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)