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Okay, before any of you say it, this has more than a few touches of GTA Vice City. Sue me, I dare you.
Anyway, at the start of the game, you create a player. You can base him on you, you can base him on your favourite player if you support a really rubbish team (hint: AFC Wimbledon, conference sides or Spurs), or you can make him look really /hideous/stupid. Then, you are ready to set him into the world around him.
You start off as a 14 year old kid. Armed with nothing but a football, which can be dropped whenever you want and kicked around, you can walk around the city.
Before I carry on, I’ll just stress that again. You are allowed to drop the ball anywhere, and kick it anywhere (so long as it doesn’t defy the laws of the earth). This means people with an open-mind can have fun. Kicking a ball at moving traffic, at policemen, at pedestrians, at buildings, anything you want. One thing, though: You have to pick up the ball if you want to carry on with the game, so kicking it into a river isn’t wise. More well-known players will, however, be able to buy scuba gear and go in after the ball, or if you are really rich and famous, you can just toss a few adoring fans into the river and hope one of them stays alive long enough to retrieve your ball.
I digress.
So, your a kid, with a ball, and a big city. So, what to do? Running around the city kicking footballs at old ladies and lorry drivers could be fun for a couple of hours, but as a 40 pound game it won’t sell too well, once people see review scores/hear friends’ opinions. So, what is there to do?
Well, littered around the city are lots of people to help your game. For one, there are talent scouts. These will search for talent to play for the big name youth teams, or if you are older, they will put you into a proper team. Of course, talents scouts won’t take any notice of you if you just kick a ball against a wall of do kick-ups. They only notice people who play football in a team. So, how do you join in a game?
Well, littered around the city are gangs of kids, who play matches at various places. Where they play changes all the time, so you’ll have to explore to find these games. You can approach the kids, and they will be in two phases: Playing football or just standing around. If they are playing, you can approach them and ask them if you can join in. They may say yes, they may say no. If they are just standing around, if you drop the ball and kick it softly around the area they are standing, they’ll offer to have a game, and you will join in. Talent scouts will then come past and see you taking it past everyone/scoring a plethora of own-goals and giving away penalties, and if they are impressed they will approach you.
Playing games with gangs of kids isn’t the only way to get noticed, in fact it’s the hardest way. The easier way is to drop by one of the many training grounds for youth teams and ask if you can join the team. You will always be accepted into a team, and you must first go in for a practice session. How well you perform in the tasks here will depend on whether or not you get into the team straight away or if you are a substitute.
Back to the training aspect for a moment, each team train at a different venue, whether it is in a sports hall at a school or out on a field in the middle of nowhere. Each team’s manager will have a different set of mini-games which change around slightly every time you see him. Also, each manager has their own unique mini-game which only they use. Some managers also prefer some ideas, so although you will be doing stuff like playing little tournaments and passing it around with each and every manager, some will do these a lot and others will use different ideas more often. It will make for a very unique experience, as not only will every training session be different, but you’ll also want to play through and join other teams, so you can see where and how they train. This would lend the game tremendous replay value.
You can choose where you want to play, as the manager will ask you in your first session which position you want to play. You can play anywhere, although if you aren’t too good and you ask to be a center back for a team which has two good center backs, you may get pushed up into midfield or out into Right/Left defender. You could, if you wanted to, choose to be the goalie. This would be just like a penalty shoot-out on a normal game, with you controlling your keepers movement and his dives. The game would automatically play horizontally, and you would always be in the goal at the top of the screen, meaning that you had a good view of yourself and the goal instead of having to try and see through the back of the net.
If you play a game with kids, they don’t have any fixed positions other than goalie, who is picked at random, so it may well be you.
So, your in the team, you’ve been to training, the boss likes you and decides to put you in the team for a game. So, you play, you get practice, if you play well you get left on and get more games, if you fall flat on your face you may find that your place is on the subs bench most of the time, and you may want to join another team to try and get first-team football. Occasionally you will be told that a scout is coming to watch this game. Perform well in this match and you may well be scouted, but if you don’t play well, there will be other scouts.
Adding an RPG element to the game, the more you play, the more your stats increase. They can increase in any game, be it in the FA cup final for Arsenal or with a bunch of kids on a basketball court. They cannot improve by just running around the city kicking the ball, though. If you score a lot of goals in a game, or have a lot of good shots, your stats will increase. If you link a lot of play and set up a few goals, your passing will increase, and so on. If you played for long enough, you could create a player who was perfect in every area, so he would be a deadly striker and an amazing keeper at the same time. You will have to stay on form, though, and keep practicing otherwise your stats will plummet and if you are later on in the game it will be very hard to push your stats back up, and it may well be time for you to call it a day.
Call it a day? Well, your player ages in this game, so although you will still get a lot of playability out of it, you will one day have to end your football career. You may have ended it when you were 1 20 year old on the Colchester reserve team, you may have ended it as a 39 year old fading star for Arsenal. Once you’ve finished, it’s game over, so you can either start again or go outside and get some well-earned fresh air.
As you age, you will decide your career. It will be vital to be scouted at a young age, as getting scouted as a 24-year old will be much harder as you will be playing in a non-league team at most.
The game will feature fictional kids teams and non-league sides, but get into the conference or up and the teams are real. With enough hard work, you could be partnering Henry up front for Arsenal or sending Barthez to the bench and playing in goal for Man United. You can’t pick who you want to play for for the most part of the game, but if you get multiple scouts after you or if you are on the transfer market, you will get a say into who you want to play for or if you don’t want to play for any of them.
Only the English leagues?
Yes, I figured that if you wanted to have other leagues, you would need new cities and that might be a little too much for the little black box.
Just for fun, you earn a wage. At the early stage of the game, you live in a small house in the middle of town, which is one of a few save points. If you want to get about, you climb into your parents’ car and then tell them which of the 15 available places you’d like to be dropped at. However, richer players can get their own cars and buy a mansion in the richer side of town. I thought about including the stealing of cars, but it would then need to include a proper police system, and it would make the games age level higher than it ought to be, which would ruin the game. Not only can you buy cars and live in a huge house, you can buy new football boots and shinpads, which will inprove your play slightly. Adidas Predators and Nike Vapors, for instance, will slightly improve your play in some areas, whereas playing in old, tatty boots that you’ve had for years will make your play slightly worse in some areas. It’s only a bit of fun, it won’t drastically change the way you play.
So, that’s my idea for a football game. Is it good? Did I miss anything out that you’d like to see in the game? Is there anything you would take out?
Anyone know where I can get the e-mail address of a major game developer? ;-)
> Good idea
>
> not
Whos idea? Ashers whole post or someone elses?
Just one thing. What do you do between matches? Do you need to eat. Ect.
not
Okay, before any of you say it, this has more than a few touches of GTA Vice City. Sue me, I dare you.
Anyway, at the start of the game, you create a player. You can base him on you, you can base him on your favourite player if you support a really rubbish team (hint: AFC Wimbledon, conference sides or Spurs), or you can make him look really /hideous/stupid. Then, you are ready to set him into the world around him.
You start off as a 14 year old kid. Armed with nothing but a football, which can be dropped whenever you want and kicked around, you can walk around the city.
Before I carry on, I’ll just stress that again. You are allowed to drop the ball anywhere, and kick it anywhere (so long as it doesn’t defy the laws of the earth). This means people with an open-mind can have fun. Kicking a ball at moving traffic, at policemen, at pedestrians, at buildings, anything you want. One thing, though: You have to pick up the ball if you want to carry on with the game, so kicking it into a river isn’t wise. More well-known players will, however, be able to buy scuba gear and go in after the ball, or if you are really rich and famous, you can just toss a few adoring fans into the river and hope one of them stays alive long enough to retrieve your ball.
I digress.
So, your a kid, with a ball, and a big city. So, what to do? Running around the city kicking footballs at old ladies and lorry drivers could be fun for a couple of hours, but as a 40 pound game it won’t sell too well, once people see review scores/hear friends’ opinions. So, what is there to do?
Well, littered around the city are lots of people to help your game. For one, there are talent scouts. These will search for talent to play for the big name youth teams, or if you are older, they will put you into a proper team. Of course, talents scouts won’t take any notice of you if you just kick a ball against a wall of do kick-ups. They only notice people who play football in a team. So, how do you join in a game?
Well, littered around the city are gangs of kids, who play matches at various places. Where they play changes all the time, so you’ll have to explore to find these games. You can approach the kids, and they will be in two phases: Playing football or just standing around. If they are playing, you can approach them and ask them if you can join in. They may say yes, they may say no. If they are just standing around, if you drop the ball and kick it softly around the area they are standing, they’ll offer to have a game, and you will join in. Talent scouts will then come past and see you taking it past everyone/scoring a plethora of own-goals and giving away penalties, and if they are impressed they will approach you.
Playing games with gangs of kids isn’t the only way to get noticed, in fact it’s the hardest way. The easier way is to drop by one of the many training grounds for youth teams and ask if you can join the team. You will always be accepted into a team, and you must first go in for a practice session. How well you perform in the tasks here will depend on whether or not you get into the team straight away or if you are a substitute.
Back to the training aspect for a moment, each team train at a different venue, whether it is in a sports hall at a school or out on a field in the middle of nowhere. Each team’s manager will have a different set of mini-games which change around slightly every time you see him. Also, each manager has their own unique mini-game which only they use. Some managers also prefer some ideas, so although you will be doing stuff like playing little tournaments and passing it around with each and every manager, some will do these a lot and others will use different ideas more often. It will make for a very unique experience, as not only will every training session be different, but you’ll also want to play through and join other teams, so you can see where and how they train. This would lend the game tremendous replay value.
You can choose where you want to play, as the manager will ask you in your first session which position you want to play. You can play anywhere, although if you aren’t too good and you ask to be a center back for a team which has two good center backs, you may get pushed up into midfield or out into Right/Left defender. You could, if you wanted to, choose to be the goalie. This would be just like a penalty shoot-out on a normal game, with you controlling your keepers movement and his dives. The game would automatically play horizontally, and you would always be in the goal at the top of the screen, meaning that you had a good view of yourself and the goal instead of having to try and see through the back of the net.
If you play a game with kids, they don’t have any fixed positions other than goalie, who is picked at random, so it may well be you.
So, your in the team, you’ve been to training, the boss likes you and decides to put you in the team for a game. So, you play, you get practice, if you play well you get left on and get more games, if you fall flat on your face you may find that your place is on the subs bench most of the time, and you may want to join another team to try and get first-team football. Occasionally you will be told that a scout is coming to watch this game. Perform well in this match and you may well be scouted, but if you don’t play well, there will be other scouts.
Adding an RPG element to the game, the more you play, the more your stats increase. They can increase in any game, be it in the FA cup final for Arsenal or with a bunch of kids on a basketball court. They cannot improve by just running around the city kicking the ball, though. If you score a lot of goals in a game, or have a lot of good shots, your stats will increase. If you link a lot of play and set up a few goals, your passing will increase, and so on. If you played for long enough, you could create a player who was perfect in every area, so he would be a deadly striker and an amazing keeper at the same time. You will have to stay on form, though, and keep practicing otherwise your stats will plummet and if you are later on in the game it will be very hard to push your stats back up, and it may well be time for you to call it a day.
Call it a day? Well, your player ages in this game, so although you will still get a lot of playability out of it, you will one day have to end your football career. You may have ended it when you were 1 20 year old on the Colchester reserve team, you may have ended it as a 39 year old fading star for Arsenal. Once you’ve finished, it’s game over, so you can either start again or go outside and get some well-earned fresh air.
As you age, you will decide your career. It will be vital to be scouted at a young age, as getting scouted as a 24-year old will be much harder as you will be playing in a non-league team at most.
The game will feature fictional kids teams and non-league sides, but get into the conference or up and the teams are real. With enough hard work, you could be partnering Henry up front for Arsenal or sending Barthez to the bench and playing in goal for Man United. You can’t pick who you want to play for for the most part of the game, but if you get multiple scouts after you or if you are on the transfer market, you will get a say into who you want to play for or if you don’t want to play for any of them.
Only the English leagues?
Yes, I figured that if you wanted to have other leagues, you would need new cities and that might be a little too much for the little black box.
Just for fun, you earn a wage. At the early stage of the game, you live in a small house in the middle of town, which is one of a few save points. If you want to get about, you climb into your parents’ car and then tell them which of the 15 available places you’d like to be dropped at. However, richer players can get their own cars and buy a mansion in the richer side of town. I thought about including the stealing of cars, but it would then need to include a proper police system, and it would make the games age level higher than it ought to be, which would ruin the game. Not only can you buy cars and live in a huge house, you can buy new football boots and shinpads, which will inprove your play slightly. Adidas Predators and Nike Vapors, for instance, will slightly improve your play in some areas, whereas playing in old, tatty boots that you’ve had for years will make your play slightly worse in some areas. It’s only a bit of fun, it won’t drastically change the way you play.
So, that’s my idea for a football game. Is it good? Did I miss anything out that you’d like to see in the game? Is there anything you would take out?
Anyone know where I can get the e-mail address of a major game developer? ;-)