In the spirit of the holiday season, I wanted to give you a little present to finish off 2023 in style, so check out the Winter Update!

First off, I've rebranded the pre-snap statbox as the new Hype Tracker, which along with the existing team totals will now show player's game and season stats! Really excited to finally get this working in game!

A small, but hopefully impactful change I've added are 2 more 'crowd' options allowing for medium and low density crowds. If you're playing the game on a lower spec pc or even Steam Deck, I'd recommend trying out medium and seeing if that improves performance for you!

Speaking of Steam Deck, I've added some controller shortcut buttons to make navigating menu screens faster. You're now able to press RB/LB or R1/L1 to switch between pages (edit player screen, stat leaders, etc) and X/Square to sort pages that support that feature (game stats, record books, etc). You can also skip the intro cutscenes too with X/Square (but why would you?!)

Finally, a bit of news to share regarding the future of Sunday Rivals. If you haven't heard, I've decided to put the console version of the game on hold and discuss the reasons in-depth here:

While it's a bummer, for Steam players like yourself you'll get to enjoy the fruits of me focusing on a single platform again, hence this update you're reading about.

Check out the rest of the patch notes and I hope everyone has a great new year!

UI

• Pre-snap milestone graphic rebranded as 'Hype Tracker', now includes player's season stats & totals
  
• Added ability to skip intro cutscenes
  
• Added shortcut to change pages in menus with the bumper buttons on a controller
  
• Added shortcut to activate sort options in menus with X/Square on a controller
  
• Changed the main menu settings shortcut key from tab to F1

PRESENTATION

• Added a new postgame song
  
• Added 2 more options for the 'crowd' setting allowing for medium and low density crowds
  
• Increased the liklihood of rare interview responses
  
• Added additional interview questions and responses

BUGS

• Fixed multiple spelling and grammatical errors
  
• Potential fix for a bug that forces the AI to go for it on 4th down late in games they're losing instead of kicking a field goal

Hey yall, quick bug patch for some stuff that slipped through the cracks. Hope everyone is enjoying The Big Game Update so far!

UI

• Added an icon to show when an option is locked out on the game setup screen

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where the Gameday Rivals boost for RB2 was being miscalculated
  
• Fixed a bug where the Gameday Rivals boost set ratings beyond 99
  
• Fixed multiple bugs that resulted in the in-game MVP not matching the awards MVP listing after the game
  
• Fixed a bug where selecting a player during pass preview wasn't changing the color of their name
  
• Fixed a bug where non-championship games could be played in Rivals Stadium
  
• Fixed a bug where the wrong stadium name was listed in social media posts
  
• Fixed multiple spelling errors and broken dialog phrases

Whew, after 3 and a half months I'm happy to finally release The Big Game Update to Sunday Rivals! Seriously, this was only supposed to take a few weeks, but I got excited and kept adding new stuff and now we got a bunch of fun things to play with!

This update is focused on improving the end to end presentation of the gameday experience, so we start off now with a proper intro cinematic:

Plus a look at both team's lineups and their OVR ratings:

And what I still believe to be the best video game coin toss ever:

Now something I'm really excited for yall to get your hands on is the all-new Gameday Rivals system, which randomly picks 3 players from each team and boosts their OVR's before the game! You'll want to keep an eye out for these guys too cause they're bound to make some big plays happen!

Halftime gets some love, starting with a fun scene that shows off each team's leading performer:

And a running feed of all the latest nonsense from the folks following along at home via social media:

Now, if these new refs here don't blow the game for you (which they can't, cause there's no penalties):

You'll get to bask in a sweet victory cinematic:

And enjoy an interview with the Player of the Game and our new field reporter, Veronika Kay!

There's actually a few more really cool things in this update too, but I'm not going to spoil the surprise, I'll let you discover them on your own (assuming you're good enough, of course...)

This update has been a blast to put together and I hope all these new, shiny things help make Sunday Rivals even more enjoyable for years to come! Let me know what you think of the update and as always, thanks for playing!

PRESENTATION

• Added pregame team matchup cinematics
  
• Added lineups cinematic
  
• Added Gameday Rivals cinematic
  
• Added coin toss cinematic
  
• Added impact players cinematic
  
• Added halftime and post game social media feed
  
• Added post game cinematics
  
• Added Player of the Game interview
  
• Added contextual shutter screens for quarters, downs, and kickoffs
  
• Added new background and title art for player highlight cinematics
  
• Added special colors to denote Gameday Rivals in the HUD and UI
  
• Added HUD callouts for top offensive and defensive players during play preview
  
• Defensive HUD displays stats of last tackler
  
• Defensive HUD defaults to top defensive player in coaching mode
  
• Added positions to player stats screen, moved LB4 next to other LBs
  
• Added intro and post game music

ART

• Added referees
  
• Added Veronika Kay
  
• Added cameramen and camera flashes
  
• Improved cubemap coverage across entire field
  
• Added banners for team slogan and the stadium's name
  
• Added environment art for championship game
  
• Added a colored stripe at the 50 yard line
  
• Added mustaches to some chain gang members
  
• Improved shadow resolution during cutscenes

GAMEPLAY

• Gameday Rivals get a single game, scaled OVR boost based on their position
  
• Gameday Rivals have an increased chance of making an impact play
  
• Touchbacks are whistled immediately once a kicked ball hits a wall
  
• Before the snap, players can cycle backwards through defenders again

SEASON MODE

• Rebalanced wins and losses to have a larger impact than point differential when determining ranking
  
• GM conversations now recognize the playoffs and the end of the season
  
• Title screen after advancing to the championship shows the name of the championship game
  
• Title screen after winning the championship recognizes the win
  
• Rebalanced player of the game recognition in sim games to match played games

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where the game and stadium clock weren't displaying the same time
  
• Fixed a bug where the Player of the Week summary wouldn't display the name of the next playoff round correctly
  
• Fixed a bug where the defensive awards weren't being calculated correctly
  
• Fixed a bug where a linebacker's scouting report would display incorrectly
  
• Fixed multiple spelling errors in scouting reports

Hey yall, wanted to share some progress I've made on the upcoming major update to Sunday Rivals, the Big Game Update!

I'm focused on adding and improving various aspects of the game's overall presentation, especially where I can weave together some of the on-field action with the overarching storylines that surround game day. Here's a sneak peek at how some of that is coming along:

Start The Big Game off right with a completely over the top, gratuitous coin toss sequence!

> > > See the whole sequence in motion here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Z9mRpBnWX50

Love em, hate em, or tackle em when they get in your way!

Nothing says gameday like being subjected to an endless stream of uninformed opinions!

Fancy AND informative!

What a big win for the Orcas! Now, let's head down to Veronika Kay with our Player of the Game, Giovanni Rocco. Veronika?

Whew, that's a lot of stuff! And the good news is, there's even more coming in this update, but you'll have to wait to find out! Waiting is exciting!

Hey folks, happy to announce that Steam Trading Cards, Badges, and more are now available for Sunday Rivals! I added a whole bunch, so if you like collecting things hopefully you'll enjoy your upcoming drops!

One fun note to add, I wrote a little player lore for each trading card! Turns out there's an entire universe of SRFL stories out there just waiting to be discovered, with some players you probably already know, and maybe a few you should familiarize yourself with...

If you enjoy the backstories or are interested in additional community items / Steam point shop items in the future, let me know!

Hey yall, I've heard a lot of feedback over the years about ways to improve two player games, especially when it comes to hiding play calls from your opponents. Sadly we live in a world of screen-peekers, so in this update I've taken a step towards making their lives more miserable and given you the ability to call 'decoy' plays!

While this does not solve all the issues, I think this is a good start at balancing the playing field and forcing cheaters to focus more on their own play calls and less on yours!

I've also done a full name and appearance pass on the entire SRFL, adding a bit more originality and personality league-wide. If you have a season in progress, you might notice some new names and faces on your team, but outside of a few players everyone should play more or less the same. Unfortunately, if any of the players who's names have changed set records or won POTW honors, those listings will show their original names until you start a new season or their records are broken.

A big thank you to everyone checking out the game, be it long time players from the Early Access days or new friends jumping in during the Autumn Sale, I appreciate yall and hope you continue to enjoy Sunday Rivals for years to come!

Full patch notes below:

PLAYCALLING

• Added the ability to call decoy plays in two player games
  
• Added a dismissible help popup for decoy plays after the opening kickoff

SRFL

• Complete name, appearance, and ratings pass on the entire SRFL

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where double zero player numbers would only show a single zero on their uniform
  
• Fixed multiple spelling errors across the game

A small patch that should hopefully deliver more expected results for blocking & defensive rushing slider values, especially on the low end.

SLIDERS

• Increased the impact of the Run & Pass Blocking sliders on values above 50
  
• Increased the impact of the Run & Pass Defense sliders on values below 50

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where blocked defensive players would use the slider values of the offensive player they were engaged with

I'm excited to share with you the very first post-launch update to Sunday Rivals, the Record Book Update!

In total there are 72 records to break & hold in Season Mode and the best part is all the data is persistent, so your records carry over year after year. The AI gets a crack at them too, so you'll want to keep on eye on those out of town scores! Looking forward to seeing the wild numbers yall put up after a few seasons...

This update also brings along some much needed visual consolidation to the frontend menus, including an updated lighting pass, super glossy helmets, and a dynamic background to keep things flowing.

Finally, I've been receiving a lot of questions about Steamdeck support and depending on when you're reading this, I may or may not have one in my hands to test the game on. Whenever that happens, I'll see what I can do to better optimize and support the gameplay experience. More on that in the future!

Hope you enjoy this update, be sure to check out the patch notes below for a full list of changes and bug fixes and as always, thanks for playing!

SEASON MODE

• Added persistent, single game and season record tracking
  
• Added menu icons to denote when a new record has been set
  
• Added ability to reset records

FRONTEND

• Added dynamic backgrounds
  
• Removed camera changes between modes
  
• Updated lighting and cubemaps
  
• Updated cursor art
  
• Removed news ticker
  
• Swapped news and exit button positions
  
• Sim games that go into sudden death will briefly display 'OT' until the game is completed

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where kickoffs were erroneously counted as punts for kickers
  
• Fixed a bug where field goal longs were neither tracked properly nor saved from games
  
• Fixed a bug where the AI would not attempt 50+ yard field goals in simulated games
  
• Fixed multiple bugs where QB rushes were improperly counted
  
• Fixed a bug where Season Mode lineup changes weren't reflected during play previews