About this project
LATEST UPDATE: RUN GAMES TEAM UP!
- Using existing and proven technology helps us deliver the game to market FASTER.
- We should be able to deliver the PC and mobile products in late 2014. Provided we reach our funding goal.
- It will substantially reduce our development risk.
- The visual art style of Mutant Football League will be completely different than Football Heroes (MFL will be much grittier).
- The game mechanics of Football Heroes is designed for casual fun. The AI in MFL game will be closer to Madden than Football Heroes.
This video of gameplay from Football Heroes is only a stepping stone of where we want to take the game (it’s our first step). The Art Direction for MUTANT FOOTBALL LEAGUE WILL LOOK VERY DIFFERENT FROM FOOTBALL HEROES. It will be a much grittier art style.
Update 2 - The Press Takes Notice!
"Sega Genesis fans no doubt remember EA’s cult classic Mutant League Football, a title that blends well-crafted football game with macabre monsters, booby-trapped fields, a satirical sense of humor, and comic violence. Released in 1993, the game offered an oddball take on the sport that drew in both fans of Madden and gamers who generally didn’t play sports titles." - Written by: Matt Helgeson
The October 2013 issue features an interview with Michael Mendheim
Join Gameinformer's, Andrew Reiner, Matt Helgeson, Kim Wallace, Ben Reeves and Jason Oestreicher in the Replay studio to watch them play a game of the original Mutant League Football.
Update 1 - PC Version of the game
An all-star team of talent has been assembled to breathe new life into one of the video game industry’s most beloved, and downright brutal, sports-hybrid genres. Michael Mendheim, the original creator and lead designer of the original Mutant League Football & Hockey, is driving the effort to resurrect this classic gaming genre with a brand new game, entitled Mutant Football League™. With fan support, and a successful Kickstarter campaign, Mendheim is planning to release his Mutant Football League game on PC / Steam, Xbox LIVE, PSN, as well as on iOS and Android tablets.
My name is Michael Mendheim and I was the creator and lead designer for the original game, which I pitched to studio executives at Electronic Arts in late 1991. The game was released in 1993 and went on to become a #1 hit and was nominated for best sports game of the year by Jeff Gerstmann, Electronic Games and Gamepro magazines.
Mutant League also spawned a syndicated television series, a comic, a toy line and a sequel called, Mutant League Hockey. Then the game was suddenly cancelled and Mutant League was no more.
We want to create a new and very different game that pays homage to the original game.
Mutants take the field to battle it out in the most violent game ever played in this hilarious and brutal parody of professional Football. Mutant Football League pays homage to the classic Sega Genesis game by building a great playing action football game with deep strategy, creature customization, over-the-top violence and of course laugh-out-loud gross out humor.
Mutant Football League can be played as a single or multiplayer game online or off. You can choose which Mutant Football League team you wants to play as from a variety of teams with different characters, play styles, strengths and weaknesses. Once you decide you can either jump right into the savagery of the sport or you can customize the game to your own individual tastes (quarter lengths, brutality level, play modes, etc). You can also create your own team, your team colors, name and logo. You can pick the players on your team (species types and positions they play), give your players names, adjust their ratings and select your coach. Once teams and options are chosen, the carnage can begin.
Game View:
The game is viewed from a Tecmo style camera angle to capture the look and feel of a real televised NFL Football game. The camera will dynamically zoom in or out based on the on field action. You’ll be able to see all the action down the entire field or get up close to the bloody smears that used to be your team mate.
Play Modes:
You can either play a single exhibition game without worrying all the “extras” or you can enter into a Season Story Mode or Playoffs in a quest to ultimately win the Mutant Mayhem Bowl and bring home the beloved Monster Cup to your screaming fans.
Teams and Characters:
Mutant Football League will put you into an action packed sports game and will introduce you to some of the wildest, most bloodthirsty superstar players to ever strap on shoulder spikes. Races include: Mutants, Monsters, The Undead, Battlebots, Enforcers, and more!
There will be at least 30 vicious teams to choose from (some of these teams will be unlockable). The teams are split into two conferences: The Mutant Conference and the Monster Conference.
Offense and Defense:
The game is played with eight (8) players on each side. A forfeit happens when one team cannot field a team of at least four (4) players or if they run out of Quarterbacks. Here’s how positions break down on the field:
Forfeit:
The Offense must be able to put at least 2 blockers, 1 QB, at least 1 Runner (or Receiver) on the field. If it cannot meet this requirement it will forfeit.
The Defense must be able to field at least 4 players of any combination.
Playing Fields :
The game is on a standard football field – yet no two fields are the same. Each field will be “personalized” with obstacles and hazards to suit the playing style of the home team. Certain fields will have sidelines that are free and clear for cowardly receivers to run out of, others will be stacked high with barbed wire making running out of bounds to stop the clock impossible.
Scoring:
The object of the game is simple – either score more points than the opposition by the time the final war horn sounds or kill as many opposing players as you can so they forfeit! But remember, you still need to keep your own team and superstar players intact because you’ll have to forfeit if you can’t field a team of at least four Players.
You can score in a variety of ways – from the standard “old-world” touchdown, to the rare and spectacular “ClusterF#$@!!!” play (which can be worth a total of fifteen points), to one of the many bizarre interpretations of the classic “field goal” like my personal favorite – “drawing and quartering” – with a screaming fan spectator strung up between the posts.
Dirty Tricks and Death:
You will also need to decide when to use the Dirty Trick Play, which will often inflict death and injuries on the opposition. Each player will have a Health Bar that appears underneath him when highlighted. As they take heavy hits, the combatants will start to tire. A player’s Health Bar starts out full red and as his health is diminished, the red health will empty out to reveal black. When a player’s health bar is almost completely black, he will be a prime candidate to get injured, lose an arm, or even get killed. If the health bar turns completely black, it’s lights out for that player – he’s deader than the free world economy. It is important to always keep a full roster so that players who are tired and beat up can be sat on the bench, where they can start to recharge their devastated health levels. Managing your stars and reserves is the key to being successful in the Mutant Football League. It’s where the intellectual chess game is played and managing your resources well is what separates great strategic players from the rest of the crowd. When a player gets killed his body will remain on the field as a testament to his abilities until it rots away (usually a few plays later). While a body is on the field it is considered an obstacle (like a rock) and player need to avoid it or they will trip and fall over it.
Experience and RPG Elements
As the players on the team gain more experience they earn points and these points can be used to upgrade players. Before or after each game you can upgrade individual ratings of your players so that they are better, faster, and stronger.
Rules of Engagement :
There are very few rules in the League and very few penalties given during a game. In fact, a team can often get more penalties for doing nothing if there is a dishonest referee than it can from slaughtering an entire team. Fights will often break out during games and will last until only one player is standing. Remember – punching, stomping, chopping, blowing up, or vivisecting a player will not get you ejected in this league – but it could earn you an MVP along with a lifetime contract. It’s up to you to lead your team through a season of sacrifices (only some of which are for personal enjoyment) toward the ultimate championship game of the most vicious sport in the galaxy – The Mutant Mayhem Bowl! If you live, you will be drinking type O Negative from the Monster Cup and celebrating with the remains of your compatriots. If you don’t, you’ll still be there next season – as a permanent part of the astroturf! Oh and last thing, if you have a problem with the ref you can still kill him.
Help us design the game you want to play!!!
You can help us decide what kind of creatures, teams, weapons, fields, and obstacles will be in the final product. That’s right, be part of the design team! There will be a private online design community set up for the backers to discuss the project with the development team. You can let us know your thoughts and feelings about the project and even vote on key design and marketing decisions such as weapon types, team & player names, dirty trick plays and the visual look of the characters.
Our plan is to deliver you a fun and hilarious game in 14 to 18 months or die trying (seriously - we will do our best to get the game out on time but what's most important is to deliver you a great playing football game).
Because this game was loved and still is to this day and the fans deserve it. Because no game publisher will take a risk on the idea after ten years of trying. The only way this game is going to get made is if YOU HELP US MAKE IT HAPPEN!
In return we’ll put together an incredible team and give this project everything we have to deliver you a great playing football game with deep strategy, buckets of blood and plenty of off-the-wall moments that will make this game one of the most fun and memorable experiences you will ever have playing a sports video game. This is my promise to you... Now get out there and help us win one for the ripper!
This is the talent who are on board now. If this game becomes a reality because of your generosity, there will be more incredible talent joining us. Stay tuned and watch who gets unveiled in the coming days.
Michael Mendheim will be Directing & Producing the project. He will personally oversee all aspects of game design.
Dave Devries will be working with Robomodo to define the visual art direction of the game including characters and stadiums.
Robomodo will be helping to define the games art direction as well as create and produce art and visual effects assets for the game.
Dave Elliott will be working with us to create and define the Mutant Football League universe and it's characters.
Jay Lender will be co-writing the story of the game as well as helping shape the universe. Jay is also the guy making sure the game is going to make you laugh with tongue through-the-cheek gross out humor.
Micah Wright will be co-writing the story and helping us drive game & character design. When Jay's joke's get stale, Micah takes over and keeps everything fresh (just kidding Jay).
Detailed overview of all Mutant Football League Reward Packages.
We're just going to focus on hitting the main goal. We absolutely want to put the game across all next gen systems.
Risks and challenges
The project team behind this project has extensive experience in videogame design & development producing a magnitude of unique titles across different hardware platforms including, XBox 360, Playstation3, iOS and Android. We've learned from both our successes and failures on what to do and not to do. Going into this development, it is critically important to keep the product extremely focused and not implement too many different features. Our strategy is to deliver a fun and humorous game and then to gradually build on the engine and add more features it over time. Developing a Football game engine is very difficult and takes a lot of time. The core development leads have already developed numerous sports titles and understand the challenges they will face. As Creative Director and Producer of the project, Michael is hard at work building a small team of developers who have a wealth of experience engineering football and sports games and is in negotiations with several different companies concerning licensing an existing sports engine. Deals will be put in place and moved on, if our funding goals are reached. There is simply no better way to reduce development risk than to build the game on an existing and proven Football game engine.
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Funding period
- (30 days)