Axis Football 18 & beyond-Gathering info for their Development team

[GGEden]

Simulation player interactions - OL/DL, CB/WR, etc. Not canned animations, warping, etc. A sense of realistic motions, momentum, physics. Organic. Where you see different things all the time - bad snaps, fumbled hand-offs, players slipping and sliding in rain, etc.

Robust franchise mode - including the ability for online play between friends in a franchise up to 32 people. Also in that, if it were possible, where you could create an online franchise and having less teams than 32 if need be, or maybe better, a way to schedule a season if you have only say 12 humans in a franchise so that there are more human-human games, and less human-cpu games.

Full customization - uniforms, etc, but one in particular is Play and Formation Creation tools. And thus Custom Playbooks. This would be so much fun in itself, an even better "esport" aspect in fact (down the line) having people get creative in Xs and Os. This includes no limits (as long as they're legal) in trick plays. Dunno how hard it would be, but something where you can literally configure an assignment for every single player on O or D on a given play. Not shoe-horned into having a minimal set of options. So you can even come up with elaborate trick plays like a double-reverse WR pass, etc. Sky is the limit for imagination (as long as it's legal by the rules).

Current Gen graphics - pregame presentations and such aren't so important. Just a necessary high-end polish to the graphics on the actual field of play, even if there aren't things like realistic organic crowds and cut-away shots. That can all be piled on top in later versions. But just focusing heavily on all the graphics and physics in that 120 x 53 yards of field. All people do is press X/A to hurry up and get rid of all the presentations and cut-away shots in games like Madden. We focus on the play on the field. The other stuff is a polish that can come with greater future funding, and is nice to have in small doses. But it's superfluous to the action on the field.


Conclusion - Outside of building the Franchise framework, all resources piled into making everything that happens on the field and the look of everything on the field as realistic as possible. I don't care if the crowd is a 2D cardboard cut-out for now. Don't care at all for fly-in cameras pre-game and seeing players come out of the tunnels. Worry about that for a later build. But if you could invest heavily into the physics and motions of players, the graphical look of players, the grass, etc, the positional interaction between players around the field on every snap, making them organic, momentum shifts from tackles and contact, not bowling-ball collisions, and true football AI occurring around the field, and all that kind of thing.

[Fist Of Kings]

Does anyone know the release date? I'm looking forward to trying out this game.

[NateDogPack12]

Top Five Axis Football ’18 Feature Requests:

Axis Football ’18 has already confirmed many heavily requested features. The game is designed by creators with an elite understanding of the gaming community, and the skillfulness to make that vision a reality. I won’t include features that have already been confirmed, but will instead focus on the top five features I’d like to see in Axis Football ’18 that aren’t already on the radar.

(1): Customizable Leagues: Jugan mentioned this in an interview from the ’17 launch cycle. He spoke about the ability to create custom leagues with different teams, divisions, conferences, playoff formats, etc. Imagine taking this a step further, where different player-intake apparatuses could lead to college and high school leagues. You could choose to either draft, recruit, or even assimilate a random class of new players as a high school team would. Obviously, building a college or high school like interface will require far more than one development cycle, as you’d have to build a means of calculating everything from player classes to the relative strength of differently-powered programs. Nonetheless, this is a big ambition that will make the game’s franchise mode truly stand alone, and I at least hope the custom leagues can make some sort of appearance in ’18.

(2): Make Special Teams Special: Axis features a kicking trajectory on extra points and field goals that is too high. I hope that is fixed in ’18. Current leading football titles cannot get ball trajectory, hang-time, and intelligent directional kicking down. You have to go back to football games from a decade ago on consoles two generations removed to see special teams that would realistically implemented. I hope Axis will put some emphasis on special teams.

(3): Cut the Splitback formation: Axis ’17 featured the Bill Walsh staple formation that was a cornerstone of infant west coast offenses. Now, the formation is obsolete, having been replaced with a shotgun variant or various other formations.

(4): Sandbox in Franchise: One of my favorite things to do on football games of old was to set up a franchise where I controlled all the teams. Even in-game, you’d be able to switch from one team to the next, so you could play with both offenses or both defenses. Axis ’17 gave users the ability to watch games played by different teams, and I hope ’18 gives us the ability to play any game we want and switch to any team we want.

(5): Custom Playbooks: It’s great that Axis has vastly expanded their number of plays and formations. It is even cooler that the groundwork is laid for a potential play editor in ’19. I hope Axis ’18 lets us customize playbooks as an intermediary step between now and when we get the editor.

[Fist Of Kings]

I've seen a few clips of it on youtube and the game looks extremely dated and rough. I wanted to buy it when I heard of it's features and finally coming to consoles, but there's so much wrong with the game. I'm not a graphics snob, but I'd be lying if I said they don't matter, and the gameplay is just poor: confused blockers, no pass rush, bad ai, a severe lack of animations, etc.



I would guess at a minimum it's likely 5+ years away from being an average football game. I think for this series to succeed, they need to either avoid being on consoles for now and be exclusive to the pc as they fix some of the gameplay problems, or lower the price of the game.



It's best hope I think is as a $5-10 arcade psn/xbox live downloadable football game and market it to old school, arcadey feel like tecmo bowl. But for those wanting simulation, there are much better options.

[wreckem27]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fist Of Kings

I've seen a few clips of it on youtube and the game looks extremely dated and rough. I wanted to buy it when I heard of it's features and finally coming to consoles, but there's so much wrong with the game. I'm not a graphics snob, but I'd be lying if I said they don't matter, and the gameplay is just poor: confused blockers, no pass rush, bad ai, a severe lack of animations, etc. I would guess at a minimum it's likely 5+ years away from being an average football game. I think for this series to succeed, they need to either avoid being on consoles for now and be exclusive to the pc as they fix some of the gameplay problems, or lower the price of the game. It's best hope I think is as a $5-10 arcade psn/xbox live downloadable football game and market it to old school, arcadey feel like tecmo bowl. But for those wanting simulation, there are much better options.

All things you mentioned are being worked on currently. Pass rush, blocking, etc. The animations are night and day compared to where they were three years ago and will only get better going forward.



I get that it isn't Madden and it definitely rough around the edges, but the potential for something really good down the line is there.



The biggest thing is just that they need support. Making an american football video game is an incredibly complicated task and why you haven't seen very many of them up to this point. Especially when you factor in that they have such a small team that have other obligations in life.



So I can totally understand saying that the game isn't where it wants to be, but I think the honesty from the dev team in regards to promised features and being transparent about the development process (youtube streams of coding, communication with fans on twitter and here, etc) has me as someone who will throw $15 at them every year.

[Fist Of Kings]

Quote: Originally Posted by wreckem27

All things you mentioned are being worked on currently. Pass rush, blocking, etc. The animations are night and day compared to where they were three years ago and will only get better going forward. I get that it isn't Madden and it definitely rough around the edges, but the potential for something really good down the line is there. The biggest thing is just that they need support. Making an american football video game is an incredibly complicated task and why you haven't seen very many of them up to this point. Especially when you factor in that they have such a small team that have other obligations in life. So I can totally understand saying that the game isn't where it wants to be, but I think the honestly from the dev team in regards to promised features and being transparent about the development process (youtube streams of coding, communication with fans on twitter and here, etc) has me as someone who will throw $15 at them every year.

I understand that, but I just can't pay for a game that I know I won't like. I know it's hard to make games, but it's a mess really. Ryanmoody21 posted a vid trying to show off the logic, but the gameplay showed everything but good logic. I wish these guys well, but there are just far too many glaring issues, indie game or not.

[Cam Fan]

Please add a horizontal/tilt or broadcast gameplay camera. Every sport including the EA football games have this option.

[Kanobi]

I urge the developers to play State of Decay 2 (SoD2)...study that traits, morale, and leader system. When they get to the point where they can focus on franchise mode and team building, a player character system similar to SoD2's would put Axis Football ahead in franchise mode without question.