Written by Julian.

Since the last update there has been some significant events.

1) We have taken on a new web maestro. His name is Daan, and he is from the Netherlands. He is now working along with Will on full development of the interactive design of the website. Over the next few months, we are going to be building in the background, a new html/CSS website which will eventually replace the current Joomla website. This will pave the way for a fully interactive website, which in the long term means the ability to instantly update team league tables and manager league tables from within each GW and from the overall ranks of all managers from all GWs, as well as competition winners, Status point leaders and financial powerhouses from all GWs on the website. So you will be able to see how you rank at any given time against all other managers in many different categories by viewing the website! (atleast thats the plan) In addition it means we can port in real football news into the game and the website and any other news created by the real world or by managers. In short amazing feedback!

In the short term, this means that very soon you will be able to open an account on a new part of the website, which will allow the reservation of team names, and the proper registration of managers for the various stages of testing.

Also the shop window will be a fairly rapid process. Please bare with us on the merchandising. Feel free to hassle TheCoach as he is the main man when it comes to the merchandising side of things. And once the shop system is added to the site, you will be able to place orders using credit cards and/or paypal.

The addition to the team of Daan is a great step forward for the back end of the game's development, and I know you will welcome him to the team :)

In regards to testing, the whole team is now back again, and we are going forward as quickly as possible. Ryan is spearheading the testing procedures, and as the game expands this becomes more and more complex.

The next coding parts that will be added to the game will be algorithmic. Mathematical formulae that form the backbone of player development in terms of ageing and in terms of attribute development. This is a complex totally essential stage to get right, and involves all of the coders working together, to link up the database to the front end client. It will take a while, and will go through nu eropus tweaks along the way. Simultaneously work is on going (which I mentioned before) to create a league structure, a competition creation system and a rudimentary financial system... This is the bit that could seriously upset my team. At last viewing earlier today, my overdraft balance had reached £114 million!

In real terms, since the last update there have actually been many client updates. Mostly GUI minutiae details, that all take time to do, are absolutely necessary, but don't produce a great big announcement for you. Also we are actively discussing certain aspects of the navigation system. But we have not enacted the icon docking system yet, which will make things a great deal easier and user definable.

Before we invite the alpha testers to join us, we want to have in place a financial system that has both income and expenditure. A more functional transfer/auction system than we currently have in place. A full league system, a user competition creation system. A basic seasonal representation, and a more complex team tactics system which allows different formations and a few other tactical features. But until we have the tactically aware ME in place, these are purely cosmetic features, that will allow us to test selection procedures. I look forward to the point at which our teams idiosynchrasies of player staff and basic tactical arrangement actually effect a matches outcome.

Most likely the next part that will become a reality for you, will be the team registration process.

In the next update I hope to report that my team is top of the premier league, and also I will get an update on the match engine from Mr ME himself!

Until then, I'm sure we will all enjoy watching Arsenal climb to the top of the league!

FTF BTF!

Written by Julian.

I just signed a great new player!. He is my first English player (actually second, but the first one is crap!) and his name is Adam Finch. He's 21 years old and a typical english powerful & pacey RB/DC. He joins my team bringing my total number of players to 26. Amongst my squad I have one of the best strikers and one of the best goalkeepers on the current database. (Click here and here for screenshots of Adam Finch)

Yes the client is up and running and we are actively testing. The coding team is bringing new updates on an almost daily basis and things are moving along!

Currently you can pick a team, choose your opponent and challenge them to a game. The tactical aspects of the game are limited right now. 4-4-2 is the only option available, and frankly without a complex ME, it doesnt really matter.

We are concentrating on making sure the build options that are currently in client, are fully operational, and that the GUIs are efficient and allow you to navigate to where you want to be. This is hampered at the moment; the forward/backward arrows are not yet functional, so it is necessary to take a few extra clicks to get to where you want to be.

The next features that will be added to the game will be a competition creation system and the league system for a single FA. After that will be player ageing and the integrated financial liability system which will make life considerably harder, and really screw with my ever increasing overdraft which currently sits somewhere close to the USA deficit hehe!

Yes we can spend as much as we want, but in my defense, we also dont currently have any income. We just have wages going out and cost of buying players at auction. But to be fair, my team is still way beyond my real means and I would have been declared bankrupt within days of the game opening

Things are limited, but progressing quickly and its just great to have a team again and we all find ourselves competitively looking for better players for our teams, even though it makes no difference to match performance yet!

Needless to say it is great to actually be able to play, and chat in game. Send mail and play a game of poker occasionally. Just to see the fruits of our efforts come to life is amazing and a real thrill when the splash screens come up, and you enter into the game each time.

You can feel the potential building and the momentum amongst the devs is at an all time high.

Recently we had our AGM at a secret location in Manchester (always seems to coincide with the first day of the season, and thankfully the venue bar shows the games on screen hehe).

BTW, What a great start for the toffees! NSNO!

At the AGM we made plans for the future of the game, officially welcomed TheCoach to the company and made Ryan our chief tester going forward.

Timelines are still very hard to commit to, so Im not even going to try, but we are seeing palpable results, and we all feel really confident for the future of the project.

There will be new screenshots coming soon with the newsletter that Tommy is writing. TheCoach is in contact with Legea for those of you who are interested in UFL shirts. We hope to get this available for you soon.

And some of you may have seen an interview with Miles Jacobson recently, where we were given an indirect mention in the last paragraph! (thanks for that Miles!), link below

http://www.pcgamesn.com/footballmanager/miles-jacobson-talks-football-manager-online-football-manager-live-dead-okay-technology-lives

So watch this space! we will be moving forward as quickly as we can to get the alpha guys in to join us, but our chief coder Jon will have the final say on that one. Not until he is happy that the build is complete enough with content for a basically challenging gaming experience, and stable enough to allow the alpha testers to test the new features as they are added while minimising going over old ground, will anyone be let in.

Once this decision has been made the competition winners, plus the forum moderators will be allowed in to join us (plus a few other hand picked individuals); Around 2 leagues worth of teams initially.

In preparation for this, the team name reservation form will be soon added to the website, where those already invited will be allowed to list their team names as reserved for the game going forward.

But you will all have to be patient.

Exciting times! kick off is getting closer!

Hi all,

Im sure many of you are wondering why we havent started Alpha yet, and I wish I had better news for you, but I dont yet. The reason is that one of our coders, who has a very specific skill set, namely the DB and server set up, along with algorithm design and other mathematical content set up, has been totally unable to work on UFL for some months. This is because his own company has been going through a potentially very lucrative merger with another company. As a result he has been flying back and forth across the world and has been working 17 hours a day on making it happen.

This was unknown to him at the beginning of the year, as the components of the deal didnt emerge until April. The rest of us were unaware of this until yesterday, and he has been suitably chastised for lack of communication :)

Finding someone else with his skillset has proven very difficult on a voluntary basis. Consequently, aside from his work the rest of the game has been ready for Alpha for some months now.

The dev team can only say that we are doing are best to find another person with the necessary skills to fill in until the aforementioned dev is able once again to work on UFL. More on that below...

We dont doubt for a second the busy dev's total commitment to UFL, and under any other circumstances he would rather work on this full time than do anything else. But we are continuing with the development of the game, and we continue to look for someone who maybe able to assist with the kind of work we are now lagging behind with, until busy dev finds time to continue his work on the Alpha build which is unlikely for at least another month.

I know you dont want to here this any more than we did when we found out yesterday, but thats the fact of life, and we feel it is best to inform you of what is causing the delay from our side, rather than saying nothing and leaving you all wondering.

We will be doing another dev chat in the near future, and also another newsletter with new graphics will be forthcoming shortly, but we cannot give you a timetable on exactly when Alpha will open, until someone is once again working on the server/DB build.

One chink of light at the end of the tunnel has emerged, in that our recent dev, Mr ME, is very well connected within the industry, and he has highly experienced friends who do possess the necessary skill set to take over the missing link, and he has someone in mind...

If a new DB guy joins us, then once he has become familiar with the work completed so far on the server set up, and started work completing that side of the build, we will again be full steam ahead, and my original statement in the year one update, saying that we were 2 full time weeks of work away from Alpha will be proven true.

Then when the original server guy returns to us from his merger situation, we will have a much stronger team all round, and 4 great coders working on the game instead of the current 2. Im really happy that we are now attracting some very high caliber, experienced coding devs to the project, and this can only be very good news for the final product. Until then we have to be patient.

On a different note, I have seen the page designs for the website which will allow you all to reserve your team names and officially apply for beta testing positions. These new pages should be on the website in the next few weeks.

Also we have recently received some samples of UFL merchandise and a bunch of embarrassing pics of devs in clobber will soon be made public for your amusement :)

Thats all for now folks. As always we endeavour to keep you in the loop, and to be honest about everything thats happening behind the scenes, and I cannot wait to give you more positive news in the near future.

Worthwhile journey's are seldom easy, and UFL is no exception!

FTF BTF

Jules

Well guys, it's time to wish UFLive a first Happy Birthday and we are very pleased to be sharing it with you. When the project first started we didn't know what to expect, but we have really enjoyed the journey over the year, developing the game, interacting with the community and shaping the future the game as the fans desire. UFLive is truly 'For the fans, by the fans'.

The original team included Will, Jules, Thom, Jonathan, Mark, Tommy, Ryan with Noel, Stephen (theCoach!) and Alexander joining us throughout the year. Each member of the team adds something unique and important to the project!

I'll take a moment to mention the highlights from the past year.

April 2011

- The first game concept floated by Will, with the original working name of 'Soccer Universe'. Within days Will had setup the original Google group followed by the official Forums and the website. Exciting times as many intriguing and unique ideas were suggested!

May 2011

- UFLive could be now found all over the web and social media. The Facebook and Twitter pages were created and amassing followers.

July 2011

- Netsports Software Ltd was incorporated as a private limited company as the official makers of Ultimate Football Live.

August 2011

- Netsports first AGM was held in Manchester with developers coming in from all over the UK. This was where the rest of the team saw the client in action for the first time.

- The first public webchat with the developers was held and it was a very rewarding experience for both the developers and the community. It's been followed by a webchat every couple months.

September 2011

- From Will's post on Reddit, we were extremely excited to see UFLive mentioned on DIYGamer! We are extremely grateful for the coverage DIYGamer and Arsen gave us, but that was not all...

- The first alpha competitions were held to give members of the public the opportunity to take part in Alpha testing. 

October 2011

- The four Alpha competitions finished and winners were announced. Congratulations to David, Will, Stu, Sergio, Chris, Alan and Ross for their outstanding entries. Not to mention the now adopted tagline 'For the Fans, by the fans'.

- Comprehensive Game Guide published on the forums.

November 2011

- After speaking with Arsen, he was very keen to interview the Netsports team and published another article appearing in DIYGamer. Great questions asked and once again we are very grateful for the attention Arsen gave us.

- The fansite UFLive-Fan was founded and the continual hard work by Peter is greatly appreciated. It was followed shortly after by UFLive.gr, to represent the massive Greek community. Thanks for your work George and Thanassis!

December 2011

- Netsports Software now with its own website.

February 2012

- One of the most exciting moments for fans and devs alike, was the release of the first UFLive in-game screenshots. They were met with praise and constructive critique which is exactly what we want from our community!

April 2012

- UFLive celebrates its first birthday along with the release of NEW screenshots - as seen below.

Please click the image to zoom in! Head to this thread to discuss your thoughts about the new screenshots.

Thanks for reading guys, as we have already said - none of this would be possible without the continual help of you guys. 

It is very exciting to think where UFLive will be in one years time.