Inside the Development of Varsity High School Football – Part 1
Football fans are a passionate bunch. That goes double when it comes to football video game fans. With so few options for the past two decades, players have been restless whenever a new game is announced and developed.
They want a game that is feature rich while having fun playing on the field. However, often, they get something of one or the other. With Varsity High School Football, developers Sphere Interactive and Pyramid Lake Games hope to change that.
Varsity high school football is taking a sport loved by millions and bringing it to the most played level in America: high school. Featuring thousands of schools from every county in the United States, Varsity aims to be one of the deepest football games you’ll ever play.
I was recently invited to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where Sphere Interactive is based, to see the game in person, play some of what was built, and talk about its development.
Varsity is centered around its gameplay and dynasty mode (more on that soon). As for the gameplay, the developers are leaving nothing behind to provide the most realistic experience possible for a studio of its size.
They are motion capturing every aspect of gameplay with suits and equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars. From quarterbacks to offensive and defensive line interactions, everything you see in the game is motion captured. To help with that realism, they use real football players from the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) to get captures with thousands of different animations.
Varsity feels smooth on the field
Speaking to one of the game’s lead developers, it was emphasized that getting “tight motions and smooth player movement” was the most important thing they were working on. Even if they have to hold the same thing dozens of times, they want to make sure they’re right.
One concern I have with capturing players who are 22 – the CJFL’s maximum age – is speed. Obviously, older players are faster and more powerful on average than your typical high school athlete. They manually adjust custom-developed sliders for overall game speed, agility and more to make sure the game is smooth and exactly what you expect. Think about what games have to offer with sliders to play with and expand on that. This is all happening behind the scenes in a Unity-built game.
For the sake of transparency, the build I played only had the quarterback and wide receivers on the field. No defense, no line and no real challenge. Regardless, a solid display of detail goes into every position on the field.
Seeing and feeling the way the quarterback moves in and around the pocket — the position they’ve spent the most work on thus far — is impressive. The footwork felt and looked natural, and the throwing motions were as smooth as any standalone football game I’ve ever played.
I don’t want to hype it too much, but it’s satisfying to see how the throws are done. Receiver animations still work, but, with what’s there, catches look better on crossing and similar routes. How the players ran, an element that most football games struggle to accurately create, looked very natural. And while playing, it’s reaffirmed once again about getting tight moves and smooth player movement, something the varsity seems to be on its way to achieving.
No release date has been set for Varsity and that is by design. It was made clear during my time with the team that the last thing they wanted was to announce a date too early and push it back if something came up. Instead, they will continue to work on the game, holding playtests with select backers from it PatreonAnd share progress with fans every month.
As far as the game’s other main selling point, Dynasty Mode, there’s a lot to unpack. And we unpack it.
Stay tuned for Varsity High School Football Development Inside Part 2, where we’ll take a look at the game’s Deep Dynasty mode. For more Insider Gaming, read our interview with Tom McKay, the actor behind Henry in Kingdom Come: Deliverance.