Hi all!
I've opened up this space so I can communicate and express myself. If you're wondering how the projects that you're interested in are going, and you're worried that not many updates are coming, so read this note, it might help you understand the current situation.
So, I have 2 projects that are basically my first big projects that I've started back in 2020: eSports Manager and Openfoot Manager. Both projects follow basically the same premise: a game where you can be the manager of a team.
Openfoot is a project that I've dreamt of doing since 2010. Back then, I had started a project called Soccer City, which was inspired by the 2010 World Cup stadium that hosted the finals. But I had little to no programming experience, so the project basically died quickly.
10 years later, I created the Openfoot Manager project alongside eSports Manager. My idea was to develop one, and try to reuse it on the other. But things were not so simple as I initially thought.
eSM took some priority, and I had to figure things out with it first. I had a working prototype in a year or so, after so much debating with myself on how to approach the match simulation aspects of the game. Since then, I worked on some experimental aspects of the game, like save/load game, and testing how to create a new game session with gamestates.
There's a lot to implement in eSM, and lately I've been working on a major rework on the project's architecture, which is taking longer than I expected. But I know that you're wondering what happened to Openfoot, and why we don't even have a working prototype yet.
It's been more than two years since I've started both projects, and I'm not proud that I don't even have them up and running like I would want them to. I wanted to play them as much as you do, believe me. But these are projects that require effort, time and a lot of inspiration. Since the end of 2020, I've been working full-time remotely, and dedicating some of my spare time to some work-related projects. It's not easy to separate work from hobby when you work from home for so long.
Lately, I've been able to detach myself a bit from work, and started dedicating some of my time to projects that can take me further in my career. I'm now learning a lot about systems programming, and I'm working on an emulator that I soon might disclose here.
And that's why I decided to write this post. I'm now committed to the development of both projects, and I'm willing to allocate more time to working on them on my spare time. But I also want people to participate in the development. I know that OFM is gathering some more attention, and I want to give back to the people that want to see the project evolving. For so long I wanted to be the solo developer of these projects and do things by myself, but I realized that I can't do that anymore with so much going on.
I've considered opening up a Discord channel so we can discuss the development of the project, and I'm willing to write up a detailed document of what my plans are for each project. I've not yet settled on that idea, but as soon as this I decide what to do with it, I'll let everyone know and I'll leave a link to the server here and on the GitHub repo.
Both projects also have a public Roadmap now:
I'm setting up the foundations for both games to make it easier for you to contribute. eSM already has a basic guide for contributing, and it will basically be the same for OFM.
I'm also thinking about starting to livestream coding sessions, where we can discuss how we should move on with the projects, and what should be our priorities going forward.
That way, if you're interested in helping out, you can pretty much just read what we're planning and get right at work with the foundations that we've built. I might even set up some weekly meetings to discuss the current state of the project.
I hope that this gives these projects a new life, and that we can start picking up the pace and develop them faster than the previous years.
See ya anytime soon.
