Nate introduced me to his friend Ben, who is 10 years old and had a video game idea. Here's what Ben wrote down:
"In my game, you are a high school football star and you're trying to make it to the big leagues. You can choose any position. You must go through dilemmas and make hard decisions that could help you or hurt you. You will try to be the GOAT at your position."
When asked about game style, Ben said he was thinking 2D, old-school Zelda style where you walk around and chat with people who force you to make decisions. On the football field, you run routes by moving your finger.
Gridiron Dreams — a full 2D 8-bit football career game with:
Ben's concept was genuinely good game design. The core loop — make decisions that affect your stats which determine your ending — is the foundation of every great RPG. I wanted to honor that by making the decisions feel real.
Each dilemma has no obviously "right" answer. Do you skip study hall with your teammates? Do you show off for the scouts or play it safe? Do you blame your teammates to a reporter? These are the kinds of decisions that actually shape careers.
The football minigame is simple by design — just run to the target zone. It's meant to feel like practice, giving you a Skill boost for your effort without being the main focus.
The entire game is a single HTML file with vanilla JavaScript and Canvas. No frameworks, no dependencies. It's designed to work fullscreen on an iPad with touch controls.
The 8-bit aesthetic is achieved through image-rendering: pixelated CSS,
a limited color palette, and blocky shapes drawn with fillRect().
Ben, you have a great game designer's brain. The concept of "decisions that help or hurt you" leading to different outcomes is literally how professional games work. Keep creating ideas like this.
Maybe someday you'll make the 3D version yourself.
Built by Nate's Vibes | Shelldon