While I'm waiting for Apple approval of PSF 2014, I thought I'd share some of the goals for this year's version. I'll post about the UI, Casual Play, Career Play, and more. The biggest thing I wanted to accomplish was to make the game more attractive and playable to new people who wanted to play a strategy football game but didn't want to have to be football experts. First, I've revamped the menu system. This new approach helps you see play categories and offers help on every single option in the game, so you can learn about every formation, play, shift option, pass pattern, and more, and the pros and cons of each. The new menu system also allows more expansion than the old system. I'll be able to easily add more formations, plays, etc - I could even recategorize plays, and long-term could let players customize their own menus. Second, I've added Casual Mode. This is great for beginners or for people who don't want to get bogged down in all the details, and it's even fun for experts who want to play a faster game. Let me give an example. - in Hard Core mode, you could call Pro Set, Strong Right, motion your flanker, throw a medium pass to your split end, change his route to a comeback, and tell the halfback to stay in and block. - in Casual mode, you lean over to your offensive coordinator and say "Medium Pass" and leave all those other details to him. He will choose the formation, receiver, etc, using the same logic the AI uses when calling his own plays. Defense is the same way. In Hard Core, you might call 4-3-4, shift over, Man coverage, Pass focus, blitz the MLB and ROLB and double-team the tight end. In Casual mode, you simply say to your defensive coordinator, "I think he's throwing a short pass, defend against it." AND you can switch back and forth between the two during any game (except Game Center multiplayer, I still haven't decided what effect it might have to let each user switch during those) btw, can I post a link to the FB images here? I've uploaded about 50 iPad shots.
I was so bummed that the game didn't come out last night. It's really cool to read about the different modes you have available for the game. Even though I watch football fairly often now, it will be cool to see how starting to play the Casual mode will probably help me better understand the game and why certain plays are better than others and that will prepare me for Hard Core mode. I know that the game is attached to game center, but are there achievements for the game? Such as: win the Superbowl, win the SB as the lowest ranked team, throw under so many interceptions during a season, throw so many TDs a season, or specific ones like: as the Broncos defeat the Seahawks in the SB. I always love various goals during games and this may help give incentives for replaying the game. Thanks again, Kerry!
Man, I am so ready for this to be released! I have career seasons working now, but need to work through the phases, and it's distracting waiting on the game to be released. I don't have GC Achievements in the game. I hope to get that in there someday, but other features keep getting pushed to the front.
I'm really really excited for this one. I know it'll be worth the wait. GC Achievements are a motivation for some gamers but I think most people want the actual game to be good So no worries there
Yep heres a vote for 'dont bother with game centre' ! I just want to play the game, dont care if i 'win' an achievement. Its football we're playing here !
I didn't mean to sound like I wanted the game to come out any later just for achievements. I was just voicing an opinion about something that would help me (and maybe others) enjoy the game even more. I'll still enjoy the game immensely without achievements, because it's going to be a great game
Thanks, guys, still waiting for the Apple review. I'm really hoping they'll approve it today ... On the career play, I'm going to start light with this first pass and can add to it over time. I won't have financials in there, but I do want to offer you competing choices how you allocate your "budget" or "time" at the start of each year. As soon as I hear from Apple, I'll very happily let everyone know!
I know Apple is swamped with the new iOS and phones, and while I'm waiting on the approval (and working on career mode), I put together this quick video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcSIkd1l4CA
This looks great Love the casual mode for newcomers and people wanting a quick game Back in the 80's i used to play an american football strategy game on my ZX Spectrum... http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000179 Yes it looks terrible ! But it was great selecting plays trying to beat the computer and seeing the stats. BO for BOMB was the best play specially if your guy got it for 70 yards Loved the youtube video, it looks like the best strategy game there is for american footy. Once its out i'll advertise it on a Raiders group i post in. Cant wait for this !
nothing yet - watching my email every day! I've been working on the first update, mainly career mode. I had to nail down a lot of things that were "close" but need polishing on the career side, just so I can now concentrate on the remaining phases. In the released version (assuming it ever gets approved), simulating a season takes about 40-45 seconds, because I'm now writing to a lot more tables. Well, I'd been thinking about this in context of season play (and some complexity that had to be added, since players can leave and new ones join), and woke at 4:30 am Saturday with an idea that has worked like a charm. In the first update, I now have a full season simulated in about 15-20 seconds, and that includes updating all the career tables. I'm pretty happy with that. I'm really, really, hoping that Apple will approve it this week. In past years, the first release took the longest, and subsequent updates went faster. Let's hope so! On the Android front, I've taken a hit because the framework I was using has changed directions and the SDK I have is no longer supported. I'll switch back to Android after I get the Career stuff done.
James, I see this as a "Career Coach" option, where you coach a team across multiple seasons. It's not meant to be anything like iOOTP or FMH, which are very heavy on the player management side. I'll see if I can put up a demo video in the next week or two. Meanwhile, here's my vision for it. And mind you, feedback from the community is going to be essential, and will drive the future content. After all, users know what they want more than I do, and I want to deliver products that people enjoy! Basically, I see the Career Coach as four phases per year (FYI, I'm still working through these, so some things may yet change!) - Offseason Players advance in age one year. Here you find out if any players left your team and you also see if any players' ratings change. I don't want to overwhelm users, so changes will be slight and not all your players will change. A list will show you which players have had at least one rating change, whether it's their durability, quickness, several abilities, etc. In the Offseason, you also set your priorities for the year by allocating resources (not sure what I'll call this yet, it may just be "priorities") between (at least) Scouting - how well your scouts find jewels and how accurate they are Coaching - can slightly improve your performance Conditioning - can slightly improve injuries and fourth-quarter performance Training (may combine this with Coaching, TBD) - can slightly cut down on penalties and help players improve (also affected by a hidden maximum potential on the players and by their work ethic) Please note - all effects will be small, because I don't want to turn this game into something over simplified and silly. I want it to remain realistic, but let you affect it over time. - Second phase is the Draft, where you list your priorities and ask your front office to fill those as best as they can. Note that any players who have left will automatically be handled, but if you don't prioritize those positions, then your Scouts will put your priorities before them. Scouts will tell you what they expect of each new player, but time will tell. (NOTE: this is not an actual multi-round draft with players, etc - again, that's not my emphasis, I want to get you back to the season play asap) - Third Phase is the Preseason, where you find out how your priorities have worked out. Here you'll get the first glimpse on how well your new players are doing (but they can still shine or flame out later), and then effect of your training and conditioning - and of course the fourth phase is Season Play. You can play any or all your games, or let the computer simulate them. Either way, the computer will simulate all the other games for that week. So how does a career start (for now at least)? - you name your coach, select a team, and start coaching in 2014 (I'd love to some day let you pick up teams from the past and coach them, say the 72 Dolphins or 77 Cowboys, etc) - you coach the team through the 2014 season and then proceed to Offseason, etc I hope this will be appealing. It's been a ton of work, and I hope people will enjoy it.
More on Career Play That post got really long, so let me mention a few things here. From the Career screen, you can view all seasons, including the current one. You can drill down into any past season and view that season's team rankings, schedule, and season leaders. You can also view any team's history and all the players who have ever played on that team. Of course, you can view Career leaders and sort them in many ways. And the career leaders are updated after every completed game. When playing a season game (single season or career season), the teams' season records are displayed on the scoreboard. Something I don't have yet is Awards. Once I have career play working, I'd like to get more input on what kinds of awards to track over time. I could certainly track Rushing Leader, Passing Leader, etc.
