Arena Football

[nepmarauder]

Being a big fan of football and a high school football player, I've thought about making a football game for the TI-83 Plus. I decided to start working on an Arena Football game. Here are some of the features I hope to include:


Features:

Real, Arena Football Teams
Real, Arena Football Players
Vertical-Scrolling Field (50 yard field, 8 yard endzones)
6 Iron-Man Players (Players play both sides of the ball)
2 Specialty Players for each side of ball
Offense, Defense, and Special Teams
Authentic Plays
Exhibition and Season Modes
Instead of a Timed Game, there will be a set number of plays per quarter
Timeouts will add one play to the plays per quarter
Primitive, Artificial Intelligence
Turnovers (Fumbles and Interceptions)


Possible Features:

Penalties
Create-a-Team
Create-a-Player
Create-a-Play
Timed Game
User Reciever Control

Screenshots:

AFL Field


AFL Menu


AFL Sprites

[kv83]

It looks really nice, but I don't know whether to like it or not. I'm from the netherlands, and football is not that hot over here in europe...

[kalan_vod]

Sounds and look great! I hope to see this made, and those sprites are amazing .

[nepmarauder]

You raise a good point. This will probably be a game aimed towards American sports lovers. I'll make sure to include extensive rules and links for those who aren't familiar with the game.

Thanks for your input.

[Liazon]

I think this is a very good idea.

btw, I like the sprites I don't see many football games in the ticalc archives w/ sprites as nice as that.

will you simply pick a play, and it all plays out?

[nepmarauder]

Well, my plan is to make the game much like the old Techmo Bowl games. Two-dimensional, overhead-view game in which you can control one player at a time (on offense the player with the ball, on defense the player you select). I haven't programmed in a while because I been busy with high school football, so I figured this would be a interesting, challenging project to jump back into things with.

The only thing my game will lack is a clock. Since the TI-83 Plus has no accurate way in keeping time, I will probably use a set play number per quarter. For example, there are about 80 plays per game in an AFL game. Therefore, in my game there will be 40 plays per half (20 plays per quarter). After 40 plays, you have half time. After 80 plays, the game is over.

Normal occurences will still be in affect:

Touchdowns (6 points)
Extra Points (1 or 2 points)
Field Goals (3 points)
Field Goal Returns
Kick-offs
Kick Returns
Out of Bounds
Time-outs
Turnovers

As far as sprites, I might add more in the future. The only ones I have in mind are player pre-play stances and player touchdown dances.

Let me know if you have any other ideas.

[tr1p1ea]

The sprite work looks great and i would love to see more sports games on the 83+. AFL to me means 'Australian Football League' . This is basically gridiron right?

[nepmarauder]

Well, AFL stands for "Australian Football League" in Europe and Australia. But, AFL stands for "Arena Football League" in the United States.

The Arena Football League has been around in the United States since the 1980's. Recently, the major television network NBC has begun to broadcast the AFL games. After three seasons on NBC and terrific ratings, EA Sports released an Arena Football video game.

The game is follows the same concepts as American football but has quite different rules compared to other football leagues, like the NFL and NFL Europe. In Arena Football, games are played indoors in basketball/hockey arenas. The fields are 66 yards long (50 yard field with two 8 yard endzones). Rather than having normal goalposts, there are large nets on either side of the goalposts. Kicks and passes can be caught off of the nets. The fields are bordered with 3.5 foot walls. Eight players for each team on the field at one time. The six of the eight players play Iron Man football, meaning they play both sides of the ball. The remaining two are offensive specialists (quarterback, kicker, and/or wide reciever) and defensive specialists (linebackers and/or defensive backs).

For more information, I have included some links.

Official Site
http://www.arenafootball.com/

EA Sports
http://www.easports.com/afl/index.jsp

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arena_football

[CompWiz]

this sounds like a great idea. I remember a couple of years ago someone was asking if there were any good football games for the 83+. I found a couple, but nothing that was good. I'm not really a football fan, but this looks like it would be a fun game regardless. Good luck with it.

[nepmarauder]

Thanks, I need all that I can get. Certain aspects of the game are easy and already coded. The computer's AI, programmed errors, and plays will be the toughest part of this project. But, I think it can be done.

[CompWiz]

say, talking about ai, how about making a neural network AI?

[benryves]

Good luck with this project - it looks great, even if I know nothing about American football.

[nepmarauder]

*Reads about neural network AI*

Well, that is exactly what I had in mind. I just didn't know the official name of the technique. I don't know. I'll have my hands full. It will be a fun project. We'll see if I can pull it off.

[CompWiz]

great. I can't wait to see it in action. I think chickendude is also working on a neural network AI for his monopoly game. It's about time someone used that for calculator.

[kv83]

Btw, if you ever want an admin to move this thread to "Announce Your projects", just give us a pm