Here's how you, yes you, can play Athletic Director Simulator 3000 *right now*

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Friends, last month, we announced a beta version of our computer game, Athletic Director Simulator 3000. We opened up access to our paid subscribers, who helped suggest new scenarios, tweaked our probabilities and rewards, found our bugs, and helped us make a better version of the game.

I’ve been hard at work these last few weeks correcting mistakes, adding features, and trying to get everything ready. And now…I think we’re ready to share the game with everybody.

Today, ADS3000 is free for EVERYBODY to play. We will make the game completely free from July 20-22. On Sunday, July 23, the game will revert to being behind a paywall, only accessible to those with a premium Extra Points subscription (or D1.classroom access).

You can play the game by clicking here, or going to this section of our website.

Hey, I’m not on Twitter much…what is this thing again?

Athletic Director Simulator is a computer game where you get to take over a D-I athletic department. You’ll start as the leader of a low-major program, and will be asked to respond to a variety of realistic scenarios, all while trying to balance a budget, win on the field, and maintain local support. If you do well, you’ll have the chance to get promoted to higher profile schools. Do poorly, and you’ll get fired.

In trying to make this game as realistic as possible, there are no surefire right answers. No two playthroughs will be exactly the same, because not only are the questions randomized, but “poor” decisions can turn out successfully, and the “right” move can still blow up in your face.

We will be updating the game at least weekly, if not more often, so I encourage you to replay it regularly…chances are, you’ll see new questions and new responses.

Okay…but WHY did you do this?

I understand this question. Hell, there were nights over the last few months when I asked myself the same thing!

We’re doing this because we think ADS3000 can be a tool to help make D1.classroom even better. We’re doing it because I’m always trying to think of new mediums to tell stories about how college sports works. We’re doing it because like so many of you, I’m also a degenerate nerd who loves retro computer games. We’re doing it because I wanted an excuse to make my computer speakers blast On Wisconsin, but like it was coming out of a GameBoy.

I want to help students and fans better understand what ADs actually do, and how the college sports sausage gets made. But I also just want to make people laugh, think, and have fun. It’s why I write Extra Points, after all.

Why aren’t you selling this game on Google Play/Steam/Apple App Store, etc?

Eventually, we probably will. There are a few boring technical reasons we’re not doing it at launch that we need to resolve, but we also need to make sure what we’re doing makes financial sense. While we want lots of people to enjoy ADS3000, we built it primarily to serve D1.classroom students, and that package operates on a subscription model.

I think once we have a little more data on gameplay, and once we better understand the math behind distributed app marketplaces, we’ll work to get a standalone version of the game on those platforms (and maybe other ones). But this is the only model that really makes sense for us right this second. Remember…I’m a sportswriter, not a professional developer.

Who helped you make this?

I certainly didn’t do it alone. The game’s music was arranged by Corbin Cupp. The game’s pixel art was built by Chris Hatten, as was much of the game’s code. Others in the D1.ticker executive team provided question help, testing, and other support. I also talked with many athletic directors, associate ADs, agents, search firm directors, professors, and many others to make sure our game was grounded in reality.

I have ideas for future changes to Athletic Director Simulator 3000!

Wonderful! We plan on continuing to support the game on a very regular basis over the next several months, adding new questions and adjusting the game’s balance, especially in the early days.

If you have suggestions, (new features, new questions, balance feedback, etc), we’d love to hear them. We have a form set up here for game feedback.

If you are an artist, programmer or musician who would like to help with future editions of ADS3000, I’d love to talk. My email is Matt @ ExtraPointsMB.com.

Anyway, I really hope you enjoy playing this game as much as we did making it.

-Matt