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Football Tycoon is all about the money, says Dynamo

Consider Kaka a cash cow

Football Tycoon is all about the money, says Dynamo
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| Football Tycoon

Last week, mobile sport specialist Dynamo Games announced its latest game, Football Tycoon. Note the combination of those two words. Yes it's football but you're a tycoon. This isn't a game about christmas tree formations versus 4-4-2 but about big piles of lovely lolly. So following our nose for the green stuff, we caught up with Dynamo's MD Brian McNicoll (pictured) to find out a bit more.

"You only have to read the back and front pages to see that football is all about money. The owners of football clubs are more important and often more high profile than the managers and that's what we want to reflect in Football Tycoon," he explains concerning the inspiration behind the game, which is planned as the first release in a future sports Tycoon series that could include American football and basketball. Indeed, the company has also come up with the new Dynamo Sports brand to handle such activity.

For that reason, the metric you need to maximise in the game is cold, hard cash. "You don't necessarily need to be successful on the pitch to win," McNicoll reveals. "If you want, you could suck all the money out a club and buy another one, but obviously the fans won't like that so you have to be careful."

In the main campaign mode, which is called Grassroots mode, you start out with a cheap, lowly outfit and have 30 years to make yourself the richest club owner in the country. There are three leagues, with teams split into city-based pairs – there are five pairs of clubs within London.

The club names themselves are made-up (examples include Manchester Devils and Manchester Blue) while the pairing mechanics means you'll immediately have a rival club to compete with. "It makes up a lot of the gameplay as you're trying to steal their fans to build up your income," McNicoll says. There will be similar names and pairs for the various European releases of the game, too.

Other ways of making cash include upgrading your stadium, while there will be various mini-games based around the activities of some club chairmen. For example, you can go to the nightclub, splash some money on champagne and dancers in order to get talking to the agents who will get you better players.

And you'll be able to set a budget for your manager and approve or reject player transfers. Or you can make bets on horse races, football games and in the casino. Of course, you'll also get to see football results, and basic player stats will be available, but the action on the pitch definitely won't be your main focus.

Football Tycoon is due for release on mobile at the end of May. In the meantime, you can check out the action at the official Football Tycoon website.
Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.