A football simulator where you coach the team

Sideline Legacy is a football simulator where you're the head coach of a fictional pro team. You put the game plan together during the week and decide how much of the playcalling you want on Sunday. Then the football plays out on its own rules.

I built the football part first, because if the sim doesn't hold up, nothing else in a coaching game matters. Every game runs on the same rules whether you call every snap yourself or skip straight to the final score.

Sideline Legacy game screen: a preseason game on the top-down pixel-art football field, Tempests against Tidebreakers, first quarter, 3rd and 8 at the Tidebreakers 34. Named players line up around the line of scrimmage, with a mini map of the whole field in the corner. — A preseason game on the top-down field.
Work in progress.
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An American football simulation from the head coach's chair

This is American football, with four downs to make ten yards and a clock you have to manage at the end of each half. You never throw a pass or break a tackle. You decide who's on the field and what they run, and at halftime you fix whatever isn't working. Your players carry it out from there.

How a coaching week works

Seasons that keep going

You play the whole season, with standings, playoffs and player stats kept the entire way. When it ends, the league doesn't start over. Last year's results stay on the record, and the rookies you drafted come back a year older.

Your coaching career

Sideline Legacy pregame screen: a pixel-art football stadium seen from above, surrounded by the city, with the banner Tempests at Tidebreakers, preseason game 1, Ironwood Flats Memorial Field. Below it, broadcaster Thad Mayhew of the Hashmark Herald introduces the game. — The pregame show before a preseason game.
Work in progress.
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Sim a game when you just want the result

Some weeks you'll want to call every play. Other weeks you're in the middle of a playoff race and you just want to see the score. A simulated game runs on the same football as one you coached, so skipping ahead doesn't hand anybody an easier win.

A football sim you can trust

The results of a football sim only mean something if you believe them. The same situation plays out under the same rules every time, and your saves hold up. That's also what lets me keep tuning the football as the game grows.

Every team plays its own way

How a team plays comes from its offensive and defensive concepts, what the staff believes in and the players on the roster. Every team doesn't get the same playbook, so what you can do on game day depends on how you built your team. Each week your coordinators bring you their ideas for the game plan, and it's up to you whether to take them.

Sideline Legacy football simulation game plan screen: offensive coordinator Eamon Sorensen pitches a change to this week's plan from the scouting report, such as running at light boxes, with the choice to take his pitch or keep your usual, a fourth-down setting and a table of the settings it changes in your playbook. — Your coordinators' pitches for this week's game plan.
Work in progress.
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Players who play like themselves

Two running backs with close ratings can play completely different games. One puts his head down and goes straight downhill, and the other is always looking to bounce it outside. You'll see it on film, and you can coach it in practice.

Read about player tendencies

Watch it from above

Games play out on a top-down pixel-art field that's presented like a TV broadcast, with the score, the down and distance and the result of every play on screen. Game day has weather too, so some games get played in the rain or the snow.

Pixel art of Beacon Telecom Stadium on a rainy afternoon, seen from above the sideline before a football game — Beacon Telecom Stadium on a rainy afternoon, and at night in the snow.
Work in progress.

Pixel art of Beacon Telecom Stadium at night in the snow, under the lights, with the city lit up behind it — Beacon Telecom Stadium on a rainy afternoon, and at night in the snow.
Work in progress.

See the look

Quick answers

Is Sideline Legacy a football simulator for PC?

Yes. It's a football simulator for desktop PCs, coming soon to Steam.

Do I control the players?

No. Most football games on PC put the ball in your hands. In Sideline Legacy you make the calls from the sideline and your players carry them out.

Can I simulate games instead of coaching them?

Yes. Sim any game you don't feel like coaching. It runs on the same rules as a game you call yourself.

Does the game track stats?

Yes. Player stats, standings and playoff results carry over from one season to the next.

Is the league real?

No. The league and its players are made up, but the football follows real rules.