Hey yall, it's been... awhile.
The TLDR here is Mini Hockey Champ will be receiving its first update ever later this year! Let's talk about why and what to expect.
So first the 'why'. MHC was accepted on Steam Greenlight (remember that?) in 2015 and released in November of 2017. Ultimately, a combination of low sales and very little interest quickly painted a picture that the game was sadly dead on arrival. At the same time, Unity (the engine the game was built in) announced they would no longer support the language the game was programmed in, which seemed like a pretty clear sign to me that it was time to move onto other things.
I'll be the first to admit that MHC really is a mixed bag. It still holds up visually and has a lot of memorable presentation aspects that people enjoy. It's also incredibly frustrating to play and has a steep learning curve regardless of your skill in other hockey games. It's pretty fun to play against another person but as a single player experience there's not a lot of depth.
My second game, Sunday Rivals, taught me a ton about how to make a better sports game. Over the last 6 years, it's become more and more frustrating to me that MHC can't benefit from everything I've learned in that time. So I've decided to bite the bullet and reprogram Mini Hockey Champ! to work again in modern Unity.
This is a pretty big undertaking for a game no one cared about, so let's talk about what to expect:
- Getting the game up and running again is my primary task, so a big chunk of this update will be transparent to most players, but a nice side effect of that will be a fully rebuilt UI system that will look much better at high resolutions.
- The other big task for me is to try and fix the game's difficulty curve and generally make for a better playing game. Everything is on the table and there are a ton of ways to do this so I'm in the process of figuring out a plan to get there now. Expect a combination of control tweaks, AI adjustments, and rebalanced teams.
- Speaking of teams, something I learned on Sunday Rivals is how much players enjoy making their own leagues and while I won't be adding that kind of customization directly into this game, I will be adding the next best thing: externally editable roster files!
- I also have some plans to improve the game's depth and longevity. They're still very early in the design phase, but my hope is to provide some changes that will make you want to keep playing MHC day after day.
- Finally, I want to address what's not going to change. It's still going to be 1-on-1 hockey. I'm not adding online multiplayer, franchise modes, or anything else outrageously complicated. Please keep in mind we're talking about a 6 year old, $10 game!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, I appreciate everyone who gave the game a chance over the years, you're in a very small but very cool club! My plan is to open up a beta branch for this update before launch, so if you own the game you'll get access to that as soon as it's available (and I figure out how to set that up).
Let me know if you have any questions and as always, thanks for playing!