When Varsity High School Football releases, it’ll will center around two main elements: gameplay and Dynasty Mode. We’ve already talked about gameplay and the plans Spear Interactive and Pyramid Lake Games have for it, but what about Dynasty?
To put it in a single word: deep.
The developers have been hard at work fleshing out and implementing all of the features that they want to include in the mode. From how the offseason works to the decisions you can make, everything is geared towards what you might expect when dealing with high school athletes.
So, how does it all work?
You start like any other Dynasty by creating a coach that’s either a head coach or coordinator. From there you’ll see a number of open jobs from some of the thousands – yes, thousands – of high schools in the country. Jobs are broken down by counties within a state. Some states, like Tennessee and Texas for example, will have more jobs and better opportunities than say Montana or North Dakota.
As you look for a job, you’ll get to see things like the annual budget for your program to spend, how popular you are in the region, the size of the market, and more. It’s all done to help you make the most informed decision you can before you actually start as a coach.
Once you’re at your school, the real work begins. You have to manage your roster throughout the year and keep your team eligible to play games. Some schools, because of their size and location, will only have a roster of 25 players. That means you’ll have players on both sides of the ball, doubling potential injury risk.
Your schedule is made up of teams in your district as well as filling any open dates you want. That said, you can choose, based on your current situation, to keep your schedule at just six or seven games to limit any risk of injury. It’s part of the decision making that goes into being a head coach.
As a head coach, you have goals you need to achieve. These goals vary based on your school and location, and help determine your overall job stability. Underperform, and you could find yourself looking for work. But don’t think it’s just on you. If you are a head coach, you’ll have to hire a staff that works with you to build your team, but you’re restricted to the budget you have to spend. And that budget goes towards much more than your staff hirings.
You use the money you have to hire staff and improve your facilities. Some schools like a major Catholic academy might have an annual budget of $50,000 to spend in a year while a smaller rural school might just have $10,000. Spend too much on staff, and you’ll be behind the eight ball on improving the program through other means.
There’s even the possibility of having to deal with parents who think their kids are the next big thing and deserve more playing time. It’s up to you to figure out how you want to handle that situation.
For those wondering, there will be a full Super Sim engine within the mode for your games, full season player stat tracking that’s realistic to high school statistics, and full league stats.
The Offseason Is Where Programs Are Built
The actual football season only makes up a portion of what happens throughout the year. There’s a full offseason broken down by season (winter, spring, summer) that gives you various tasks to help improve your team.
As mentioned, each part of the offseason will have different tasks for you. You have to reach out to boosters in order to try and raise money for your program. Some will be willing to give you a few thousand while others will be tough to just get $50 out of them. You’re able to see the likely willingness to financially support you before you ask for a specific amount that you can choose. Your success with the boosters directly influences your budget for the following year, so doing as much as you can to get the most money is key.
During the offseason you’ll be able to have training camps with your players. However, not every player may participate. You might find that your star running back is also a hockey player. That means he’s busy during the winter with that season, leaving you without a top player. In addition, there’s the risk of the players who are multi-sport athletes getting hurt resulting in missed offseason time or even the season. That’s why the facilities are important to improve because they will help with things like player recovery, injury resistance, skills, stamina, and more.
When seeing everything that Dynasty has to offer, the developers felt confident that what they have will satisfy the needs of players. For the most part, development of the features within Varsity’s Dynasty Mode has been completed aside from a few things here and there. That said, they did say that there is the potential to add more that wasn’t discussed prior to launch if it makes sense for the mode.
There were also some things talked about during our meeting that can’t be revealed just yet, but will be announced in due time. For the developers, it’s about making sure the timing is right and everything is official before putting news out there.
Varsity High School Football is currently in development. When it releases, it will be available for PC and console. For more on the game’s development and for the opportunity to participate in play tests, you can sign up for their Patreon.
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