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Ultimate Football Live is a football management MMO game being developed by the community.
Project Status: Pre-Alpha.
Next milestone: Closed alpha testing.
So thank you for a positive reaction to the first blog. Backstage is buzzing at the moment as I type this we are readying ourselves for a grilling in the first official developers web chat. I will probably still be typing this mid-chat so, if you were at the web chat and I took a time answering a question this is why! This blog is going to look at how we design features. To see the logic behind the features you have to understand our vision. So first up we sat down and decided the things we wanted to focus on. The things that we felt were most important to a Football Management MMO. Personally I stood up and screamed stable economy, numbers, money, economy numbers economy and cash. I used EVE as an example of how a strong economy can give longevity to a game. If the economy is weak and collapses after 12 months, then the chances are the game will too. Jules was keen to get more things to do into the game. Side features, PvsE content and give people a reason to stay logged in. Promoting community was very much linked to this and we really want users to feel rewarded for joining in with the community and putting effort into the game. Top of everyone’s list was competitiveness, making a game where the big clubs don’t have it all their way, and where anyone can go from the top to bottom. If you keep winning you’ll stay at the top, but if you don’t then it’s a downward spiral. Finally we wanted to have minimum rules and uncomplicated features. We wanted to create a game where things felt natural, explained and made sense to new users. So that starting the game is welcoming, and never daunting. So there we were, our five key factors:
The five pillars of UFL if you want. Making a game that you can play for as little as half an hour, but as much as 12 hours. Where the more you put into the game the more you will get out of it.
From here we brainstormed, and wrote down everything we needed and wanted in the game, from things as simple as a team page, or manager screen to outlandish ideas like a casino and bookmakers… It was a long list!
At this point Jules drew an amazing features map, which I wish I could show you because drawing a whole game both UI and back end on one side of A4 and colour coding it is an amazing thing. I think it was more complicated than the architect’s plans for Wembley, but on that sheet was (and still is) Ultimate Football Live.
Of course no feature had any content and despite the features team sharing a mutual moment of victory we were a million miles from where we needed to be.
The boxes were shared out with myself, Jules, Brad, Paul and Noel splitting the game in 5 and drafting up each of the items on the map.
It is actually amazing how much there is to consider for something as simple as mail for instance. You write mail in a box and think, sorted. But when you think about it, there are loads of decisions like can you send pictures, set up friends mailing groups, have a signature, send from email address to in game recipient, what is the storage capacity, how will mail be monitored for abuse. When you put that into context, think about how much there is to consider about a more complicated feature, for something like creating a match day screen. How many things go on to that one page, chat, statistics, option, effects, betting, viewers, substitutes, feedback and not to mention a match engine!
Some of these features we’re a couple of pages long, but some we’re miniature dissertations. The economy was around 60 sides of A4… No Joke, and it probably still isn’t finished.
We have been plodding through these features with a simple but effective process.
Firstly, draft. One of us guys sits down and writes a document about what we like about the feature, and how we think it should work. Normally we provide several options.
Debate, we meet up on a Tuesday night and debate a feature. We are very critical of each other and like I say we do disagree but this is a vital part of the process. The main reasons for this are the five things I outlined above, our goals for the game. We are looking at these on every feature, and if someone has a great idea, but it comes across as too complicated, or destabilise the economy or community then we boot it out.
We also look at if or if not we would have liked this as a user. For instance the idea that if you do well in game, and are loyal to the game you may get some discounted subscription time, or free subscription time is something I as a user would have loved. So we are going to bang it in!
At this point we may well reach consensus, especially about the smaller features, but on the bigger and controversial things it just isn’t that simple. It’s at this point we come to the great UFL public. I’m sure you’ve seen the votes on the forum, and probably think we don’t listen… but we really do. On loads of features we have changed our minds based on the opinions or fresh ideas of the forums.
Then we re-debate, re-vote and redraft until we finally have a cast iron written down signed, sealed and approved feature, which is added to the beautiful e-book of UFL. I would say this is 80-90% drafted now… excellent hey!
This book is then under lock and key (or password) passed to John, and he looks back at us going ‘really guys’… we never make his life easy. Then it’s ready for him and his team of ace coders to put into the game.
Obviously some of the features are a way off being added and won’t actually be in the game till late in the testing stage but the game is there in beautiful black and white (or blue and white if Jules has written it) ready to go in.
The next process is build a bit, test a bit, and build a bit more until that techni-coloured dream sheet that is our features map becomes the game we have visualised, dreamt about and are dying to share with you guys.
I have mentioned him a lot tonight so your Dev Profile tonight is Julian ‘Jules’ Payen. Jules is our features manager and over see’s the features drafting process, he is also due to his business experience one of Netsports Software’s (that’s our company name) founding directors.
He has set up two companies one which manufactured and installed PA equipment in music venues and also a web design business. A self confessed jack-of-all-trades he is currently perusing a business interest in a restaurant in the USA (how very Gordon Ramsey).
We normally find Jules having brainwaves about the most obscure features you could imagine, or never imagine. But, he is also shrewd when it comes to business and has brought a wealth of experience and contacts to the table.
One word of warning, if he offers you a signed UFL shirt run!
So Backstage Blog 2 is over, but fear not I will be back next week with another instalment. I would love any suggestions on things you would like me to write about… Answers on a postcard (or in the comments box below).
I have been asked to discuss the match engine, but at the moment we are at a mid point where it isn’t appropriate to discuss in too much depth and also it will be better when I can give you the full story.
Next time we will look at where and to who we are aiming to position this game. This is all about target audience, what we have learnt and competitors… The answer is probably just going to be you guys, so it should make excellent reading. Or not!
Any way,
Catch you all soon.
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I am so happy and excited that FML fail born this great team. Your vision and way of working is really great.
Everything happens for some reason after all.
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