About This Game

ABOUT
Split Decision is a first-person adventure game where you are tasked to balance morals and life costs in the world of boxing from the perspective of a boxing judge. As the boxing world quickly turns out to be deeply corrupt, you are required to make difficult choices and (possibly) break the circle of bribery.
The game focuses around watching and voting for a better fighter in a boxing match. You gain reputation if you do your job well, and lose reputation if you don’t. Losing enough reputation, you get kicked out of the Boxing Association and the game ends. However, you are set to fail as the job’s paycheck is not enough to pay basic living costs, and not paying rent also makes you lose reputation. A solution to this conundrum pops up as you are offered a bonus to fix the upcoming matches. As the game progresses, it opens various new ways for you to sabotage matches or to prevent them from being fixed. Different choices lead to different endings, shaping the world of characters around you.

THE GAMEPLAY
The player watches a boxing match from the 1st person. As the match progresses, the player scores each boxer’s performance in each round. After the match is over, the player has to submit their scores. The other two judges reveal their ratings and the referee announces which boxer won the match given the judges’ scores. The more in-line the player is with the other judges, the more their reputation will grow in the boxing community and they will get invited to more and more prestigious events to judge. The money earned from judging the matches will contribute to the player’s budget, which they will have to spend on the household and other expenses. Before and after each match, the player might be approached by other characters asking them to score in favor of one boxer or the other. Sometimes the player will be offered money in exchange, and sometimes they will try to appeal to the player’s compassion.

ABOUT
The story begins with the player figuring out the mechanics of the main character’s job - however, they soon find out the main character is set to fail, and they must find other means to keep themselves out of the streets. The main character seeks empathy in the player, as they choose to fix matches in favor of extra money. The player might feel helpless at times, but they will also be presented ways to break the circle of corruption and bribery, or to become a leader in this dark world.
This game is for all lovers of storytelling games with multiple endings. This game offers a unique background into the world of sports that is gritty and realistic (or should we say, cynical) in its narrative, but abstract in its visuals and audio design. Sports, usually told from the perspective of the players and fighters themselves, are in this game shown through the perspective of boxing judges, usually shown in the background of a match if shown at all.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

The character is prompted with a bribe to fix matches, meaning the player might engage in criminal acts (which are condemned but may or may not result in favorable outcomes). Other mature content is insinuated in possible outcomes/failures (the characters are killed or thrown in jail).
Mild violence is shown during boxing matches (the fighters are knocked down during a match - fights without gore or blood).