Sunday Rivals News

Whew, after 3 and a half months I'm happy to finally release The Big Game Update to Sunday Rivals! Seriously, this was only supposed to take a few weeks, but I got excited and kept adding new stuff and now we got a bunch of fun things to play with!

This update is focused on improving the end to end presentation of the gameday experience, so we start off now with a proper intro cinematic:



Plus a look at both team's lineups and their OVR ratings:



And what I still believe to be the best video game coin toss ever:



Now something I'm really excited for yall to get your hands on is the all-new Gameday Rivals system, which randomly picks 3 players from each team and boosts their OVR's before the game! You'll want to keep an eye out for these guys too cause they're bound to make some big plays happen!



Halftime gets some love, starting with a fun scene that shows off each team's leading performer:



And a running feed of all the latest nonsense from the folks following along at home via social media:



Now, if these new refs here don't blow the game for you (which they can't, cause there's no penalties):



You'll get to bask in a sweet victory cinematic:



And enjoy an interview with the Player of the Game and our new field reporter, Veronika Kay!



There's actually a few more really cool things in this update too, but I'm not going to spoil the surprise, I'll let you discover them on your own (assuming you're good enough, of course...)

This update has been a blast to put together and I hope all these new, shiny things help make Sunday Rivals even more enjoyable for years to come! Let me know what you think of the update and as always, thanks for playing!

PRESENTATION

• Added pregame team matchup cinematics
  
• Added lineups cinematic
  
• Added Gameday Rivals cinematic
  
• Added coin toss cinematic
  
• Added impact players cinematic
  
• Added halftime and post game social media feed
  
• Added post game cinematics
  
• Added Player of the Game interview
  
• Added contextual shutter screens for quarters, downs, and kickoffs
  
• Added new background and title art for player highlight cinematics
  
• Added special colors to denote Gameday Rivals in the HUD and UI
  
• Added HUD callouts for top offensive and defensive players during play preview
  
• Defensive HUD displays stats of last tackler
  
• Defensive HUD defaults to top defensive player in coaching mode
  
• Added positions to player stats screen, moved LB4 next to other LBs
  
• Added intro and post game music
  

ART

• Added referees
  
• Added Veronika Kay
  
• Added cameramen and camera flashes
  
• Improved cubemap coverage across entire field
  
• Added banners for team slogan and the stadium's name
  
• Added environment art for championship game
  
• Added a colored stripe at the 50 yard line
  
• Added mustaches to some chain gang members
  
• Improved shadow resolution during cutscenes
  

GAMEPLAY

• Gameday Rivals get a single game, scaled OVR boost based on their position
  
• Gameday Rivals have an increased chance of making an impact play
  
• Touchbacks are whistled immediately once a kicked ball hits a wall
  
• Before the snap, players can cycle backwards through defenders again
  

SEASON MODE

• Rebalanced wins and losses to have a larger impact than point differential when determining ranking
  
• GM conversations now recognize the playoffs and the end of the season
  
• Title screen after advancing to the championship shows the name of the championship game
  
• Title screen after winning the championship recognizes the win
  
• Rebalanced player of the game recognition in sim games to match played games
  

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where the game and stadium clock weren't displaying the same time
  
• Fixed a bug where the Player of the Week summary wouldn't display the name of the next playoff round correctly
  
• Fixed a bug where the defensive awards weren't being calculated correctly
  
• Fixed a bug where a linebacker's scouting report would display incorrectly
  
• Fixed multiple spelling errors in scouting reports
  

Hey yall, wanted to share some progress I've made on the upcoming major update to Sunday Rivals, the Big Game Update!

I'm focused on adding and improving various aspects of the game's overall presentation, especially where I can weave together some of the on-field action with the overarching storylines that surround game day. Here's a sneak peek at how some of that is coming along:

[h2]Coin Toss[/h2]
Start The Big Game off right with a completely over the top, gratuitous coin toss sequence!



> > > See the whole sequence in motion here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Z9mRpBnWX50

[h2]Refs[/h2]
Love em, hate em, or tackle em when they get in your way!



[h2]Social Media Feed[/h2]
Nothing says gameday like being subjected to an endless stream of uninformed opinions!



[h2]New Shutter Cards[/h2]
Fancy AND informative!



[h2]Player of the Game Interview![/h2]
What a big win for the Orcas! Now, let's head down to Veronika Kay with our Player of the Game, Giovanni Rocco. Veronika?



Whew, that's a lot of stuff! And the good news is, there's even more coming in this update, but you'll have to wait to find out! Waiting is exciting!

Hey folks, happy to announce that Steam Trading Cards, Badges, and more are now available for Sunday Rivals! I added a whole bunch, so if you like collecting things hopefully you'll enjoy your upcoming drops!

One fun note to add, I wrote a little player lore for each trading card! Turns out there's an entire universe of SRFL stories out there just waiting to be discovered, with some players you probably already know, and maybe a few you should familiarize yourself with...

If you enjoy the backstories or are interested in additional community items / Steam point shop items in the future, let me know!

Hey yall, I've heard a lot of feedback over the years about ways to improve two player games, especially when it comes to hiding play calls from your opponents. Sadly we live in a world of screen-peekers, so in this update I've taken a step towards making their lives more miserable and given you the ability to call 'decoy' plays!



While this does not solve all the issues, I think this is a good start at balancing the playing field and forcing cheaters to focus more on their own play calls and less on yours!

I've also done a full name and appearance pass on the entire SRFL, adding a bit more originality and personality league-wide. If you have a season in progress, you might notice some new names and faces on your team, but outside of a few players everyone should play more or less the same. Unfortunately, if any of the players who's names have changed set records or won POTW honors, those listings will show their original names until you start a new season or their records are broken.

A big thank you to everyone checking out the game, be it long time players from the Early Access days or new friends jumping in during the Autumn Sale, I appreciate yall and hope you continue to enjoy Sunday Rivals for years to come!

Full patch notes below:

PLAYCALLING

• Added the ability to call decoy plays in two player games
  
• Added a dismissible help popup for decoy plays after the opening kickoff
  

SRFL

• Complete name, appearance, and ratings pass on the entire SRFL
  

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where double zero player numbers would only show a single zero on their uniform
  
• Fixed multiple spelling errors across the game
  

A small patch that should hopefully deliver more expected results for blocking & defensive rushing slider values, especially on the low end.

SLIDERS

• Increased the impact of the Run & Pass Blocking sliders on values above 50
  
• Increased the impact of the Run & Pass Defense sliders on values below 50
  

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where blocked defensive players would use the slider values of the offensive player they were engaged with