Liger Software is setting a new standard in Online Football Management Simulation with AMFA Manager:
- Head-to-head real-time matches against other managers
- The chance to earn real money from your team
- Start playing straight away, and you can play every day of the week
- Play matches when you want. You decide the kick-off times
- Gameplay as good as a single-player PC game
- A friendly playing community
Technology Overview
With the exception of playing matches, the interface to the game (along with a protected section for administration) is presented via a rich web application. This allows for remarkable ease of use, as anyone with an HTML-compatible browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox) is able to access and play the game. This web application is deployed as a Java web application using Servlet & JSP technology, the Tomcat web container and the popular MySQL database.
Users themselves are not required to have Java to view most aspects of the game, and it can be played successfully without it.
The AMFA Manager homepage (shown here) has been designed to be informative to both new and existing users alike. Giving potential users information about what is going on within the game in the news section, and a list of teams and their prices. There are also two applets, one running across the top of the screen displaying all the current news stories, which may be individually clicked on, and a box displaying the recent results of matches within the game.
Technology Overview cont.
Registered users, once logged in, have access to all of the data relating to their team and the rest of the game. The green bar along the top of the screen is a JavaScript menu, allowing quick access to all of the games features. Below this, the gold bar displays options specific to the current page view.
The pages present a variety of statistical data to players in order to help them navigate their way through the game. In addition to this are various tools to faciliate aspects of the game such as team selection etc.
An entity is necessary to manage and coordinate all elements of the game. This is achieved using a separate Java application that runs on the server. This has access to the Azzubase layer, which provides database functionality, and deals with timed events such as the end of the rounds, playing matches, and distributing money, etc.
Technology Overview cont.
Matches between users are carried out via Java Applets. Matches are either one user versus a computer-controlled team, or one user versus another. In both cases the human players each will download the same Java Applet that will display the match. The events of the match are displayed using text commentary. The user is able to influence the match outcome by changing their tactics, or making substitutions accordingly. The applets are therefore non-trivial with components for both the match engine (GEngine) and a graphical user interface (shown here). However, the applet itself must be of small enough size to be viably downloaded; therefore every effort has been made to reduce the size without compromising the necessary interface. A smaller, stripped-down version is also available for those users with only a dial-up Internet connection.
