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“Develop the game you would like to play yourself, and you will be rewarded.” That is, as far as I know the very first vision of Hattrick which dates back to the time when Hattrick was just a pet project for a group of very enthusiastic Hattrick fans. Many of us in that group are still here, with the difference that Hattrick is not just a pet project anymore - it’s our life. Back then Hattrick was a great game, we wanted to make it better and we were rewarded. Today Hattrick is much greater than it was back then, but our aim is still the same: We want to make Hattrick even greater.

As you know, we intend to focus on developing the core game, and with that in mind we think it would be helpful for all you managers to know our views on Hattrick and where we intend to take it. These are the things we have in the back of our minds when developing Hattrick, most of these things have been in there forever – but there are some changes to pay attention to:

Teams in focus
Hattrick is about building and managing a football team. As a result; the team, the manager and the match should always be at the centre of the experience.

Competiveness
Competitions are the engine of Hattrick, and you compete against other people and not the system. All teams participate in official league and cup competitions, and may also participate in their own user-defined competitions.

Many ways to success
There are many ways to success, but none of them should be allowed to be superior and you should not be able to take them all at the same time.

Keeping it simple
Every choice in the game should be easy to understand and execute. Every choice you as a manager make should also be meaningful and well balanced in relation to other choices.

Casual tempo
Hattrick is a slow game without instant gratification, we trust you to have patience. A manager should not need more than 30 minutes once a week to maintain the team (to be successful, more time is needed).

A game with a community
We are guided by the community, but not lead by it. We should encourage, but not demand, communities to emerge further.

Changes to pay attention to
Even if the above principles sound quite simple, they actually say a lot more than what first meets the eye. If you study them closely you will perhaps also see that they’re not fulfilled to 100% today, we need to improve the game to fulfill them all. Now, most of those changes merely mean doing the things we’re already good at even better. But two things however need to be highlighted as they affect your manager life in a quite direct way:

• Today you can use all of the different ways to success at the same time (you can for example train at 100% at the same time as you trade at 100%). As you can see above; in the future you will not be able to. You will not be able to use all these ways to the maximum. You will have to choose which strategy you want to use - and the choice should naturally be balanced compared to other choices.

• Today many teams don’t play in an official cup. In the future we want all teams to play in an official cup.

Other important principles for the near future

Do the most of what we already have
When developing Hattrick we would rather improve an already existing part of the game than add a totally new feature. In other words, a major new feature affecting the core of the game (like subs) is not likely. We will rather focus on areas already in the game with “unused” potential and plenty of room for improvement. Team psychology is one example.

Clean up dead game options
This is related to the headline above, but also related to” keeping things simple” as each choice should be meaningful. There are options in the game which becomes “dead” after a while, you set it once and then never (or very rarely) touch it again. These options should be revived (or perhaps removed in some cases) to become meaningful again. Training intensity and staff are two examples.

Balance and simplify the match engine
The basics of the match engine are very straight forward, but it can be better balanced. Especially when it comes to different formations, but also the importance of different parts of the team. Some parts of the engine are also believed to be too random and other parts too predictable; a better balance between random and predictability is desired to make the most of the match experience and still keep things simple. There are also parts which can be made easier. An engine where you can choose the formation you want without having to reposition players (as the engine currently is based on 4-4-2 only) would help for example.

Indirect economy control
The only way we can control the game economy today is to inject and withdraw money from the system. That is not really a good tool. To make the economy work better a stronger connection between the two resources (skills and money) is needed in order to trade one resource for another. When we now improve different areas in the core game we will make sure that they serve the global economy better, especially when it comes to controlling it without having to directly intervene.

Some final words
I hope you now have a better grip on our views on Hattrick and the big picture and where we intend to take it. It's worth remembering that Hattrick has never, and will never, change overnight – but Hattrick evolves over time. All the changes related to this will not happen at once, they will be introduced gradually over the coming years. During this journey we will naturally keep you updated on how our plans may affect your plans, but we will not hand out all specific details about an improvement before it is actually introduced.

One thing is for certain: A very interesting and exciting time is coming up, and we’re full of energy and very enthusiastic about it.