Greats of the Gridiron
An Important Update on GotG Development
I wanted to take a moment to share a personal update regarding the development of 'Greats of the Gridiron'. As the sole developer behind this project, I'm faced with unique challenges and responsibilities, and it's important for me to keep you all in the loop.
Here's what's been happening:
Decreased Interest: I've observed a dip in interest towards our game. This has been a bit disheartening and has impacted my motivation. However, I am eager to hear any ideas or feedback that might help reinvigorate the project and appeal more to our community.
Full-Time Work Commitments: Balancing game development with full-time work has been challenging. As a solo developer, I find myself juggling multiple roles, which has recently led to a slowdown in the game's progress.
Given these realities, here are some updates on how things will proceed:
Pacing of Development: Updates and progress will be slower as I balance development with other professional commitments. Rest assured, each update will be packed with as much value and progress as possible.
Continued Communication: Transparency is key. I'll keep you updated on all major milestones and any changes in the development timeline. Your understanding and support are incredibly valuable during this time.
Your Role: Your feedback, ideas, and encouragement are more important than ever. As a one-person team, community support is not just appreciated, but essential.
I understand this might be somewhat disappointing, but I believe in being open and honest about the journey of GotG. This project is my passion, and I'm dedicated to seeing it through, albeit at a more realistic pace given the current circumstances.
Thank you for your understanding, patience, and continuous support. Please feel free to reach out with your thoughts, concerns, or words of encouragement - they mean more than you know.
Minor Update
A small update to fix a couple of minor issues and some other items:
- Update content default db with updated template binary format
- Allow to select specific playbooks to reassign players (was formerly only all playbooks)
- Fix emblems for dedicated server Season Standings menu
- Fix edit play incorrect invalid play name error (preventing from changing other play info)
- Clean up camera controls. You can now rotate overhead the field view basically
- Store last attempted IP address when logging into dedicated servers
- Activate zoom controls for game cameras: ',','.' or mouse wheel to zoom
Update: Tweaked how M2M Coverage Works
Man-to-Man Coverage
The M2M Coverage is working with a couple of caveats
1. we disabled the "assigned" double coverage ability
- double coverages still happen, they are done by having "extra" defensive players who have an "open" M2M assignment and cannot find a free receiver to cover.
2. we changed some of the priority progressions that defensive players make in order to determine who they are supposed to match up against
- watch this our Explainer Video on how to assign M2M coverages and who is going to man up with their offensive counterpart
- here is an accompanying explanation that is provided in the video
As always, hit us up with any questions you might have. We are available here on Steam as well as on Discord.
- The Management Team
Official Season #1 kicks off in 1 week (4/1/23)!!
Patch notes Mar. 22, 2023
News:
Dedicated server tests have proven successful. Look for updates coming soon on tutorials that will show how to set up and administer dedicated server leagues!
Important:
This update includes a database update. Coaches should regularly back up their league databases. This can be done manually or through the game.
Fixes:
- Tweaks to M2M for better positioning of defense. Please keep in mind, good coaching is important.
- Custom emblems missing from a couple areas are now visible
- Improved database update process
- Versioning for play templates
- Temporary disabling of M2M Double coverage. Will reset to Open coverage.
If you have any issues, please inquire on Discord or the message boards.
Patch Notes: Mar 16, 2023
Fixes
- Missing custom emblems in certain UIs. NOTE: there is no support yet in dedicated server menus
- Add OT to game recap
- Multiple PCA not showing source play record
- QB twirling while scanning for open receiver
Patch Notes 03/11/23
Add new blocking animation
Allow to delete non-season arbitrary games
Fixes
Fix flickering wait-blocking animations
Fix crash sometimes when looking for open receivers
Fix incorrect emblems on ad signs in stadium
Fix some issues with filtering player number availability
Fix locked up UI in playbook editor when editing teams
Fix M2M strong side override
Fix completed games not properly updated
Fix instruction buttons possibly activated from practice field
League Draft Results and Strongside/Weakside Defensive Formations
The First Official Greats of the Gridiron Draft!
It was a huge success! Thanks to all those who have joined this historic, first league and season. We are looking forward to seeing who takes home the Gridiron Bowl!!
Here was the video on the Top 10 Players
The main pick window:
The draft is over and the players are signed!
Now that the league is has its Coaches and Players, playbook design is underway. With that, we have just finished the final touches of getting defenses to read and adjust to the offense's strong and weak side formations. Here's a breakdown of how it works.
In the first image, there is an "orange shaded" box dividing the defensive field in half. That is the defense's strongside. Whomever is lined up in this box will SHIFT to the Offense's Strongside (see Image 2) when they take the practice field or in a game.
The strongside in the first image is where the TE is lined up. In this case, the TE is on the LEFT side of the Offensive formation.
IMAGE 1See how the defensive players in the orange box set in the Coordinator's Office adjusted to where the offense's strongside is? (image 2) below.
IMAGE 2When doing this, coaches have the freedom to tell the defensive players to overload the strongside OR weakside with the players they so want. If you wanted to overload the weakside, all the coach needs to do it line up everyone on the Weak Side - the non-shaded part.... and the defense will adjust accordingly. See Image 3
IMAGE 3And now on the Practice Field, all those players have shifted to the Weakside (see image 4)
IMAGE 4Now defenses can blitz from the weakside or strongside with the personnel that best fits any situation.
IMPORTANT DATABASE UPDATE
This update include a needed change to the encrypted play data. In order to do this, the UI is going to be locked on a black screen for several minutes, more or less depending on your PC specs.
Please don't close the game during this process, or it will corrupt your database. If you need any assistance or have any questions, please post on the message boards or directly on Discord.
Dedicated Server, 32 Teams and Official League Start
*** Please Read if you Purchased (or otherwise acquired) the Game Prior to January, 26 2023 ***
Dedicated Server
We didn't get a lot of feedback from people regarding the upcoming new release and use of the DEDICATED SERVER - so we are making one last post regarding this. There will be forthcoming tutorials and a manual on how to run a league via dedicated server.
We expect that upon the release of this next version that current users (owners of the game) will have invalid databases. This unfortunately means that your data (playbooks and team files) will not be usable when the new release happens...
AGAIN, WORRY NOT!
For a limited time, if you are a current owner of GotG prior to this release, we will work with you to update your database so it is valid with the new release!
Please reach out to us via Steam or Discord.
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32 Teams
Additionally, with the new release the game will support 32 teams! This includes a season scheduler and playoff system!
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Official League
The sign-up period for the Official League ends today! We have a good group of coaches ready to compete for the coveted Gridiron Bowl trophy and bragging rights as the first ever GotG Champion! which will earn them an automatic spot in our Hall of Fame!
It's not too late to sign up though if you haven't. If you want to sign up, head over and join Discord or shoot us a message here.
- If you want to sign up AFTER 1/27/2023 but before the first game kicks off, you can. Just message us on Steam or Discord and we (as well as the other league members) will decide who to accommodate you.
We could not do this without your continued support. We cannot thank you enough. Honestly. And we hope that with this new release, leagues will begin to form and more and more people will play this amazing game!
Cheers!
WILL YOU be the FIRST GotG CHAMPION?
It's Kickoff Time!
Are you ready to OUTDRAFT, OUTDESIGN and OUTCOACH 31 other teams, be the first ever GotG Champion and stake your claim to Greatness?
We are getting ready to release the most complete version to date.
This version supports
- 32 teams
- 17 game schedule
- Regular season and Playoff stats
- Multiplayer (32 coaches) Draft (snake and traditional)
- Playoff Bracket
- Franchise
The OFFICIAL GotG LEAGUE - here’s what we need:
30 coaches (teams) willing to dedicate a couple months of their time to play the game!
- We understand and know that knowing league members can make things a little more “fun”. Because we are all just starting out and do not yet know each other we are proposing the following:
- If you want to join the league and currently own the game and you know of a friend or two who would also like to join the league but hasn’t yet gotten the game, we will give them a complimentary Steam Key.
- If you’re new to GotG and do not yet own it, this is your lucky day – we will give you a copy of the game for free (limited to 1 per person and only until we have a full league or the deadline to join the league of 01/25/2023 passes)
- If we do not have 30 coaches by the end of the deadline, we will fill in the slots with NPCs
Time Table:
- 01/25/2023 Deadline to join the league (first come basis)
- 02/01/2023 Deadline to pick team names (first come)
- You can pick any name you want
- The players drafted are FICTION – with the Official GotG League, we are not going to use “real NFL” players for obvious licensing concerns
- Trust us when we say that you will develop the same level of enthusiasm for these players that you do for NFLers
- 02/01/2023 Deadline for THE LEAGUE to CHOOSE DRAFT START date
The online draft will be 56 rounds and take a while (probably the course of a few days)
- The date will be what the majority votes for because we would hope to have as many online for the first few rounds as possible
- Because we are still developing some features – there will be NO trading of picks, i.e. you cannot trade your 1st for someone’s 2nd and 3rd etc.
- 02/01/2023 Determine draft order (snake draft)
- 02/08/2023 DEADLINE Determine KICKOFF
- Remember that you will need time to develop a playbook
- We will release some of the plays of the default teams to help you build your PBs out to get you up and running faster
- The sooner the draft takes place the sooner teams have their players and are able to being creating PBs with those players.
- Remember that offensive plays can be affected by the speed of your players – i.e., if you create a pass play to a 75 sp player and you now have a 100sp player there – the play will need to be adjusted manually to compensate. So you can use existing plays you have, you just might have to tweak them to account for the differing speeds you might draft – same with QB arm strength.
This is essentially a very large Beta test of the game. It’s for FUN! Do not join if you are going to get wrapped up in winning it all. There are going to be flaws that we will fix on the fly if we can. Some might have to be pushed off until the next release. However, there will be a trophy for the winner of the league and we will find a way to share our gratitude with each coach in some way.
Please reach out with any questions and or if you want to JOIN!
Sign up here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1553880/discussions/3/
Multiplayer Release Coming Soon!!
We are currently in testing its stability, and so far so good! We definitely anticipate the release sometime between Christmas and New Years!
*** PLEASE READ IF YOU PURCHASED THE GAME BEFORE MULTIPLAYER RELEASE ***
We expect that upon the release, current users (owners of the game) will have invalid databases. This unfortunately means that your data (playbooks and team files) will not be useable when the new release happens...
WORRY NOT!
For a limited time, if you are a current owner of GoTG prior to this release, we will work with you to port your data so it is valid with the new release!
Please reach out to us via Steam or Discord
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Additionally, with the new release the game will support 32 teams! This includes a season scheduler and playoff system!
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We are still working on some of the finer details, but those should be coming in the upcoming months!
Again, we could not do this without your continued support. We cannot thank you enough. Honestly. And we hope that with this new release, leagues will begin to form and more and more people will play this amazing game!
Happy Holidays! Please reach out