0-0.io
What is it?
0-0․io is browser football․ Two teams‚ one pitch‚ one ball‚ and the universally agreed-upon goal of putting that ball behind the other team's line a few more times than they put it behind yours․ 1v1 and up‚ in any modern browser‚ on any device with a keyboard or a touchscreen․
You can play directly without installing anything or making an account‚ but may also create one to save your progress and to rank on the leaderboards․
How to play?
Move with WASD or the arrow keys‚ and sprint by holding shift․ Watch out for your stamina however, as exhaustion means that you will be walking back while the other team is countering․ Kick with space: quick press to pass‚ or hold it to charge a big kick‚ hitting harder for the longer you've held․ Everything comes down to timing here: charge and release at the right time‚ time your sprints and you might just get that kick into the goal․
We made a conscious decision to not allow free-text chat; players can only send pre-defined phrases and emotes to the group (conveniently mapped to the number pad keys)‚ leading to quick-and-easy‚ family-safe communication — without the "vocabulary lessons" of other online games․
Where did it originate?
Our prototype wasn't quite 0-0․io. It was imagined as the digital version of an ancient board game we used to flick "buttons" across on rainy afternoons․
The first build was a bit too ambitions, trying to cover all the football rules — outs‚ fouls‚ offside‚ handball‚ the lot; not quite ideal for a play in your browser between meetings․
Then, while feeling a bit stuck and researching a way forward, we ran into Haxball — which‚ if you've played it‚ you already know does a lot of things right․ We took the lesson (streamline ruthlessly‚ get out of the way of the ball-and-foot loop‚ let the rest emerge) while striving to keep our own direction․ 0-0․io is what that re-think led us to‚ with some new bits added: a stamina bar that turned sprinting into a decision‚ a training system that makes your runner faster and fitter the more you play‚ and we have a few other ideas in the oven too․
The buttons still work, by the way. They just don't travel across the internet very well.
What is under the hood?
The client and server run the simulation in a version of Box2D v2․x (the same family on both) meaning the displayed physics should be as close as possible to the data the server manages‚ which is authoritative․ The client issues requests for direction/sprint/kick to the server‚ which subsequently runs the physics simulation‚ and sends the resulting state to every client in the room․ Anti-cheat is mostly a free side effect of that arrangement — you can't speed-hack a circle when the server is the one moving it․
Bots can fill empty spots in rooms‚ so a 2v2 can just start as soon as two people want to play‚ instead of always needing four players of equal skill‚ availability‚ and online presence in the same lobby․
One important aspect is that the bots also step out of the way the moment a new player joins the game‚ because they're meant to help fill the room only when there aren't enough actual people present.
What's up with the name?
0-0 is the most honest scoreline in football: nobody scored‚ and the table reflects it․
We launched in June 2026‚ a few days before the World Cup, with the theory that the only thing better than watching football is losing 3-4 in a different game while you wait for half-time to end․
We're going to continue to progressively iterate on it — cosmetics‚ modes‚ the occasional unhinged idea — for as long as people keep showing up to kick the ball․
Curious? Give it a try!