Hardwood Basketball Manager Update 1.2 - Cleared for Tip-Off

1.2 is live. Games are played in 3D now, there is sound for the first time, and the interface reads with a screen reader.

The game in 3D

Every match opens on a broadcast view of the floor. Watch every cut, screen, fast break, defensive adjustment. All of the action in real time on a detailed immersive court view. The crowd fills to what your gate actually sold, and the clocks on both stanchions run the real game clock and shot clock. The floor is painted in your club's colors and carries your city and nickname, drawn to whichever rulebook the league plays: the NHA's, FIBA's in Spain, the college line work in the CCC.

The tactical overlay sits on top of all of it, toggled with the O key. It carries what 2D always carried: coverage lines, openness, the shot probability, who is getting doubled. 2D itself is still a view of its own under the Analysis view.

Sound

The game had none until now. The crowd, whistles, a substitution horn and a shot-clock buzzer. The swish, the rim, the catch off a pass. International crowds chant and sing their support.

The audio settings split it five ways across crowd, court, officials and interface, plus a switch that mutes the game when it is in the background.

Playing with a screen reader

The game reads with NVDA now. This was the point of moving to a newer engine (Godot 4.6+), and it took two passes: one to stop the reader picking up text from screens sitting inactive underneath the one you are on, and one to put focus where you actually are, so a screen announces itself when you open it. The scorebug reads the score, the clock, the period and the foul counts by name. Mono audio is in the same release for anyone who needs the mix in one ear.

This is a first pass on a dense interface and there are places it does not reach yet, rows below the fold of a long scrolling list among them. If you play this way, tell me where it falls down and I will work through it.

Inbound plays

Tactics gained a third kind of design. You draw an inbound play the way you draw any other: one player out of bounds making the entry pass, the other four with somewhere to be, and a second wave that only runs if everything in the first one is covered. On defense you can put the passer's man on the ball, or leave him standing on one spot of the floor and trap the catch if it lands there.

Retained possessions also inbound in the frontcourt, which is where a sideline play has to start. The shot clock after a foul follows the real rules too.

Around the floor

Every player has a portrait, rendered from his own body and his club's kit, so the man in the menus is the man on the court. Observer mode holds the whole day it is watching, so you can pick which game to watch, now in 3D.

There are two settings for machines that need them, both under Display. Match detail thins the crowd, the benches and the table crew without touching anything you read. Enhanced graphics runs on Vulkan, worth a try if the standard renderer struggles; it restarts the game to switch and puts itself back if it cannot start.

Thank You

To everyone who has provided feedback, helped with testing and fixes, spread the word, and supports the game and community. You are appreciated!

Play the update, leave a Steam review. See you on the Hardwood!