# Hoop Land — Score 7.8/10 > Hoop Land is a basketball manager game developed by Koality Game, available on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. Mode: Single player. Price: Free + in-app purchases. Our score: 7.8/10. Source: https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/hoop-land/ Published: November 14, 2026 ## Fact sheet - Developer: Koality Game - Released: 2023 - Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS - Modes: Single player - Price: Free + in-app purchases - Status: Early access - Where to play: [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2453660/Hoop_Land/) · [App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hoop-land/id1605197976) · [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koalitygame.hoopland) ## Features ### Game type - Genre: Hybrid (manage and play) - You play as: General manager, Head coach, Player (career mode) - Players & teams: Fictional - League structure: NBA-style (draft, playoffs), College, Custom leagues - Rules: Customizable ### Match engine - Match view: Playable games, 2D, Box score - Watch matches live: Yes - In-game decisions (timeouts, subs): Yes - Instant simulation: Yes - Advanced stats (PER, TS%, +/-): Yes - Shot charts: Yes - Fatigue: Yes - Fouls & foul trouble: Yes - Home-court advantage: Yes ### Coaching & tactics - Playbook / play editor: Yes - Rotations & minutes: Yes - Opponent game plan: Yes - Staff (assistants, scouts, medical): Yes ### Players - Ratings per player: 15 - Hidden potential: Yes - Progression & aging: Yes - Morale & playing-time demands: Yes - Injuries: Yes - Retirements & Hall of Fame: Yes ### Roster building - Draft: Yes - Draft lottery: Yes - Trading draft picks: Yes - Scouting (hidden ratings): Yes - Free agency: Yes - Contract negotiation: Yes - Trades: Basic ### Front office & economy - Player / team options: Yes - Arena & facilities upgrades: Yes ### League & world - All-Star game: Yes - Season awards: Yes - League history & records: Yes - News feed & media: Yes - In-game editor: Yes - Mods / roster import: Yes - Fantasy draft: Yes - Expansion & relocation: Yes - Commissioner / god mode: Yes ### Platforms & tech - Playable offline: Yes - Cloud save: Yes - Languages: 1 - Tutorial / onboarding: Yes ### Monetization - How it makes money: Premium currency ## The verdict Hoop Land is a pixel-art basketball sandbox where every game can be played, coached, watched or simulated, inside a college-to-pro universe you can rebuild from scratch. Its customization is superb and its price is tiny. As a GM game it is thin: simple contracts, little explanation, limited tactical control. ### The good - A genuinely playable arcade engine: every game can be played, coached with live play calls, spectated or simulated - College and pro leagues run in the same save, linked by the draft, with Campus Mode for running a school - Custom league editor down to uniforms, courts, referees, awards and draft classes, with Steam Workshop sharing - Fair business model: free Franchise Mode on mobile, a one-off Premium Edition, no ads, coins that can’t be bought - Relentless updates: 25 mobile versions in 2025–26 alone and 17 Early Access updates on Steam - Strong store ratings: 95% positive on Steam, 4.7–4.8 on the App Store and Google Play ### The bad - Front office is basic: no luxury tax, cap exceptions or rookie scale that we could verify, and free agency allows no counter-offers - An in-game coin currency gates scouting and, players report, contract offers - Tactical control is thin: a few preferred scorers and a playbook the game barely explains - Player development runs on XP and build caps rather than training or coaching - Menu navigation is clunky; the developer himself called it “a huge pain” - English only, and cloud saves exist only on Steam (since July 2026) ### Who it’s for - Fans who want to watch and play the games their decisions produce - League builders who love creating fictional universes, college conferences included - Mobile players who want a deep sports game without ads or loot boxes ### Who should skip it - Cap-sheet GMs who want luxury tax, Bird rights and realistic negotiations - Coaches who want granular schemes, defensive systems and player roles - Anyone who needs online leagues against other people --- Every basketball management game asks you to trust the box score. Hoop Land is the one that lets you check it in person. Draft a point guard, set his minutes, and then, on the night of a rivalry game, pick up the controller and run the pick-and-roll yourself. Or call the plays from the bench. Or watch the CPU play it out in pixel art. Or simulate the whole month and read the standings. Every game in every season offers all four choices. That flexibility is what sets Hoop Land apart from everything else we cover, and also what defines its limits. It is an arcade-flavoured basketball game with a franchise mode built around it, not a management sim with highlights bolted on. If you come from Basketball GM or Draft Day Sports, the front office will feel thin. If you come from NBA 2K, it may be the deepest sports sandbox you have ever had on a phone. **The short version** - **Play it** if you want to manage a team *and* play its games, if you love building fictional leagues, or if you want a no-ads basketball game on your phone that you can sink a hundred hours into. - **Pair it** with a deeper sim if cap sheets are your thing: Hoop Land’s salary rules are a sketch, not a CBA. - **Skip it** if you need online leagues, licensed NBA players out of the box, or a game that explains its systems to you. - **Platform advice:** start with the free mobile Franchise Mode. If you like it, the $4.99 Premium Edition is a better deal than the $14.99 Steam version, unless you want Workshop leagues, a big screen or couch multiplayer. ![Hoop Land gameplay on the New York Empire court, side-on pixel-art view with the scoreboard at the top](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/01-new-york-gameplay.jpg) *A game in New York, 1:23 left in the fourth: the scoreboard shows a 3-point game, the classic side-on camera and fictional franchise branding (no NBA licence). Every game like this can be played, coached, spectated or simulated. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* ## How we researched this review We did not play Hoop Land for this review, and we say so up front. There is no browser version or public league page we could capture, the Steam demo requires installing the Steam client, and our rules forbid buying the game or creating accounts for a test. So there is no hands-on section, no `testing` data and no screenshots of our own. Everything below comes from what we could read and verify on 14 November 2026: - **Official sources:** the Steam store page and its Early Access section; every announcement and patch note the developer has posted on Steam since February 2025; the App Store version history (25 versions, January 2025 to October 2026); the Google Play listing; the developer’s replies in Steam discussions; and his thread on the NLSC forum, which runs from the 2022 beta to the 2025 Steam demo. - **Press:** Operation Sports, which has reprinted the full mobile patch notes since 2023, plus Pocket Gamer’s and TouchArcade’s 2022 beta coverage. - **Players:** Steam reviews (positive and negative), App Store reviews across eight storefronts, Google Play reviews and Steam discussion threads. We tried to read r/HoopLand, but Reddit blocked our automated, logged-out access, so no Reddit thread is quoted here. All images are official screenshots from the Steam page or the developer’s Steam announcements, credited in each caption. The scores reflect documented systems and player reports, not our own seasons. ## Who makes it, and on what Hoop Land is made by **Koality Game**, listed as Koality Game LLC of Portland, Oregon on Google Play. Its announcements are written in the first person by a developer who says he has made mobile sports games since 2015. His earlier titles include *Hoop League Tactics*, *Ice League Hockey* and the *Prizefighters* boxing games; Hoop Land can import custom leagues and draft classes made in Hoop League Tactics. He calls himself a Portland Trail Blazers fan who “played/researched” Double Dribble, Tecmo NBA Basketball, NBA Live and NBA 2K, and says he wanted “the best retro basketball game possible”. Development began in 2022. A beta opened on Google Play and TestFlight in December 2022 (covered by Pocket Gamer and TouchArcade), with only a practice mode and a shooting mini-game. The full game launched on iOS and Android on **24 October 2023**, the release date Google Play shows. The developer says the mobile version received 25 updates before February 2025, and the App Store lists 25 more between January 2025 and October 2026. The PC version came two years later. Hoop Land entered Steam Early Access on **21 October 2025** for Windows and macOS at $14.99. On 10 November 2026 the developer announced that it will leave Early Access on **10 December 2026** with version 1.20, after 17 Early Access updates. That release adds commentary by Tim Kitzrow, the play-by-play voice that NBA Jam fans will recognise, with more than 500 recorded lines. The developer’s post says version 1.20 is coming “for all platforms”. ## A season, step by step Here is how a Franchise Mode season is structured, pieced together from the store descriptions, patch notes and official screenshots. The details are documented; the order is the game’s own calendar. **1. Setting up the save.** You choose a pro league and a college league, either the defaults or custom/Workshop leagues, and the game links them for the whole save. Settings documented in the patch notes include the salary cap (which can go as low as $50M since August 2024), total games per season, game length (32, 40 or 48 minutes since October 2025), draft class strength, lottery teams and odds (typed in directly or copied from another save), a Hide Potential switch, simulation sliders, pace, and CPU roster changes and injuries. **2. Preseason.** Before the first season you can view and edit the draft class. Hoop Land also has a Fantasy Draft setting for Franchise and Commissioner Mode, added in December 2023, if you want to rebuild every roster from scratch. Rotations and minutes can be saved, and coaches must be scouted before you can hire them. **3. Regular season, day by day.** Each game day you choose to play, coach (Coach Mode), spectate or simulate; you can also simulate ahead. The inbox and the Hoop Gram news feed report trades, injuries, award races and, since April 2026, trade requests from unhappy players. Scout assignments run in the background. A trade deadline closes the market, with news and inbox warnings as it approaches. **4. All-Star weekend.** An All-Star game and, since April 2025, a three-point contest during All-Star Weekend. **5. Postseason.** A play-in tournament (optional), playoffs with configurable teams and series length, and since October 2026 the ability to simulate one round at a time. Award presentations close the season: MVP, All-League teams (1st, 2nd and 3rd since version 1.10), Coach of the Year, All-Defensive teams and any custom award you have defined. **6. Draft.** The lottery runs with your chosen odds. You can view the draft order, pause, resume or speed up the draft, auto-pick, and trade during it (all since April 2025). In the college league, prospects decide whether to declare; since October 2026 under-developed players are less likely to leave early. **7. Contracts and free agency.** Player and team options are resolved (morale above 75 means a player takes his option; below 25, he declines it). Then come extensions, which need at least 80% signing interest, and free agency, where players weigh your offers. Max contract values can be adjusted in the offseason. **8. Progression and the new year.** Players gain or lose attributes (regression has existed since August 2024; aging became “dynamic” in April 2025), veterans retire, Hall of Fame classes are inducted, numbers are retired. Since version 1.10 you can even switch the save to a different mode at this point. ![Hoop Land Select Mode screen listing Career, Campus, Franchise and Commissioner modes](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/02-select-mode.jpg) *The four season modes on one screen. The small labels on the right matter: Career, Campus and Franchise are one-player modes, while Commissioner supports 1–4 players on the same device, which makes it the game’s only shared GM league. Image: Koality Game / Steam announcement, September 2026.* ## Four modes, one universe Every save file contains a pro league and a college league that run at the same time. Prospects come out of high school, play college ball, declare for the draft and enter the pros, so the players you scout as freshmen are the same ones you trade for five years later. One Steam reviewer put it neatly: “College and pro use the same rating scale, so a player’s numbers mean the same thing at 19 as they do at 29.” On top of that universe you choose a role: - **Career Mode:** create a player at 17, play the Koality Showcase, choose a college, build relationships with teammates and coaches, declare for the draft and chase the Hall of Fame. Pro careers arrived in April 2025, post-game press conferences and practice drills came with them, and since version 1.10 you can start a career as an existing player. - **Franchise Mode:** run a pro team. You scout, draft, sign free agents, trade and hire coaches. Since December 2023 you can also sell your team and buy another one. - **Campus Mode:** added as a beta on 20 October 2026. You create a school or take over an existing program, then recruit, manage a budget and build prestige. - **Commissioner Mode:** control the whole league, from trades to expansion teams, force wins, edit injuries, assign any team to human or CPU control. ![Hoop Land Create Your Player screen with name, hometown, position, height, weight and two archetype selectors](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/14-create-player.jpg) *Career Mode starts here. The bar at the bottom previews all fifteen attributes in five colour groups (finishing, shooting, creating, defense, physicals), and the two archetype selectors decide which of them your player can max out. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* ![Hoop Land College Offers screen listing five schools with their ranking, prestige stars, region, head coach style and a starting point guard role](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/10-college-offers.jpg) *Page five of the college offers in year one: every school promises a starting point guard spot, so the differences are ranking (5th to 37th), prestige stars and the coach’s style, from “Inside Offense” to “Defensive Minded”. The college league in this save is the same one your Franchise scouts will watch. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* ## Match engine: a sim you can actually play This is Hoop Land’s defining strength, and nothing else in our genre has it. Most games on our list simulate basketball as numbers and show you the result. Hoop Land simulates it as basketball: ten pixel players move on a court, the ball comes off what the store page calls “true 3D rim and ball physics”, and the result comes out of that. When you simulate, the same engine runs underneath. Watching or playing just shows you the game. **What you can do on the court.** The store lists “ankle breakers, spin moves, step backs, alley-oops, chase down blocks”. The developer’s own explanation in an August 2025 thread describes a hesitation dribble that becomes a crossover on release, with a chance of breaking a defender’s ankles depending on the Dribble rating, spin moves toward the rim, and post-up backdowns that combine with step-backs. Later updates added pump fakes while moving and in the post, fadeaways, a teammate-shoot button, losing the ball when over-dribbling, and CPU bigs that play bully ball and hang on the rim. Shooting uses a timing meter. **Plays and AI.** The Steam launch version (1.09.5, October 2025) added two new play types, High Post and 5-Out, and “over 80 new play variations”, plus better CPU play calling, post offense and late-game decisions. Bigs get plays that fit their build: shooting bigs pop to the perimeter, post bigs stay near the rim, playmaking bigs initiate. **Rules and presentation.** Game length, periods and shot clock are settings; the shot clock resets to 20, 14 or 4 after offensive rebounds, and college leagues can use one-and-one free throws. Since June 2026, home court advantage affects the road team’s shooting, scaled by home fans. There is a broadcast camera angle, a 60 fps option and a scan-line filter. Difficulty matters too: one Google Play reviewer (November 2026) describes “pro difficulty” as “basically arcade” and All-Star as “realistic as can be”, and the patch notes confirm extra CPU defensive pressure on All-Star. ![Hoop Land gameplay in Portland, pixel players around the paint on the Portland Roses court](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/03-portland-gameplay.jpg) *Portland Roses at home against LA, down 24-22 with 39.2 seconds left in the second quarter. The flaming trail behind the ball is the game’s “on fire” effect, which skills like Chef feed. Every shot is resolved by ball and rim physics; a simulated game runs the same engine without drawing it. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* **Simulation and realism.** Simulated games run on that engine at speed, with “additional speeds to live simulations” and day-to-day simulation. Simulation sliders, added in August 2024, control shot contest strength, steal success, dunk distance and shooting foul rate, and a pace setting controls possessions. The developer has adjusted the defaults several times (version 1.09.53 raised contest strength from 30 to 50 and steal success from 50 to 70) and told players that the sliders let simulated stats get “as close to real life as you want”. Player shot tendencies have applied to simulated games since August 2024. We found no published stat audit comparing Hoop Land’s league averages with the NBA, so we can’t give you the kind of table we ran for Basketball GM. The anecdotal evidence points both ways. A January 2026 Steam thread complained about a league leader shooting over 90% from three and about fouls on every contest; another player replied that those were “player-set sliders” on arcade settings and that “it is possible to go in and make even the best gunner in the league shoot at like 15%”. One player’s joke review says it all: a star who “shoots 80% and is allergic to not winning MVP every year”. ![Hoop Land player stats screen with box score, game stats and a shot chart of made and missed shots](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/04-player-stats.jpg) *Every game produces a box score and a shot chart, even when simulated. This one is telling: 20 points on 8-of-11 and 4-of-5 from three in 7.8 minutes of a ten-minute All-Star game. Short games compress stats, so per-minute numbers in Hoop Land need reading with the game length in mind. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* **Known engine complaints**, all from 2026 reviews and threads: a shot meter that appears late in the animation, defenders “biting at every pump fake”, strength being “the best attribute”, which makes paint scoring too easy, fast breaks after misses as a “cheat code”, and teammates who don’t pass in Career Mode. The developer has kept adjusting the AI; the October 2025 overhaul and later patches targeted exactly these areas. ## Coaching and tactics The coaching tools exist in two places: on the court and on the menus. **In the game.** Coach Mode lets you call plays from a playbook in real time, make substitutions (including a quick-subs menu), call timeouts and set defensive matchups (an October 2026 fix made them stick for bench players). In a January 2026 thread, one player explained that the playbook is called up with Left Shift or a shoulder button, offers four plays per position, and that “only the player with the ball is a shot-caller”, so to run more plays you must move the ball between positions. Auto substitutions can be switched off. Since October 2025 you can also choose to spectate instead of coaching. **Before the game.** You set starting lineups, rotations and minutes, which can be saved; CPU coaches set lineups based on performance. An offensive game plan lets you choose preferred scorers. One user describes three slots, each with a zone (inside, mid-range, outside) or a facilitator role. **Staff.** Head coaches have archetypes, attributes and tendencies (August 2024). They negotiate contracts, progress, can be fired, and since April 2026 must be scouted before you can hire them. Coach fit matters in recruiting: a prospect in the official Campus screenshots “wants to run and gun”. **What is missing compared with the genre’s best.** We found no offensive or defensive systems to choose from (no zone, no press, no pace or tempo setting per team), no per-player instructions beyond the preferred-scorer slots, no team or individual training plans, and no assistant coaches, trainers or physios. A player asked for “more staff” in October 2025, and the request remains open. The January 2026 critic summed up the gap: “there’s no way to control how a player plays in a game”. Another player answered that the playbook is the control but admitted that it “doesn’t really get explained”. Both are right. ## Players and ratings **Attributes.** Hoop Land rates players on fifteen attributes in five groups: finishing (layup, dunking, inside shooting), shooting (mid-range, three-point, free throw), creating (dribbling, passing, offensive rebounding), defense (defensive rebounding, stealing, blocking) and physicals (speed, strength, stamina). On top of those sit a one-to-five-star rating, a primary and a secondary archetype (Playmaker and Sharpshooter appear in the official screenshots, among others), and tendencies such as shot selection and fadeaways. **Potential and scouting.** Star ratings show potential. Since October 2025 a Hide Potential setting conceals it everywhere, including scouting reports and player comparisons. Scouting reports list strengths and weaknesses, and scout assignments and a talent scout produce draft rankings. In Campus Mode, recruits show only 3, 4 or 5 stars until you scout them. ![Hoop Land Player Upgrades screen with XP bars for finishing, shooting, creating and defense attributes](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/05-player-upgrades.jpg) *The upgrade screen reveals the development model: a level-53 player with 94 upgrades remaining and five skill points, but 0 of 124 XP. Points come from playing, not training, and each attribute has a ceiling set by the build. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* **Progression.** Players earn XP by playing and convert it into attribute upgrades; each build caps how far each attribute can go. XP is weighted by action: an early patch raised XP for jump shots and threes and lowered it for assists, and players stop earning XP in categories they have maxed out. One Steam user summed up the consequence: if a player has a low free-throw cap, “there’s nothing you can do” about it. The fastest way to develop a prospect is to give him minutes or, as another player pointed out, play his games yourself and rack up XP. Regression arrived in August 2024 and became “dynamic regression aging” in April 2025; there is a toggle to disable it in Commissioner Mode. Appearance ages too: beards, baldness and, since 1.10, graying hair. ![Hoop Land Player Skills screen listing perks such as Dimer, Chef, Cleanup Crew and Step Dancer with unlock requirements](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/06-player-skills.jpg) *Skills unlock from on-court milestones. Chef, for example, needs 30 teammate “catches fire” after an assist. That ties a player’s identity to how he actually plays, but it also means a bench player who never gets minutes never unlocks anything. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* **Skills.** Perks like *Dimer* (better teammate shooting after a pass), *Chef*, *Cleanup Crew*, *Step Dancer*, *Foot Surgeon* and *Spark Plug* are unlocked with skill points and in-game milestones, and some only activate in clutch situations. **Morale.** Morale is a real system with consequences. It factors in playing time, performance (but not while injured) and team success. Since April 2026 unhappy players can request a trade and, if you keep them, “they will refuse to play in games”. Morale also decides player options: above 75 a player accepts his option, below 25 he declines it. We found no team chemistry system. **Injuries.** Real-time injuries arrived in December 2023, with a probability setting, an injury history and, since October 2026, new animations for head and upper-body injuries. Low stamina increases injury risk, though a 2024 patch reduced the effect. ## The front office: real pieces, simple rules Franchise Mode has more parts than its reputation suggests. Here is everything we could document, and what we couldn’t. **Cap and contracts.** - A **salary cap** that you set per league, with a minimum of $50M since August 2024. A player asked in October 2025 for an uncapped option; we found no sign that one exists. College leagues have no cap: a 2026 fix removed the cap display from college team screens. - A **maximum contract value**, adjustable in the offseason since December 2025. - Contracts of **up to four years**: a December 2023 fix stopped players from asking for more. - **Player and team options**, colour-coded on the contracts screen. Adding a player option during negotiations raises signing interest. - **Extensions** for your own players, available when signing interest is at least 80% (the threshold was lowered to 80% in version 1.09.5, October 2025). What we could not find in any store page, patch note or developer post: a **luxury tax**, a **hard cap or apron**, **cap exceptions or Bird rights**, a **rookie scale**, **buyouts** or **waivers**. If they exist, they aren’t documented anywhere we could read. **Negotiation and free agency.** Free agents and re-signing players respond to offers through a signing-interest percentage. The weakness is the lack of a back-and-forth. In August 2026 a player complained that after an offer “there is absolutely NO negotiation afterwards” and his star signed elsewhere the next day; another replied that “you didn’t give them the max”. A third player’s advice: “always check who’s eligible and be sure to extend them or trade them before the deadline.” **Coins.** Hoop Land has an in-game currency, earned by playing (a player’s fame level pays bonus coins, for example). It cannot be bought: the stores promise no micro-transactions. Coins pay for scouting, including 25 coins to scout a coach, and for NIL money and scouting in Campus Mode. Players also report spending coins on contract offers. On 12 November 2026 a Steam reviewer complained that “you have to have COINS to sign your players”, and in April a player said the game “took my money” on offers that never resolved, a bug the developer fixed in 1.09.71. It isn’t pay-to-win, because there is nothing to pay for. It is still a currency layer in a GM game, and it shapes behaviour: one player noted that the system favours seasons with many long games “in order to gain the XP and coins you need”. **Trades.** Trading for players and picks arrived in Franchise Mode in December 2023, two months after launch. Since then: - a **trade finder** and **trade block**, with untouchable players colour-coded (April 2025); - trades **during the draft** (April 2025); - a **CPU interest bar with a percentage** in the trade creator and **multi-player offers** from the CPU (April 2026); - **CPU valuation** that weighs award history and is more careful with draft picks (April 2026); - rules that stop teams from flipping a player already traded that season, from offering high-morale players for your trade-block players, and from trading away first-round picks in consecutive years (2026). We found no multi-team trades and no published analysis of the trade AI’s quality beyond the developer’s own changelog. The many fixes to its valuation suggest it has needed work. **Draft and lottery.** A full lottery with configurable teams and odds, a draft with trades, auto-pick and speed control, scouting assignments, a talent scout and draft rankings, custom draft classes (create, share, import, Workshop), a draft class strength setting, a Draft Eligibility setting (October 2026), expansion drafts with protected players, and the fantasy draft. **Finances and ownership.** This is the emptiest corner. Team money does not appear to drive anything: in February 2026 a player opened a thread arguing that money in the game is useless. We found no ticket prices, sponsors, merchandising, owner goals or GM firing. You can sell your team and buy another (December 2023), and in Campus Mode budgets and facilities do matter. | Front office feature | Hoop Land (verified) | | --- | --- | | Salary cap | Yes, adjustable per league (minimum $50M) | | Luxury tax / aprons | Not found | | Cap exceptions / Bird rights | Not found | | Max contract | Yes, adjustable in the offseason | | Max contract length | 4 years | | Player / team options | Yes; morale decides player options | | Extensions | Yes, at 80%+ signing interest | | Rookie scale | Not found | | Counter-offers in free agency | No (player reports) | | Trade tools | Trade finder, trade block, CPU interest %, pick trading, deadline | | Multi-team trades | Not found | | Draft | Lottery with editable odds, draft trades, custom classes, fantasy and expansion drafts | | Finances / owner | Sell and buy teams; no meaningful finances found | ## Campus Mode: the college GM game inside The newest mode is the most interesting for our genre. Campus Mode, released as a beta in version 1.10 on 20 October 2026, gives you a school and a budget, and leaves beta with version 1.20. In the developer’s September preview he describes a recruiting phase spread over several days. You offer a scholarship fund that eats into your roster budget, add NIL money paid in coins, and can make one in-person visit per day. Prospects weigh money, coach fit and play style, school prestige and location, and the team with the highest interest only has the best odds, not a guarantee. ![Hoop Land Recruits board showing five five-star prospects with their hometowns and the three schools each is considering](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/13-campus-recruits-board.jpg) *The recruiting board in year two: five five-star freshmen, with Boston among the three schools on three of their lists, and tabs for the transfer portal, commitments and offers. The 160 coins in the corner are the currency for scouting, NIL and visits. Image: Koality Game / Steam announcement, September 2026.* ![Hoop Land Player Recruitment screen showing a five-star prospect’s interests, team finances and a scholarship and NIL offer](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/07-campus-recruitment.jpg) *Recruiting a five-star forward from Akron: a $5M scholarship plus $3M in NIL buys 60% signing interest. The school has $15M of its $20M budget committed, $5M left and six roster spots open. His interests are colour-coded: money and coach fit (“run and gun”) are green, a big school is amber, playing near home is red. Image: Koality Game / Steam announcement, September 2026.* During the season the job becomes managing minutes and winning, so players stay happy and out of the transfer portal. Your best players leave for the draft, and when they succeed in the pros your school’s prestige grows. Facilities matter: the analytics facility makes scouting cheaper, and the arena boosts fan support. Campus goals, both seasonal and all-time, award prestige points that unlock school tiers. ![Hoop Land team departures screen listing a transfer, a first-round draft pick and a graduate](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/08-campus-departures.jpg) *The offseason ledger for Louisiana: a one-star freshman entering the transfer portal, a 7-foot-2 junior drafted 28th by Portland, and a senior who “Graduated in Marine Biology”. Losing a first-rounder is the cost of success in Campus Mode. Image: Koality Game / Steam announcement, September 2026.* ![Hoop Land Eugene Quackers alumni screen listing former players drafted into the pro league](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/09-campus-alumni.jpg) *Eugene’s alumni page: six former players in the pros, from a 2029 14th pick to 2027 and 2028 second-rounders, each tracked by pro team and years served. Their careers feed the school’s prestige (66 here) and future recruiting. Image: Koality Game / Steam announcement, September 2026.* The first patches (1.11 and 1.12, October 2026) cut recruit prices and the number of transfers, made it possible to rescind offers, let CPU schools offer NIL, lowered the goal requirements, and added walk-ons when your roster is short. The balance is still moving, but this is already the most convincing college management layer we have seen in a game this size. ## World and longevity This is where Hoop Land is excellent. **Leagues and competitions.** Default fictional pro and college leagues (64 college teams, conference championships, a Top-25 ranking since April 2026, tournaments with their own courts), All-Star games, a three-point contest, the Koality Showcase for high-school prospects, a play-in tournament and configurable playoffs. Leagues can be pro or college, men’s or women’s, with players from chosen countries. **History.** Champions, award winners, stat leaders, single-season records and a Hall of Fame, kept across endless seasons. Teams retire the number a player wore most. The Hoop Gram feed posts breaking news, trades and trade requests. Deceased players and coaches appear in black and white. **Licences.** None. Teams are fictional (New York Empire, Boston Charms, Portland Roses) and there are no real players. The community fills the gap: “Hop into the discord, grab a NBA seed”, wrote one Steam reviewer, and “get crossed up by Luka”. **Editor and modding.** The custom league editor covers leagues (name, logo, structure, gender, countries), teams (logos, uniforms, courts, rosters, coaching staff), players (appearance, attributes, tendencies, archetypes, potential, awards, career stats), coaches, referees, awards with qualification rules and stat weighting, game balls and draft classes. On Steam, the Workshop (31 December 2025) lets you upload, subscribe to and auto-download leagues and draft classes. On mobile, the store description promises that custom leagues can be imported and shared. **Saves.** Season saves can be exported and backed up, and since August 2024 you can revert to a backed-up save. Box scores can be disabled to save storage on phones. We found no stated limit on seasons; Commissioner Mode promises “an endless amount of seasons”. ![Hoop Land All-Star game on a West All-Stars court in pixel art](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/11-all-star-game.jpg) *The West All-Stars on their own court, third quarter. All-Star games, a three-point contest and award ceremonies give long saves their landmarks; the court, uniforms and logo are all editable. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* ![Hoop Land press conference screen where a reporter asks what people will say about the player’s legacy](../../../assets/reviews/hoop-land/12-press-conference.jpg) *A Career Mode press conference. Each answer carries a star value, from “The Greatest Player of All Time” (five stars) down to “I don’t know what my ceiling is”, so a quote becomes a trade-off between hype and expectations. It is flavour, but it shows how much story the game layers on top of the stats. Image: Koality Game / Steam store page.* ## Interface, platforms and performance | | iOS / iPadOS | Android | Steam (Windows, macOS) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Requirements | iOS 15 or later; also on Apple silicon Macs and Vision Pro | Listed for phones, tablets and desktop | Windows 7 SP1+ 64-bit, 4 GB RAM, DX10 GPU, 2 GB disk; macOS | | Size | 145.3 MB | n/a | 2 GB listed | | Controls | Touch, customizable on-screen buttons | Touch, customizable on-screen buttons | Keyboard and mouse, gamepad (Steam lists partial controller support), remappable | | Local multiplayer | Up to 4 players since 1.09.5 (App Store notes) | Not separately documented | Up to 4 players, Remote Play Together | | Cloud saves | No | No | Steam Cloud (since 6 July 2026) | | Steam Deck | — | — | Verified | | Languages | English | English | English | | Offline | Yes (listed “Offline” on Google Play) | Yes | Yes | The interface is clean pixel art with readable fonts, designed for touch first. On PC, the developer’s own advice at launch was to use mouse and keyboard “until full gamepad support is implemented”, and in December 2025 he acknowledged that menu navigation “is a huge pain at the moment”. Better gamepad menu navigation is promised for 1.20. Accessibility options are limited, but one did arrive in response to a complaint: a February 2026 reviewer refunded the game because the scrolling menu backgrounds caused motion sickness, and version 1.09.7 (April 2026) added a toggle to disable them. Steam Cloud has a caveat the developer spelled out himself: it uploads all season saves on first close and syncs them on every launch, so you should “disable Steam Cloud on any device of which you do not want save files to be overwritten”. Mobile and Steam saves are separate; we found no cross-save between them. ## Monetization, line by line | Item | Platform | Price (14 Nov 2026) | What it buys | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Hoop Land | iOS, Android | Free | Unlimited Franchise Mode; no ads, no micro-transactions | | Premium Edition | iOS | $4.99 (US), £4.99 (UK), €5.99 (Italy), CA$6.99, A$7.99 | One-off unlock of “all other modes and features” (store wording): Career, Campus, Commissioner and, per player reviews, league customization | | Premium Edition | Android | $4.99 per item (US Google Play) | Same unlock; Google Play lists a single in-app item at $4.99 | | Hoop Land (Steam Edition) | Windows, macOS | $14.99 | Everything, plus Workshop, Steam Cloud, local multiplayer; the developer says the price will not change at full release and future content is included | | Hoop Land Demo | Steam | Free | Exhibition Mode with 30 teams, up to 4 local players | | Coins | All | Not for sale | Earned in play; spent on scouting, recruiting, NIL and (per players) contract offers | **Fairness verdict.** This is one of the cleanest business models in sports gaming. No ads, no loot boxes, no energy, no battle pass, no coin packs. The only purchase on mobile is a single unlock that the developer calls “underpriced”; Google Play reviewers agree (“The Peemium is only 5 dollars while others are over 10 dollars”). The Steam price has divided some players, who point out that the mobile version is nearly free. The developer argues that the free mobile tier is “essentially a generous demo” and that Steam is “a very different marketplace”. One fair criticism: a Google Play reviewer wishes you could make leagues “real without premium”, since customization sits behind the paywall. ## Update history and roadmap | Date | Version | What changed | | --- | --- | --- | | Dec 2022 | Beta | Google Play / TestFlight beta: practice mode and shooting mini-game | | 24 Oct 2023 | 1.0 | Mobile launch (iOS, Android) | | Dec 2023 | 1.05 / 1.05.1 | Trades for players and picks, fantasy draft, expansion teams, custom draft classes, real-time injuries, sell/buy teams; max contract length fixed at 4 years | | Aug 2024 | Mobile update | Simulation sliders, player regression, coach archetypes, coach contracts and firing, records, save backups; minimum cap lowered to $50M | | 22 Apr 2025 | 1.09 | Pro Career Mode, three-point contest, dynamic regression aging, draft-day trades, trade finder, 60 fps | | 5 Jun 2025 | 1.09.3 | Hoop Gram social feed, contract extensions in Career Mode | | 21 Oct 2025 | 1.09.5 | Steam Early Access launch; 32/40/48-minute games, local multiplayer, High Post and 5-Out plays, hidden potential, scout assignments, extensions at 80% interest | | 31 Dec 2025 | 1.09.6 | Steam Workshop for leagues and draft classes; adjustable max contract; off-ball assistance | | 7 Apr 2026 | 1.09.7 | Trade requests, coach scouting, college Top 25, editable injuries, menu-scrolling toggle | | 30 Apr 2026 | 1.09.72 | CPU interest bar, multi-player CPU offers, improved trade evaluation and morale | | 3 Jun 2026 | 1.09.74 | Option decisions tied to morale, home-court shooting effect, pick-trading rule, 40 new hairstyles | | 6 Jul 2026 | — | Steam Cloud enabled | | 20 Oct 2026 | 1.10 | Campus Mode (beta), Career as an existing player, mode switching in the offseason, new awards | | 22–28 Oct 2026 | 1.11 / 1.12 / 1.12.1 | Campus balance, Draft Eligibility setting, bug fixes | | 10 Dec 2026 | 1.20 (announced) | Full release on Steam; Tim Kitzrow commentary (500+ lines); Campus Mode out of beta; better gamepad menus; “for all platforms” | **Roadmap.** Beyond 1.20 the developer has not published a dated plan. On the record: achievements were promised several times for Steam and have not arrived; leaderboards were mentioned as a possibility in 2025; Steam’s Early Access page said “other additions and improvements” would be shared as development progresses. Players keep asking for hockey: the developer’s *Ice League Hockey* is mobile-only. ## What players say **Ratings (checked 14 November 2026).** | Store | Rating | Volume | | --- | --- | --- | | Steam, all time | 95% positive, “Overwhelmingly Positive” | 762 reviews | | Steam, last 30 days | 88% positive, “Very Positive” | 35 reviews | | App Store US | 4.78 / 5 | 17,712 ratings | | App Store Canada | 4.77 / 5 | 1,014 ratings | | App Store UK / Australia | 4.80 / 4.78 | 287 / 381 ratings | | App Store Italy / Germany / Brazil | 4.8 / 4.73 / 4.83 | 130 / 166 / 338 ratings | | App Store Philippines | 4.75 / 5 | 363 ratings | | Google Play US | 4.7 / 5 | about 18,400–19,700 reviews (the page shows both figures); 1M+ downloads | **What people love.** Value and freedom come first. “The anti-2K basketball game. $15, 150MB, and it’s actually basketball,” wrote a Steam reviewer with 56 hours (October 2026). A reviewer with 418 hours wrote that “Franchise mode has a learning curve but each step is VERY satisfying” (December 2025). On Google Play, a November 2026 review highlights that “there is no ads”, and an October 2026 one calls it “The greatest offline basketball game”. The customization gets constant praise (“Best, easy customization!”, December 2025), and so does the developer’s pace of updates (“Each update is worth downloading”, October 2026). **What people criticize.** The AI and simplicity: the game is “too simple and the AI is too dumb” (Steam, July 2026), or simply “a mobile game, that plays like a mobile game” (May 2026). Explanations: “Minimal explanation on how anything works” (December 2025). GM depth: no counter-offers in free agency, coins in front of contracts, little control over roles. Career Mode: a January 2026 reviewer averaging 30 points says the coach still benches him. Repetition: a Google Play fan asks for an updated playbook because “It can get repetitive if you have a few plays to run” (October 2026). Mobile reviews from the first months had already flagged the AI; a November 2023 App Store review described CPU offense with “little to no ball movement”. ## Known issues and bugs All of these are sourced to patch notes, developer replies or dated player reports; fixed items are marked. - **Free agents ignoring offers.** Players could not re-sign expiring contracts; fixed in 1.09.71 (April 2026), per the developer. - **Steam Cloud saves would not continue.** Fixed in 1.09.76 (July 2026). - **Saves between PCs.** A July 2026 Steam review reports a loading/simulation loop when opening a save on a second PC, plus controller inputs dropping mid-dribble. - **Gamepad menu navigation.** Acknowledged by the developer since December 2025; improvement promised for 1.20. - **Scrolling backgrounds and motion sickness.** Reported in February 2026; toggle added in 1.09.7. - **Mobile app closing and losing edits.** An App Store review from June 2026 describes the game kicking the player out and erasing unsaved appearance edits. - **Custom logos.** A February 2026 thread reports PNG logos not appearing while JPEGs do. - **CPU rosters.** Teams releasing players without signing replacements; fixed in 1.12.1 (October 2026). - **Shot meter timing.** A January 2026 thread says the meter appears “a full second or so” after the shot starts. - **Draft-pick values on draft day** were wrong until 1.09.73 (May 2026). ## Tips for your first season 1. **Learn the controls before your first big game.** The developer’s own tip: re-enter the tutorial and pause, and “a menu of the full control list will be shown”. 2. **Find the playbook.** It is Left Shift on keyboard or a shoulder button on gamepad, four plays per position, and only the ball handler calls them (Steam thread, January 2026). 3. **Extend your stars early.** Extensions need 80% signing interest, and free agency gives you no second chance. Community advice: “always check who’s eligible and be sure to extend them or trade them before the deadline”. 4. **Add a player option to close a deal.** Since 1.09.5, including one raises signing interest. Remember the flip side: a player above 75 morale will take his option. 5. **Keep your players happy.** Unhappy players ask for trades and refuse to play. Morale depends on minutes, performance and winning. 6. **Budget your coins.** Scouting a coach costs 25 coins, and players report needing coins for contract offers. Longer games and seasons earn more XP and coins. 7. **Tune the sliders if the stats look wrong.** If threes fall at absurd rates, check whether you are on arcade-style settings; the simulation sliders and pace can bring numbers back toward real life, as the developer intends. 8. **Use the trade finder and the interest bar.** The percentage tells you how close a deal is. Don’t expect to pry consecutive first-rounders loose: the rules forbid it. 9. **Try Hide Potential on your second save.** It turns the draft into a real scouting exercise instead of a star-count. 10. **On Steam, manage the cloud.** Disable Steam Cloud on any device whose saves you don’t want overwritten, as the developer advises. ## Against the alternatives | | Hoop Land | Basketball GM | Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 27 | Pro Basketball Manager 2027 | BuzzerBeater | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Engine | 2D, fully playable | Possession text sim | 2D and text sim | 3D match view | Server-side sim, online | | Platforms | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS | Browser, Android | Windows | Windows, macOS | Browser | | Price model | Free + $4.99 unlock; $14.99 on Steam | Free with ads; optional subscription | Paid | Paid | Free; optional subscription | | Real players | No (community leagues) | Real-player data, unlicensed | Fictional | Licensed | Fictional | | Multiplayer | Local only (Steam) | No | No | No | Online persistent world | | Cap depth | Basic cap, no tax found | Soft cap, luxury tax, exceptions | Soft cap, luxury tax | Budget | Budget, wages, transfer auctions | | Our score | 7.8 | 9.0 | 8.2 | 7.0 | 8.2 | - **Basketball GM** makes the opposite trade-off: a far deeper front office (soft cap, luxury tax, mood, real-player history back to 1947) and no playable games ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/basketball-gm/)). - **Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball** offers a serious cap, a college link and detailed coaching on Windows, at a higher price and in spreadsheet form ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/draft-day-sports-pro-basketball/)). - **Pro Basketball Manager** is the European-flavoured sim with licensed data and a 3D match view ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/pro-basketball-manager/)). - **BuzzerBeater** and **Swish & Dunk** are for those who want to manage against real people online ([BuzzerBeater](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/buzzerbeater/), [Swish & Dunk](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/swish-and-dunk/); disclosure: Swish & Dunk is developed by our founder). None of them lets you play the game you just managed. That alone gives Hoop Land a place in the conversation. ## Our take Hoop Land is the most *lovable* game on our list, and that is not faint praise. It understands something the spreadsheet sims forget. The reason we care about a front office is the game on the court, and seeing your third-round pick hit a corner three in pixel art does more for a dynasty than any box score. Add a college league that feeds the draft, an editor that lets you rebuild any basketball universe, a developer who ships an update almost every month, and a business model that treats players like adults, and you get a game that deserves its ratings. As a management game, though, it is a seven, not a nine. The cap rules are a sketch, free agency is a one-shot offer, development is an XP grind capped by builds, team finances barely exist, and coins sit awkwardly in the middle of decisions that should be about money and fit. Campus Mode shows that the developer *can* build a real management layer: interests, budgets, NIL, a transfer portal. Franchise Mode deserves the same treatment. **Our wish list after 1.20:** - Real negotiations with counter-offers, and contract demands shaped by personality, as players have asked since 2025. - An optional luxury tax, cap exceptions and a rookie scale for those who want a CBA. - Player roles and instructions beyond three preferred scorers, plus defensive schemes (zone, press, switching rules) in Coach Mode. - Team and individual training, so development isn’t only about minutes. - An in-game guide to every system, from coins to the playbook. - Cloud saves on mobile, and a way to move a league between phone and PC. **Who should skip it:** anyone who wants a rigorous NBA front-office simulation, anyone who needs online leagues, and anyone who will be put off by pixel art no matter how good the game underneath it is. Everyone else should download the free version tonight and play a season. If the Franchise Mode hooks you, $4.99 is the best money you will spend on a basketball game this year. ## Sources **Official** - [Steam store page and Early Access FAQ](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2453660/Hoop_Land/) - [Steam Deck compatibility report](https://store.steampowered.com/saleaction/ajaxgetdeckappcompatibilityreport?nAppID=2453660&l=english) - Developer announcements on Steam: [Welcome All Hoop Fans (Feb 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/688590692644028482), [Major Development Update (Jul 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/538857783458532853), [Steam demo (Aug 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/538863491448046058), [Early Access date and price (Sep 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/538864124750202621), [Early Access launch (Oct 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/556882414728645004), [1.09.53 patch notes (Oct 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/733649974425814074), [Sports Fest and Workshop preview (Dec 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/519732075513775420), [1.09.6 Workshop (Dec 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/519733343516887414), [1.09.7 development progress (Feb 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/505102352007563169), [1.09.7 patch notes (Apr 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/498350753733151263), [1.09.71 (Apr 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/540009684293124971), [1.09.72 (Apr 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/697637574580109866), [1.09.74 (Jun 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/670619147365777709), [Steam Cloud and 1.10 progress (Jul 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/672872850646897072), [Campus Mode preview (Sep 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/683012290458420609), [1.10 patch notes (Oct 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/716793092553837674), [1.11 (Oct 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/711164227423834699), [1.12 (Oct 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/692024563197804963), [Full Release announcement (Nov 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/games/2453660/announcements/detail/692025469726360254) - [Developer’s Hoop Land thread on the NLSC forum (2022–2025)](https://forums.nba-live.com/viewtopic.php?p=2085217) **Stores** - App Store: [US (listing, version history, reviews)](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hoop-land/id1605197976), [UK](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/hoop-land/id1605197976), [Italy](https://apps.apple.com/it/app/hoop-land/id1605197976), [Canada](https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/hoop-land/id1605197976), [Australia](https://apps.apple.com/au/app/hoop-land/id1605197976); ratings for Germany, Brazil and the Philippines via the [iTunes lookup API](https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=1605197976&country=de) - [Google Play listing and reviews](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koalitygame.hoopland) - Steam reviews: [most helpful](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/reviews/?browsefilter=toprated), [negative](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/negativereviews/?browsefilter=mostrecent) **Press** - Operation Sports: [Custom draft classes, fantasy draft (Dec 2023)](https://www.operationsports.com/hoop-land-update-adds-custom-draft-classes-fantasy-draft-and-much-more/), [Bully ball, regression, sliders (Aug 2024)](https://www.operationsports.com/hoop-land-update-adds-bully-ball-improved-transitions-rim-hangs-and-more-patch-notes/), [Coming to Steam (Feb 2025)](https://www.operationsports.com/hoop-land-coming-to-steam-later-this-year-full-career-mode-for-mobile-in-april/), [Season and Career improvements (Jun 2025)](https://www.operationsports.com/hoop-land-adds-new-features-improvements-for-season-and-career-modes/), [December 10 release and Tim Kitzrow (Nov 2026)](https://www.operationsports.com/hoop-land-steam-edition-gets-december-10-release-date-and-nba-jam-announcer-tim-kitzrow/) - [Pocket Gamer: beta opens (Dec 2022)](https://www.pocketgamer.com/hoop-land/beta-test/) - [TouchArcade: beta testing (Dec 2022)](https://toucharcade.com/2022/12/21/hoop-land-beta-testing-iphone-android/) **Community (Steam discussions)** - [Pricing details, with developer replies (2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/discussions/0/600782777428837105/) - [Demo feedback, with developer replies on controls and sliders (Aug 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/discussions/0/600787986327733551/) - [Contracts and salary cap requests (Oct 2025)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/discussions/0/599667160179091069/) - [Franchise / GM: depth, playbook, sliders (Jan 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/discussions/0/690871474424401244/) - [Money in the game (Feb 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/discussions/0/756179002519980685/) - [Can’t re-sign expired contracts, developer reply (Apr 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/discussions/0/802344362587463240/) - [Free agency “fatal flaw” (Aug 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/discussions/0/582805931178515408/) - [Custom logo file types (Feb 2026)](https://steamcommunity.com/app/2453660/discussions/0/765184781366456924/) ## Analysis by category | Score breakdown | Weight | Score | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Match engine | 22% | 7.0 | Games run on a real 2D engine with what the developer calls “true 3D rim and ball physics”, so a simulated game and a played game are the same kind of event. Sliders for pace, contests, steals and fouls let you tune the output, but the defaults have drawn complaints about three-point accuracy and fouls. | | Coaching & tactics | 12% | 6.5 | Coach Mode lets you call plays live from a playbook, set rotations, defensive matchups and an offensive game plan with preferred scorers, and hire scouted coaches with archetypes. More than most text sims offer during a game, less than a sim coach expects: we found no defensive schemes, and the playbook is barely explained. | | Players & development | 18% | 7.5 | Fifteen attributes, archetypes, star ratings, unlockable skills, dynamic aging and an optional hidden potential. Prospects come up through a full college league, and unhappy players can demand trades. Development is XP-driven and capped by each player’s build, which limits what a staff can do. | | Front office & salary cap | 14% | 6.5 | An adjustable salary cap and maximum contract, contracts of up to four years, player and team options, extensions above 80% interest, a trade finder with a CPU interest meter, pick trading, fantasy and expansion drafts. Missing: any verifiable luxury tax or exceptions, counter-offers in free agency, and meaningful team finances. | | League & world | 10% | 8.5 | The standout. A 64-team college league feeding the pros, a Koality Showcase for top recruits, All-Star weekends with a three-point contest, awards with custom weighting, a Hall of Fame and a news feed. Almost everything, from leagues to uniforms, courts and draft classes, can be edited and shared. | | Interface & UX | 10% | 7.0 | Clean, readable pixel-art screens built for touch and Steam Deck Verified, but navigation is clunky: the developer has called menu navigation “a huge pain” and promised better gamepad navigation for 1.20. English only, and many systems are not explained in the game. | | Longevity | 7% | 8.0 | Commissioner Mode runs an endless number of seasons, with deaths, retired numbers, alumni tracking and graying hair. Updates have been frequent since the mobile launch on 24 October 2023; on Steam the game exits Early Access on 10 December 2026. | | Business model | 7% | 9.5 | On mobile, Franchise Mode is free with no ads or micro-transactions; a one-off Premium Edition ($4.99 on the US App Store and Google Play) unlocks the other modes. Steam costs $14.99 with all future content included. The in-game coins can’t be bought. | Weighted average of the criteria: 7.4 ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Hoop Land free? Yes, Hoop Land is free to play, with optional in-app purchases. ### On which platforms can you play Hoop Land? Hoop Land is available on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. ### Is Hoop Land multiplayer? No, Hoop Land is a single player game: you play against the computer. ### Does Hoop Land have real players and teams? No, Hoop Land uses fictional players and teams. You can also create or import custom leagues and rosters. ### Can you play Hoop Land offline? Yes, Hoop Land can be played offline. ### Who develops Hoop Land? Hoop Land is developed by Koality Game. ### Is Hoop Land worth playing? Hoop Land is a pixel-art basketball sandbox where every game can be played, coached, watched or simulated, inside a college-to-pro universe you can rebuild from scratch. Its customization is superb and its price is tiny. As a GM game it is thin: simple contracts, little explanation, limited tactical control. (7.8/10) ### What are the best alternatives to Hoop Land? The best alternatives to Hoop Land are Basketball Legacy Manager 27 (7.0/10), Astonishing Basketball Manager (6.7/10), and Basketball GM (9.0/10).