- Announcing Australian Football Coach 2023 - 19 December 2022
Ready for the next installment in the Australian Football Coach series? Australian Football Coach 2023 is currently in production and is now available to wishlist on Steam! Check out the new design and the new features at the AFC2023 store page. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2238710/Australian_Football_Coach_2023/ The game should be ready in the first few months of next year as old features are improved and new features are being added daily, including multiple human coaches in the same hot seat and player families. The game's GUI has also been completely redesigned. Make sure to follow AFC2023 for all of the latest news and updates!
- Version 1.3.3 now available - 14 June 2021
AFC2020-21 v1.3.3 is now live for PC and Linux! This fixes a couple major bugs - there should now be sound on Windows, and a missing line of code meant tribunals were being recorded, but weren't triggering. The new major quality of life addition - the player who has the ball's now labeled, which makes a big improvement when watching a match! Also, over-aged players were further down-weighted in the national draft. Hope you enjoy the update! VERSION 1.3.3 + Improved: Further nerfed overage (>21 years) players in the national draft + Improved: Added player label for the player in possession of the ball - Fixed: Commissioner mode check-box was not persistent between save games - Fixed: Minor player statistic issue fixed - Fixed: Premiership years were disappearing on game load - Fixed: Sound was not working on Windows - Fixed: Tribunals weren't working, they were being created but the leag…
- 2021 update released! - 27 May 2021
Ready for 2021? The Australian Football Coach 2021 update features a full data update and a number of brand new features and fixes for PC and Linux! Want to watch any game, not just your own team's? Now you can. Want to compare team statistics? Check. Want to see who won historical awards? It's all there. Want to sub on a player? Done. Not only that, but the player decision making code has been completely revamped, leading to a more realistic (and slightly, though possibly imperceptibly faster!) match engine. The AI list management has also improved, and sounds during the game make for a more realistic matchday experience! Mac users should have the data update and will receive a full patch in a couple months due to issues with the port. Hope you coach your way to many flags! VERSION 1.3 + Added: Can now watch any game (tick the "watch?" check mark on the league>scores tab) + Added: Crow…
- Version 1.2.5 released - 8 October 2020
As the real life footy season winds to a close, development of Australian Football Coach 2020 also starts to wind down. The newest patch - the first in a month - now includes the 2018 season as formerly available seasons from the original version of the game continue to migrate over! The patch also takes care of several reported issues. A couple of them were not positively confirmed before patching, so if you notice any issues, please get in touch. As announced before, this update is only currently completely available to users on PC and Linux due to issues surrounding compiling the game for Mac. In addition, the 2018 season is not yet available on Mac, though the other data has been updated. The full change log is below: VERSION 1.2.5 - Fixed: U18 players now have separate delisting code so they can be signed by state teams - Fixed: If you delisted a player who had most recently appear…
- Goodbye Early Access - v1.0 released! - 22 August 2020
With the upload of Version 1.0 the early access development cycle of Australian Football Coach 2020 has come to an end! Version 1.0 is quite the update as well. Thanks to user feedback, a lot of bugs large and small have been patched. A common complaint was that the game was a little bit too random - a new database patch has replaced some of the database columns which were randomly rolled, such as player development, salaries, and leadership, with all new up to date data. Every team should be under the salary cap to start the game now as a result of this update. Other bugs fixed include being able to pass in the draft and not being able to re-sign coaches. New features include an update to the draft screen, more refinements to AI list management, and smaller reserve teams. The game manual is nearly complete as well and should be done by the end of the weekend, which should better explai…
- New patch released & Early Access ends August 22! - 10 August 2020
On August 22 Australian Football Coach will transition from Early Access to Full Release! If you haven't purchased yet you'll be able to pick the game up at a launch discount. Version 0.11.0 is now live on the Steam servers as well! While this was intended to be a simple bug fix, this version went above and beyond a normal minor version so it had to be released as a major version. New features include a league overview screen, designed for when you want to sit back and watch the world simulate by; a pause simulation button, which literally lets you stop time; the ability to save lineups into one of three different slots; and an update to club shields, including a new shield which allows you to flip the primary and secondary text colours. Bug fixes include issues with stadiums in custom leagues, team prestige never changing over time, and some issues with saving and loading, including wi…
- The list management update - v0.10.0 now released - 26 July 2020
The AI list management update launched this weekend! Many users have written in or discussed the game on Discord, with the biggest complaint being that the AI didn't do a good enough job with offseason management. Superstars were being picked in the national draft, players weren't re-signing enough, state teams weren't being active in free agency, and trading was a bit of a mess. That's all been fixed in the last patch! After over 50 distinct iterative simulations, the AI list managers have been made a lot smarter. New code was written to help the AI estimate just how good a player will be over time, which also impacts the length of their contract offer. Additionally, a bug was fixed where basically any player who was even barely homesick would not re-sign with an interstate team. As a result, a couple superstars will make it to free agency every year, but this will happen rarely as clu…
- v0.9.0 - One step closer to leaving Early Access! - 9 July 2020
It's the version that's going to force all of the screenshots on the Steam page to be uploaded again. Version 0.9.0 has been uploaded to the Steam servers for Mac, Linux and PC. This patch features some exciting new gameplay options and a revamped GUI. Two big items on the "needs to get done before full release" have been added to the game. First, players now have a form statistic. If a player exceeds expectations, they'll improve their form, while if they have a bad game their form will decrease. Form directly impacts player skill and it's designed to simulate fringe players moving in and out of the team every week and adds a little bit more randomness to some of the better players in the competition. Second, AI coaches just got a little bit smarter. It may not be all that obvious in the game, but look for some teams to take longer kicks, some teams to handball more often, and others t…
- Patch v0.8.1 released - 4 July 2020
Version 0.8.1 is out and the game's closer to moving out of early access! This patch makes renewing contracts more interesting as you'll get information on where the player stands with asking for a contract, and cleans up a lot of simulator issues. The game's scoring is down again after a fix regarding the hot spot and players have been taught to use the corridor less. They still use it slightly too much, but it's starting to get better. Also fixed are issues with rucks getting too much of the ball because they were playing in multiple games due to a variable reset issue in new code and a contract bug where a player would accept any offer you made due to code not triggering properly. Some issues are still known to exist, such as the "draft pick trades" bug - occasionally the game will decide the draft pick you're offering is incorrect and stops the trade from going through - and not bei…
- Australian Football Coach 2020 - now for Mac - 12 June 2020
With the release of version 0.7.1, AFC2020 is now live and available for play on Mac! Mac updates may be a little less frequent than regular updates unfortunately but should be good for the next couple months. A Mac version was one of the most requested features. Version 0.7.1 also gets the game closer to getting out of early access with some big improvements in the match engine, fixing a number of bugs and changing a number of rules about player behaviour making for a more realistic outcome. Unfortunately a keen user has already spotted one issue that desperately needs fixing (forwards handballing back and forth when play moves downfield too quickly) but will be on that one for v0.7.2, possibly this weekend, along with hopefully some more analytics! Please enjoy AFC2020 on Mac and get in touch if you have any problems on that particular platform - will try and sort them as quickly as p…
- New and improved match simulation and interchanges! - Version 0.7.0 Released - 10 June 2020
Footy is back and so too is Australian Football Coach with several new and improved features! One of the biggest requests, manual interchanges, has been added back into the game, making the game more interesting for hands-on coaches. Simply click on two players on the interchange tab to switch them out - it couldn't be simpler! The code is relatively fresh so there are a couple other improvements planned for the display, but this should make the game more interesting to a few users. Another piece of feedback has been that the match engine isn't quite realistic enough, especially in terms of rucks getting too many disposals. A whole season's worth of games was simulated to see how exactly the match engine was working and then all of the disposals were normalised for pitch height/width to create a heat map. It turned out the rucks weren't quite hitting the ball far enough, so frequently w…
- The AFC2020 Roadmap from Early Access to "Full Access" - 14 April 2020
One month after release, AFC2020's still a ways out from losing the Early Access tag. A number of users have asked what's next, so what better way to celebrate a month on sale than to discuss next steps for the game? Before the features, a big thank you to everyone who has gotten in touch with their support and recommendations to improve the game. The launch has been great and based on the statistics and feedback it seems as if quite a few of you enjoy the game - the average per-user playtime at the moment is over six hours! Thanks also to those who have sent their save game files to help patch the game - when something goes wrong, the save files have been extremely helpful in fixing it. So, what needs to happen for AFC go to "full access?" First, the game must be completely crash-free. The game's at a point where crashes still occur, but the events leading up to each crash get a little…
- Game patched up to v0.6.5 - 14 April 2020
After several more crash reports and a long weekend, some slight improvements, mostly around fixing reported crashes. If your game crashes, please report it as soon as possible and it'll get patched. Still some issues that haven't been resolved yet, such as an odd interchange bug - those'll come soon, don't worry. VERSION 0.6.5 - Fixed: Game would crash if a player on a best 22 had been dropped/retired before the season finished - Fixed: Game would occasionally crash after load processing a deleted contract - Fixed: Rivalry buttons/Stadium buttons on Team Editor would not work if they were the last thing on the editor screen you had tried to edit - Fixed: Body of one way rivalry articles was not showing up - Fixed: Draft picks weren't displaying properly on trade screen after one season of play - quick untested fix, but it would have fixed this exact issue, still likely caused a knock o…
- New version with Linux support! 0.6.0 released, 0.6.1 patch now live - 7 April 2020
Australian Football Coach has its first new version upgrade since launch! After 15 patches of version 0.5, version 0.6 finally adds some new features, including Linux support! To go along with supporting a new operating system, the game also adds support for a fantasy draft and a user-requested feature that, if selected, forces you to confirm your squad before each game. Some users prefer to simulate seasons and others prefer to play out each game live and this should make for a more enjoyable experience for the one-game-at-a-time players! Also, rivalry games now have an impact on coach perception - lose a big one to your hated rival and it might just be the last game of your coaching career (assuming your job was on the brink, of course.) Several bugs have been fixed as well, especially in the match engine where some interchange issues were occurring, back pockets running to the bench…
- Patch 0.5.15 released - fixes two big match engine issues - 3 April 2020
The newest patch has been released fixing the two most-reported match engine issues: 1. Players should no longer run off the field during kick-ins (haven't entirely confirmed this is fixed, but it doesn't happen anymore, and it should be fixed.) 2. Players were occasionally sitting on the bench the whole game. This should conclude all of the major bug fixes from release meaning version 0.6 is next! The next big features planned in the road map for v0.6: - The "Coaches Meeting" tab was introduced but has a "coming soon" label - this is the most important feature that didn't make it into launch. You'll be able to coach players weekly on morale and training... or as always, simply leave it up to your assistants - Start your game off with a fantasy draft - More immersion with content and news articles Also, the older AFC scenarios have started to transition to the new AFC2020 data format, s…
- Patches 0.5.10-0.5.14 pushed this week - 31 March 2020
AFC2020 has been receiving updates between every day or 48 hours or so the past week trying to get the game closer to being out of early access! Lots of obscure crash points have been fixed, and a lot of bugs worked out. There's still some reported issues that haven't been fixed, especially around the match engine, so that's going to be the focus going forward into this week. The one that's been most reported is players running off the field entirely during kick-ins. Look out for more changes over the coming week! Here's a full list of all the changes: VERSION 0.5.14 - Fixed bug: Game would occasionally crash trying to pick the best 22 players in the league (don't know why it wasn't doing this 100% of the time before) - Fixed bug: You should be able to trade draft picks now - Fixed bug: Rows for read messages were still showing green (finally figured this one out) - Fixed bug: Disposal…
- Patch 0.5.9 (and 0.5.8, 0.5.7) released - 23 March 2020
Three new patches have been released in the past few days which continue to fix and improve the game and get AFC2020 closer to a full release! This doesn't fix everything, so please post if your game crashes at any point. A couple of the crashes fixed this time around would happen relatively frequently, so hoping things calm down. The next big push will be to work on defensive positioning - too many goals are being scored because a player wins a 1-on-1 and then runs the ball into the goal untouched due to differences in acceleration/speed - and also to work on time on ground, as there appear to be a few issues there as the game currently focuses too much on fatigue/stamina and not enough on skill when determining who should rotate on. Resolution is also an issue for many users, which is difficult to handle but will be a focus next week. If your screen size is 768 pixels high or you use…
- Patches 0.5.5, 0.5.6 released - 18 March 2020
AFC2020 is still in "get patched daily" mode as players report more issues. Versions 0.5.5 and 0.5.6 were released yesterday and today in order to fix a lot of the issues players have reported. A couple more issues remain - for instance, there's an occasional crash after save games are loaded, and the problem with scouting is mostly fixed but couldn't get sorted by the cutoff time. These should be fixed tomorrow. A larger bug is the "chasing squirrels" bug where players wander off the pitch - this one has been around for awhile unfortunately and always comes back just when you think it's been fixed. Hopefully will fix this tomorrow as well. The biggest bug fix shows how much a small change can impact the game - the only difference between a game you watch and a game that's simulated is maybe 20 lines of code, which has not changed since the early alpha, and that unchanged code was the d…
- Patches 0.5.2, 0.5.3, and 0.5.4 released - 16 March 2020
Several bugs were fixed quickly over the course of the weekend! There's a long list of additions and bugs still to fix, but a wide variety of changes were made based on initial user feedback. Thank you to everyone who has chimed in! Change logs are below. Version 0.5.5 is in the works now as well, which so far increases the influence of inclement weather on any particular game. VERSION 0.5.4 - Fixed bug: Players occasionally were instructed to play man-to-man defense against each other, which caused neither of them to move - Fixed bug: Players would scatter in all directions if the player designated to take a kick-in wasn't on the pitch; they still might scatter, but the game now ensures the player designated to take the kick-in is on the pitch and then picks a different player and then moves that player to take the kick-in if not found - Fixed bug: Positioning issues caused by a decima…
- Patch v0.5.1 released! - 14 March 2020
The first patch is coming not even eight hours after the first public release of the game! Thanks to everyone for their feedback so far. Nothing game-changing here, but a couple obvious bugs are fixed, and some minor improvements on places like the selection screen. Expect another patch in a day or so as work continues, and please continue leaving feedback! VERSION 0.5.1 - Fixed bug: Scoring shots would stay displayed on the screen in some instances - Fixed bug: Fixture lists loaded from a file didn't display on the matches screen properly - Fixed bug: Unhappy players no longer request contract extensions - Fixed bug: Game wasn't saving on exit - Improved: Assistant coach selects team now turned off by default - Added: Height and weight added to player selection screen - Added: Force white/black jersey numbers - Added: Player morale to Renew Contract screen - Added: Option of opaque or…
