Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

[Stu]

Looks like EHM is coming back. it will be available on Steam Early Access today.

http://community.sigames.com/showthr...ack?p=10248877

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

This is FANTASTIC news.

SI has come a long way since this game was last released. We can only hope this becomes as good as Football Manager.

[gopher_guy]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

Whoa, a hockey version of football manager?

That's awesome.

So what's the deal with this "Early Access"? I see it's $15, is it essentially a Beta of the game?

[roolz]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

In essence, but expect it to be very polished at this stage still.

I think the main point they are getting at is that there wont be licenses.... this gives them a good chance at getting feedback ie $$$ to see whether its worth pursuing and getting the licences again.

It will get supported via patches and with their FM track record, id be confident in this being a solid version and a step back into Hockey management sims.

[gopher_guy]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

Just found this review:

http://gmgames.org/eastside-hockey-manager-early-access-ehm-ea/review/

Screenshots from the review:

Spoiler

To call it a beta version would be grossly unfair and inaccurate. The game is highly polished.

Might have to buy this tonight....

[Perceptor]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

We have to all buy in and hope they will make future series!!

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

We have to all buy in and hope they will make future series!!

Yes, and at $15 for this quality, it seems to be a no-brainer.

EDIT: Well, crap. It's not on Mac OS. Looks like I'll finally get around to making my Mac run Windows programs.

[Jukeman]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

Dreams do come true.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[billman29]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

For anyone curious, here is what was written on the Steam page for the game by someone at Sports Interactive

Why Early Access?
“We originally published Eastside Hockey Manager as a traditional ‘boxed’ game between 2004 and 2007. However, we decided to shelve it at that point because it simply didn’t make financial sense to continue publishing it in the old-fashioned way.

At that time we were not only badly affected by piracy, we were also hit by the way retail used to work, particularly in the US. Boxed copies of the game would fly off the shelves in places where hockey was popular, but would languish in places where it wasn’t – and there was no system in place for those boxes to be shifted from one State to another. Steam wasn’t anywhere near as popular back then as it is now, so we didn’t have a digital solution to this problem like we do now.

We have never wavered in our belief that there’s an enthusiastic and active fan base for this game which we’ve seen at the Blueline community (http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/) and now, using Early Access, we want to prove that to everyone else.

Getting the game into its current state has been very much a ‘hobby project’ for a few of us at the studio. Up until now we’ve worked on EHM in what little spare time we have (Football Manager keeps us all very busy) but now, using Early Access will give us some budget to be able to put more resources into EHM, whilst not losing any from FM. We’re doing it now because we’ve hired some of the people we need to cover the extra work.

Early Access will also give us an opportunity to get the feedback we need from the community to ensure that this is the game they want to play.

Finally, we need to prove that there is enough demand to justify resurrecting the series fully. Whilst this version has ‘fake’ data, we want to show that there is a demand for a fully licensed version of the game. That won’t come with this release but, if it’s successful, it means we can go to the leagues around the world and get licenses for future, annualised, versions (in much the same way that we do with FM).

And, bluntly, nothing beats a testing resource of hundreds or thousands of people. Your help in this regard is greatly appreciated.”
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“We’re not completely sure on that just yet. But we’re talking months, not years.”
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“Polish, polish, polish. But we’re also planning some extra features – a play-off tree view will be rolled out in the first update, with some major improvements to player progression following in the second. At some point in the Early Access cycle we also plan to include a network game mode and some further playable leagues. And we’ll be looking at features that you, the community, suggest – if we like them (and they’re technically achievable) then we’ll do what we can to get them into the final game.”
What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“It’s fully playable and includes 11 leagues from around the world and 13 international tournaments. At the moment the game is English-language only.

We haven’t seen any crashes for a while, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a few when people start to play the game for the long-term on a variety of different hardware configurations.

If and when we do find any crashes we’ll roll out updates as soon as they are fixed. We also plan to put out a regular update every two weeks (on Thursday evenings, UK time).”
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“Yes. It will be cheaper during the Early Access period to thank people for helping to steer the game in the right direction.”
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“We want as much feedback and as many bug reports as possible, please. We were one of the first ‘community driven’ studios – our fans have been directly involved in shaping our games for 20 years – and we want to keep this going both through our own forums (at http://community.sigames.com/) and here on Steam for EHM. We will always make the final decision on what does and doesn’t go into our games, but we treat every idea from the community in exactly the same way as we treat ideas that come from people within the studio.”

[gopher_guy]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

Where's the spot to go for mods, to add logos/names/pictures?

Edit: links for all that are in the review I posted... Haha

[gopher_guy]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

Finally got the names/logos/facepacks all downloaded and set up, just started up a save with the Wild. Pretty much just getting used to the UI. It's not quite as intuitive as FM, but I'll get used to it.

Just a couple days into the season, and look who found a new job in the NHL...

[Perceptor]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

LOL. Maybe he'll fight Lombardi if he doesn't like him. As a longtime fan of EHM, there are some factors that need to be taken into consideration:

1. This is a new game, but based on a game that's 8 years old and the FM games from that time period. Obviously, FM has evolved and we're all used to that. It will take time for FM players to get in sync with in essence, an older engine

2. Rosters and logos and player packs can be downloaded from www.ehmtheblueline.com Some of the pics are dated and such, but now that the game has been revived, expect that site to ramp up its traffic. Know the site, love it. It is the sortitout to FM

3. I love OOTP Baseball and expect their Football (American) to be solid, but I wonder how Franchise Hockey will really do with EHM being revived. In a niche market such as text sims, they're really going to be behind the 8-ball. Their first game was terrible and poorly received. They stopped updating and there's no ETA on the next version. I feel bad for those guys because with EHM coming back and essentially building off a good base, those guys will be hard-pressed to succeed. I hope they do well, but food for thought

[Fiddy]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

Hopefully this does well enough to see a iOS version like Football Manager..

[gopher_guy]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

I'm really enjoying it so far.

At first I was worried that the scoring would be too high, but it's actually pretty realistic, I've seen quite a few 2-1, 3-2 type games. The scoring is higher than real life, you see 5, 6, and 7 goal games a lot more frequently than you do on the actual NHL, but it's not too the point where it's annoying. Actually I think it makes it kind of fun.

There are some things that I think need to be fixed/tweaked (faceoffs after a penalty aren't in the offensive zone like they should be, and ENGs appear to be automatic, from the full length of the ice), but I'm really enjoying it so far!!

[archibalduk]

Re: Eastside Hockey Manager Early Access

It's great to see the game back in development and plenty of people downloading. Hopefully enough people will buy it to secure its full time return.

It'd be great to see Operation Sports review the game. Other than the one I wrote, I haven't seen any full reviews yet.