Festivals For The Rest Of Us

Alas, football season is over… or is it?! It’s been an embarrassing amount of time since my last update on Fantasy Football Tactics, so I have a ton to share with you today! First up…

Festivals

Steam Next Fest (February 23rd - March 2nd)

Fantasy Football Tactics is participating in Steam’s Next Fest, which starts TODAY! Next Fest is something all games on Steam are allowed to participate in ONCE before release. The last Next Fest featured more than 2,000 games! There’s something for everyone, and it’s a fantastic way to garner interest pre-launch. Which is why, while I’ve been hard at work finishing the game, I also took some time to give the demo a good scrubbing (more on that below!). If you haven’t played the demo, or it’s been a minute, then it’s a great time to check it out and share with your friends!

Turn-Based Thursday Fest (March 9th - March 16th)

If you follow me on Bluesky you’ve probably noticed many of my posts are weighted heavily toward Thursday mornings. This is because the amazing Turn-Based Games community hosts a special mini-festival every Thursday to showcase, you guessed it, turn-based games. I even got to host recently which was a ton of fun! Even more exciting, they are hosting a Steam event in March with tons of great turn-based games (with discounts!), demos, and upcoming releases. It’s a must for any turn-based fan, and I’m excited to report that Fantasy Football Tactics will be participating! Between these two festivals, it will be a lot of great exposure for my game and I’m eager to see the results!

If you are excited for my game, I'd love to have you join our fledgling Discord community! It's a great place to share feedback and connect with awesome folks that like tactics games. You can join here: Fantasy Football Tactics on Discord

Demo Updates

Low Poly FTW

I’ve learned A LOT making this game, and as a result have had to go back and change/tweak many things. My original intent for the playfields in the game was to very closely mimic the methodology used in classic 32-bit tactics RPGs.

I researched how the fields in some of these games are constructed, all the way down to each pixelated texture carefully placed on each tile. My level editor does a good job recreating much of the aesthetic, but my pixelated texturing was predictably not nearly as beautiful. After some feedback from a game dev friend, I decided to go all-in on a consistent, (mostly) textureless low-poly aesthetic. I’m really happy with the results! Not only does the game have a more cohesive feel, but it’s unlocked tools that help increase velocity as I build the rest of the content of the game.

Before (Left) and After (Right) - The pixelated textures have been replaced with smooth color gradients denoting the tiles with “caps” for added depth

Mix-and-Match Abilities

Low-key the most exciting update in the demo, I made two small yet powerful changes to the way ability-unlocking works:

1. When a Position’s ability is unlocked, all units of that Position can immediately use the ability without having to go through the extra step of spending PP (Position Points). The catch is, this is only true while a unit is in that Position.

2. Want to use that fancy new ability from a different Position? Now you can! By spending PP, you can Learn the ability permanently, meaning it can be used regardless of a unit’s current job. Gotta bulk up that resume, right?!

Together, these changes unlock full mix-and-match customization for every unit. Want to build a Thrower that can also heal your team? No problem! How about a Striker that can also cast Flame? Or maybe you want a jack-of-all trades with the best abilities from each Position? The sky’s the limit!

These changes really streamline the ability unlocking process, and greatly enhance flexibility, allowing everyone to tackle the game in their own style. I hope you’ll have fun experimenting in the latest demo update and let me know what combos you come up with!

👀

I wasn’t happy with how the units’ eyes looked, so I went back to the drawing board and polished them up a bit. It’s fairly subtle, but I think much more refined, and better matches the capsule art (credit: Sincere Seal).

Before (Left) and After (Right). I was trying to recreate the pixelated big-eyes of classic RPGs with my original attempt, but it was pretty extreme! The update now matches more closely the capsule art

Playfields

The final game will have sixteen playfields, with a couple extra ancillary fields thrown in for good measure. Here’s a peak at three of the new playfields that will be coming to the game at launch!

Tundra

Steam post imageEvery game needs a good ice level right? Set on a frosty arctic mountain, it’s too cold for trees to grow. The terrain is rough, so you’ll need to manage your team’s jump range to navigate efficiently. Now, if only there was an ability to increase your jump range… 😉

The Wheel

Steam post imageAlright, time for some wacky level design! With a hub and spoke design, the path to your goal isn’t as straightforward as it may seem. Movement abilities like Chasm and Swap (and maybe a few others!) are the key to unlocking this field.

Shipyards

Steam post imageI’m on a boat! It’s mostly just a ship with cool water effects, but what makes this field unique is the goal placement. They are very close together, creating quick, hectic matches that often come down to a last-minute fumble recovery. Who can get–and keep–the ball first?!

Super Abilities

What some people call “scoping” often comes down to the simple activity of picking a number, any number. I picked sixty-four. Why did I pick sixty-four? Was it because I love the Nintendo 64? Yes. But it also divided evenly by eight, resulting in eight unique abilities for each of the eight Positions in the game. I’m happy to report that somehow, miraculously, I have finished building all sixty-four abilities in the game!

To celebrate, I wanted to spotlight a new kind of ability called Super Abilities. As your units take damage, they will charge a SUPER meter. When fully charged, your character can unleash a Super Ability of their choice. These are very powerful, often having game changing consequences, and, as such, are the only abilities in the game gated by any such MP/cooldown like restrictions. Keen observers may also notice that just like regular abilities, Super Abilities can be Learned, allowing you to build absolute powerhouse characters that can take advantage of any situation. There are eight Super Abilities in total, one for each Position. Please look forward to checking them out in the full game at launch!

Sheepfarter… I mean… Streaming Spotlight!

I recently got to join Midwest Game Guy ’s stream, where Jordan played through the ENTIRE FFT demo. I joined in chat with the amazing community, answering questions and just having a good time. It’s always cool getting to watch people connect and enjoy my game, and was especially cool seeing the mix-and-match abilities in action! You can watch the full play-through on the Midwest Game Guy YouTube channel here:

March-ing On

Whew, that was a lot of content! If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU! I’ll be back next month to let you all know how the festivals turned out, and to share details on the launch of Fantasy Football Tactics! Until then, it’s just fifty-nine days until the NFL Draft, but who’s counting? ;-)