The Maximum Football Open Beta was a HUGE success. As a top-50 played game during Next Fest, we had no shortage of players offering insightful feedback on how we can improve the game. Here’s a list of six areas we are currently working on which will improve the game in the lead up to Early Access thanks to your participation in the Beta. You can watch the video about these improvement below or continue reading to learn about what we will be tackling as we prepare for Early Access. [previewyoutube=_gdYKQt0M6E;full][/previewyoutube] [h2]Game Pace[/h2] Game pace was an issue we addressed with the week 2, real-world speed update. While the change was largely well-received, it was a very quick change without the correct engineering behind it to commit it to the game. We’re working on that now alongside other areas of the game which need to change in order to properly support real-world speed. These include tweaking the physics, making adjustments to how acceleration works in the game, and ensuring there is a difference in feel from running and sprinting. [h2]Graphics, Animation and Audio[/h2] We received an abundance of positive feedback about the visuals and animations in the game, but we still have some work to do to bring this up to where we want it to be. This includes camera work, particle effects, weather, and dirt. All of these will add to the visual fidelity of the game. We are also still working on our full suite of animations that we have captured for the game, as well as adding even more mocaped animations which we’re sure you’ll love in our Early Access. [h2]Player Controls[/h2] The controls in Maximum Football are also being revised in the lead up to Early Access with a few goals in mind: [olist] [*] Create smoother controls [*] Make the gameplay feel more responsive to user inputs [*] Provide the user with better tutorials and practice modes to master the controls [/olist] [h2]AI Players and Play calling[/h2] Limiting the Beta to gameplay against the CPU meant that we were able to gather a bevy of feedback regarding the AI play calling and execution. With this feedback, we’re improving the AI coaching’s situational awareness, especially as it relates to clock management at the end of a half and in late game situations. [h2]Playbooks[/h2] Hand-in-hand with AI play calling, we are already on our way to improving the plays available to call as well as the actual 11-on-11 execution of the plays. We will also look into improving the in-game playart in both the play calling menu and the on-field view. These updates will require certain considerations before we add custom playbooks and play creation to the game. [h2]UI[/h2] We want to make sure Maximum Football is user-friendly and easy to navigate. Many of you commented on the UI needing some improvements. We are currently doing a full audit of the accessibility of our UI and looking for ways to improve it. As you can see, we’ve got a football field of work ahead of us as we move towards Early Access. We can’t wait to show you how YOUR FEEDBACK has created real change in Maximum Football.