A football manager where your decisions count, not luck: tactics, transfers, stadium, fans, Merch Lab. Every matchday plays out as a 3D broadcast. Six game worlds, up to 3,054 clubs, 29 languages, native on Windows and Linux.

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Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

Leaving Early Access: Nov 1, 2026

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“I'm building HALFTIME Manager alone. A manager game lives or dies by whether a thousand numbers add up: what a player costs, how fast they develop, whether your finances survive a bad season. I can measure that, and I do - every balance change here runs through a simulation across hundreds of seasons. But a few hundred people who actually play find things no simulation run finds: the spot where you can game the system, the button nobody understands, the season that feels wrong. That's exactly what Early Access is for - and that's exactly how it's gone so far: most of the changes from the last few months are in the patch notes because someone reported them.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Early Access ends on 1 November 2026 with version 2.0. Until then it's about polish, bug fixing, and balance, not big new additions. If that date does shift after all, you'll hear it here, not after the fact.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The game is already complete today: you play a whole career from the bottom up, and since 1.9.0 every matchday plays out in 3D. Between now and version 2.0 on 1 November 2026, nothing big gets added; it's polish: fixing bugs, refining the tactical options, smoothing match scenes and presentation, and checking the balance across many seasons. What comes first depends on your reports.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Fully playable and self-contained. What's in it:

- Six game worlds: from six major leagues for a quick start to all of Europe with 52 countries and 3,054 clubs, plus South America, North America, Asia with Oceania, and Africa.
- Every matchday as a 3D broadcast with stadium, crowd, floodlights, weather, replays, and camera choice, plus tactics, substitutions, and the halftime locker room. Or simulate in fast-forward.
- A new tactics board with player pictures, rating, and fitness at a glance.
- Transfer market with negotiations, interested buyers, free transfers with signing bonuses, loans, and Bosman pre-contracts.
- Economy with sponsors, ticket prices, season tickets, stadium expansion, Merch Lab, fan groups, and loans.
- Weekly training plan, Youth Academy, special traits, locker room talks, dilemmas, and a board with a season objective.
- A 3D campus with seasons and weather.
- Up to twelve seasons of prior history and an end-of-season awards ceremony.
- Local multiplayer for up to four managers on the same computer.
- World builder, Steam Workshop for worlds, sponsors, and translations, 40 achievements, and cloud saves.
- 29 languages.

The clubs, players, and crests are fictional; the league structures are rebuilt for real. You can import your own data.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“At release on 1 November 2026, I'll raise the price moderately - by then there's a lot more in the game than at the start of Early Access. If you join now and carry the development along with me, you pay the least.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“I read the Steam discussions and the bug reports myself, and what's in them goes straight into the order I work in. Through the Steam Workshop you can contribute your own game worlds, sponsors, and translations, and grab other people's. And what changes shows up afterward in the patch notes: with the numbers behind it, not just the promise that it's better now.”
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About This Game

Your Club. Your Tactics. Your Football Story.

A classic football manager that does none of the work for you. You take charge of a club, pick the lineup, fine-tune the tactics, expand your stadium and grounds, and build the club up over the years.

What Makes HALFTIME Different

  • No hidden dice rolls - the simulation is calibrated against real seasons and fully reproducible: the same savegame and the same decisions give the same result. If you win, it was you.

  • Merch Lab - design your own kits and merchandise with six sliders, test prototypes on your target groups, and watch the finished piece come out of the 3D printer.

  • Dilemmas - fifteen decisions land on your desk unasked, each with a deadline and real consequences for your squad. Write your own in the workbench and share them through the Steam Workshop.

  • Four fan groups with a mind of their own - transfers, a change of coach, and ticket prices move them, and every group has its own place in the stadium.

  • No yearly re-release - HALFTIME is maintained continuously. New features and improvements arrive as updates to the game you already own, and your savegame comes along.

  • Native on Windows and Linux, SteamOS included. Under 3 GB of storage, no high-end graphics card needed.

  • 29 languages, with more translations coming from the community through the Steam Workshop.

Matchday

  • A real TV broadcast in 3D - from your own stadium, with a TV director or four fixed cameras, replays, weather, and floodlights.

  • Players with faces - every player has their own head, hairstyle, and beard, and you see that same face in your squad and on the tactics board. Their movement comes from almost 4,000 captures.

  • The halftime locker room - team talk, tactical changes, substitutions. And when it gets tight, mid-match too. Or skip ahead if the opponent isn't worth your time.

Tactics That Matter

  • The tactics board - player cards with picture, rating, and fitness, bench and reserves on the touchline, 16 formations, all on one screen.

  • Every setting has a price - a high press makes you stronger and costs fitness, a low block the other way around. An assistant coach handles substitutions if you don't react.

The Club

  • Your stadium, stand by stand - from a local ground to an arena, plus training pitches and buildings on your 3D campus, with seasons, weather, and night.

  • The money - main and secondary sponsors, ticket prices, season tickets, loans. Price it too high, and the stands stay empty.

  • A board that sets you a season objective, watches how you do, and eventually runs out of patience.

The Players

  • Weekly training with your own plans that you save and rotate. If your plan is no good, you'll find out on Monday.

  • Youth Academy - sign talents, track them through three performance tests, and decide in the end: promote them or let them go.

  • Transfer market with negotiations, fees, signing bonuses, loans, pre-contracts, and agents who take a cut everywhere.

The Whole Football World

  • Six game worlds - from the six major leagues for a quick start to all of Europe with 52 countries and 3,054 clubs, plus South America, North America, Asia with Oceania, and Africa.

  • Up to four tiers with promotion and relegation, playoffs as real matches, domestic and continental cups. The clubs are fictional, the league structures are rebuilt for real.

  • Build your own world in the editor and share it through the Steam Workshop.

And Also

  • Local multiplayer for up to four managers on the same computer, five difficulty levels, 40 achievements, cloud saves, and 39 tracks on the soundtrack.

System Requirements

Windows
SteamOS + Linux
    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
    • Processor: Quad-core 2.5 GHz (Intel Core i5-6500 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200)
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: DirectX 11 and WebGL 2 capable GPU, 2 GB VRAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 560 / Intel Iris Xe)
    • Storage: 1 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
    • Additional Notes: Matchdays are rendered in 3D and require WebGL 2. On first launch, a short benchmark picks one of five graphics presets; on weaker machines you play on the Minimum preset. An internet connection is only needed for optional features (Steam Workshop, cloud saves, importing your own league data). The game is fully playable offline.
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 11 64-bit
    • Processor: Quad-core 2.5 GHz or better
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Any dedicated or modern integrated GPU
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
    Minimum:
    • OS: Ubuntu 22.04 64-bit or newer (glibc 2.34+), SteamOS 3
    • Processor: Quad-core 2.5 GHz (Intel Core i5-6500 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200)
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: OpenGL ES 3.0 / Vulkan and WebGL 2 capable GPU, 2 GB VRAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 560 / Intel Iris Xe)
    • Storage: 1 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
    Recommended:
    • OS: Ubuntu 22.04 64-bit oder neuer (glibc 2.34+), SteamOS 3
    • Processor: Quad-core 2.5 GHz or better
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Any dedicated or modern integrated GPU
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
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