Boeckham's Football Manager
A downloadable game for Windows
Boeckham's Football Manager is an old-school management game in which you get in charge of a soccer team. To be successful, you need to manage your players, buy some and sell some, and care for them when they get into trouble. Build your stadium and expand the facilities. Negotiate with sponsors to finance all of the above.
But not your team is the most important part of the game: you are! Strive for a stellar career, gain more knowledge through education and experience, and make a name for yourself. Start as a nobody in a small local club and lead it to the top. Or why not use your fame - as long as you have it - to get hired by more renowned clubs? What will you do to achieve what no other coach has achieved before?
The game is designed in the spirit of the management game of the 90s like "The Manager" or "On The Ball". The main goal is to reduce the overburdening complexity of modern football management games. There is nothing wrong with those games but if you want to finish a season or two in one evening instead of one or two match days, this game maybe is for you. There is no claim to accuracy, instead, the fun and simplicity are more important design goals.
The development is ongoing and the game will change. You need to be aware that due to the nature of such a complex genre, you will encounter bugs and balancing issues. But I would love to hear them and if you like to share them, you will play a very important part in the development process. Especially savegames are most likely not compatible with future versions of the game.
Current features include:
- two leagues with different teams (German and English)
- stadium management: build more seats and decide on ticket prices
- sponsor negotiations: banner sponsors and main sponsors
- player management: buying and selling players, training single players, negotiating contracts, etc.
- facility expansion: build gyms, rehab centers, parking lots, restaurants, and more
- coach management: take workshops or education with quizzes to unlock special gameplay and skills, choose your own path, and apply for jobs at other clubs
- league, cup, and champions league with statistics
- narratives: from singular events to long-spanning plots revolving around your players or yourself
- found your own club in-game after you achieved everything else
- team and player editor
- hot-seat multiplayer
- NO loot boxes, points, collection cards, etc.
- NO social media integration or common timeline: play at your own pace!
Planned features:
- many more narratives to shape the story you will experience, different in every playthrough
- more graphics, especially the facilities
- more leagues, maybe national teams
- set formations of your players on the pitch
- a small card game mechanic to decide the tactics for each game to gain a performance boost for your team
- more influence of your biography on the story
- MAYBE(!) online multiplayer, no MMO, just play with your friends
Updated | 11 days ago |
Status | In development |
Platforms | Windows |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 total ratings) |
Author | olipool |
Genre | Simulation, Strategy |
Made with | Unity, Aseprite |
Tags | 2D, Football, Management, Retro, Unity |
Average session | About a half-hour |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse |
Download
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Development log
- Update 0.9.0 - Hot Seat Multiplayer!11 days ago
- Update 0.8.2 - Found you own club!Aug 02, 2024
- Update 0.8.1Jul 30, 2024
- Team editor availableMar 06, 2024
- Update 0.7.3Feb 25, 2024
- Small update - get a dog now!Feb 18, 2024
- First playable versionFeb 12, 2024
Comments
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Ah this takes me back to the 90s :)
Nice to play a manager game that is easy to get into and not too overloaded with stats and figures. I like that it focuses more on the story and journey of your team rather than micromanaging each individual player, down to sending them off for massages and stuff lol. The event system works really well, keeping the experience interesting and providing 'on the fly' challenges and bonuses.
Eg: my goalkeeper started out total rubbish hardly improving. Later he wanted to come out as a gay man so I gave him my full support and helped him with the press backlash. Now he's confident and playing like a legend :D
I've had a few little stories developing like this, its a nice part of the game.
The manager skills are a nice addition too.
Great job with this! I'ts really well designed with a few nice technical flourishes too. Definite potential. I'm looking forward to see what comes next.
One small criticism is that it would be nice to have an actual mood or motivation stat that reflects the events that have been happening on and off the pitch.
I would also like to see teams wearing their official colors and have emblems that resemble the real thing. Maybe even be able to create my own custom team from scratch, choosing my logo and rolling their initial stats 'rpg style'
Thank you so much for that detailed review! Great to hear the story part turned out meaningful :)
Regarding the mood stat, do you mean for each player? It crossed my mind at some point but I decided to incorporate it into one single strength stat, for example when something happens that troubles a player (and affects his mood), his strength will decrease so his performance in the game is worse. Do you think it would help "story-wise" to have that stat separate? Maybe a -5 to +5 scale which gets added to the strength dynamically in the game? It would make sense in some way since mood usually recovers more quickly than strength. Something to think about for sure, thanks!
Regarding the teams: I can adjust the colors for sure, maybe even make different shirt designs with 2 colors. The emblems would be nice but I haven't done that yet because it is a LOT of work for all >100 teams. Creating and editing teams will be supported, I haven't figured out how yet but there will be some kind of editor. I was also thinking about creating your own team in the game itself as a career event. You know, when you have achieved everything and earned soooo much money then you can leave your club and start from scratch with a new team with hand-selected players.