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Goalies is video game that helps kids and gamers accomplish goals in a fun way! Goals take a long time to accomplish, and in this world of mass instant gratification and distractions, it can be difficult to accomplish goals. By using a video game to help accomplish your goals, you are satisfying a bit of that instant gratification, and overtime you will see progress and feel the confidence that comes with it. 

The gameplay is idle clicker/management where you manage your characters that represent your goals. When you accomplish steps towards your goal, your characters get energy and you can play with them in the game. The game is designed to help you start off with small steps so that you can prove to yourself that you can take on more, building self-confidence along the way!

What is a Goalie?

A Goalie is a character in the game that represents a goal that you set, and it gains experience as you progress with your goal; it’s a virtual representation of you becoming stronger and better!

You can choose from many templates to help you find a goal that best works for you, or you can create your own custom goals. Every goal has steps to take to reach it, and the game will help you decide which steps to take on. Each step needs at least one check-in per week to work on. Once you’ve you completed your step, check it off in the game and your Goalie earns rewards: experience, energy, and Neuros.

Activities in the game require Goalie energy, so by you accomplishing your steps towards your goals, you’ll give them the energy they need to play in the game. The activities in the game help you earn resources to craft customizations and other things in the game, and also help you progress through the story. The game is designed to take a while to get through, as accomplishing your goals also take time. With the experience the Goalies earn, they will level up and be able to earn more energy when you check in, and unlock other rewards as well.

Neuros are the economy that are used in the goal setting system, which are used to purchase more Goalies and steps, and perks in the skill tree for your Goalies. The skill tree is actually a home for your Goalies, and each perk is represent by furniture and décor. These perks enhance the experience and you can make your own little home for your Goalie friends.

Game Worlds 

There are two main parts to the game, the goal setting system and the game world. These two work independently from each other, except for being able to customize your character and using the character’s energy.

Currently the game world is a fantasy based themed, where the world is being taken over by a dark army and you must help restore the light to each kingdom. There are quests that involve battling enemies, expanding cities and kingdoms with new buildings, and earning resources to craft new customizations and other gameplay elements.

The plan for the future is to have other themed game worlds, with the next being a veterinary hospital, where you take care of sick pets and expand it to be the biggest pet hospital in the world, and the other game world planned is a zombie apocalypse. *These extra worlds will be available at launch or post launch based on stretch goals being met

Crafting & Customization

All game worlds are centered on crafting and expanding in some way. Each game world’s progression is contained, where you can switch your Goalies in and out whenever you want. Customizations for your character can be worn in each world if you want, and you can create some crazy customization combinations.

Game worlds have their own gameplay stats that don’t cross over to other worlds, but there may be hidden bonuses if you bring something from one world to the next. If you like the look of a certain customization, but want the gameplay stats of another, you can encapsulate the stats into a gem and add to the desired customization, so you can look and play the way you want too.

Sharing Recipes *Stretch Goal

Crafting recipes have different rarity ratings, meaning some are harder to get than others. You can share recipes with your friends and family to give each other recipes they don’t have yet. There are social skill goals in the game, so sharing recipes is also one way to work on these goals. 

Goal System

The goal system is made up of two parts, goals and steps. The goal is the outcome that you want to reach in the future. There are many templates to choose from, that help you decide what kind of goal to start on. You can also make your own custom goals if none of the templates are what you are looking for.

To accomplish a goal, you must take steps to get there. The steps in the system are basically the statistics you are tracking to reach your goal. Based on the template you use, there will be preset steps you can choose from, or you can create your own custom steps as well. Steps are comprised of statistics to track, like time or a count for example. 

Steps require at least one check in a week, but you can set it for each day. Since some steps are less in some goals than others, the rewards are factored based on how many check in for the week so that there is still motivation to do a step even if it’s less frequent.

If you miss a step or more, that’s ok! The game is designed to encourage feeling good about the progress you make and not feel bad about failure. You will not lose any progress if you don’t check in, you can just pick up and go where you left off. The game also helps you discover if the steps are too difficult with a rating system, and you can scale it back without losing any progress as well. 

Goal Templates from Industry Professionals *Stretch Goal

Based on reaching stretch goals, the plan is to work with health coaches, educators, therapists, and other professionals to create goal templates to help with specific goals, especially in the realm of mental health and neurodiversity, such as ADHD and Autism. These templates include mini articles to help you understand the concepts of what to do for the goal. Some of the systems in the game have been tested with kids with ADHD and Autism and there have been positive results, but there is so much more to expand upon.

The game also has a rating system in place, so that if you are struggling, it will help you figure out if you need to take on other goals to help bring more balance to life, like learning some emotional coping skills so you are able accomplish things better, provided by these templates from the professionals.

Challenge System

There is a challenge system where you can try to achieve harder stats in your steps and earn bonus rewards. Your current step is like a high score, and once you’ve proven you are consistent with accomplishing it and rate the step as easy, the game will give you a challenge to make the step stats harder. 

Rating System

There is a rating system, where you are asked how difficult the step is for that day. Based on your answers, the game can give you suggestions on making adjustments if the step is too hard, or even taking on another goal that might help you with your other ones, or maybe switch your focus all together.

One of the biggest focuses with this game is to help improve mental health and learning coping skills. Half the battle of accomplishing things in life is taking care of your mental health. If you ignore problems for too long, you can crash and burn, making it easy to give up working on goals. The game is designed to help counter the stresses in life so that you can be more successful and see your successes when it may seem like you’re not.

Streak System

If you are regularly checking in with your steps, you can build up streak points that yield bonus rewards after a few check-ins. These are designed to encourage you to be consistent with completing your steps.  But it’s ok if you don’t make the streak, and there will be some skill tree perks you can unlock that help give yourself second chances if you miss a check in.

Grow with you Goalies

At the start of the game, you only can have one goal and one step to work on. As you earn Neuros from checking in with your step, you can purchase more steps and Goalies to unlock. The design behind this is similar to how video games are designed: you start off with simple game mechanics to master and then giving you more as you’ve proven yourself, with more challenges.

One of the biggest mistakes with New Year’s goals is setting a bunch of goals at once and then after a few weeks life happens, the intensity is too much, and the goals go out the window. Goalies is meant to help you take things one step at time, so that you can be honest with yourself with what you can take on, and then master it to take on more.

If a goal changes but you want to keep your progress, you can change all the data at any time or scale back on it too. 

Honesty and Self Awareness

One part of this game is that it keeps you honest and accountable with yourself. By being self-aware of your steps, it brings to the surface the hurdles in life that you may have not considered when making your goal. This in turn can create new goals to work on, like quitting or minimizing habits that aren’t productive or are harmful. 

For kids, it’s a little bit trickier to get them to be honest because they might just want to play the game and not do the work. There will be parental features that allow the parent to verify that the step is completed before they are allowed to play with their Goalies in the game. This is a great tool to use to get kids to do chores and homework.

Unlocking Real Life Rewards

If you struggle with discipline, you can set up the real life rewards to unlock after you’ve accomplished your steps. It could range from daily to weekly or as long term as you want, but it’s a great way to help you be aware that you need to do some tasks first before you indulge in rewards, which over time rewires your brain to work first and play later.

Parents can use this for allowances, electronic privileges, or even working up towards a vacation. The system will include a bonus calculator, so that if your child is consistent with accomplishing steps, they can earn bonus rewards from time to time, like a bonus in allowance or taking them out for an ice cream date. 

External Goal Setting *Stretch Goal

Parents, teachers, therapists and other professionals can set goals that will be in the player’s goal list. The goal creator can receive the data of what they accomplish with the goal, and then when they meet, they can review the progress of how things went.

In school, it’s quite common that there are behaviors that are getting in the way of learning that need to be worked on from home as well. This feature allows the child, parent, and teacher to be linked up and be on the same page of the progress being made. This can also be a helpful tool to track IEP goals between parents, teachers, and paraeducators to help everyone be on the same page.

With therapists, there are usually goals to work on that are discovered from a therapy session. But sometimes it’s hard to consistently see a therapist or there’s a huge gap of time between sessions. This feature allows the therapist to set a goal and then receive the feedback, so by the time the next session happens, you are both prepared to talk about the progress made and make changes if necessary.

External goals are only visible to the people they are linked to, and other personal goals set will be private, except for parents they can have access to all of them.

Connecting with Friends and Family  *Stretch Goal

Players will be able to add each other as friends in the game. To protect people from predators, players will need a code to add each other, and all messaging in the game is preset text options to choose from, so nothing personal can be sent. There will be parental features as well to control who can be added as friends.

You will be able to gift different things that you earn in the game to other players, and you can even lend one of your Goalies to help out in their world. Players can also set group challenges to be a part of, where it could be a competition to be the best, or to all work towards a common goal.

There will also be a support system where you can broadcast that you are having a tough time, and other players can send you generated messages of support or even send gifts. Or if you’ve accomplished a milestone or a goal, you can toot your horn and tell the world of your accomplishments and receive encouragement from other players as well.

Wall of Feats 

The wall of feats is a feature that keeps track of your milestones and accomplishments. It’s kind of like a mural telling of a heroes accomplishments, but in this case, the hero is you! When you rate a step as difficult, this can be used to help you remember things that you’ve accomplished already, to give you a confidence boost.

When you accomplish milestones, or whenever you feel like you made an accomplishment, you can take a selfie with your Goalies, which will be augmented into the picture that you take. *Stretch goal

Random Reminders 

If you need reminders of the steps you are working on, you can set a schedule to receive reminders (smart devices only), but you can also set it at random so it shows up at unexpected times during the day. This is especially helpful with mental health goals that you are trying to get in the habit of. When a reminder is set at a specific time, overtime your brain gets used to it and it can be easy to ignore. But by using a random time, it helps your brain be more self-aware of what you are trying to master and doesn’t get desensitized.

You can also set your feats to randomly message you, to help you remind yourself that you are capable of accomplishing things and you’ve done a lot of great things! Or you can use it just to give you positive messages throughout the day. And of course you can set reminders at set times as well.

Goalies is using the Unity game engine, and the game is currently in a prototype state.  This prototype has a few bugs to clean up, but in about 3 months after funding it will be ready to test out internally.

Currently I am using Blender for 3D modeling and animation, Inkscape and Gimp for textures and UI graphics. Based on stretch goals being met, I may upgrade to other software.

The overall length of the project is 1 -2 years, depending on what funding goals are met. In 6 months after funding it should be ready to do some alpha testing, but may take up to a year to reach that point.

The game will be released for PC on Steam, Apple devices through App Store, and Android devices through the Google Play store, and is digital only, along with the backer rewards. The game is planned to be subscription based at a low monthly price, as it will always be growing with new content, including new game worlds, goal templates from professionals, and expansions to the released game worlds. Each account supports 4 profiles that can be used across all devices, and addition profiles can be added at a discount.

The game will be released in English, but it might be in other languages based off of stretch goals being met, or post release based off of the success of the game.

Christopher Hostetter

Video game developer & Paraeducator

I have 5 shipped titles under my belt with Disney: Bolt, Toy Story 3 the Video Game, Infinity 1, Infinity 2, and Infinity 3. One of my main roles was over the customizations in a few of the games, and UI designer for the last 2 Infinity games.

I have also worked in special education for 2 ½ years, where I have tested many of the methods of my game with the students I have worked with. I am designing the game to especially help with ADHD and Autism, and will be working with schools to test the game out with students. I also have ADHD myself, and it’s a big part of why I am making the game.

Based on the stretch goals met, the plan is to add more people to the team.  This will impact the scale of the game at launch, and also the network features that connect players to each other.