Dev Diary - What's new in December?

Added - December 21st, 2009 | 10:44am

If you follow Quick Hit in the gaming press, one thing we talk about a lot is the differences between working on a traditional console football product and a game like Quick Hit Football (QHF). Two of the biggest bonuses have to be our ability to update the product throughout the season and our desire to work with Coaches just like you to make each update count.

Just like any good team, we’re all about putting our money where our mouth is and, as such, we’re happy to announce that our first major update is finally ready to roll out, and man-o-man, this thing a doozy.

Coming right at you like a 400 lb lineman with a head of steam, our first update is a beefy add-on with a ton of new changes, fixes, and upgrades we think you guys will love. Not only that, but we even managed to squeeze a few new features in. All of this and still no cost to you!

So what did we add?

Here’s a breakdown:

The Luxury Box

Big-ticket changes that are sure to get fans talking:
• Quitters: Stop me if you’ve heard this one...you’re in a hard-fought battle against another Coach. You’ve been losing the whole game. You scrape and claw your way back into the game to score the go-ahead touchdown in the final seconds and...the opposing Coach quits. Well, #$%! The truth is, we hate this as much as y’all do, and as such, the first of quitter solution is in. You’ll get to keep the FP you have earned up to that point, and quit stats will be assigned to Coaches who drop out early.
• The Skills System: You’ve seen the icons in your Player Trainer. You’ve wondered what the heck they were for. Well, wonder no more. Skills are finally in the game, giving you the ability to boost your players’ performance on key plays, and we’d love to know what you think! Try using them by clicking on players from the play-calling screen.
• Favorites: Having trouble finding the perfect play? Tired of looking for that go-to blitz when the clock is winding down? The all-new Favorites feature is here to help! Tag plays as Favorites from the play-calling interface then use the filters to find them fast! As an added bonus, we’re also logging Recent Plays and your Most Successful plays, so give them all a whirl.
• Single-Player Pause: The on-field action in QHF can get pretty intense, and finding a break between plays to answer the door or grab a tasty beverage can be tricky. Or at least it was before the Update. Now you can pause the Single-Player game by clicking the option next to the audio mute controls. Give it a try!

The Nosebleeds

Tweaks, tunes and adjustments to help improve balance:
• Bonus Adjustments: Lot of folks have mentioned the fact that there was no real incentive for playing tough opponents. They wanted to see bigger bonuses for toppling a titan and less FP for bottom feeding. We totally agree, and have tweaked the system a bit to do just that. FP bonuses are now driven by team difficulty, so the harder the team, the bigger the bonus. Also, we’ve adjusted the low-end values for experienced teams, so you’ll gain more balanced bonuses for playing low-level coaches.
• Revised Single-Player: We’ve received a ton of feedback on the Single-Player experience, and in our efforts to expand the Single-Player game, we’ve made some changes for the Update to help keep things interesting. A host of Legendary coaches, difficulty tweaks on existing teams, and changes to AI play-calling are all in the mix. Give them a try and let us know how the different difficulty levels are working.
• Game Length: We’ve tuned a host of elements related to the flow of the game, from AI play-calling to post-game screens to help streamline the QHF experience. Let us know if you notice the difference, and how you feel about the changes.
• CP Changes: Due to some upcoming changes in the Quick Hit Economy, CP is now awarded and spent in factors of 10, so you’ll get 100 CP per level, and player training now costs 10 CP per level. Not a big change, but hey..now ya know.
• Lobby Lovin’: Finding a Multi-Player opponent in the lobby can be tough, so we’ve made some adjustments to how and when we clear “lurkers” out of the lobby, as well as a few changes to game invites themselves. This should drastically reduce the difficulty finding another Coach to battle with, so let us know if it helps!

The Gridiron

Last but not least, changes for the Coaching Staff:
• Gameplay Goodness: Tunes to almost every system in the game, including dreaded flat routes, offensive and defensive line play and more! Expect less money plays and more realistic stats on things like completion % and yards-per-carry.
• New Plays(!): We’ve added 15 new plays, with a focus on new blitzing schemes, deep passes, FB plays, and weak side run defense. We’ve also removed some of the duds in the playbook to give you better options on the strategy side of things.
• Oodles of Animations: We also took time to tweak offensive and defensive special moves, so you should see more variety in the trenches, as well as some rough-and-tumble fights for extra yardage from the ball carrier.
• And much, much more!!!

As you can see, we had our work cut out for us.

This list is just the tip of the iceberg for our first update, so be sure to snag the latest version and give it a gander. You’ll find more than a few surprises that aren’t on this list, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on all the changes.

If you haven’t been by already, be sure to give us a shout on the Quick Hit Forums and while you’re there, feel free to give us a wish list for Update 2!

Until then, see ya on the field!

Brandon Justice
Design Director, Quick Hit Inc.

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