Football Coach: The Game did not come to be a Football Manager or FIFA competitor. In fact, what moves this game, by RL9 Games (producer associated with Robert Lewandowski, footballer for FC Bayern München), is a very special return to virtual pitches. IGN Portugal spoke with Leszek Milewski and Rafał Cymerman to learn more about this new football simulator.
It’s not the first time Rafał has worked on a game like this. In 1995, at the age of 16, he created his first football management title: Liga Polska Manager ’95. Liga Polska was a real success within borders, and seemed to herald a great career in the industry. But, as Leszek explains, “After this success he abandoned video games. Now, it’s like a comeback after many years. Do you know people who, after a certain age, think ‘what I’m doing is what I want to do’? I think Rafał asked himself that. Therefore, the first step was a return to a dream of youth”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KqZb3DNF6A
Rafał returned to this world and made contact with PlayWay, the Polish video game publisher. Interestingly, PlayWay director Krzysztof Kostowski has been known to Rafał for many years. With PlayWay’s desire to create a sports game, efforts were joined to create this game.
But how does Robert Lewandowski, one of the best football players of the 21st century, enter this equation? As they explain, the contact with Lewandowski came through the owner of PlayWay. Interestingly, the Polish striker had played in the legendary Polska Manager ’95 League, reveals Leszek. “In some cases, it can be called a coincidence. In this case, we can call it destiny”.
In some cases, it can be called a coincidence. In this case, we can call destiny
And what kind of game did fate want anyway? Be disillusioned by the name. Football Coach: The Game is not a Football Manager competitor. “This is what we most want to communicate: Football Manager is amazing,” says Leszek. “In our team we have Mateusz, who is the greatest Football Manager expert in Poland. We love FM, just like everyone else who likes football strategy. We are not suicidal! (laughter). We don’t rival Football Manager. Nobody wants another Football Manager. Anyone who wants a football simulation goes to Football Manager. We are not going to make another FM because nobody can make another FM”.
“But when we talk about Football Manager, we’re talking about a single-player game. We want to go online, Player VS Player. That’s why it’s more like Top Eleven. This is where we see more room for creativity, less simulator, more gamer-friendly. For example, twice a game, you can take control, in a sort of mini-game, to finish off an action.”
Nobody wants another Football Manager
Football Coach: The Game seems to be focused on exploring the multiplayer aspects of football management. It’s something we see in games like Top Eleven, Online Soccer Manager, and others. But RL9 Games had yet another iconic football title as a reference: the old man Sensible Soccer.
“You join Football Coach. You create your team, your coach – choose one of five types”, explains Leszek. You are assigned a league. There’s also a Cup, where you’ll play against rivals from your league and some a little better, just like in a regular cup. But that’s just part of what we offer. The main focus is a gaming lobby. Enter the Lobby, you have your team, your ranking, your team’s overall, and you can choose who you want to play with. You can play by ranking, for virtual money. You can create your own tournament, just like in Sensible Soccer. I was an avid SS fan and loved inventing my own tournaments. We are not thinking of rules like ‘No Offsides’. But we’re thinking about things like Golden Goal, deciding if there’s extra time or penalties, how many wins you need in the playoff, etc. Anyone who has played Sensible Soccer knows what I’m talking about. We want it to be like a sandbox”.
The focus on this sandbox format is reflected in other aspects of the game, with RL9 Games wanting to accommodate various types of virtual trainers. “Want to play all day? Play. Do you want to play once a week? Play. There is a way for everyone,” says Leszek.
In each tournament, the player can decide whether to play with beans, or whether he decides to put some virtual money into question – creating the tournament also entails its own costs.
As we are talking about an online title, the social aspect also deserved some attention from the producers, in the form of clans. “In football games, it’s not very popular because there’s no such thing as clans in real football. But that’s why we’re not going to make a simulator. Let’s make a modern game, and you have to have clans. Forming a small partnership can be a big motivator for some players – a ‘team of teams’”. We believe that rankings, tournaments, clans… are the lifeblood of the game.”
Beyond the four lines, coaching life has a lot to say. And Football Coach: The Game incorporates some RPG elements: we can buy a house, a car, we get a salary, etc. But Leszek prefers to manage expectations regarding this aspect. “This is a football management game, not an RPG with football elements,” he explains. “All football management games are a bit like an RPG game. Player stats are like RPG stats. You can take Messi from Football Manager and put him next to a character from Fallout 1. He’s always been there. Take your team and make it fight a rival. It’s like taking the barbarians and making them fight the orcs.”
