Overview

A web based football manager game - My second iteration

The problem

MVS Football Manager v1 was made to replicate an old Excel based football manager game. It was intentionally basic, intentionally had the most basic UI you've ever seen, and intentionally fast

Touchline Manager builds upon the engine from the original and lessons learnt from the original project to make a far more complex football management simulation.

What I built

The main game remains the same: Pick from three available League Two clubs and manage the team through the season. This version includes future seasons, so promotion is now possible.

Players have fifteen attributes that are used to calculate their overall skill level as well as within the matchday event functions.

Players now have contracts, transfers are negotiable, you employ backroom staff who can perform functions for you, there are press conferences, random events, training schedules, formations and tactics, an inbox, and a news ticker.

Outside of the game there is a Managers' league, showing the career records of the players, and a Players' lounge, where players can give feedback, raise bugs, suggest new features or have general discussions.

The players' lounge is only open during the closed, invite only playtest phase, as I do not want to moderate chat functionality on a long term basis with general users.

Screenshots

The manager's office

Backroom staff

Club profile

Training

Tactics

Match in progress

Post match summary

Press conference

Press conference questions

Press articles

Random event

Random event outcome

Earn skill points

Season review

What I learnt

This became way more complex very quickly, requiring many test runs to tweak the weightings in order to get realistic commentary and scores.

Work is still ongoing and new features will be added. It is currently in a Beta playtest phase