Announcing the Mini Hockey Champ! Re-Master Update! Originally launched in 2017, this game has lived a pretty quiet life here. Earlier this summer I decided to give the game a complete overhaul with improved gameplay, graphics, code, and a host of changes that hopefully make for a much better experience. While I'm calling this a re-master, I decided to release it as an update to the existing game because these changes better represent my original vision for MHC.



There's a lot to talk about, so first the big stuff. I spent a lot of time improving the general gameplay, so you have more options of what you can do and games can feel more varied than before:

• Added the ability to one-time loose pucks and passes!
  
• Added poke checks (that don't anger the opponent)
  
• Fights are optional and you'll know when they're coming
  
• Goalies can make glove saves and freeze the puck
  
• Player-controlled goalie passes after a glove save
  
• Players can get checked while spinning/deking
  
• Dekes are context-sensitive and only performed by high rated players
  
• Block and deflect incoming shots with poke checks
  
• Failed checks bump the checker backwards
  
• Players are different sizes now, opening up the ice a bit
  
• Added taunting and cheering after goals
  
• Goalie assists are tracked

I've also rebalanced the game so that it's way less punishing for new and novice players. This is accomplished in a variety of ways:

• Selectable difficulty modes (Easy, Balanced, Hard, CPU Cheats)
  
• Tighter skating controls and faster skaters
  
• Simplified primary controls down to 2 buttons
  
• Checking, spinning, and dekes don't use stamina anymore
  
• Low stamina only impacts your player once they're in the red
  
• New player ratings, the bad teams are especially bad
  
• Champ Mode brackets seeded so you play progressively harder teams (eg. you wont play USSR in the first round anymore)

The bones of the original game modes remain intact, however I changed up a few things about how they work:



PUX are now a high-score/ranking system rather than a currency for unlocks. They are awarded based on game performance (goals, checks, saves, etc) and that total is multiplied against the overall ranking of the teams playing (eg. beating a great team with a bad one gets you 1.5x PUX and vice versa) as well as the difficulty level you're playing on



Champ Mode adds a 'scoring' section that tracks your team's overall PUX count and ranking so you can see how your current playoff stacks up against your previous cup runs



Champ mode also has a neat playing card available to view so you can marvel at your gorgeous team!



Unlockable items are no longer locked and 'Arcade' mode is now called 'Exhibition'. All of the previous locked options are available in all modes as 'Promotions'



I've added the ability for you to load externally-edited custom rosters into the game. I'll drop a post in the community section soon detailing how to do it but you'll also want to join the 26k Discord to see what folks are creating!

Finally, the game has undergone a significant visual makeover, with all-new lighting and atmosphere, improved player uniforms, more refined arena visuals (blue lines!), and a completely rebuilt user interface that properly supports 1080 and above resolutions (yes, the original game was that old).

That's a mouthful so I'll wrap it up. I'm excited to breathe new life into this game, whether you're an old-school fan or just now getting into the game, I appreciate everyone who's found their way here over the years. Thanks for playing!

Thanks to everyone who's checked out the Beta so far, I just pushed out a release candidate for yall to dig into over the weekend! Here's the latest and greatest:

• Added post-goal and pre-fight taunts that certain players will say during the game
  
• Updated the visuals for 'Neon Night'
  
• Increased the chance of fights starting, especially for goons
  
• Fixed some AI skating issues
  
• Rebalanced high and low end skill for goalies to be slightly closer together
  
• Rebalanced thresholds for Champ & PUX rankings
  
• Made a few records more difficult to break
  
• Slight rebalancing for harder difficulties being too hard
  
• Reactivated Steam Achievements, auto-awarding deprecated ones and adding a few new ones
  
• Fixed some issues with skate spray and trail visuals
  
• Fixed a bug where PUX were rewarded incorrectly after away games
  
• Fixed an issue causing game saves to not work with custom rosters
  
• Fixed some UI issues on the Steamdeck
  
• Fixed an issue where the wrong hair was showing up on players

My hope is to get this update finished and launched before the end of the month. This version is feeling pretty close, so now's the time to send along feedback if you have it! Thanks for playing!

Announcing the v1.5 Beta for Mini Hockey Champ!, available now for everyone who owns the game!

If you'd like to get a sneak peek of all the changes to the game and help me test it out, you'll need to opt-in to the Beta by:

1. Right click on Mini Hockey Champ! in your library
   
2. Select 'Properties'
   
3. Select 'Betas' from the menu on the left
   
4. Choose 'beta - Live Beta Branch' from the 'Beta Participation' drop down menu

This will opt you in to the Beta and download the updated version of the game.

I expect the Beta to run for a few weeks and hope to have the update officially launched in October at the latest. You should expect bugs!

There are a TON of changes to the game but I'll provide a brief overview of the big ones:

• Updated skating controls so players skate faster, turn better, and aren't affected by fatigue until they're energy is in the red
  
• Goalies can make glove saves and freeze the puck
  
• Added one-timers for loose pucks and goalie passes
  
• The old deke/special move is context-sensitive now and reserved for skilled players
  
• Added poke checks as a way to knock down players without angering them
  
• Fights are optional
  
• Spinning/deking players can be checked, failed checks bump you backwards
  
• Added difficulty options
  
• Ratings matter way more than before, the bad teams are really, really bad
  
• PUX are a high-score/rank mechanic rather than an unlock currency
  
• All the old arcade unlocks are free now and available in all modes
  
• Champ brackets start easy and get progressively harder
  
• Completely rebuilt UI with support for high resolutions

Here are some known issue I'm still working on:

• AI does dumb stuff like skate away from or around the puck
  
• AI runs into your goalie too often still
  
• AI doesn't get agitated enough when you're being annoying
  
• Players can get stuck in animations at the end of the period
  
• Achievements might be broken, a lot of them are definitely invalid now
  
• UI issues on Steam Deck

And some feedback topics to get you started:

• Is Easy difficulty easy enough? Is Hard enough of a challenge? Too challenging?
  
• Thoughts on one-timers and poke checks? Offense and Defense in general?
  
• How do you feel about stamina and fatigue in the game?
  
• Do you understand when a fight is going to happen? Are there too few/too many?
  
• How do you feel about PUX scoring, multipliers, and titles?
  
• Do the new records feel breakable?
  
• Anything else on your mind...

Finally, I've added the ability for you to load externally-edited custom rosters into the game. I'll drop a post in the community section soon detailing how to do it but you'll want to join the 26k Discord to see what folks are creating!

Excited for everyone to try this out and hear what you have to say about the changes! Thanks for playing!

Hey yall, it's been... awhile.

The TLDR here is Mini Hockey Champ will be receiving its first update ever later this year! Let's talk about why and what to expect.

So first the 'why'. MHC was accepted on Steam Greenlight (remember that?) in 2015 and released in November of 2017. Ultimately, a combination of low sales and very little interest quickly painted a picture that the game was sadly dead on arrival. At the same time, Unity (the engine the game was built in) announced they would no longer support the language the game was programmed in, which seemed like a pretty clear sign to me that it was time to move onto other things.

I'll be the first to admit that MHC really is a mixed bag. It still holds up visually and has a lot of memorable presentation aspects that people enjoy. It's also incredibly frustrating to play and has a steep learning curve regardless of your skill in other hockey games. It's pretty fun to play against another person but as a single player experience there's not a lot of depth.

My second game, Sunday Rivals, taught me a ton about how to make a better sports game. Over the last 6 years, it's become more and more frustrating to me that MHC can't benefit from everything I've learned in that time. So I've decided to bite the bullet and reprogram Mini Hockey Champ! to work again in modern Unity.

This is a pretty big undertaking for a game no one cared about, so let's talk about what to expect:

• Getting the game up and running again is my primary task, so a big chunk of this update will be transparent to most players, but a nice side effect of that will be a fully rebuilt UI system that will look much better at high resolutions.
  
  
• The other big task for me is to try and fix the game's difficulty curve and generally make for a better playing game. Everything is on the table and there are a ton of ways to do this so I'm in the process of figuring out a plan to get there now. Expect a combination of control tweaks, AI adjustments, and rebalanced teams.
  
  
• Speaking of teams, something I learned on Sunday Rivals is how much players enjoy making their own leagues and while I won't be adding that kind of customization directly into this game, I will be adding the next best thing: externally editable roster files!
  
  
• I also have some plans to improve the game's depth and longevity. They're still very early in the design phase, but my hope is to provide some changes that will make you want to keep playing MHC day after day.
  
  
• Finally, I want to address what's not going to change. It's still going to be 1-on-1 hockey. I'm not adding online multiplayer, franchise modes, or anything else outrageously complicated. Please keep in mind we're talking about a 6 year old, $10 game!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, I appreciate everyone who gave the game a chance over the years, you're in a very small but very cool club! My plan is to open up a beta branch for this update before launch, so if you own the game you'll get access to that as soon as it's available (and I figure out how to set that up).

Let me know if you have any questions and as always, thanks for playing!

Hey Champs, v1.01 is out now and contains a fix for a bug that was causing a few graphics settings to default to their lowest value. With the patch you should notice better transparency on the player's skate trails as well as improved lighting and shadows during the game.

Hope everyone is enjoying the game, feel free to let me know if you spot any bugs or general weirdness as a result of this patch!

Hey Champs, v1.01 is out now and contains a fix for a bug that was causing a few graphics settings to default to their lowest value. With the patch you should notice better transparency on the player's skate trails as well as improved lighting and shadows during the game.

Hope everyone is enjoying the game, feel free to let me know if you spot any bugs or general weirdness as a result of this patch!

It's time for Mini Hockey Champ!

Hey everyone, I'm excited to see all your best snipes, dekes, and questionably legal hits over the coming months as you battle your way to the cup! Be sure to check out the 'How To Play' section in the game before you hit the ice to familiarize yourselves with the controls. Now get out there and play some hockey!

It's time for Mini Hockey Champ!

Hey everyone, I'm excited to see all your best snipes, dekes, and questionably legal hits over the coming months as you battle your way to the cup! Be sure to check out the 'How To Play' section in the game before you hit the ice to familiarize yourselves with the controls. Now get out there and play some hockey!