I’ve been working on a football management game for about 10 years, on and off. But over the last 2 years it's become something very different to my original plans, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
That’s the short version.
The slightly longer version is that I started out wanting to plan an online multiplayer game that suited my tastes, and over the years it's morphed into something very different.
I'd originally planned to make an online game that I could play with my friends while working, and that would just require occasional check-ins to keep things ticking along. But somewhere along the line, the "real" management games that I'd enjoyed playing for 30+ years became so complex and time-consuming that I was no longer enjoying them
Too many menus, too many systems, too much stuff that doesn’t actually make it more enjoyable to me. Just slower, and more like having a second actual job.
So I started building something that goes the other way. That’s Legacy Manager.
What I’m Trying to Make
The plan isn’t to reinvent anything. It’s more about going backwards a bit, but in a good way.
Think Championship Manager at its peak, not modern Football Manager. Games where you could get through a season at a decent pace, make a few key decisions, and actually feel like you were playing something rather than managing a dashboard.
That’s the goal:
- quick to play
- easy to get into
- hard to stop playing
- Not “realistic at all costs.” Just enjoyable.
It’s Not Retro, It Just Doesn’t Waste Your Time
One thing I don’t want is for it to feel like a throwback in a bad way.
It looks modern, the interface is clean, and it behaves like a current game should. You’re not fighting it to do basic things.
But under that, it’s built to move quickly. You’re not digging through five layers of menus just to change something simple, and you’re not constantly being interrupted by things that don’t really matter.
Matches and Players
There’s both a 2D and 3D match engine in there, depending on how you like to watch games (or not watch them at all).
The database has 45,000+ real players, so it still has that familiar feel of finding players, building squads, and making questionable transfer decisions.
Where It’s At
It’s still in development at the moment. It works, the design is finished, the matches play. I'm balancing things and getting the game-play to feel right.
The plan is to get an early access version out by the end of April this year, assuming everything behaves itself between now and then.
There’s an email sign-up box at the bottom of this page, so if you’re interested, you can stick your email in there and I’ll let you know when it’s ready.
That’s Basically It
I’m not trying to compete with the biggest, most detailed Football Manager style games out there. If anything, this is for people who don’t have the time (or patience) for that anymore.
I just want to make something that feels like those older games did where you sit down, play a few matches, and then accidentally keep going.
If it ends up being the kind of thing where you say “just one more game” and mean it, then I've achieved what I set out to.