Football Games: What else is there?

I already have expressed my general preference towards a sports simulation and when it comes to a specific discipline football (soccer) is my first choice. It's not that I am a big fan myself but a lot of my friends really like it and I believe it's still the most popular team sport (at least in Europe).

Spectators always seem to know better when it comes to tactical decisions and all I asked told me that they'd be excited to test if an alternative play would have been superior. So there is clearly a market for that kind of games if realistic enough and easy-to-use.

Of course the above holds true for other sports as well, e.g. American football. Besides me being more familiar with the rules of the European version, the proximities of the players to each other are by far easier to overview. This might be especially important when the graphics are abstracted from well animated human models in 3D.

The following lists football (soccer) titles with a brief description of each. It's not complete and I might create another list for tactical games not limited to this very discipline or sports at all. If you happen to know any other interesting titles related to tactics, please tell me! Other comments are of course welcome too.

EA: FIFA (10)

URL: http://fifa.easports.com

Easily the most popular football game series with a long history back to 1993. The most recent iteration is always extremely realistic and immersive setting high standards in all areas (presentation, graphics, audio, physics, etc.). Besides the technical quality, fans love it not only because it has all the licenses (players and leagues) but also updates player statistics and attributes during the live season.

The standard play can be described as an action emphasized real-time tactics simulation. In addition it features a single player manager mode, but the real deal are the various multiplayer options:

• Standard MP: a game is played by up to seven people per console/computer and/or others connected through the network. Each player controls only a single avatar at a time, but can switch to any other currently CPU controlled character closer to the action (football). 
• "Be a Pro" MP: up to 10 vs. 10 online play. No switching here as each human player has a dedicated field player.
• Large-Scale MP: Interactive leagues take the multi-player experience beyond a single game. These are however not available in conjunction with the "Be a Pro" or manager modes.

Regarding tactical decisions the fast pace of the game is rather limiting. An only player has to rely on the A.I. but even in multi-player mode gamers on each side have to know the playing style of each other well for a tactical play. Although applying sophisticated tactics during a game isn't the focus of this title it offers plenty adjustments before a match or when it's interrupted: formation changes, man marking, set-pieces, etc.

Irrelevant note: Did I mention the soundtrack of the last iterations is just awesome!

Funky Football

URL: http://mobileium.com/funkyfootball.php

Simple, traditional turn-based tactics. Each player has a fixed number of limited moves (tackle, move, pass & shoot) during a turn. This simplicity allows anyone to pick up the game instantly. Also worth mentioning that instead of using boring menus to select the desired action the input possibilities are intuitively visualized. However, the tactical aspect is much closer to a traditional board game than to real football - nevertheless it's fun.

Check it out, it's only 1$ in the AppStore / Android Market.

Drag Soccer

URL: http://www.dragsoccer.com

Another real-time tactical football game but with simple game mechanics. Although it requires a descent reaction time and a good handle for a computer mouse, the are only three controls (run, pass & shoot) to master. The tactical part is boosted with the ability to chain consecutive actions during execution although it can be quite challenging in real-time. Finally, the visual style is a good abstraction fitting the gameplay - ideal for the prototyping platform I have in mind, at least as a starting point.

Irrelevant note: The game is still buggy but I'm always good for a match - let me know if you are!

Places for Games: Tactical Soccer

URL: http://www.placeforgames.com/gatso.htm

As the name says this old-timer is really about tactics. Before the match starts player attributes can be slightly altered to fit the individual style. That's it about pre-game modification but nothing more is needed as there is (unfortunately) no supporting A.I.. Everything, like formation, man-marking, etc., is implicitly determined through your actions. The gameplay is turn-based with the the minimal actions: run & pass (shot if target is inside the goal). The actions for all players of a team are simulated concurrently after a turn, however it doesn't feel realistic with the other side standing still. Also it's a pity that actions cannot be queued. However, this isn't necessary because the simulation stops at the first ball contact of a field player (after a pass/tackle).

While this game surely has it's flaws (hey camera man, I'm looking at you!), it's the only one of that kind I know and it's idea is excellent. Further, it shows that the simulation must be concurrent for all players of both teams if realism is in demand. Finally, it opens the question how to adjust the music/sound sound with two alternating phases (planning & execution)?

Talking Genres

Before jumping into production mode I spent some time sorting the project into a context with related video game genres and titles. This means I was looking for anything close to tactical, team-based games. Preferring non-war scenarios, more or less the only remaining are sport simulations. Surely, one can think of others, e.g. a flight control application, but the number of adaptive tactics seemed limited in everything what came to my mind. Also, sport games  are fitting perfectly because they can be played in both a cooperative and competitive manner. Another pragmatic factor is that the game mechanics/rules are well defined and known which let's me distribute my "brain time" amongst other aspects.

Plans / Tactics / Strategies

Now let's talk about genres. At first, I should say what my understanding of a tactical game is. At an abstract level a tactic is probably not more than the means to achieve some given objective. In many cases people are trying to meet the same goal together or as opponents which leads to the need that tactics are somehow adaptive in contrast to following a (fixed) plan.

Another word often used as synonym for tactic is strategy. However, I will follow the somehow established distinction that a tactical game focuses solely on coordinating the individual units/players. On the other hand, if a big element of the game also includes managing these, it would rather fall into the strategy genre. Examples are:

1. wargames in which clever base building/upgrading and resource management are a critical to create a (vast amounts) of units.
2. sport games involving club management: finances, trading players and evolving their attributes/abilities (training).

Personally, I think that tactics in sports are especially interesting to evaluate against each other because the fixed and equal number of players on each team. Still the squads don't need to be equally strong and the 'right' tactics might depend on the individual player attributes.

Real-time vs. Turn-based

Basically there are only two different kinds of tactical/strategical video games which determine how these are played: in real-time or turn-based.

In real-time tactics time continuously passes and the entities' actions are altered concurrently. This variation is definitely the most realistic approach and became very popular in war simulations. The stress factor to keep an eye on everything and entering new commands at the same time are often a welcome part of the challenge. However with fast and detailed moving athletes in sport games the tactical aspect becomes less important part and a certain skill is required for quickly specifying new re-actions (fast button pushing).

Though possibly limited in duration, turn-based tactics consist of a separated period of analysis (planning/decision phase) before the actual execution of the orders/actions (movement/execution phase). In most turn-based military games the action is immediately performed after a single unit is ordered. This simplifies the game mechanics greatly because actions are not concurrent and therefore don't affect each other. The advantage is that the outcome of a turn is very predictable. Further, the similarity to traditional board games makes this genre more accessible. The downside is the lack of realism. While some games try to overcome this by introducing counter moves/attacks, this doesn't fit well with sport games. The solutions are simultaneously-executed turns a.k.a. phase-based. Ideally the decision phase occurs at the same time for everyone, but more important is that during the execution phase all player actions are performed concurrently and potentially affecting each others outcome.

For further reading I recommend wikipedia.org. There is an excellent overview of time-keeping systems in games and articles about all of the four related genres: Turn-based Strategy [TBS], Real-time Strategy [RTS], Turn-based Tactics [TBT] and Real-time Tactics [RTT]

Please let me know about any corrections, opinions, etc.