Development Update

Dear Managers! 

Welcome to the latest developer blog entry of goalunited. Time is running so fast and we are approaching Christmas already. A very busy time is behind us, with development and plannings for the next year. Not only for goalunited, but a big part of it with a lot of news and surprises. Some of these are being shared with you now! 

Again, we thank you for your continuous support and trust in us. By beginning of November, we started the closed beta of GU next as promised. Nearly 30.000 managers have already played the game in its rudimentary form and gave us a lot of feedback that is very much appreciated and very valuable for us.

For example, many attentive players weren’t happy with the actual squad-view in the game. This is something that came to our attention as well and we are already working on very practicable solutions. Here is a sneak peak of what you can expect shortly: most columns are significantly narrower and in this expanded view the whole screen shows player-data.

By selecting a player the detailed infos of the player appear: 

You will be able to reduce the information to see even more:

To get rid of the horizontally scrolling completely, you can configure what columns are shown:  

As you can see, progress in ongoing. It is still a lot of development before the game will see the light of day. More and more features will be put into the closed beta. When most of these are in, we will switch to open beta, where everyone can start playing. There is no release date yet, but we are aiming for Q1 2015. And please be aware of the word „Beta“. It is still an unfinished game and changes are done permanentely.

Some of you are complaining about the screen size – this has to do with the simultaneous development of the mobile versions – something that you can discover at a later date.

For all closed beta players we have created a forum inside the regular gu forum for you to provide feedback, ask questions and of course receive updates about changes.

Best regards,

Jules (Game Director)

goalunited next beta start

Hello faithful Managers!

Time for an update of what is going on with the development in the world of goalunited. First of all, again a big Thank you for your continuous support and trust in us. Everyone at northworks Software is grateful and is working with full enthusiasm on „our“ game.

What does that mean in detail? Well, first of all goalunited 2015 will see the light of day on the 24th of October 2014. This means less than 14 days and the team is still testing some of the new features, new leagues and new cards. We are really exited about this release and hope that you will like it.

Big news on GU next as well: The closed beta program will start in early November (exact date to be announced) and you will be able to register shortly through goalunited 2014 (or 2015 after 24th of October). Please remember, that the beta does not have all features included, but is playable with all its core elements. Because we want to test a new server structure we have to start with a limited number of players and allow more and more players shortly afterwards. So please don’t worry if you are not one of the first players. You don’t have to wait for too long.

You all know about the depth and complexity of goalunited. We have so many features that keep us from releasing the game earlier. In GU next the game will go even further and we have to be sure that everything works together smoothly. Therefore the team is developing more and more features that will be integrated into the running beta at regular intervals. As soon as most of the features are up and running we will switch to an open beta where everyone can share the new goalunited experience. The plan is early next year but we cannot give you an exact date at this time as it depends on feedback from the closed beta.

Again, thanks for you patience. And hopefully you believe us when we say: It is worth the wait!

We'll keep you posted!

Jules

gu next Closed BETA starts in November

Hello Managers!

It’s been a long time without an update on the development of goalunited next (working title) – our apologies for that. We are highly concentrated on the development and will keep doing so. First of all, we like to thank you for your patience and the continuing support by playing goalunited 2014 (and 2015 very soon).

You all know about the size and complexity of our beloved game. With gu next (working title) we will go even further and include more wonderful improvements plus the app for tablet devices. Both things are mainly the reason why the title is still in development and it must feel to you like it’s taking ages. One thing that we have learned: Developing on mobile platforms is not a thing you can learn overnight...But don’t worry – we will get to the point where we can share with you the next big step of goalunited.

But when will that happen? It is not much longer: We will start a closed beta in November this year where we will give out access keys. This beta does not have all features included but will be a good starting point to test the rudimentary structure of the game. Everything you need to manage your club throughout a season will be up and running. In regular updates we will expand the beta with more features and improvements and go into Open Beta as soon as we have everything in place where even new players can get a handle on the game. (More information on that will be given when we are closer to that date). First thing is to establish the browser version of the game – the app will follow shortly after. We will keep you informed on a regular base. During this beta process gu 2015 will keep us and you busy of course.

To shorten the waiting we will release the fall-update of goalunited (2015) by the end of October 2014. This time this will be more than the usual yearly seasonal update, but the details are still a surprise... Hint: Think twice... or more ☺

We keep you posted!

Jules

Profil Screen with new logo

Stadium Complex Screen (in progress)

Transfer Market (in progress)

League Table

MyGames (in progress)

goalunited next - Development View

Hi folks!

This is the next episode of our video blog series. The topic this time: Development. In this clip we are trying to give you some insights into all the challenges developing goalunited next and of course, maintaining goalunited 2014. The issues adressed range from technical "visions" to concrete implementation aspects. For example we show you how we manage the cross platform implementation for both browser and tablet. But enough for now, just watch the video! :)

Enjoy!

Felix

goalunited next - Game Design View

Moin!

Now online: a further little "next" movie clip. This time some insight into the game design. If you were ever curious about what a game designer does all day, here are some impressions of the game design process and general tasks of the goalunited next development.

Enjoy the clip and stay tuned, 

Renke

goalunited next - UI/UX View

Hey!

Today, we want to introduce the User Interface and Experience department to you. As the name implies, we face all challenges that include the interaction of players with the game, the look of the interface and the experience whilst playing goalunited.

What is the soul of GU?

“Which game features are our players most passionate about and how will they be           

  even more fun in future?”

“How can we improve the management aspect and still ensure a swift and                       sandbox-like access, especially for new users?”

“How does the player interact best on both platforms with the same interface?”

These questions and many more were coped with and turned into design solutions. The iterative processes of finding the right one led us to a more structured and clear interface. The overall experience got enhanced as well and is more precise now, concerning the role of the player within the game.

Experience first – register later.

Players will be able to explore GU from the beginning on, without real limits or a restrictive tutorial. This allows everyone to get a good look at the game and over time, register in themed steps. By creating more transparency, many features became self-explaining and fun to use.

This is just a tiny wrap-up from our work in the UI/UX department. Learn more about us and our work on goalunited in the upcoming clip!

Have fun,

Eva (UX Designer)

goalunited next - Product View

Hi everyone!

During the last weeks we have made great progress in the development of GU next. It’s all starting to look more complete now. But who exactly are “we”? Who are the people at northworks that develop and run goalunited?

In the next weeks we will show you our perspective when it comes to the challenges with GU next. For this we have produced a few video clips that show the perspective from the different departments. What are the specific challenges, what problems arise and how do we resolve them.

Today we start with the product department. This position is a bit more general, with the product department being the customer and product owner. 
Here of course comes the first question, what makes a game a product, and why is it worth to keep a product running for many years? Of course it should not surprise that economic reasons are a part of it. But it is easy to see that goalunited is much more than just a product, it’s a passion for all of us.

We have produced the clips in English to give most of our managers a chance to understand the context. We have also added English subtitles, as we are not native speakers, and it is always possible that the pronunciation is not quite right.

We hope you understand that we could not translate the clips into every language and that you enjoy this and the future clips!

Kind regards,
Jules (Game Director)

World Cup for all 2014

Hello managers,

the last blog post was posted quite a while ago, so we wanted to give you an insight into the next update. One big real life event is drawing close: The World Cup in Brazil!

The ideal opportunity to search for the world champion in goalunited as well. Similar to the European Championship 2012, we will hold the “World Cup for all 2014”. Starting in mid May, you can register for the event and choose your favourite country from the32 participating nations. The first match will take place on June 1^st – at the same time as the beginning of the World Cup in Brazil. Your goal will be to score as many goals as possible. Countries with fewer participants will not have a disadvantage. A multiplier will make up for the number differences.

                                                                     World Cup for all 2014 Monument

And what would a World Cup be without prizes? Each club that participates in the “World Cup for all” receives a participation medal that shows your individual wins. You also receive a World Cup Monument for your stadium complex for the duration of the tournament. The winners will also receive a unique trophy, plus up to 5000 GU STARS.

Under all participants – without regard to the individual results – we will also raffle off an Apple iPad Air 128 GB WiFi, which will get you ready for the start of goalunited next…

Over the next weeks we will give you more detailed insights into the progress and development of goalunited next.

Best regards,

Robert (Product Manager)

A new feature in March

Hello managers,

The new year has begun and we wish you all the best for 2014. And this year will also be the year in which goalunited will become goalunited next.

We have used the last few weeks to push ahead in the development of goalunited next.

We know that the wait until the start of goalunited next is long and that you probably can’t wait to try it out. Until then there is still a lot of work ahead of us though. To sweeten up the waiting time a bit we are planning the implementation of a nice little feature for goalunited 2014. The implementation will not interfere with the development of goalunited next. It is a feature that many managers have asked for in our forum: Season goals!

In the feature “Season goals” you can select up to 3 goals from a list of more than 20 predetermined season goals, and with that you have a chance to personalize each season. We are planning to offer three categories: League, Tournaments and Miscellaneous. There should be something fitting for every manager and situation. For example, if you are planning to let go of some of your old star players and to add young talents, you could choose the season goals “make a profit of at least 10 million in one season” or “Promote at least 6 youth players with a strength of 2.0 or higher”. If you think you have the best team in goalunited, you can shoot high and go for the goal “No IM match lost” and with that win 5000 GU-STARS. There are also a lot of season goals that any manager can achieve, for example goals to reach a specific number of points, wins, or a set goal difference. You will also find goals for the league cup, the International Masters or your staff. Of course you can also set yourself the goal to win the championship or to be promoted to the next higher league.

As you can see there is a broad spectrum of choices.

After you have set your season goals you can keep track of your progress throughout the season to see how far you are from reaching your goal, or if it is even still possible. If you reach your season goal until the end of the season, you will receive interesting prizes like STARS, ingame money, boosters and special packs, all depending on the difficulty of your set goals. They range from 2,500,000 ingame money over youth and talent boosters up to 5000 GU-STARS.

For each season goal you need to make a small contribution, like a small entry fee. If you do not reach your goal, you lose your contribution. The higher the career level, the higher the contribution. A manager with career level 20 pays a minimum fee of 100,000 ingame currency per goal, while a manager with career level 60 pays up to the maximum amount of 1,000,000 per goal.

The basic functionality of the feature is already in development. To give you a small insight into the basic layout of the feature we have shared a “drawn design draft” with you. This design will of course be adjusted to fully integrate into the goalunited 2014 layout. We are planning to go live with the season goals by the end of March.

Picture: Draft of season goal feature

We hope that you will enjoy the season goals.

Regards,

Robert (Product Manager)