Canadian football video game almost ready for launch

[jerrym]

David Winter has been developing a Canadian football video game, called Canadian Football 2017, for X Box One and PS4 that I expect a fair number of ArgoFans members would be interested in. The game will cost $20. However, although there will be nine teams representing the 9 CFL cities, the game does not have a CFL license, so the teams do not have their CFL names. The Toronto team will be the Toronto Wild Hogs. The lack of a license could be a major stumbling block for sales.
Below is an interview with video game developer David Winter.

http://3downnation.com/2017/03/19/interview-canadian-football-video-game-almost-ready-launch/

[Tobythor]

Been waiting for this most of my life, but unfortunately I don't have one of the systems its offered on. I can't believe the CFL wouldn't get behind this, especially since I believe they should've pushed for a creation of a CFL game a couple of decades ago.

[Argo57]

Will a Commodore 64 version be available?

[Wobbler]

I can't believe the CFL wouldn't get behind this, especially since I believe they should've pushed for a creation of a CFL game a couple of decades ago.
It sounds like they're concerned that the company is small and poorly-resourced and that the finished product would be amateurish. It might not be realistic for the league to insist on the involvement of a major studio, but a terrible game with the blessing/branding of the CFL might be worse than no game at all.

[Will]

It sounds like they're concerned that the company is small and poorly-resourced and that the finished product would be amateurish. It might not be realistic for the league to insist on the involvement of a major studio, but a terrible game with the blessing/branding of the CFL might be worse than no game at all.

I'm inclined to agree with Wobbler here.

[Neely2005]

Something is better than nothing. Sound like there will be a PC version too.

The article certainly doesn't make the league look good.

[Wobbler]

Sounds like this is moving forward (http://ckom.com/article/1526284/3-downs-3-d-canadian-football-video-game-set-release). If they make a PC version I will look into it.

[Neely2005]

Sounds like this is moving forward (http://ckom.com/article/1526284/3-downs-3-d-canadian-football-video-game-set-release). If they make a PC version I will look into it.

They have already confirmed a PC version.

[Wobbler]

They've confirmed that they *want* to make a PC version eventually. I'd like something a bit firmer than that.

[Wobbler]

OK, it sounds like they are pretty serious about it. Good!

<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/CanuckPlay/posts/1978857755677961" data-width="500" data-show-text="true"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/CanuckPlay/posts/1978857755677961" class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><p>For the PC gamers out there, what's the general feeling towards GoG as a distribution system for the PC edition of &#x1f1e8;&#x1f1e6;&#x1f3c8;17 ? Any major issues?

www.gog.com</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CanuckPlay/">Canuck Play Inc.</a> on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/CanuckPlay/posts/1978857755677961">Monday, May 15, 2017</a></blockquote></div>

[Neely2005]

Almost ready for launch:

http://3downnation.com/2017/05/16/canadian-football-video-game-gets-tentative-release-date/

[Neely2005]

They've confirmed that they *want* to make a PC version eventually. I'd like something a bit firmer than that.

One of the recent interviews that I read said that it was coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC. In that order.

[ArgoZ]

Getting this game launched will be a massive step towards seeing an actual CFL licensed game in the future. I do not see this years game making it to PS4, despite want we have read.

[R.J]

Just bought an xbox one s a couple of months ago (in large part due to the 4k player), so I'll definitely be buying this game.

[jerrym]

The information below about the 2017 version of the game is from their website that also has a Frequently Asked Questions section and legacy titles such as Maximum Football.



Fast, explosive offensive action, we have it all in our Canadian gridiron simulation title that brings to fans everything they love about how Canucks have been playing the game for more than 100 years. That means 12 players, 3 downs, 20 seconds, and no fair catch eh. We are developing the title for console, desktop and mobile platforms including: http://canuckplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screenshot-2016-04-12-08.31.29.png
As of spring 2016, we have a prototype of Canadian Football ‘17 running on an XBox One development kit. If you love the game as much as we do, join the conversation at Twitter (https://twitter.com/CanuckGS) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CanuckPlay). ...


Maximum Football



http://canuckplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mfb_box.jpg


In 2006 publishing under the name Wintervalley Software, we released Maximum-Football, the ultimate PC football arcade/simulation game. Maximum-Football allows the player to play North American football under Canadian, American, and Indoor rules. The game had a rich feature set, including an extremely sophisticated play designer, playbook editor, player career mode, and 3D game play, the game provides a full sandbox for your football fix. CD-ROM editions shipped with a 75-page full colour user guide. An early build of Maximum-Football was featured in the January 2004 edition of PC Gamer Magazine ( pg1 (http://canuckplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/pg1.jpg), pg2 (http://canuckplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/pg2.jpg) ).Maximum-Football 2.0 came out a year later with improved graphics, gameplay and a whole host of new features like full XBox 360 controller support, full DirectX 9.0 utilization, and scores of other upgrades and improvements, Maximum-Football 2.0 delivers on gameplay and fun like a bullet pass through double coverage. Like its predecessor, Maximum-Football 2.0 allows players to experience the thrill of managing a team in any league from pee-wee to all-pro. Players can get down and dirty with the editor to create new plays and playbooks, design uniforms and helmets, and select nicknames to appear on jerseys. Maximum-Football 2.0 has the features for everyone from armchair quarterbacks to head coaches. The game is available for purchase from Matrix Games. (http://www.matrixcom/products/301/details/Maximum-Football.2.0) Please see screen images below.



http://canuckplay.com/games/

[Neely2005]

Canadian Football 2017 on STEAM

Hello Everyone. So as many of you know by now, today we released our first official game play trailer. There are two versions, one on twitter and the slightly longer one you see on Facebook.

Today I'm also announcing our plan to move forward with STEAM distribution for the PC. And this is where Canuck Play needs your help.

Steam's GreenLight process means that only games that receive a certain number of votes can be accepted for distribution on that platform. So we need your votes and you can add your vote here;

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/…

The more votes we get, the sooner we can bring you the game on your favourite platform. So tell your friends.

Canadian Football 2017 is the first iteration of what we hope will be a long line of exciting football titles. The more support we get, the faster we’ll reach the goals everyone has for the game.

Thanks
David Winter

[ArgoRavi]

Canadian Football 2017 on STEAM

Hello Everyone. So as many of you know by now, today we released our first official game play trailer. There are two versions, one on twitter and the slightly longer one you see on Facebook.

Today I'm also announcing our plan to move forward with STEAM distribution for the PC. And this is where Canuck Play needs your help.

Steam's GreenLight process means that only games that receive a certain number of votes can be accepted for distribution on that platform. So we need your votes and you can add your vote here;

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/…

The more votes we get, the sooner we can bring you the game on your favourite platform. So tell your friends.

Canadian Football 2017 is the first iteration of what we hope will be a long line of exciting football titles. The more support we get, the faster we’ll reach the goals everyone has for the game.

Thanks
David Winter

The link seems to be broken.

[Neely2005]

The link seems to be broken.

Weird it worked earlier. I cut and pasted it right from their Facebook post.

[Wobbler]

Here's the correct link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=935357304

[BATKINSON001]

I plan on getting both.

[Neely2005]

Steam Page:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/664650/Canadian_Football_2017/

[Neely2005]

The game is available now for PC and Xbox One.

[ArgoGabe22]

Matt Black tweeted out the game better be ready to pay players compensation for their "player likeness". I guess he didn't read any of the articles.

[Wobbler]

As a lazy person, I'm waiting for someone else to generate the edited roster XMLs and jersey bitmaps. Has anyone come across this yet?

[Wobbler]

...and here's the answer to my question (https://www.reddit.com/r/CFL/comments/6qrel5/canadian_football_2017_cfl_mod_update_version_2/).

http://i.imgur.com/TPhTX5F.jpg

[Neely2005]

An interesting read for those that are interested:

https://m.facebook.com/notes/canuck-play-inc/the-past-the-present-the-future/2022542367976166/

[Bosco]

Even though it's only $15, I hope no one is buying this game. It's a complete mess and was not even ready for release based on the problems it has.

The graphics are outdated by about 15 years. That could've easily have been forgiven if the game itself wasn't broken. It's no wonder the CFL didn't want to attach their name to this thing.

No patches are going to fix problems this big. The engine is ridiculous and the AI is a joke.

Reviewers of the game are trashing it badly. The video clips from the reviews speaks for themselves.

[Will]

Even though it's only $15, I hope no one is buying this game. It's a complete mess and was not even ready for release based on the problems it has.

The graphics are outdated by about 15 years. That could've easily have been forgiven if the game itself wasn't broken. It's no wonder the CFL didn't want to attach their name to this thing.

No patches are going to fix problems this big. The engine is ridiculous and the AI is a joke.

Reviewers of the game are trashing it badly. The video clips from the reviews speaks for themselves.

Well said!

[Neely2005]

Even though it's only $15, I hope no one is buying this game. It's a complete mess and was not even ready for release based on the problems it has.

The graphics are outdated by about 15 years. That could've easily have been forgiven if the game itself wasn't broken. It's no wonder the CFL didn't want to attach their name to this thing.

No patches are going to fix problems this big. The engine is ridiculous and the AI is a joke.

Reviewers of the game are trashing it badly. The video clips from the reviews speaks for themselves.

The graphics are outdated by 15 years? More like 5.

The Present

Scoot forward in time 18 months and Canadian football 2017 releases on two platforms. Everyone, especially us here at Canuck Play, acknowledges the game had some bumps coming out of the box. It’s the sort of thing that happens when you have a small team missing critical partners. I am however happy to say that the vast majority of those bumps have been ironed out. Since the game’s release we’ve already reworked the passing mechanics based on player feedback as well as addressed other items that were discovered post release. With these updates the player feedback on our Facebook page has been overwhelmingly positive. When a commenter writes “Everything they’re doing is perfect.” we try not to argue that point.
Updating and improving the title will continue to be an ongoing process. The plan for this title, at least since April 2016, has been to release a foundation and iterate. And iterate. And iterate. While large studios work on a yearly cycle, we’re currently planning on a monthly iteration cycle.

The Future

There is good news. With the revenue generated from just the first week of sales, we have been able to reinvest funds back into the title and I’m happy to say we have hired a very talented 3D modelling agency to work with us - something we had lost the ablity to do earlier. Our first task is to bring the game’s various on-field player models from 1st generation visuals to Next Generation visuals. We will be replacing the existing 2 variations of player model with between 6 and 8 variations, each unique to their position, with the aim to be 1st in class and compare directly to any player model visual produced by any studio – any – studio. This contract has just been signed and work just started, so we’re a few months away from them making their debut, but it’s important that you to know what is coming down the pipe because it’s your support that is allowing us to do it.
Along with new visuals, we will be investigating new features. We have been approached by an eSports company with the idea of adding an eSports tournament mode to the game. And given the great fun everyone had during the title’s Launch Event tournament, this is something we’re looking into. We’re also looking at adding a basic season mode.

[Bosco]

The graphics are outdated by 15 years? More like 5.

No way. Madden 2012 looks MUCH better graphically than this. Check out the youtube videos for comparison.
This looks closer to NFL Fever 2002 - the launch title for the original XBOX. I'm being a little generous too... the reviews are comparing this to football games from the PS2 era (which is even older than 15 years)... although I don't think that's accurate. Bringing in all the elements of graphics, animation, etc... it's at the very least 10 years behind.

And it's nice that they're going to be updating the visuals down the road... but it doesn't nothing for the game today.

In any case, the gameplay is VERY broken... which is the most important aspect of any game. This game just happens to fail badly in both respects.

[Neely2005]

No way. Madden 2012 looks MUCH better graphically than this. Check out the youtube videos for comparison.
This looks closer to NFL Fever 2002 - the launch title for the original XBOX. I'm being a little generous too... the reviews are comparing this to football games from the PS2 era (which is even older than 15 years)... although I don't think that's accurate. Bringing in all the elements of graphics, animation, etc... it's at the very least 10 years behind.

And it's nice that they're going to be updating the visuals down the road... but it doesn't nothing for the game today.

In any case, the gameplay is VERY broken... which is the most important aspect of any game. This game just happens to fail badly in both respects.

That's your opinion, I disagree.

[BATKINSON001]

People want cfl madden. That ain't happening because ea sucks.

This cfl rules based game will be the start of something good. Give it time.

[Wobbler]

I haven't bought it yet but I still plan to.

The graphics don't bother me and it sounds like the problem with passing being too difficult has been addressed. I'm not sure what the AI problems are, but I'll check out some videos...

[R.J]

Having tried out the game, I will echo what others have stated here and elsewhere: don't waste your money.

While I really wanted a CFL video game, Canuck Play released a very poor attempt. Graphics sucks, button delays (punting took a long time to get the timing right), and the receivers can't catch a cold.

[BATKINSON001]

Having tried out the game, I will echo what others have stated here and elsewhere: don't waste your money.

While I really wanted a CFL video game, Canuck Play released a very poor attempt. Graphics sucks, button delays (punting took a long time to get the timing right), and the receivers can't catch a cold.

Canuckplay could only do so much with very little money since the league wouldn't even sign on and give them the license they needed to secure significantly more funding.

they are addressing the issues with the game on pc first followed by the xbox version which takes longer to get updates applied due to the approval system microsoft uses.


https://canuckplay.blogspot.ca/2017/08/the-past-present-future.html:



The Past - The Present - The Future
It’s been a bit over a week now since the launch of Canuck Play’s first title, Canadian football 2017 for the XBox and PC Desktop. Like any other game, or movie, or TV show, there have been both positive and negative reviews. We get daily tweets, emails, and Facebook posts telling us, not only how much fun people are having with the game, but also how they’d like to see it improved going forward. We listen to all of it so please keep that feedback coming. We evaluate everything and try to address the suggestions that we can.

The Past
During its development and especially this past month, Canuck Play, and this project in particular, has had a great deal of media exposure. Radio and TV interviews from coast to coast and from outside the country, as well as local and national newspapers, have given us a shout out. Thanks again to all those that took the time to speak with us, and everyone that listened in or read the stories.

The 2 most common questions asked have been;
What was the impetus for doing a project like this? This is probably a story for another day.
Why is there no professional license attached? This is something I’d like to speak about here.
Let’s jump inside a blue Police box and go back in time to April of 2016. That’s when, after several weeks of trying, we had an opportunity to sit down and try to present our plan and ideas for bringing a licensed Canadian football title to market. Part (but not all) of our proposal included;
Microsoft as a publishing partner covering costs of most hardware and software. This included XBox development kits (which are themselves worth a few thousand dollars) and the same publishing agreement as large game studios.
We had the Peterborough Innovation Cluster providing us office space and administrative services – free of charge. They are also specialist in funding services.
We had a proposed development budget that comprised of $500,000 private funding which was to be combined with various dollar matching* digital start up grants such as the Bell Digital Media Fund, OMDC, and other job creation grants. There were also tax incentives such as SHRED available. Tax incentives come later in the project but are still accounted for on the budget. This meant the total proposed development budget was pushing up towards the $1 million mark.
We also had a playable prototype – the same prototype that was used as part of the pitch to Microsoft. So we were more than just people with an idea, we had something to show.
People extremely passionate and knowledgeable about sport.
*A dollar matching grant means that, for every $1 you wish to receive, you need to already have that $1 in the bank. Some of these grants are stackable - you can use money from one grant to dollar match towards a second. But all have minimum amounts you can apply for.

In summary, our proposal was backed by two solid partners covering major portions of expense and a budget that was in-line with expected returns for a Canadian football video game. It’s important to keep in mind that a Canadian football video game, licensed or not, is not going to generate a million in sales. It’s just not. It’s a smaller sport only played inside a small market country. Even a fully licensed title, at best, is a break even opportunity – at best. A small budget and a small team building it for the passion rather than the dollars, along with supportive partners, is really the only viable way to bring something of this kind to market.

What we discovered during our one brief face-to-face meeting was that our definition of what a Partnership could be did not line up with what other’s wanted a Partnership to be.

With that the project suffered a rather large set back. As an unlicense title the project lost about 95% of its private funding (only our own money was left in the pot). Without private funding, we no longer had access to the dollar matching grants. Compounding the loss of up front funding we were no longer able attract any additional sponsors. “Half time brought to you by XYZ!” was no longer something we could do.

Beyond monetary setbacks, the lack of a license also meant we ran into challenges attracting the attention of others in the Canadian football community such as the Player’s Union, Football Canada, Canadian Football Hall of Fame, or even the national broadcast partner. For whatever reasons, many never returned our calls or emails.

The end result of all this being the whole project fell to two people. The funding to create upwards of 6 new full time positions in the city simply went away. Here is where most sane people would have said “$&#@ it!” and walked away from the project. But my partner Sheryl and I are a bit crazy and thankfully, we were not quite on our own.

We still had the support of Microsoft and the Peterborough Innovation Cluster, and an opportunity that was never going to come again. No established game development studio in the country has ever shown, even the slightest, interest in a Canadian football game project. So if there were ever the chance, this was it, we could not waste the opportunity of having those two partners on side.

Sheryl and I went back to the drawing board and reworked what we thought we could do with just our own private money and 18 months to deliver. It meant facing a hard truth; it meant that this was no longer going to be a game with bleeding edge AAA visuals and 50 play modes playable on every game platform known to man. It became, at that point, the very definition of “An Indie Game Project”. It would be a game with what we termed ‘functional visuals’, one play mode, and a goal to lay ground work. If an aspect of the project couldn’t be done in-house by us, it had to be set aside for later. If adding a feature meant time away from the core, that feature would be set aside for later. Start small, start basic, and start to grow.

The majority of our personal funding went towards a motion capture system to allow us to bring animation into the title - the game currently has around 200 unique animations. The rest was used to cover basic expenses through development.

The Present
Scoot forward in time 18 months and Canadian football 2017 releases on two platforms. Everyone, especially us here at Canuck Play, acknowledges the game had some bumps coming out of the box. It’s the sort of thing that happens when you have a small team missing critical partners. I am however happy to say that the vast majority of those bumps have been ironed out. Since the game’s release we’ve already reworked the passing mechanics based on player feedback as well as addressed other items that were discovered post release. With these updates the player feedback on our Facebook page has been overwhelmingly positive. When a commenter writes “Everything they’re doing is perfect.” we try not to argue that point.

Updating and improving the title will continue to be an ongoing process. The plan for this title, at least since April 2016, has been to release a foundation and iterate. And iterate. And iterate. While large studios work on a yearly cycle, we’re currently planning on a monthly iteration cycle.

The Future
There is good news. With the revenue generated from just the first week of sales, we have been able to reinvest funds back into the title and I’m happy to say we have hired a very talented 3D modelling agency to work with us - something we had lost the ablity to do earlier. Our first task is to bring the game’s various on-field player models from 1st generation visuals to Next Generation visuals. We will be replacing the existing 2 variations of player model with between 6 and 8 variations, each unique to their position, with the aim to be 1st in class and compare directly to any player model visual produced by any studio – any – studio. This contract has just been signed and work just started, so we’re a few months away from them making their debut, but it’s important that you to know what is coming down the pipe because it’s your support that is allowing us to do it.

Along with new visuals, we will be investigating new features. We have been approached by an eSports company with the idea of adding an eSports tournament mode to the game. And given the great fun everyone had during the title’s Launch Event tournament, this is something we’re looking into. We’re also looking at adding a basic season mode.
And there’s more good news. I’m also happy to announce today that Microsoft has approved our proposal for Canadian Football 2018 – tentatively scheduled for the June/July 2018 period.

The Razor for 2018 is ‘Full Customization on All Platforms’. While this is technically a fairly trivial thing to do, there are legal questions around what can and cannot be done. Canuck is subject to Canadian laws for ‘User Generated Content’ (UGC) which differ greatly from American law. Just because company XYZ in the US can do something, doesn’t mean we can. We’re currently working with a legal firm in Canada that specializes in video game law to determine what’s possible. Obviously we’ll keep you posted about that along the way.

[Bosco]

I had a good laugh over this video. The graphical glitches, controller issues, beyond-stupid AI are just too funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA6a3fLrYNs&

[BATKINSON001]

I am looking forward to seeing what this game will become, since it is being constantly updated.

[Neely2005]

Yet another update today:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2024494671114269&id=1737226416507764

[argonaut11xx]

The last time I played sports Video games, it was called "Intelivision"

But I have that Steam thingy cause I'm addicted to the CIV games, so maybe this is simple enough for an old coot like me to figure out?

[jerrym]

The only Canadian football video game is officially dead.



The only Canadian football video game on the market is no longer. Doug Flutie’s Maximum Football, the indie video game produced by Peterborough-based company Canuck Play that gave fans a chance to play with either Canadian or American rule-sets (https://3downnation.com/2020/09/25/video-game-drop-doug-fluties-maximum-football-2020-hits-the-digital-field/), has ceased operations along with the rest of the company. Founder David Winter released this statement earlier this week to explain the decision.

“Hi everyone, It’s been a while since I posted, but felt it was time to let everyone know what was going on with Canuck Play and Maximum Football.



As of this time, and as many have guessed, development of the title has been suspended and the company itself has been put on hiatus.

The reasons for this are many; not the least being the month I spent in the hospital after working seven days a week for months on end. The ability for a small team to keep up development of such a large and complex title, combined with the never-ending changes in technology in the game industry, just make continuing untenable. Add to that the other larger studios invading our space and in made little sense to continue. ...

From a personal perspective, I’m extremely proud of what I accomplished with the title, with the help of others along the way, including the staff that was on-site until Ontario’s lockdowns impacted people’s ability to get in the office. ...

Winter first launched the game in 2017, (https://3downnation.com/2020/12/19/canadian-dave-winter-turns-naysayers-into-believers-with-doug-fluties-maximum-football/) doing most of the grueling work himself at the beginning and adding only a small team later on. It was a product without the glitz and glamour of modern sports video games but with plenty of love and attention to detail.



While fans of the game reveled in playing three-down football with fictional teams, the Canuck Play was never able to secure name rights from the CFL, though it did strike a partnership with Football Canada.

Video games have long been suggested as the CFL’s answer to it’s generational gap, but the monumental costs of production have made creation largely untenable.

Winter tried to overcome those challenges on his own, but one man can only do so much.
https://3downnation.com/2021/04/30/doug-fluties-maximum-football-the-only-canadian-football-video-game-has-ceased-operations/