Sideline LegacyA football coaching game where you run the sideline
You coach a fictional pro football team, and you never touch the ball. Your job is getting the team ready during the week and making the calls on game day. Afterward you have to stand at the podium and explain how it went.
If you've always wanted a football game where you get to be the coach, this is the one I built. It's a football strategy game from the head coach's chair, and the football underneath follows the same rules every time.
Prepare for the next opponent
The week starts with a look at who you're playing. You figure out what they like to do and put your plan together. Then you check who's healthy and set your depth chart. Most of the strategy happens here, and whatever you get done during the week is what you have to work with on game day.
The depth chart, set by formation.
Work in progress.
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Name your captains
You name a captain for the offense, the defense and special teams. Your staff will suggest guys based on how they stand with the club and how long they've been there, but it's your call. A captain's word carries weight, too. When you sit down with a captain, it reaches the rest of his position group.
Call the plays or hand them off
On game day you decide how much of the play calling you want. You can call every play yourself or let your staff take some of them. If you'd rather skip ahead, simulate the game and look at the result. The football underneath works the same way no matter how you play it.
You watch it play out on a top-down pixel art field with the score, the situation and every play result right there.
A preseason game on the top-down field.
Work in progress.
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Make your halftime adjustments
Halftime is where you fix what isn't working. You can change how you're pressuring and covering, shuffle your rotation and talk to the locker room. Some of those choices change the game plan. Others change how your players feel about you, and those two don't always line up.
The locker room at halftime: the plan for the second half, and playing time.
Work in progress.
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Face the press
Every week you stand at the podium and take questions. You pick what to say and how to say it. Reporters follow up, what you said ends up in the news, and your relationship with the media gets better or worse depending on how you handle them.
The midweek press conference.
Game Week development preview. Development preview. Visuals and features may change.
Find out who your team is
Before the season starts you get training camp and the preseason to figure out who can actually play. You run practice and coach the preseason games, and then you have to cut the roster down.
Game week: setting this week's practice.
Work in progress.
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Your players don't all play the same way
Two guys at the same position can play completely different games. One running back puts his head down and goes downhill, and another is always looking to bounce it outside. You can see it on film and coach it in practice.
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Quick answers
Do I have to call every play?
No. Call as many or as few as you want, or simulate the whole game. The football follows the same rules either way.
Is this an action football game?
No. It's a football strategy game, and you never control a player on the field. You get the team ready and make the calls, and your players carry them out.
Can I be the head coach without running the roster?
Yes. You can take a job as just the head coach, or as head coach and general manager. The roster page explains the difference.