Hockey Manager RPG (Alpha v0.1.3)

A single-player hockey manager RPG where you coach the Czech Republic through an Olympic tournament. Build your roster, run training, manage progression, and survive the playoff bracket..

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Why this project is interesting

• You are the coach: roster selection, player development, and match progression are all in your hands.
• Simulation-driven gameplay: games are deterministic simulations with line changes, penalties, injuries, overtime, and shootouts.
• Management loop with stakes: prize money fuels training, and bad decisions carry real tournament consequences.
• Custom engine architecture: built from scratch in C++23 with OpenGL 3.3, scene system, UI components, and persistent saves/stats.

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Table of contents

• Features
• Quick start
• Gameplay flow
• Save system
• Tournament format
• Controls
• Build targets
• Project structure
• Tech stack
• Contributing
• Links
• License

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Features

Core gameplay

• Roster selection from Czech national team candidates (CSV parsed)
• In-career lineup management via a dedicated Line Swap screen (position-safe swaps)
• Player training across 4 categories:
  • Offensive
  • Defensive
  • Physical
  • Mental
• Training cost scales with player category average
• Prize money economy:
  • Regulation win: $5000
  • OT/SO win: $4000
  • OT/SO loss: $2000
  • Regulation loss: $0

Match simulation

• Deterministic hockey simulation with:
  • 3 regulation periods
  • Overtime
  • Shootouts
• Simulates:
  • possession
  • zone transitions
  • shots / hits / turnovers
  • penalties
  • injuries
  • line changes

Tournament system

• 12 teams total (Czech Republic + 11 AI opponents from CSV)
• Olympic-style progression:
  • group stage
  • qualification round
  • quarter-finals
  • semi-finals
  • bronze medal game
  • gold medal game
• Group standings + visual playoff bracket view

Persistence and progression

• 3 save slots + no-save mode
• Slot-aware stats persistence:
  • stats_slot1.bin
  • stats_slot2.bin
  • stats_slot3.bin
• Per-player tracked stats (binary persisted):
  • goals, assists, shots, hits, blocks
  • penalties
  • faceoff wins/losses
  • +/- and more

UI and engine systems

• Custom scene framework (14 scenes in current alpha)
• Custom component/UI system with:
  • hover states
  • pressed states
  • click callbacks
  • cursor feedback
• Shared UI style tokens/prefabs
• FreeType text rendering with multiline + alignment support
• Resolution preset system (4:3 presentation mode) with in-game cycling in Settings
• Startup auto-selects the best fitting supported resolution for the current monitor

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Quick start

Important

Your system must support OpenGL 3.3 Core or higher.

Linux

Arch / Manjaro

sudo pacman -S gcc make glfw freetype2 pkgconf

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt install g++ make libglfw3-dev libfreetype-dev pkg-config

Build and run

make          # release build + assets
make run       # run game
make clean     # remove build artifacts

Binary output:

• ./build/HockeyManagerRPG

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Windows (MSYS2 / MinGW-w64 UCRT64)

1. Install MSYS2: https://www.msys2.org
2. Open UCRT64 shell
3. Install dependencies:

pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc \

          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-make \

          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-glfw \

          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-freetype \

          mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-pkg-config

4. Build and run:

mingw32-make
mingw32-make run
mingw32-make clean
n

Binary output:

• ./build/HockeyManagerRPG.exe

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Optional helper script

./build.sh

What it does:

1. make clean
2. bear -- make debug
3. make run

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Gameplay flow

1. Launch the game and select PLAY CAREER
2. Choose:
   • Save 1 / Save 2 / Save 3
   • or no-save mode
3. If starting fresh, build your Czech roster
4. Enter the game hub:
   • train players
   • review player stats/performance
   • change lineup assignments
   • view tournament standings/bracket
   • preview and simulate next game
   • open coach briefing/help modal when needed
5. Progress through group stage and playoffs
6. End in:
   • Gold medal (win)
   • Elimination (loss)
7. Start another run with improved decisions

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Save system

Save files

• data/game/saves/save1.bin
• data/game/saves/save2.bin
• data/game/saves/save3.bin

Stats files

• data/game/stats/stats_slot1.bin
• data/game/stats/stats_slot2.bin
• data/game/stats/stats_slot3.bin

No-save mode

• Starts a fresh session
• Does not persist slot progress on exit

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Tournament format

• 12 teams split into 3 groups of 4
• Round-robin group stage
• Qualification round for remaining playoff seeds
• Knockout rounds:
  • QF -> SF -> Bronze / Gold medal games games

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Controls

• Mouse-driven UI
• Left click to select/activate
• ESC to close the window

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Build targets

Available Makefile targets:

make all             # default: release + assets
make debug            # debug flags
make release          # optimized release build
make release-native   # release + -march=native
make assets           # copy data/ into build/
make run              # run executable
make clean            # remove build/
make package-linux    # build and package Linux tar.gz
make package-windows  # build and prepare Windows package dir

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Scene list (current alpha)

• Main Menu
• Saves
• Roster Selection
• Game Hub
• Tournament
• Match Preview
• Match Result
• Training
• Line Swap
• Player Performance
• Settings
• Credits
• Game Win
• Game Over

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Project structure

src/
  core/          window, input, logger singletons
  game/          player, team, match simulator, game manager, save handler, stats
  math/          vec2, vec4, mat4
  renderer/      component, component groups, scene, text renderer
  scenes/        game scenes
  ui/            shared UI prefabs + layout tokens
  wrapper/       shader wrapper
  main.cpp       program init + main loop

include/         headers mirrored to src layout
libs/            GLAD + KHR headers
data/
  fonts/         sometypeMonospace-regular.ttf, TheConfession.ttf
  shaders/       basic + text shaders
  game/
    czechCandidates.csv
    enemyTeam/   AI team CSV files
    saves/       save files (gitignored)
    stats/       stats files (gitignored)
docs/
  CHANGELOG.md
ocs/
  CHANGELOG.md

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Tech stack

• Language: C++23
• Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 Core
• Windowing/Input: GLFW
• Text rendering: FreeType
• Build system: GNU Make
• Asset/data format: CSV + custom binary save/stats files

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Contributing

Feedback is welcome:

• report bugs
• suggest balancing improvements
• propose UX polish ideas
• submit issues/PRs on the repository

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Links

• Repository: https://codeberg.org/Robkoo/HockeyManagerRPG
• Changelog: docs/CHANGELOG.md

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License

Currently unspecified.