Researching LMA Manager 2006

[Rich The Villain]

Hi all – I work in the Football Research department at Codemasters, where we’re gearing up to start work on researching LMA Manager 2006. Just thought I’d give you all a brief outline of who we are and what we do, before we get too snowed under and stressed out

There are five full-time researchers (we also work on Colin McRae Rally, Race Driver, Brian Lara Cricket and more) and in the busy summer months we have up to 30 temps to assist us in gathering data.

Just this week we’ve supplied our audio department with a list of all the names of the teams who may feature in LMA Manager 2006. Soon, we’ll be getting Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen together in a studio to record them saying all these team names.

We’re also trying to find the divisional movement rules for the playable leagues, so that the correct number of teams are promoted, relegated and put in the play-offs in the game. This sort of thing changes from year-to-year along with things like prize-money, number of teams qualifying for Europe from each country and discipline rules.

The next stage, when the seasons have ended, is to find out who the correct teams who will be appearing in all of the divisions we feature in LMA for the season 2005/06. Once we know exactly which teams will be in LMA 2006 we can allocate countries to researchers.

Every team needs a stadium and a playing kit, so once we’ve found pictures and details of these, we have special tools to create them so that they look as realistic as possible in our game. Then we have to make sure each team has the right squad of players and the right manager. This is where the internet comes in handy, for player and manager pics and stats.

Now we’ve got the right players at the right clubs the fun can begin! We need to rate all the players for their skills such as shooting, heading and tackling. To do this, we read match reports, watch players in action on TV and then ask our huge network of fans to point out up-and-coming stars to help us out.

As you can imagine, the football research room is a busy place to be in the summer, as we have a tight deadline coinciding with the end of the transfer window to update all the transfers, rate the players and find stadium and kit information in time for LMA 2006 to be released in autumn for you lucky lot!

[Rubbergenius]

Thanks for that Rich!

More details to come on behind-the-scenes at LMA Manager in the forthcoming months, and more from Rich as well.

[Prod_Freak]

Just a quick question, will you still need researchers for the lower leagues and foreign leagues such as Greece and the Ukraine to supply stats for the teams within those countries?

Really wished i could of taken up the offer of being a researcher, but i don't live anywhere near Leamington Spa

Cheers for the knowledge Rich

[Rich The Villain]

Yep - we have researchers in-house to help with every possible league in the game, so Greece and Ukraine are covered as well as all the lower leagues such as League 2, Conference and below!

[GreatGreece]

any idea guys when any more news or pictures or any info will be released for lma 06 within the next month or two?

[-HAR1B0-]

Enjoyed reading on how you guys work it all out & create the game, they won't be any doubts that LMA 2006 is going to be a fantastic game.

[the_geordie]

good to know that LMA is always upto date and that codies are working hard

[charlton fan]

Originally posted by the_geordie
good to know that LMA is always upto date and that codies are working hard

Yeah agreed, I think 2006 definately looks the best of all the LMA's so far.

Also, Rich, may I just say your avatar is so cool.

[ACM]

Wow, interesting article there Rich The Villain! I simply can't wait for LMA Manager 2006!

[Stimpalicious]

Originally posted by charlton fan
Yeah agreed, I think 2006 definately looks the best of all the LMA's so far.

Well said, I don't know if I'll be able to wait! *Tries ever so hard* 'eeeeeeeh '