Re: New Soccer Game heavily inspired by Sensible Soccer - "Natural Soccer"

The game is a very good beginning.
But its hard to play with the touchpad of a smartphone, i need a physical controller.
What kind of Programming language are you using, Java?
Or does you use a free Game Engine?

Thanks for your encouraging feedback!

Yes, I totally agree that it s much better to play with a gamepad/joystick instead of a touchpad; but I am doing my best to create good touch controls. But yes, I do prefer playing Natural Soccer with a gamepad on my OUYA (or the development version on my PC) myself

Yes, Natural Soccer is (for most parts) written in Java.

I don t use a full-fledged game engine but the (awesome!) libgdx as a framework. The game engine itself is written by myself, though.

I did try the game on my phone, if anything, you re the one giving it a misleading cover. Don t get my wrong, it s a decent game and the controls (and pace) are surprisingly well-optimized for touch interfaces, it just doesn t have anything to do with sensi and claiming otherwise is ludicrous.

Thanks for the praise! I tend to disagree with doesn t have *anything* to do with sensi but can absolutely accept your opinion about that.

I never ever claimed to have written a remake, let alone a straight port of Sensible Soccer. I played all the mentioned games *a lot* as a kid (and yes, did like Kick Off 2 the most), and each of them *is* a source of inspiration for me.

You can t possibly be arguing that, whether Jon Hare s game served as inspiration for your work or not, the game is so far removed from sensi that bringing it into the picture in any way, shape or form reeks of a contemptible attempt at pandering to the 30-something, former-gamers and avid smartphone users demographic by throwing around buzzwords devoid of any actual pertinence, with a straight face.

Again, first and foremost I refer to those classics as they *were* a source of inspiration and actually the reason why I ever wanted to create a soccer game like them in first place. I have *great* respect for the work of Dino Dini, Steve Screech, Jon Hare, Chris Chapman and anybody else involved. I, for my part, would rather hate it to *not* mention them in any way...

And yes, I actually *do* try to reach those 30-somethings and avid players of Kick Off and Sensi, simply because - at least I think so - especially those people could be interested in a (hopefully) good arcade soccer game today. Can t see anything wrong with this...

Ball physics, players movements and inertia, visuals, overall feel, aftertouch management, everything screams KICK OFF loud and clear here. Don t get me started on the 3 buttons control system (which has fawk all to do with SWOS minimalistic yet insanely versatile, context-sensitive controls) then.

I d be hard-pressed to think of a single feature unique to both sensi and your game, the thing is, there s probably none.

Yes, again, it s no secret I preferred Kick Off back in the days. But today - especially on a touch device - I tend to find the full-fledged ball not glued to feet gameplay quite unplayable; guess my age shows
So I created a game *I* would love to play, with all the ingredients put in. So the dribbling is *far* closer to Sensible Soccer than Kick Off...

The same is true for the one button controls: I liked them back in the day and am impressed about how well they worked - but today I definitely prefer a simple 2/3 button interface - so no score for neither Kick Off nor Sensi here (albeit at least for Kick Off there seem to exist ports with more than one button control, but I never played any of them).

Sorry to burst your bubble brah but that in itself isn t saying much, most people don t even know what Sensi is all about and those who ve actually gotten to try it out back in the days most likely haven t played it in 10+ years;

the words SWOS and sensi have become so iconic they ve long lost their original meaning (at least to the large audiences comprised of mostly casual/occasional gamers) and nowadays are pretty much used as umbrella terms for the 2D arcade-football games genre that rose to popularity between the end of the 80 s and the beginning of the 90 s.

I ve seen so many so-called gamers mistaking SWOS for Kick Off and viceversa it s not even funny.

Oh, no bubble to burst here at all. Again, I am *not* striving to create a direct port of neither Kick Off nor Sensi. So I actually don t really care if people find it similar to one of them. What I actually care about is creating a fun arcade soccer game. Period. If people find Natural Soccer resembling Sensible Soccer (or Kick Off) - and they *do* - I actually don t care if they mix up their memories - as long as they loved playing arcade soccer back in the days and find my game just as playable and fun.

Also, if by your vision you mean blatantly ripping off Dino Dini and Tecmo, then yeah.

Ripping of Dino Dini by creating a soccer game inspired by a 20+ years old game of his *and* mentioning my respect and admiration for his work on each and every occasion ?

If you re working on the Windows port don t forget to implement arcade-sticks/joysticks/joypad compatibility.

The PC version will be playable with standard USB devices.

Thanks again for your feedback. It s highly appreciated!

MAC Version?

If the Win/Linux versions are finished and it (hopefully) shows that people like the game, Mac/iOS versions are very likely

This looks interesting. Are you planning on adding an iOS version? Also, how does it control on Android? Do you support control pads?

Hi,

thank you!

Yes, I do plan an iOS version, hopefully to be released later this year.

On Android for mobile devices there are (for now) only touch controls. But the OUYA version (strictly speaking also an Android version) does not only support control pads, it actually requires one (or more for multiplayer).

The Windows version, which is to be released soon, does support/require joypads, too!

Hm, I think a game like this really needs controller support. I just don t think touch controls work very well for football games. Is it possible for you to add controller support to the Android and/or iOS versions?

Hi,

I am very sorry for the late reply, but I have been very busy finishing the desktop version of Natural Soccer ;D

Support for gamepads on Android is not very easy since there is no real standard way to do it (AFAIK) but I am working on it.

In the meantime, there is full gamepad support for Natural Soccer on OUYA and in the[glow=red,2,300] brand new WINDOWS VERSION[/glow], available at NaturalSoccer.com .

Oh, though not officially supported yet, the [glow=red,2,300]Windows version of Natural Soccer is reported to be running just fine with Wine on MacOS![/glow]