It seems like we hear weekly the desire for more football fans for players to enjoy. We’ve gotten games like Maximum Football, Mutant Football League, and Axis Football to offer that alternative, but those aren’t the only options coming.
One independent developer is looking to give fans a new twist on football by bringing a version of pickup football to gamers with Project Gridiron.
Christopher Kranebitter, a Computer Science student at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, is building the game for an initial release on PC, Mac, and Linux with hopes of a potential console release down the line,
But what is Project Gridiron exactly, and what should fans expect to see?
Development Overview
Project Gridiron started as a Football Framework built on top of the Unity Game Engine with modularity and expandability as its main focus. It was built without a specific game in mind. The goal was to create a solid base for any type of football game.
While sharing gameplay footage of a small 5-on-5 demo online, it became clear that there is a demand for such a football game. The short term goal is create a small demo of this game to showcase the potential of the project. This demo will be free of charge and considered a “proof of concept”. The estimated release date of this demo is before the two year anniversary of the project which is March 2019.
Depending on the success of this demo there is the possibility of developing the game further into a full console release with an estimated launch date of 4th qtr of 2019. The full release will feature better and more graphics, better animations and better gameplay in general. There are some additional game modes will also only be included in the full release that I will cover in a later video. Currently the estimated price of the game will be 19.99$.
Game Overview
The game will bring a unique football experience to a market that is used to having only one football game to play. It will be a 5-on-5, no pads, full contact football game in the spirit of games like NFL Street and NFL Blitz. The main focus is on fun, not realism. If a game mechanic is not realistic but a lot of fun it will stay in the game. On the other hand if a game mechanic is realistic, but not fun it will be tossed out.
Right now the current Demo Game Modes include
- Play Now
In Play Now mode a player can choose his favorite team to play a standard game against either the computer or a friend. - Create A Team
In this mode the player can edit existing teams or create new teams. They will be able to edit team names, locations, colors and uniforms. They can also assign players to teams. - Create A Player
In this mode the player can edit existing players or create new ones. They will be able to edit names, numbers, physical appearances and player traits and stats. Will have more info on this - Settings
In the settings menu the player can edit graphics settings, controller layouts and other smaller options. - Support Us
This is just a simple page thanking the player for downloading the game, linking to social media accounts and potentially a paypal link to fund the development of this project in return for exclusive access to development information and beta builds of the game.
Game Rules
- There is no time limit and the first team to get to 35 points wins.
- The team on offense has 4 downs to get over the middle line of the field. In this case the team will be awarded another 4 downs, but only once per drive.
- A team scores a Touchdown by crossing the goal line and will be awarded 6 points with the possibility to try for 1, 2 or 3 points with a play from the 2,5 and 10 yard line respectively.
- On fourth down the offense has the possibility to hand the ball over to the other team which will cause them to start their drive from their own 5 yard line. Additionally, a team that decides to hand the ball over on fourth down that has already crossed the middle line will get the possibility to try for 3 points from the opponents 5 yard line.
- If a player gets tackled in his own endzone the other team will be awarded a 2 point safety and possession of the ball on their own 5 yard line.
- As long as there is no handoff, no defensive player that isn’t at least 7 yards away from the line of scrimmage on snap, can cross the line of scrimmage during a play. If a defensive player crosses the line of scrimmage legally he is considered a blitzer.
- The quarterback can not cross the line of scrimmage as long as there is no blitzer in the backfield and no handoff has occurred.
These rules will be automatically enforced by the game. The player will not be able to violate any of these rules, therefore there are no referees, flags or penalties. We will have more details coming as well as some exclusive gameplay of Project Gridiron coming in the new couple of weeks so stay tuned.