Game loop

Setting up a new game looks like this:

1. Start a new game
2. Review the six available teams
3. Choose the team you would like to command
4. Start the season

The game loop for this abstract gridiron game goes like this:

   1. Review the season schedule

There are six teams and each team plays home and away. There are six weeks to each season and 30 games altogether.

The schedule looks like this:

   2. Choose to play the next game in the season

There is an option to play just one game, play the whole week or play the entire season (30 games) with a single mouse click!

   3. Review the score for the game(s)

Each game takes about 4 seconds to resolve and the scoreboard is instantly updated. Here is an example of the first three games played - the first two games were a draw!

   4. Watch the replay (if you like)

The replay displays a blow-by-blow account of how the game unfolded. Every kick, punt and touch down is recorded for your perusal. Use the replay to see how the game unfolded. Here is an alpha version of the replay showing the opening drive in the third game ending in a touch down.

   5. Re-evaluate your team orders

This is where the fun is. You need to work out your team strategy by reviewing each game and working out what is working and what is not. You can decide how often the QB will pass and how many times a run will be called. You can decide how often to 'go for it' and when to punt. On defense, you decide how often to block the pass and how often to block the run. All these are settings you set up for the team and are used by the algorithm to work out your preferences for each down. Each decision is random and based on a die roll but you heavily influence that die roll. Here is an example of offensive settings (work in progress):

In this example, Blazers will pass the ball 15% of the time and run 85%. Expect a strong running game from the Blazers! Here are the Blazers defensive settings:

   7. Review game stats

Each game has oodles and oodles of meta to help the stats geek in you work out what is working and what is not. This screenshot is WIP:

   7. Reset your team orders in prep for the next game

You need to account for your team's strength's and weakness, your next team and how much lady luck is on your side. The Blazer's team stats are quite good and above average (average = 3):

Blazers have a good QB with equal skills in running (RB = 4) and passing (WR = 4). Blazers defensive is not as good but still strong.

   8. Play the next game!

Each team plays 10 games per season. Home and away games matter as there is a home ground advantage.

   9. End of season

I will describe the end of season in my next blog but I hope you'll agree there are some really unique and interesting things for players to engage with. There are training events, fan driven commercial markets to grow, budgets, geographic areas to "control" and if your team runs out of loyal fans then your team will be removed from the game and replaced with a fresh new team.

I'll show more of that next time!