Reshape English football history in NUTMEG!
Card-based retro football management coming to PC in 2026
Publisher: Secret Mode | Developer: Sumo Sheffield
Formats: PC | ETA: 2026 | Players: 1
Sheffield, UK – 5 August 2025: Dust off your short shorts, lace up your boots, and don't you dare shave that moustache – (retro) football is coming (to) home (computers)! The gaffers at Sumo Sheffield and shirt sponsors Secret Mode are getting ready for the season with NUTMEG!, a football management with a card-based twist and a love of English league football of the 80s and 90s.
See the announce trailer here: https://youtu.be/T3MTJm5h23E
NUTMEG! will see players take a step back in time to manage their favourite teams through twenty years of the beautiful game. Start with a Division Four team and take them to the top of the table to unlock teams in the upper echelons of the sport. Use your knowledge of football's past to snap up legendary players before their salaries get too inflated.
It's a game of two halves – manage your team by setting training schedules and transferring players, answering calls from the press, buying merchandise, and adjusting ticket prices for home games. Combine cards generated from training to develop new tactics and build a deck that even Fergie couldn't sniff at.
Then head onto the pitch for fast-paced card battles, diving into the match at key points to ensure the boys do good. Stop an attack, gain control of the ball, and prove your bouncebackability with a well-played card to shift the odds in your favour and get one in the back of the net.
Originated at Secret Mode in conjunction with the apprentices at the Sumo Digital Academy, the NUTMEG! team was called up by Sumo Sheffield as it entered full production. It will launch on PC in 2026.
About NUTMEG!
Deck-building goes in two-footed on football management!
Become the gaffer of a classic football team and embark on a 20-year journey up and down the English football Divisions through the 1980s and 1990s.
A Game of Two Halves
Pick your line-up and formations, and challenge the opposition in a fast-paced card battler with three points on the line in every match.
Move the Goalposts
The only football game where getting cards is a good thing! Earn card packs by completing challenges. Combine cards to enhance your deck and bully the other team off the pitch.
Get Your Head in the Game
Route one? Tiki-taka? Counter-attacking? Refine skills and strategies in training to earn extra card packs and humble your opponents when Saturday comes.
Keep Your Eye on the Ball
Pick your club, manage player transfers, scout and develop youth talent, and scrap for every place across four Divisions.
Get Stuck In
Oversee the entire club from your desk. Control the finances, talk with the press, and hire and fire backroom staff.
Big Game Player
Immerse yourself in some of the most iconic eras of English football. Unlock new clubs each season and decide whether to be a journeyman manager or a one-club hero.
NUTMEG! will launch on PC in 2026 and is available to wishlist on Steam now.
About Secret Mode
Secret Mode is an independent publisher and the winner of the MCV/Develop Indie Publisher of the Year 2025 award, Ukie Best UK Publisher 2024 award, and the Debug Indie Game Best Influencer Marketing 2025 award. Our titles include triple-BAFTA-winner Still Wakes the Deep, A Little to the Left, Wobbledogs, Loddlenaut, and Empyreal. We believe that games are for everyone, and that creativity has no limits. We believe quality and fun are everything.
For more information visit: wearesecretmode.com
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About Sumo Sheffield
Founded in 2003, Sumo Sheffield was the first of Sumo Digital's studios. Firmly established as the premium development partner of leading publishers, the studio is trusted to deliver high quality games associated with some of the most iconic and valued properties in the industry, or by generating innovative new IP. With a highly skilled body of over 300 developers the studio works across all platforms, on a selection of AAA games covering multiple genres including Sports, FPS, and platform adventure.
For more information visit: sheffield.sumo-digital.com
About Sumo Academy
Founded in 2020, the Sumo Academy is a talent development programme creating new pathways into the games industry in the form of the Level 7 Game Programming Apprenticeship. Rated "Outstanding" by Ofsted, the Academy teaching team has over 100 combined years of game development experience, but they still can't beat the apprentice's high score on Zool.
For more information visit: www.sumo-academy.com
