Players asked us if it would be possible to watch World Championship matches, even if you're managing a completely unknown amateur club. When we responded that this might be allowed, players started asking if they could also watch European Cup matches and other major tournaments. When we again responded that this was potentially possible, we got questions about whether they could watch matches between other teams in the same league as their own. Or even watch matches of a different club they support.
Well, now we are officially announcing: yes, you will be able to schedule and watch any match in any tournament without any restrictions.
How to schedule a match to watch
A new "Watching Matches" tab has appeared on the Calendar screen.
In this tab, you can find the tournament that interests you. It could be a tournament on any continent, local or international, club or national.
In the screenshot, I selected the European Championship. The game displayed all the matches that will take place in this tournament. I can press the "Schedule" button next to the matches I wish to watch.
For example, I decided to watch all of Germany’s matches in the current European Championship qualifying tournament. To do this, just click "Schedule" next to all these matches. If you go to the "Scheduled Matches" tab, all these matches will be displayed in chronological order. If you change your mind, you can remove a match from your scheduled list.
How watching matches works
On the match day, the calendar stops, and the first scheduled match becomes available to watch.
For example, if you’ve scheduled to watch matches in the same league in which you play, you’ll first watch those matches, and only then will you play your own.
There are three options for a scheduled match: Watch, Simulate, Cancel Watching (remove from the schedule).
You might ask: why is there a Simulate option?
Well, we have two types of match simulation: detailed and quick. The detailed one is used in the player's matches (all actions are fairly played out by artificial intelligence). The quick one simulates the actions in the match based on team formations, attributes, skills, and players' giftedness. We believe that the quick simulation is quite well done. But if the player wants certain matches to be "played out fairly" (i.e., using AI), they can schedule them to watch and then press the Simulate button.
If the player presses "Watch" the match will be shown as if you were watching a football match. That means you won’t see dice rolls or detailed information about the footballers, except for their names.
Final words
Although watching matches does not affect gameplay mechanics, this feature allows for deeper immersion into the game world and a feel for life outside your club.
We understand that some players may not find match-watching necessary. However, for many, this feature will allow for a deeper immersion into the game. Some will attend World Championship matches, others will observe their favourite clubs in continental tournaments, and some will study their future opponents. Because even though you won't see the footballers' attributes, understanding FTG means you'll be able to glean a lot just by watching who is performing which actions.
When will the game be released?
Unfortunately, we have encountered significant technical difficulties rewriting the graphical engine. We know that players who have grown to love FTG will enjoy the game as it is. But first of all, we are very ambitious and always try to exceed our expectations. Secondly, we are looking ahead. The new engine will allow us to do many things players have been asking for, but which are currently impossible.
Additionally, working efficiently during wartime is much harder than in peacetime. Therefore, development has taken much longer than expected. I would really like to enter Early Access by the end of the year. But realistically, it will be great if we manage to launch by the beginning of next spring.
In any case, your support for both the original FTG and the upcoming FTGW motivates us. Write reviews of the game on Steam, add FTGW to your wishlist, recommend the game to friends – any little bit of help keeps us moving forward.
How to follow the development progress?
First and foremost, visit the game's page and add it to your wishlist. This way, you will receive an email from Steam when the game goes into Early Access or Full Release.
Secondly, click "Follow" to be notified whenever we publish news on Steam.
The great place to get notified about news and discuss them is our Discord.
Also, to follow our news, you can subscribe to our mailing list: Email subscription.