Feature: "Madden Has Continued To Suffer" - Legend Bowl Dev On Their "Fresh" Football Game

Over the past few years, the number of arcade-style American football titles on Switch has increased at a pretty steady rate. We recently saw Retro Bowl bring us back to the game's 8-bit roots, and Saber is looking to bring even more big-head Playgrounds-esque charm to the game with Wild Card Football later this year. This is football at its most simplistic, so where do you turn if you want to experience the complexities of the game?

The answer might be Legend Bowl, a new American football sim from publisher Top Hat Studios and developer Super Pixel Games that aims to show the tactical side of the sport both on and off the field. We were recently able to chat with the game's lead developer, Javier Martinez, to find out what went into making Legend Bowl stand out from the crowd.

Our conversation covered a range of topics including Martinez's departure from EA and the Madden franchise, the team's retro inspirations and nailing a good couch co-op rivalry. Let's get ready to kick off...

Nintendo Life: From what we have seen so far, Tecmo Bowl was clearly a big inspiration for Legend Bowl's gameplay and aesthetic. Were there any other football titles that you looked to in development and what did you take from them?

Javier Martinez, Super Pixel Games: Legend Bowl was inspired by games like Tecmo Bowl, ESPN NFL 2K5, All-Pro Football 2K8, Baseball Stars, and Super Mega Baseball to name a few. I’ve been a long-time football fan since I was a kid and love simulation-style sports games the best. I’m a huge fan of deep statistics and really immersing myself in sports games.

With that said, we feel that gameplay is the most crucial aspect of any game because it builds the foundation that every other feature sits on. We designed Legend Bowl to give players a “sim-cade” feeling on the field, where strategy and player control blend with “simple to pick up”, yet “hard to master” mechanics in place.

We understand you left EA and stopped working on Madden due to frustrations with the series' direction. What exactly weren't you a fan of, and how has that inspired your approach with Legend Bowl?

Martinez: My departure from EA was due to a combination of things, but that was when we still had competition and ESPN NFL 2K5 had recently been released. During that time, the Madden series was still a solid title to compete with other football games. It was down the road, when the NFL license was exclusive to EA that the landscape of football games shifted and competition dwindled. We had some other titles, such as BackBreaker and All-Pro Football 2K8 since then, but those died quickly due to the lack of support from the community.

Madden has continued to suffer as the years have passed with no real improvements to gameplay or franchise mode. They’ve focused heavily on micro-transactions with modes like MUT (Madden Ultimate Team) to generate more revenue while leaving hardcore fans with buggy gameplay and lacklustre modes to play. Legend Bowl was built to fill that void for football fans who want a fresh option and a game that was truly built with a passion for football and not solely for monetary purposes. We’re super proud of how Legend Bowl turned out and we hope new players will share that same sentiment once they get their hands on the game.

Many arcade-style sports titles tend to keep the action predominantly on the field, but Legend Bowl takes a more sim-based approach with its flagship Franchise Mode. What challenges did you encounter in translating the full complexity of the sport, both on and off the field?

We love the game of football, and we want players to experience that same love for the sport as they do in real life

Martinez: This is a good question! I strongly believe football is, by far, the most challenging game to code and get working somewhat accurately on the field. On the field, getting the player AI to behave in a realistic manner was a challenge because football is such a chaotic sport and you have to account for what feels like millions of scenarios all in real-time without compromising game speed or balance. It’s a slippery slope and took some time to get working at a satisfactory level of quality that meets and even exceeds our expectations.

In addition to the AI, the offensive and defensive line interaction was no picnic to get feeling solid on the field. Creating a natural pocket for the Quarterback, while also allowing a Running Back to have a hole to run through with blockers in front took quite some time to get working nicely and we’re really proud of where we landed in the end.

In terms of the Franchise mode, we wanted to include as many player and team statistics as we could, similar to games like ESPN NFL 2K5 and Baseball Stars, while also immersing gamers into the week-to-week stories and events that are often missing from sports games. We designed Franchise mode to have a weekly newspaper that shares some of this story and player wire events for players who are unhappy and want to test the market during a season.

There’s so much that went into Franchise mode, and we feel we hit the sweet spot giving players enough to fully engage themselves in the mode, while also keeping things light enough to not have them responsible for every single detail a real organization encounters. Some of the cool aspects are the Facilities where you can build hot dog stands or an arcade room, for example, to improve attributes for your team. We also have a full off-season with retirement, player progression, and a draft so you can try and improve your team every year.

Controlling players on a field and managing the business decisions for a team offer two quite different styles of gameplay. Were you conscious of maintaining a sense of energy between the two or would you say that the sport and sim elements exist separately?

Martinez: Legend Bowl is as much of a pure simulation as we could get it because we love the game of football, and we want players to experience the same love for the sport as they do in real life. The on-field gameplay and team management are similar because they both feel like a mixture of simulation and arcade. A good example of this is players having morale that controls how well they play on the field, while also affecting a team’s overall chemistry. This means you’ll want to keep players happy as much as possible by winning games, building facilities, and giving them proper contracts while keeping your overall salary cap in check. It’s a really neat experience and keeps players engaged throughout each season.

You mention that some of the off-field tasks include "managing stadium facilities, team rosters and player's needs". Could you tell us a bit more about what these challenges entail and how they match up against the other things that you will have to complete as a coach?

Playing Legend Bowl with friends is one of the cornerstones of the game

Martinez: As with any other sports game, the ultimate goal is to build a great squad and win as much as possible and we feel we’ve given players the tools to accomplish this goal. As mentioned already, facilities offer a way to improve many aspects of your team, but they also come with a risk of losing things so there’s a risk/reward trade-off as a result. Players also want to be happy and the happier they are the better they play and the better the team chemistry becomes. This is important because it keeps players from wanting to leave your team and gives your team a better chance of being offered players who are unhappy with other teams. It’s something you really want to keep up with during a season or else you can find yourself with a team that’s losing players left and right and winning becomes next to impossible.

One thing that we were pleased to see Legend Bowl offer is the pick-up-and-play co-op of Exhibition Mode — perhaps the main way that we played titles like Tecmo Bowl and NFL Blitz in the past. How did you go about replicating those classic living room rivalries that we all know so well?

Martinez: Playing Legend Bowl with friends is one of the cornerstones of the game. When I was a kid, I remember playing Tecmo Bowl all through the night with friends and having a blast to see who could keep the winner’s seat all night long. We really wanted to give people this same opportunity to sit shoulder to shoulder with friends and battle out games, like the glory days of sports games! We’ve included the ability to play 1v1, 1v2, 1v3, 2v2, and even 4 vs the computer. This gives players as much variety as possible when playing the game with friends or the computer in co-op or vs modes alike.

There is a lot of detail in the game's visuals from helmets flying off to a perfectly spiralling football, how did you balance these modern details with the overall retro arcade aesthetic?

Martinez: The detail in Legend Bowl originates from my love for simulation and customization in sports games. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I’m always trying to squeeze out every little detail of polish when making a game. The ball physics was something I spent a good amount of time on to give players the ability to throw any type of pass and allow for tips to deflect into the air just like in real life. The player customization options were also super important, allowing for every detail of the player’s face, hair, helmet, visors, eyebrows, etc. to be swappable and therefore things like helmets popping off or even removing helmets and visors or adding hats could be a thing.

Modern technology allows for these types of features to be included with the game, as opposed to games of the past like Tecmo and Blitz which were limited by legacy hardware and technology during those times. It’s a really nice blend of the golden era of sports games and newer technology which makes Legend Bowl shine.

You have described the game as one that "plays like real football, but with a twist of fun and arcady-ness". Additions like Franchise Mode obviously increase the realism aspect, but are there any ways that you have consciously moved away from reality, perhaps in the service of maintaining the arcade style of gameplay?

We think it’s truly awesome American football is spreading across the world to places like the UK

Martinez: Even though we love realistic gameplay, we also wanted players to enjoy the easy to “pick up and play” aspects of an arcade sports game. The pixel graphical style is one of those arcade elements that make the game feel like an old-school arcade game. On the field, even though the controls are deep, they’re also easy to pick up especially when lowering the settings to easier levels. There are also specific on-field actions that separate the game from real life, such as stiff arms sending guys flying and wrestling challenges being simple, instead of including a bunch of swim moves. The passing meter, for instance, can be nerfed to make it super simple to throw perfect passes. It's the same thing with kicking the ball, which people sometimes have a difficult time with when playing on the harder settings. The overall aesthetic of the game gives you that arcade vibe, but it’s a nice mix of both that we think players will enjoy.

The NFL is rapidly growing in popularity over here in the UK. Is there anything that you hope newcomers to the sport take from Legend Bowl and did you consider how the game could be played by those who perhaps don't know American Football too well?

Martinez: We designed Legend Bowl to not be a carbon copy of the NFL and give the game its own lore with fictitious teams, logos, players, and deep customization options. Not being tied down to a license gives players the joy of following their custom leagues/teams and seeing which dynasties develop, who the new superstars are, how the draft turns out, which teams fall from grace, etc. Also, things like Ask Coach/Tutorial/Help Guide are good entry points for players new to the sport. Instead of being expected to know everything immediately, they can slowly ease themselves in — the kind of experience you only get by being invested in sports games. Having the license also restricts other games from having the freedom of including things like major injuries in the game. We didn’t have those constraints in place, which gave us the creative freedom to design the game freely.

We think it’s truly awesome that American football is spreading across the world to places like the UK and Legend Bowl has been compared to games like Sensible Soccer which were hits in those countries. We hope those players love the game as much as we do and their growing interest in the sport should help to increase the success of football games in the future.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Thank you to Javier Martinez for taking the time to talk to us and to Andy Andi Han for setting up the interview. Legend Bowl kicks off on Switch on 9th August. Will you be taking to the football field? Buckle up in the comments.