Australian Rules Football, Australia’s favourite sport, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players, where they chase a ball on a cricket oval, and score goals by kicking the ball between two gigantic posts. For many, Aussie Rules sounds like a completely made-up sport – and that’s where our game comes in: we redefine the rules of Aussie Rules Football.
Welcome to Pro Jank Footy, launching August 12 on PlayStation 5.
I’m David Ashby, Creative Director for Pro Jank Footy, a love letter to Aussie Rules Footy, retro sports games of the 90s, and our cultural irreverence. Now, there have been many “Footy” games over the years, but there was never one that leaned into the high-energy arcade sensibility shared by titles such as NBA Jam or NHL ‘94. We leaned right into both the fun and absurdity of our sport and I’m excited to share more about it with the PlayStation Community.
The “jank”
Aussie Rules Footy is a high-scoring game, akin to basketball and hockey, which makes it fast by design, which allows us to implement a simple core mechanic whereby whenever a player scores a goal, the opponent gets to choose one of three random power-ups. This is how we put the jank in Pro Jank Footy.
There are over 150 power-ups in the game. These powers range from making your team better, making the opposition team worse, or changing the rules of the game. Not only does this allow players to bounce back, but it also allows players to change the game from retro sports into pure, unhinged, janky chaos. Personally, I suck at sports games. There’s nothing worse than just sitting there, taking an absolute belting. With our power system, you’re rewarded for losing. Tyler Roach, who co-created this game with me, is a genuinely dominant player (and to be fair, he did make the game). When we play each other, my only tactic is to concede a bunch of goals so I can get a decent power-up build to turn the tide (note: he still beats me most of the time).
There are simple power-ups that make your team faster or gigantic. There are brutal powers that reset the scores. There are even powers that add a third team to the game or turn all the players into seagulls (a very real fixture of Australian football, who hang around ovals to eat everyone’s food). One of my favourites turns one of your players into your dad’s beat-up sedan. There’s even a trophy you can pop if you ram it into a shopping trolley. There are also power-ups that are deliberately vague, such as Burnt DVD and Where’s the Remote? – figuring out what they do is part of the fun!
From a challenge to reality
The project started as a dare in 2024, when I was challenged to get into video games by Cam Rogers, an entertainment lawyer (who later came on board as producer), while at a fantasy football league BBQ. Cam made the argument that there aren’t a lot of funny video games being made, despite the appetite, and I should give it a go. It occurred to me pretty quickly that footy was the answer.
Like that fantasy draft, we had to put a team together. In addition to Tyler and Cam, there’s Broden Kelly, known for his work with Australian comedy collective Aunty Donna. He performs in-game commentary and completely understands the intent and humour, bringing a performance that is both sincere and comically absurd. Hyemin Yoo, a Korean artist based in Adelaide, animated all the amazing goal celebration cut scenes. Not only did she bring a voice of authenticity to the project, but her humour and distinct visual style really elevates the project to a whole other level.
Oscar Armstrong-Davies singlehandedly built the online functionality for the game, and Dario Russo composed all the music, including all the team songs.
Umbrella Entertainment, a film distributor looking to branch into games, is supporting us as well. Through them, we’ve even started rolling custom arcade cabinets into pubs around Australia to build a real tournament scene, created by Louie Roots, the cabs can run on car batteries so they can be played anywhere, and they even have AM radio transmitters so you can tune in your radio to the game audio for that true footy experience.
Get ready to have a ball
There are multiple game modes in Pro Jank Footy. You have the option to play the true “Pro Jank Footy” experience, with all the power-ups activated, or you can play the appropriately named “Normal Footy” which is, as the name suggests, normal Aussie Rules footy without power-ups. The game is designed to be a couch co-op experience, but you can play solo against bots, and you can play online too.
There’s also a single-player Season Mode, where you start the campaign with a random set of powers and fight your way through ten increasingly ridiculous teams – one team of giants, one made entirely of cars, one that’s just a single unstoppable player – to become Pro Jank World Champion. There’s also a Watch Mode where you can just watch the AI battle it out (which is surprisingly entertaining) and a Kick-to-Kick Mode, which is a throwback to the classic “Aussie Rules Footy” game. We’ve found that a lot of younger kids gravitate towards this game mode more than anything else.
Pro Jank Footy is both a love letter to arcade sports games from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and to a sport that is arguably Australia’s game, one that is worth sharing with the rest of the world for all its charm and absurdity. We can’t wait for the PlayStation community to share a slice of Australia when Pro Jank Footy comes to PS5 on August 12.