Core Mechanics

Sports games present a number of design issues that designers of other kinds of games rarely encounter. This section covers issues raised by the physics, AI, athlete skill ratings, and other aspects peculiar to sports games.

Physics for Sports Games

Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility... When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.

Don DeLillo, End Zone

During play, your game will be running a physics engine that determines the behavior of moving bodies in the match. The physical behavior of an inanimate object such as a golf ball is comparatively easy to implement. The physical behavior of humans, however, is ...

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