The app is modern. The gameplay is retro.

Football Immortals runs on one split decision: the app around the game is modern — a broadcast-style card-collection app with packs, a ranked ladder, and a real economy — and the football inside it is retro on purpose. Pixel players. Top-down 8v8. A camera that chases the ball.

The reason the game exists: there’s no autoplay button anywhere in it. You call the play. You throw the pass — free-aim, not tap-a-receiver. The juke that breaks a tackle is your thumb, and the missed window that ends a drive is also your thumb. Cards set your ceiling; your hands decide the rest.

What’s running today, in the build on our phones:

  • Full 8v8 games — four quarters, play calling, audibles, special teams.
  • A ranked ladder: 22 rungs from Newbie to Immortal III, with hero cards you can’t pull from packs — only earn.
  • Blitz, a weekly 60-second offense-only score attack.
  • Skill mini-games — field-goal kicking, precision passing, O-line timing, open-field tackling — where your cards set the difficulty and your hands set the score.
  • A collection of 900+ players across eight rarity tiers, with leveling, traits, exchanges, and a pack store that shows its odds.

One technical note we’re proud of: every play runs on a deterministic simulation. The same seed replays the same game on any device, which is how results get verified server-side — and why “fair by design” is an architecture here, not a slogan.

Where it stands: we’re heading to a closed iOS beta on TestFlight. The waitlist is on the homepage — email in, invite out when a spot opens. Android follows.

More here as the beta gets close. Next up: how the pixel-art pipeline works, and why our running backs have this many animations.

— GAK Games

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