
In addition to the AI, the offensive and defensive line interaction was no picnic to get feeling solid on the field. 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. 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.
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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. We love the game of football, and we want players to experience that same love for the sport as they do in real life
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What challenges did you encounter in translating the full complexity of the sport, both on and off the field? 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. 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. 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. 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. Madden has continued to suffer as the years have passed with no real improvements to gameplay or franchise mode. 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.
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It was down the road, when the NFL license was exclusive to EA that the landscape of football games shifted and competition dwindled.
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During that time, the Madden series was still a solid title to compete with other football games. 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. What exactly weren't you a fan of, and how has that inspired your approach with Legend Bowl? We understand you left EA and stopped working on Madden due to frustrations with the series' direction.

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. 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. 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. This is football at its most simplistic, so where do you turn if you want to experience the complexities of the game? 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. Over the past few years, the number of arcade-style American football titles on Switch has increased at a pretty steady rate.
