It’s worth putting that headline in caps. It was January 1982 that the first advert for Football Manager (my original game) appeared on the newstands in Computer and Video Games magazine. 30 years on, that foundation game has grown into a genre of computer games. My original game was very playable, and very popular, spending [...]
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57.62% complete. – That is what I wrote earlier on Facebook. I have been involved in many projects, with many estimations. But they are mostly flawed with software development. They try to make developing software like building a bridge, something that is done with fixed materials, specifications etc. But, often software is changed mid project, [...]
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It was interesting asking people what they wanted or needed in a Football Manager game. Everyone has different preferences and I have my own. In fact, a key part of putting the game together is filtering. I have plenty of ideas of what I want to do, and in the past I have generated a [...]
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Craig asked me a question on my Facebook page. It was a question about the follow up, and building up expectations, referring to Jon Romero. Well I replied on Facebook but he raised a very good point. This game I am writing, is in a way a follow up to Football Manager, the original Football [...]
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Honing, is that the right word? Laser focused on cutting, paring it down. Progress is good but I won’t be happy about it for a while yet. I know what I want it to be, and I know what the plans are. Now it’s just the implementation, turning it all into a product!
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Not everybody handles anger well, and I was reflecting on Alex Ferguson’s success. It always strikes me that he often seems angry, and he is well known for his “hair dryer” dressing downs of players at half time. – Another expression of anger. Yet he is very successful. So he could be an example of [...]
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You know, the little stick men running around in the original Football Manager on the Spectrum. Sometimes people ask if the animation was a fixed set, or even believe it was. Well no, it wasn’t, there was an infinite number of possibilities of what could happen and the individual players were making decisions moment by [...]
Filed under: Addictive Games, Football Manager, Games Design, Kevin Toms, Software Development and Delivery, The 80s | 1 Comment »
Which is best? I’d like to know what you think? My own view is it’s not whether the game is complicated, it’s where the complication is. It’s alright to build a game with complex software as long as the user isn’t exposed to that. A car is simple to drive even though there is sophisticated [...]
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He is looking angry and frustrated too often. He has done great work at Arsenal, but maybe feels he should have won more. But, he needs to relax, man! That stress gets through to players… Or… he could try Alex Ferguson’s approach, just look relentlessly grumpy and no-one can tell what is going on. (Not [...]
Filed under: Football Manager, Premier League | 1 Comment »
No! It’s damn near impossible to explain what I am doing. I try, then it all starts to sound very abstract… Programming is linear, you have a problem, you solve it. It’s just a case of working out how to do it, and then solving any bugs you have created. You can’t be precise because [...]
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