Nobody coded a through ball
Passes go where you point now, not where the game decides. The AI holds a compact block, strikers hold the offside line, and put those together and through balls just happen.
Sviluppato Alla Luce Del Sole
Notizie
Uno sviluppatore, un gioco di calcio. Tutti gli articoli del blog di sviluppo dal sesto giorno in poi: le cose riuscite, l’architettura e i bug che vale la pena raccontare.
Gli articoli del blog di sviluppo sono scritti in inglese.
Kit editor
Recolour shirt, shorts, socks, trim and boots from 24 curated colours with a live 3D preview. Hit save and all eleven of your players wear it in the match engine.
What we ripped out to add a second player
Local multiplayer was not something I added last night. It was mostly something I removed. The codebase had quietly assumed there would only ever be one of you.
Two humans, one screen
Local multiplayer works. Two players, each controlling their own team on a shared screen. Switch players, pass, shoot, tackle each other. The first time the brand promise is literally true.
Seeing the other two thirds of the pitch
A broadcast camera shows you maybe a third of the pitch. You cannot make a run you cannot see. So: a radar, a data-driven scoreboard, and an opponent nameplate that had been lying.
Shooting has no aim assist
No lock-on, no magnetism, nothing pulling the ball toward goal. The shot fires exactly where your player is facing. If you are not lined up, you are not scoring.
One line: a fresh GUID on every load
Every player now has a permanent identity, and their whole appearance is generated from it. The bug was one line minting a random ID every time the database loaded.
I never store a face
Every player is procedurally generated from their unique ID. Skin complexion first: nine regional profiles, continuous ranges, no two players alike, and nothing saved.
Spot the difference: baking root yaw
Two drag-back turns. One is fixed, one is not, and it took me a week to see it. The retarget never brought the root bone rotation across, so the capsule was snapping to catch up.
Concrete or a centre-forward
Where the career mode is heading: you start with a pitch and not much else. Every upgrade costs real money out of your budget, and every one shows up in the 3D match engine.
Bend the animation to the ball
Motion Warping on all ten turn animations, contact events authored per animation, and every touch declared by the clip itself. No radius guessing anywhere.
Shipped ball physics on FIFA, PES, 2K or Madden? I need you.
A genuine ask: if you have worked on ball-to-foot interaction, dribbling feel or assisted-control systems on a real sports title, I want to talk. Paid, scoped contract work.
The sole rolls the ball back
The animation now says exactly when the sole is on the ball. Roll it back, stop it dead, then a second notify kicks it forward under real physics.
"The ball is on rails." They were right.
Players said the ball felt like it was on rails while dribbling. It literally was. So I rebuilt it from scratch, then broke it, repeatedly. The honest answer tonight is "closer."
A goalkeeper with a brain
Tore out the old keeper and started building a real one. He cuts the shooting angle, rushes central shots and stays home for wide ones, driven by geometry rather than a line.
Names, numbers and sponsors on the shirt
Real, fully custom kits on every player in the match engine. Last name and number on the back pulled from the squad database, club sponsor on the front, colours and trim from the club.
Dribbling is a ball problem
Right- and left-footed dribbling and a drag-back turn. The animation was the easy part. Making the ball look glued to the boot was the whole day.
A stadium, and two and a half times the framerate
Dropped a full 3D ground into the match engine: floodlights, stands, dugouts. The twist is that the game got prettier and started running 2.5 times faster on the same night.
The AI learned to defend. The game learned offside.
Not "the closest guy chases the ball." One man presses, a second cuts off the escape, defenders pick up men goal-side, and the flag goes up when you cheat.
The opponent takes its own throw-ins, goal kicks and corners
Set pieces are where football games quietly give up. Ours does not any more. The whole restart cycle plays itself, on both sides.
Eleven a side
I did not write AI for 22 players. I wrote it for two. One Team Brain per side, and team shape and performance turned out to be the same problem with the same fix.
Real bodies, real kits
The kit colour is not something I picked. It is pulled straight from the club record in the database. Change the club, the shirts change. Keepers must clash, as Law 4 says.
Real faces, and the giraffe-neck bug
A shared body for the animation, a unique MetaHuman head per player driven from their database ID. Same player, same face, every machine, forever. Then the necks stretched.
Teaching the AI to actually pass
Every team-mate gets an Expected Success percentage, then the AI picks like a footballer, not a dice roll. And the bug that taught me what possession means.
Corners, and the full set-piece cycle
Throw-in, goal kick, corner. Every way the ball can leave the pitch now has a real, playable restart with its own camera, aim and animation.
Take your own goal kicks
Camera drops behind your keeper, you aim across the pitch with a live arrow, then roll it out or loft it downfield. Opponents are held out of the box until he strikes it.
Perfect angle. Imperfect you.
The lob went from a guaranteed-perfect ball to a charged chip with real user error. The game gives you the angle. The power is on you.
Where the playable football goes next
Throw-ins are in. Next: goal kicks and corners you take yourself, charged lob passes with real over- and under-hit error, smarter AI, and 11v11 on a full-size pitch.
Throw-ins you actually take
Ball goes out, your player raises it overhead, you take control of a team-mate and run them into space, then throw it to their feet. The ball leaves the hands on the exact animation frame.
Charged shooting, correct foot
Hold B to power up, and your player strikes with the correct foot. The ball fires on the contact frame, powered by how long you held. Pass and shoot, both feet.
The first playable pass
Bought a mocap pack, retargeted it, and wired a pass so the ball releases on the exact frame the boot meets it. Press A. He passes. To a team-mate.
Squad hub
Turned plain Unreal menus into a proper squad hub: a formation pitch tile, action tiles, and a sortable squad list underneath. Menus should feel as good as the match.
From boardroom to pitch in one loop
Continue your career, sort your squad by number, position, age or overall, then hit Play and drop straight into a full 3D match. Same save, same players.
Power shooting
Hold to charge with a live power bar over your player. Release in the green to slot it in the upper 90. Hold too long and you sky it.
The manager sim and the pitch are one game
Club codes on the scoreboard instead of "You vs AI", and real player names and numbers on the HUD, updating as you switch. Westgate FC vs Brackfield United, for real.
The engine room: 640 players, 32 clubs
Before the rippling nets and the on-pitch action, I built the part nobody sees: a full management sim with promotion, relegation, finances, facilities and a transfer market.
The net ripples
Proper 3D goals with posts you can clatter, a net that ripples when you smash one in, and a ball that settles in the back of it. Scoring finally feels like scoring.
Pace and shape
Slowed the players down to realistic run and sprint speeds, and suddenly positioning matters. Plus 3v3 triangle positioning and a controller-native pause menu.
Off-ball AI and a real ball
Players hold a triangle, play out from the back and make runs into the box. Plus a real HD ball that rolls naturally as you dribble.
Lob passes with a landing marker
Chip it over a defender with a marker on the grass showing exactly where it lands, passing that picks the team-mate you are facing, goal celebrations, and 3v3.
The camera was never the problem
Two hours chasing a "choppy camera". The camera was fine. The pitch lines were shimmering under motion, motion blur was smearing them wider, and the look-at was snapping every frame.
The pitch comes alive
Real turf and painted lines, the first match rules, broadcast-style restart banners, and goals that only count once the whole ball crosses the line.
Passing, switching, and a broadcast camera
The controls finally clicked into place: passing where control follows the ball, tap-to-switch defending, a broadcast camera, and a one-frame freeze that haunted every switch.
Start a career. Play the match. Watch the table move.
Every football game makes you pick: manage or play. In Play Strikers you do both, and the goal you score updates your league table.
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