that will not change over time for that specific attribute.

40-79 non-fixed stat

If a player receives a non-fixed stat between 40-79, it means that the player got a generic DNA strand that will evolve over time for that specific attribute. The end value of an attribute with a non-fixed stat is unknown, and the stat can change until a player retires.

A player in GOALS can receive any combination of stats - all fixed stats, no fixed stats, or most likely a combination of both. In theory, although highly unlikely, a player could even get all six attributes with 80+ fixed stats, meaning every attribute would be inspired by a real-life player.

Player visuals

Each player in GOALS will have a unique visual appearance. This includes visual traits such as eyes, mouth, nose, height, weight, hairstyle, hair color, body type, and so on. By combining all different visual traits, each player in GOALS is procedurally generated with their own unique look. Users will also be able to further increase the uniqueness of their players by applying different types of cosmetics - wristbands, kits, shoes, tattoos, etc.

Most player visuals have no effect on gameplay, but characteristics such as height and weight are likely to have an effect on gameplay mechanics like jumping reach, strength, and balance.

In the case where a player gets a fixed 80+ stat for physicality (based on a real-life player), the player will inherit the height and weight from that real-life player to keep the characteristics such as strength and jumping reach from that real-life player intact. All other visuals will still be randomized. Similarly, if a player gets a fixed 80+ stat for shooting, the player will inherit the same preferred foot as the real-life player.

Setting the new standard

We believe that unique players are the future of football gaming. The fact that you as a user own players that nobody else has creates that extra bond between you and your players. For good players, it also adds a lot of additional value since they cannot simply be replaced by one of the other 100,000 cards that look exactly the same. By adding a progression element through non-fixed stats, there is added uncertainty and excitement to see how a specific player turns out in the end. It also creates an interesting market dynamic, where it is never obvious at what age a player has their highest market value. It could be already as a young talent, but it could also be as an older player that successfully fulfilled their potential to the max.

One thing is for certain - there can only be one player that is the best in GOALS. Will it be yours?