Thanks to the NFL locking out its officials, football fans everywhere are trying to make it through this rough time of four hour games, blown calls and endless referee conferences. You know what might help? Football Heroes, an upcoming iOS and Android game that describes itself as “football + beat ’em up + RPG” and counts venerable sports titles like Tecmo Bowl and NBA Jam among its influences.
Thanks to the NFL locking out its officials, football fans everywhere are trying to make it through this rough time of four hour games, blown calls and endless referee conferences. You know what might help? Football Heroes, an upcoming iOS and Android game that describes itself as “football + beat ’em up + RPG” and counts venerable sports titles like Tecmo Bowl and NBA Jam among its influences.
Maybe Arch Rivals should be thrown in there too, because the demo video for Football Heroes shows a ball carrier punching and spin kicking his way to paydirt. And before we get into more jokes about how real pro games might look like that if the replacement refs oversee the entire 2012 season, know that fighting game moves are only part of the puzzle. The development team at Run Games is promising a deep RPG-like experience and leveling system for your players, copious amounts of customization choices for your team, and both local and online multiplayer modes.
Those are big promises for a company’s debut game, but the gents at Run Games have a pedigree that includes design and programming work at EA and Pandemic Studios. They’re also giving gamers a unique look at how their project is coming along by showing off the process as it happens. No, we’re not talking reality show, but rather Run Games Live!, where people can hop online and watch the team work on the game in real time through the magic of streaming video right from their desks, video chat and more.
If the wonder of the game design process makes you a believer, you can chip in to the studio’s Kickstarter campaign, which is seeking a relatively modest $12,000 by October 11 to get the game off the ground. Perks range from a hearty “Thank you” for $1 to a week-long stint on the development team where you will actually implement a game feature from start to finish for the cool price of $10,000.
Since that would also get the project to its funding goal in one fell swoop, here’s hoping that some deep-pocketed fan of arcade football action decides to go for the Executive Producer credit. Failing that, Football Heroes is aiming for a holiday release, just about the time Oakland Raiders fans and anyone who remembers what it was like when the officials actually knew the rules of football could be at wit’s end. In other words, bring it on.
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