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Hi all, My name is Jeff, but I go by SecretAgentMan on a couple of sports forums sites. In my very limited free time, I am developing a game called Going for Gold. It is, basically, an Olympics sim. You take control of a country's athletics program, and work to build up your athletes and teams so that they can win medals at the Summer Games and Winter Games. I post a regular progress thread at SimNation, and I wanted to do likewise here, so that I can share development with others. So, with that in mind...here's my first development log here at GMGames. Development Log 1: A basic overview of Going for Gold Where did the idea come from? After participating in online leagues in college, I found myself with a little bit too much time (and too little employment) on hands after graduation. I started pursuing the idea of making a sport sim of my own, and after a couple of false starts, I got introduced to GameMaker, a programming system I still employ. That was early in 2010, and the Winter Olympics in Vancouver were fast approaching. I decided I was going to make sims for several sports in time for the Winter Games, to celebrate my favorite sporting event. I started small, with ski jumping, figuring that it would be one of the easier sports to program. Good call. I barely got something done, but I did get something done. I had a good experience with it and decided to expand it into a full-fledged ski jumping game, Going for Gold: Ski Jumping. I developed that until 2013, and got it into some sort of "finished" state, though it was never released or published. From there, with the 2014 Winter Games approaching, I started to make a rudimentary Olympics sim, titled "Going for Gold: Winter Games". I took the same ideas and, in 2016, made "Going for Gold: Summer Games". After that, I combined the two into one game, Going for Gold, prior to the 2018 Winter Games. I have continued to work on it intermittently ever since, with a particular focus being an addition of a career mode. (None of the previous versions had had that) Currently, the career mode, summer games, and winter games are all operational, though far from polished. I was, of course, intending to have another trial run this year with the Tokyo Olympics, but with those being postponed, I am continuing to refine features with the hope being that I have a stronger career mode in time for the double whammy of two Olympics in a 6-month span in 2021 and 2022. How does it work? As I mentioned above, I have 3 modes: Summer Games, Winter Games, and Career. The individual "Summer Games" and "Winter Games" modes are designed to be a short-term sim. You drop in to the Games, pick a country, and take a look at the athletes that you will have competing in the games. You then take "Training Points" (which basically simulate coaching and other such factors) and allocate them to certain athletes to boost their chances of success. You go through the games, win medals (or not), and see how you do. Career mode, though, has a little bit more detail to it. You start by selecting one of 65 countries from a list, allowing you to represent many of the most successful athletic nations from throughout the world. From there, you get a chance to simulate through a full year that includes both the summer and winter sports. As you play, you'll be able to see the schedule for the year and how your athletes are doing, and you can check the standings for each event throughout the season. At the end of each year, you get to go through the Finances, where you can decide, sport by sport and athlete by athlete, just how much you are going to support them and their ability to train and improve. As the years go by, you can build your country's athletic association into a powerhouse, growing in World Ranking and dominating more and more sports. (Or, you know, fall into disrepair. That part's up to the player, after all!) Athletes grow and decline, then retire, and new athletes come into the fold as you play year after year. Your ability to manage finding and find strengths and future stars will constantly be tested, but you have the opportunity to lead your country to glory at the Winter and Summer Games quadrennial after quadrennial. I'll try to dig into more specifics in the weeks and months to come as I continue to grow and update this game, but I wanted to at least start out by introducing myself and by introducing what I have to offer. I hope that you enjoy, and I would welcome your thoughts and feedback! Thanks sincerely, Jeff (SAM)

Thank you! It's much appreciated. I'm glad to be able to share what I am doing, and I hope that there are others who find it interesting.

As a euro guy, I like this game very much, bc. euro leagues are covered greatly, even 2nd Division teams and players. For a NBA sim I still prefer DDSPB20.

Keep it up, team! I've been playing a different simulator recently, and it just doesn't feel like I have much influence on the game. I'm looking forward to more and more improvements on what looks like a much more in-depth game in this.