The Making of Football Manager Edge Magazine

June 25, 2009
Edge magazine contains the Making of Football Manager (Spectrum) article

Edge magazine contains the Making of Football Manager (Spectrum) article

In the July 2009 issue of Edge magazine is a retrospective interview with me about the making of Football Manager with focus on the original Spectrum version. It focuses on the history of making it, but also a good deal on my design thinking of how I put it together.

Quoting the article:

“The term ’squeaky bum time’ may have been coined by Alex Ferguson during the 2003 Premiership title run-in, but it couldn’t be a more appropriate one for a game made some two decades before. Addictive Games Football Manager wasn’t just the template from which all future stat-crunching management titles would draw their inspiration, it also had a special ingredient that others failed to capture: the capacity to make you squirm in your seat as shots rained in.”

Here’s a snapshot of one of the pages from the article:-

Snapshot from the Edge Football Manager Kevin Toms interview

Snapshot from the Edge Football Manager Kevin Toms interview


Another Language

June 19, 2009

I’ve been reflecting, mainly because I am learning to use yet another programming language, I’ve been reflecting how many languages I have learnt and used in my software career. Here’s my list:

PL/1, RPG, COBOL, FORTRAN, DBASE II, Basic in various flavours, Z80 Assembler, 6502 Assembler, 68000 Assembler, 80×86 Assembler. Forth, C, C++, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Java, Ruby, and now Objective C. There are others that I can’t remember the name of.

That’s about 18 or more. It’s the way things go, the profession has fast moving technology. Things continually change. I could add in the dozens of architectures and hardware specifics I have worked with too.

The consequence is that you are continually learning, you never get mastery of everything you need, as in other professions. Even medicine has changing technology, but I think, software development is maybe a leader on requiring constant retraining and education for its professionals on such a scale.


From Bedroom to Boardroom

June 10, 2009

I gave a presentation to the Auckland Game Developer Meetup. It was describing what it was like to start a company (in the bedroom of my 1 bedroomed flat!)  because I had written a good game, and some of the experiences, good, bad, and strange, that came with doing this at the birth of a new industry. It was a challenge but good to do. And, as usual, reminded me of more anecdotal things I had forgotten. It’s best given in person but the slides give you the idea!

It’s here


Retro Gamer interview – finally read it!

June 4, 2009

It took ages for the Retro Gamer interview to reach me here in New Zealand, and I only read it now because a friend sent me a pdf of it. It was well written and entertaining. What it also reminded me of, was not only some of the events and history of what I did, and the industry I was involved with; but that I was there at the very beginning, at the beginning of an industry that is now bigger than the Hollywood movie industry, and possibly more influential.

I had written a game, a game that I thought was good. But, there was nowhere to sell it! No shops selling games, no computer fairs, nothing. Some people I dealt with at the time thought that computer games would be a passing fad! Laughable now, but it was seriously put to me at the time to be prepared for when the computer game craze passed.

The only way I could reach my customers was by black and white ads in hobbyist games magazines. And the only way I could get the games to them was by post.


Creative People, Creative Energy

May 26, 2009

In the last few days I have spent plenty of time with creative, talented people. Creative people tend to spark creativity in each other. It’s fun working with them too.  Creative energy is an increasingly important part of my work.


Games Design and the Birth of an Industry

May 14, 2009

All those years ago, in the early eighties, I wrote the original Football Manager. At that time, the only option was to sell it yourself. I formed a company, placed adverts,  and started shipping the game by  mail order. The inexpensive home computers that came onto the market at that time provided the tools for people like me to write games, and created a market.

Football Manager from the early 80s

Football Manager from the early 80s

Most of the people selling games in the early eighties had created them themselves, and worked to a simple idea- producing a better game next time. No-one at that time was thinking of movie licence tie-ins or other commercial decisions. It was a time of creativity and fresh games ideas. In a way it was innocent. It is one of the reasons the Retro scene is nostalgic for that time.

With no licence tie-ins, no commercial spin offs, the key to success was a good game, and something innovative, to draw attention. Few of the people that were running the businesses then had run one before, and most were young. Everybody was learning as they went. I even remember a top flight accountant who was advising me, saying “If this is just a passing fad, computer games, we’ll help you to wind up the company with minimum damage to you”. – Hardly a passing fad, an industry that is now an enormous entertainment industry. The funny thing was, even then, I thought “He’s wrong, it’s not a new fad, only the technology is new, games have been around for thousands of years.”

But it was the birth of a new industry. In a few years we went from selling only by mail order to being in the main high street stores and selling across the world. People in business suits got interested, and the industry steadily changed as it was no longer being run by pioneers breaking unknown ground. 

It was good to experience those times.


The Enthusiasm of Games Writers

May 7, 2009

Over the years I have met many game writers and other creative designers. At times it has been sad, when I have met people who have produced great work, that was successful. – And yet those people were either ripped off, or not paid. Times like that can make you disillusioned, or cynical.

Some of the people I have met have still carried on despite being treated so badly. Why is that? Well because they love what they do, and even though they are not rewarded they cannot stop.

Last night I attended a meeting of independent games developers. It was good to spend time with people who were so enthusiastic about what they were doing. It was refreshing, and it was fun. It’s an art-form creating games, and it’s a fun art-form to be in. I know business well, but what I believe is:-

The business should serve the art, not the art serving the business


Retro Gamer Interview

April 30, 2009

I haven’t read it yet, it has not made its way to New Zealand yet, but a “Desert Island Disks” interview with me has just been published in the latest issue of Retro Gamer

Retro Gamer Issue 63

Retro Gamer Issue 63

Doing the interview brought back a lot of memories of those early days, and I still keep remembering new things, some of them funny, some of them interesting, some of them poignant.

I’ll write some up in this blog over time…


Playing Football Manager – Nostalgia

April 23, 2009

In this article here, Richard Herring writes well about what it is like playing the online emulated version of Football Manager after many years. It conjured pictures in my mind of what it was like for him. His comments about the simplicity are right. But, it had subtlety underneath. Like a lot of good software, it should not be complex to use, even if what it does IS complex! Of course it was a long time ago, and I would write it quite differently if I was doing it now. But the balance of that game is something I was happy with.


2 Football Managers

April 16, 2009

It can be strange at times to see the 2, the original Football Manager that I wrote, and the current Football Manager that adopted the same name. I am wondering if many people played both and how they think they compare?