Fellow football-loving parents, have you ever played mobile game New Star Soccer? It’s one of the most addictive games on any device ever. I’ve missed numerous tube stops because of it.

Now the game has spawned an intriguing spin-off called New Star Soccer G-Story, released today for Android and iOS devices. It’s a children’s app that’s the result of a partnership between the game’s developer and book publisher Hachette.

Described as a “fusion of mobile game and book” it combines the gameplay of New Star Soccer with a proper story as kids “go from kicking a ball in the park to playing for your favourite team in the cup final”.

The twist is that how they play the game bits affects the storyline, which takes in off-field matters – agents, training and sponsorship deals – as well as on-pitch action. The story has multiple endings too, so there’s an incentive for children to replay it once they’ve finished.

It’s an inventive idea, and one that parents may get behind: the game elements encouraging children to read the 180,000-odd words of text over several plays/reads. That’s very much the goal of everyone involved with the project, too.

“We firmly believe that New Star Soccer G-Story will encourage kids - particularly the reluctant ones, especially boys - to read,” said authors Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore as the app went live. “Games obviously compete with traditional books for readers’ time and attention. Instead of moaning about that, why not exploit it?”

(Important point: when choosing your character, they can be male or female: so girls aren’t being left out.)

New Star Soccer isn’t a children’s game, specifically, but the G-Story spin-off might encourage some kids to investigate the original game, too.

New Star Soccer: G-Story costs £2.99 for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store – that’s a launch discount from its regular £4.99 price, so get in quick if you’re interested. Its Android version will follow next week.