Saturday Kickoff a kids' five-a-side match in a block-built park
A park built from blocks, with a kids' soccer match that plays itself. The Ladybugs in red take on the Blueberries in blue, five a side, watched by a referee, two coaches, parents in camp chairs and a dog that now and then runs off with the ball.
Free to install. Saturday Kickoff unlocks with Pro, $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Cancel anytime.
What you see on every new tab
Saturday Kickoff shows a whole park from one corner, as a slab of land floating in a blue sky: a striped pitch with two white goals, tall flood light towers, trees in pink blossom, a picket fence, a scoreboard under a red roof, a striped snack stall, two team benches and a row of coloured camp chairs. Each team has seven kids, five on the pitch and two on the bench, with a number on every shirt. Nothing is scripted: every pass, shot and save is worked out as it happens.
How they play: each side has a keeper, two at the back and two up front. They pass to whoever is free, dribble into space and shoot at the side the keeper is not covering. They also miss the ball and fall over, bump into each other, scuff passes out of play and every half minute or so all pile in on a loose ball. Headers, tackles, shots off the post, throw-ins, corners and goal kicks all turn up.
Goals: GOAL! pops up in the scoring team's colour with a burst of confetti, and the scorer picks a celebration: an aeroplane run, the floss, a knee slide, a pile-on or a sprint to the coach for a high five. The other side trudges back and their keeper fishes the ball out of the net. After an own goal, the kid who scored it sometimes cheers before hiding their face.
Bored keepers: they dive, catch, parry and throw or punt the ball out. With play far away they drift off to sit and pick flowers, chase a butterfly, have a drink, wave to a parent, dance or lean on a post. When the ball comes back they jump up a beat late, and their coach gets cross.
Little distractions: every 10 to 22 seconds a kid well away from the ball does something else: picks a daisy and wanders about sniffing it, stops to tie a shoe, waves to their parent, who waves back, or chases a butterfly. Two of the kids sometimes turn and dribble the wrong way.
Round the edge: the referee follows play and blows the whistle. Coach Rosa and Coach Ben pace the touchline with clipboards. Subs swing their legs on the bench, parents film on phones, sip from mugs and cheer, and a toddler wanders off the picnic blanket and has to be fetched. Every few minutes a brown dog gets loose, grabs the ball and leads everyone round the pitch while its owner gives chase.
The park is one picture rendered ahead of time, with its lighting stored in separate layers that your graphics card mixes back together every frame, so the flood lights can come on after dusk. The players, the ball, the dog, the butterflies and the scoreboard digits are drawn live as small cubes with WebGL, and they disappear behind the goals and benches where the scenery is in front of them.
What it reacts to
Mouse and click: nothing. The pointer has no effect, and there is no way to join in.
Music: nothing. Music sync does not reach this theme.
Night: after dusk the sky behind the park turns dark blue with twinkling stars, the clouds fade to a faint moonlit blue, the general light drops, and the flood lights on the towers come on in cool white while the small lamps glow orange. The page is not dimmed on top, and the match carries on under the lights.
Free or Pro?Pro
Ambient New Tab is free to install, with three free themes. Saturday Kickoff is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Saturday Kickoff full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.
Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
Pick Saturday Kickoff. Done.
Saturday Kickoff on a 1280×800 New Tab page.
Questions
How long is a match?
Each half is two and a half minutes of play, shown as 20 minutes on the scoreboard, and the clock stops for goals, restarts and the dog. At half time the kids sit on the grass by their bench with orange slices and water while the coach talks, two subs come on and the teams swap ends. At full time the winner is named, or IT'S A DRAW!, the two teams walk past each other giving high fives, and a new match kicks off from 0-0. A new tab drops you into a match already under way.
Is Saturday Kickoff free?
It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released. Cancel anytime.
Does it only play on Saturdays?
No. Nothing in it reads the date or the time of day, apart from the core night setting. The clock on the scoreboard is the match clock, and the game runs the same way every day of the week.
Does it work on my phone?
No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome and Edge on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.
