- Over two hundred Open Alpha builds – what has become of Startelf - 18 September 2026
Over Two Hundred Builds Later When I opened the Open Alpha at the beginning of September, Startelf was a manager game that worked. Since then, more than two hundred builds have been added, and I want to show you what it has become — not build by build, but what you actually notice when you start a career now. One thing first, and it is an uncomfortable one: Your old careers no longer work. I completely rebuilt the save-game format and redesigned the club facilities from the ground up. Old saves are cleanly rejected when loaded instead of giving you a half-working career. Please start a new career. I know how frustrating that is — but the foundation is now in place for everything that follows. The Summer Is Yours Now Until now, pre-season was nothing more than a period that the game managed in the background. Now it is its own part of your season. You plan the summer on the calendar. Tra…
- It really has happened: Startelf is available! - 8 September 2026
To be honest, I still can’t quite believe it.After years of development, countless hours of programming, planning, scrapping ideas, rebuilding, testing and probably far too many cups of coffee, today marks a moment I’ve been waiting for for an incredibly long time:Startelf is playable.It’s still ‘just’ an open alpha. There are bugs, things aren’t working quite as they should yet, some features are missing entirely, and there are still plenty of changes to come in many areas.But even so, it’s a huge step for me.It’s the beginning of a vision for a football management game unlike any that has come before, and at the heart of it lies the role-based concept, which is designed to allow players to take on a wide variety of roles within a football club.Because what started as an idea that popped into my head one day, combined with many lines of code and countless evenings and weekends of work,…
- A big milestone! It's coming out this year! - 5 August 2026
Hello Football Fans,Today is a very special day for me.After countless hours of development, many setbacks, endless decisions, and above all, a great deal of passion, I can finally announce:Startelf will launch in Early Access on Steam in Q4 2026!When I started developing Startelf, I had one clear goal: I didn't want to create just another football management game. I wanted to build a manager that feels different.A manager where every club tells its own story. A manager where every decision has consequences, and every career unfolds in its own unique way.Today, I'm one big step closer to achieving that goal.A Brand-New Steam PageTo celebrate this announcement, I've completely redesigned the Startelf Steam page.You'll find brand-new screenshots, updated information, and a much better look at what awaits you in Startelf.Every screenshot represents a small piece of what I've been working o…
- Farewell to the farewell: Startelf is coming! - 9 February 2025
Dear fans and supporters, I am delighted to share some exciting news with you today: Startelf will be released after all! However, the game will not be released with the extensive features originally planned. Instead, I have decided to launch Player's Eleven Gold directly under the name Startelf. Why this step? My aim is to establish Startelf as the beginning of a long-term game series. At the end of it, there should be a Startelf that offers all the functions and depth that I originally intended for the project. But the way there will be done step by step. With each new update or game, new ideas and functions will be added until my vision of Startelf is finally fully realised. What can you expect from Startelf? The game you will hold in your hands is an improved and reworked Player's Eleven Gold - a solid foundation on which we can build together. I'm incredibly excited about this jour…
- Farewell to Startelf and the start of a new chapter - 17 May 2024
Dear fans and supporters, It's never easy to end a project in which you have invested so much passion, time and energy. Unfortunately, I have to inform you today that the development of Startelf, my ambitious football manager game, will be put on hold for the time being. As the sole developer of this project, I have worked with passion and dedication to create a game that would revolutionise the genre. My aim was to achieve an unprecedented depth and realism across the various roles in a traditional German football manager game. But now I realised that this undertaking was simply too much for one person. The sheer amount of work required to realise a game of this scale is overwhelming and requires a team of professionals working together in different areas. Alongside my full-time job and other commitments, it was impossible for me to find enough time to develop Startelf further. The rea…
- Developerblog #3 - 27 May 2023
Hello and good day to the developer blog number three! My name is Sandor and I am programming the game! Actually, today I had planned to present the European international cup competitions, but I postpone this to the next time. On the one hand, I'm unfortunately not ready yet, on the other hand, I want to present something that can easily get lost, but is nevertheless very important for a computer game: the UI framework! "What, dear Sandor, is that supposed to be?" some might ask. The answer is relatively simple: UI stands for "User Interface" and means the interaction between player and program. This is mainly about the graphical structure: How do you get to the menus, how can you select things and where very please can I actually buy a new striker for my dream team? Framework simply means a basic structure. It's not as trivial as you might think. The first consideration was: what reso…
- Developer-Blog #2 - 26 January 2023
Welcome to the second developer blog of Startelf - Der Fußballmanager. My name is Sandor and I am the developer of the game. After talking about rather basic things last time, I would like to present something substantive today, namely the planned league structure of the game. I don't know how you like to play, but I've always liked to work my way up from the bottom to the top. In Player's Eleven you could start at the eighth league, but there was only one league per level. Startelf is supposed to be much more realistic in that respect. Although it doesn't go down to the eighth level, but only to the sixth, it is original. In total, therefore, there are exactly 60 playable leagues for Germany: The first three leagues, five fourth leagues, 15 fifth leagues and 37 sixth leagues. So whether you want to start in North Schleswig-Holstein or South Baden, or in one of the 5 Bavarian sixth leag…
- Startelf in Gamestar - 14 October 2022
Back in August, an article by Startelf appeared in GameStar! Link here (german content): https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/fussballmanager-startelf,3383000.html
- Developer Blog #1 - 14 October 2022
Welcome to the Steam page of my planned football manager Startelf. I'm Sandor, the developer of the game, and I'll be reporting here on an irregular basis about the development of the game. A lot has happened in the last six months, but the project is still in its infancy. The programming experience I gained from the first part of the game, Player's Eleven (available here on Steam, it's worth a look!), helped me a lot to create a good basis for Startelf. Because I learned some points from the programming of Player's Eleven, as well as making mistakes, of course, which I don't want to repeat in Part 2. Why am I writing in the singular here? Quite simply, Startelf is a one-man project! Football managers have always been my greatest (gaming) passion, and with Player's Eleven I have fulfilled my dream of having my own manager. But how can only one programmer programme an entire game, especi…
