It’s fall, and that means it’s football season. And while Madden has long been the dominant force in Football video games, he’s getting some new competition this year that’s looking to tap into the same market that has made fantasy football and coaching sims incredibly popular. One of these games, which we covered last week, is called Quick Hit. And today sees the launch of another: gaming studio Challenge Games has just launched GridIron Live, a Facebook-based football coaching sim that features 3D graphics.
For those that aren’t familiar with the genre: GridIron Live and QuickHit have the same high quality graphics as most modern video games, but they don’t feature the twitch-based gameplay you’ll find in Madden. Instead, you act as your team’s coach, picking plays and watching as your digital players fare against your opponent’s play calling. This can be a bit frustrating at times when something out of your hands goes wrong, but that’s true for any coaching job. And it’s a genre that’s become quite popular, though most of the other coaching sims have been far more basic.
The biggest difference between QuickHit and GridIron is that QuickHit requires a downloadable client built in Adobe AIR, whereas GridIron Live is built in Flash, doesn’t require a download, and is a Facebook app. This means that GridIron has a much lower barrier to entry (which is going to be key, as it’s a Facebook game), but the experience is less immersive, as everything is constrained to the Flash pane within Facebook in your browser. In terms of looks, GridIron looks great for a Flash game, sporting 3D graphics that are about on par with the original Playstation (CEO Andrew Busey says it’s the first 3D football game on the web). In contrast, QuickHit uses sprites which look cleaner and more polished, but aren’t in 3D.
Off the field, GridIron will allow gamers to purchase better players, as well as new plays that they can use to expand their playbooks. To buy these, gamers can use the tokens they earn in-game as they complete various tasks, or they can purchase them using real money. QuickHit uses a similar virtual goods model.
One of GridIron’s greatest assets is its integration with Facebook, which will be key in helping it spread virally. Whenever you finish a game you’re given the option to share your greatest in-game accomplishment (for example, your longest pass ever) with your friends.
Challenge Games is the Sequoia-funded studio behind hit games like Duels and Baseball Boss. Now, the studio is looking to bring its tradition of high quality games over to Facebook. Along with GridIron Live, Challenge is planning to release a handful of other games to Facebook in the next 60 days.
i licked my toilet clean from the diarrhea i had
anyways, yea facebook.
2nd!
Wow–these facebook games are getting better and better…
Unfortunately they are abandoning all their other games to work on these facebook apps and who knows when they will abandon their facebook apps to work on something new again.
Stop kissing CG’s a$$ – duels is/was a top quality game and give them much respect for what they do through about about March of 09 with it.
This new facebook game is boring to say the least and way to slow although comcast probably isn’t helping me there.
The same high quality graphics in modern video games? Jason, you might need to visit the optometrist.
This is a pretty interesting little FB game for sure. But it’s not really the same league visually as Madden or All Pro Football. It’s more like the ghetto version of a low end PS1 game… guys running like they’re wearing diapers with herky-jerky animations,
It didn’t work on my system, while frenetically trying to click the unresponsive button to pick a play the game would whistle me for delay of game.
Exactly the same for me.. Would respond at all.
A few years too early. Nice try, though.
I was extremely excited, until I played it. Lack of plays, lack of depth, very boring overall.
the only problem here is that you have to pay to play this game. You can get everything started but you have to buy these coins to get energy and players. You have to have energy to play games. Or you can sell your soul to all these crappy special offers for coins. I also was never able to connect to a game. Idk about this one.
“(CEO Andrew Busey says it’s the first 3D football game on the web)”
Not quite: http://www.shoc.../football3d.jsp
Yeah, but that requires Shockwave, which doesn’t run under Linux. At least Gridiron Live uses Flash, making it available to everyone.
Except systems that can’t run flash….
Sorry, I was a bit excessive with my response. What I should have said that it makes it available to a much wider audience than a game built using Shockwave.