- Back to School Sale + Bundle! - 3 September 2026
Back to School bundle + sale!To celebrate the start of the school year, and college football season, I've put FC:CD at 40% off and partnered with Rainey Studios with a fun 'Back to School' bundle, which includes FC:CD and College Baseball: Dynasty Builder, an excellent college baseball management sim.Be sure to check it out if you're interested, and live your dream as a college football and baseball coach!What I've been up to...If you haven't been following, I've been working hard on Pro Football Dynasty, a pro football management game and spiritual successor to FC:CD.I put out a devlog last week for the game so check that out! And if you haven't, adding that game to your wishlist helps a lot! Thanks for reading!Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Bdsy9bwcqPChat on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FootballCoachFollow me on X: https://x.com/dev_sidelinesim
- New company + new game in development! - 9 June 2026
Hi everyone! This is a quick announcement to let you all know of some changes, and update you on what I've been working on.Firstly, as some of you may have noticed, FC:CD now has SidelineSim Studios as its developer and publisher. This is a new LLC I've founded to move away from the old and outdated 'Coach Apps' moniker that was better suited for mobile games. This new company still just has me as a full-time developer, but has the potential to expand, and has enabled me to hire an artist for my next project!Speaking of the next project, if you're on the Reddit or Discord you already know that last week I launched the Steam page of my new game, Pro Football Dynasty!Pro Football Dynasty is a sort of spiritual successor to Football Coach: College Dynasty, obviously focusing on the pro American football space, but bigger and better and with some super cool player portraits, courtesy of tha…
- Celebrating draft week with a 60% off sale! + Future plans - 22 April 2026
Daily Deal for Draft WeekIf you haven't played Football Coach: College Dynasty yet, now is the perfect time to jump in, as the game is the cheapest it has ever been. Huge thanks to Steam for letting me run as an official Daily Deal; be sure to tell all your friends, family, coworkers, nieces and nephews!What have I been up to?The last major update for FC:CD was last summer, and in the meantime I've been hard at work at my next project -- a pro football management game, much like this one but bigger and (hopefully) better. Pro Football Dynasty is aimed for a late 2026 Early Access release. I'll be getting a Steam page up for it soon, but if you'd like to follow along with development in the meantime, you can join the Discord or read more on Reddit: Pro Football Dynasty Roadmap and FAQWhat about the future of FC:CD?I still plan on doing a last couple of updates for FC:CD, mainly aimed at…
- Update v1.6.5: Small bug fixes - 28 August 2025
Bug fixes: - Fix issue where auto-practice during preseason would not use correct game plan - Fix issue where importing past ATH recruits would give error - Fix issue where game would not correctly validate coaching staffs in imported league universes Super small update to resolve three bugs that have been called out over the past month. The update size is 17mb on Windows probably due to changing some internal build stuff for the new game, but actual change is very small. Thanks for playing!
- Update v1.6.4: Small bug fixes and adjustments - 7 July 2025
Minor improvements: Add new 8 team playoff format which just includes conference champions Lower rain chance a bit more Adjust coach hiring logic for coordinators with low tenure when seeking HC Bug fixes: Fix issue where #1 recruit achievement would be activated for recruiting transfers Hopefully fix issue where QB IQ check would be incorrectly applied during audibles Fix issue where ATH commits were not included in 'My Targets' commitments banner Now have coach XP gains be based on coordinator expectation results if the user is playing as a coordinator Fix coach carousel bug where assistants would be let go early from guarantees Remove a couple non-city zipcodes from the pool Small update here, mainly bug fixes but a couple improvements as seen above, including a new playoff format. As mentioned previously, updates from here on out will be rare and limited to only essential bug fixes,…
- Update v1.6.0: New coordinator career modes! - 12 June 2025
https://i.imgur.com/sVDSWzk.png As previously announced, this will be the final major update for Football Coach: College Dynasty. While I may release small patches to address any remaining bugs, my focus is now shifting to my next project (a Pro Football management game). I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who has played FC:CD and helped build such a passionate and supportive community around it. Seeing this game grow has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I'm sad to say goodbye, but I'm also extremely excited for what's next. Thank you again! Now, onto the patch notes. Coordinator mode: When starting a new game, you now have 2 new options to select for game mode, allowing you to start your coach career as an offensive or defensive coordinator. You'll be able to work your way up to HC jobs, or move between schools as coordinator, or even go back and forth. It's a su…
- Update v1.5.0: Custom face image support - 1 May 2025
Custom face images: https://i.imgur.com/VxMdmOD.png This has been a frequently requested feature, and I finally got around to it: you can now use custom images for all players, coaches, ADs, and boosters in-game. Now you can set a 'specific faces' folder and a 'random faces' folder, either loading a local folder or using one from the Steam Workshop, under new "Specific face pack" and "Random face pack" tags. Specific face folders allow you to override images for a specific player, coach, or admin (boosters and ADs). Random face folders allow you to change all images for players/coaches/admin by adding a bunch of random faces the game will pull from instead of using the default face drawings. You can read more about the specific folder format and image paths in 'Game Settings' in the "Faces" config section. https://i.imgur.com/sNXCK6f.png Each folder type is supported via the Steam works…
- Update v1.4.0: ATH recruits have dropped in! - 25 April 2025
ATH recruits: This is probably the penultimate big update to the game, adding long awaited ATH recruits! Now, ATH recruits will be generated alongside other recruits at the start of each season. These recruits have attributes that may be a good fit for several different positions, and it's up to you to decide where they fit best on your team. When recruiting these players, you'll need to set an 'Assigned position', telling the player how they'll play next year on your roster. This determines their playing time and scheme fit ratings, and if you change their position away from this next year, a coach integrity penalty is applied. There are 5 new archetypes for these ATH recruits, including "Big body", "Hybrid defender", "Gadget player" and more. Superstars can also be ATH recruits now, which should create some pretty unique players. https://i.imgur.com/JkDjBfa.png As seen above, ATH recr…
- Update v1.3.0: Check the forecast, weather has arrived! - 31 March 2025
Game weather: This update is all about adding weather as a new gameplay mechanic. Every game played now has a weather forecast going into the game, which is randomly generated and is based on real-world data from where the game is played and what month we're in. For example, Florida will be hot and humid with higher rain chance in August, and Boston in the winter might have some snow. This is a big win for immersion, and I've even added some nice weather effects to really spice it up. Here we see some heavy rain during our Florida-Miami rivalry game: https://i.imgur.com/eGMfzQj.gif And here we see some moderate snowfall in Boston in the winter: https://i.imgur.com/tNL8iFT.gif These visual effects can be disabled in the "Game Settings" page in the 'Preferences' section at the bottom of the page, but I think they're quite fun. Weather effects: Your player performance will be affected by t…
- Update v1.2.0: Watch CPU games, stat leaderboards, and new postseason options - 28 February 2025
Watch CPU games: With this update, you can finally watch CPU vs CPU games. This includes any games during the regular season before playing your own, or during the playoffs & CCGs when you want to watch the big matchups at the end of the year. While watching the game, you can progress each play one by one, or turn on 'auto-sim' to watch plays progress automatically. This has been long requested, and adds a ton of immersion and flavor when following teams beyond your own. See the new "Watch game" button in the top right of the Game Preview page. Enjoy the show! https://i.imgur.com/jNaTEah.png Setting preferred winners using God Mode: Another requested feature is the ability to force a winner for games, which is now enabled if you have God Mode turned on (via Game Settings page). If enabled, you'll now see a small button in the top right of the Game Preview page, which allows you to set t…
- Football Coach: College Dynasty is now available on Mac! - 7 February 2025
https://i.imgur.com/4zUBA2W.png Super excited to announce that Football Coach: College dynasty is finally playable on Mac! If you have an Apple Silicon Mac, you should be able to download and play right now. This has been a long time coming, and I'm glad Mac users can now experience the game natively! As mentioned above, this is only available for Apple Silicon Macs (made in 2020 or later, i.e. Apple M1, M2, M3, etc). I know this might be disappointing for some, but there were issues on Intel-based Macs, and from the Steam hardware survey, over 80% of Macs are on Apple Silicon now. So FC:CD will only be available on those newer Macs. The only known issue on the Mac version is that Steam overlay does not work (Shift+Tab). This seems to be a limitation of the library I'm using unfortunately; I'll try a couple things to fix it but can't promise it will be. Luckily, achievements and worksho…
- Update v1.1.0: Trophy image support, new achievements, UI updates, and bug fixes - 30 January 2025
First of all, thanks for a great v1.0 launch! FC:CD was in the Steam 'New and Trending' for a bit, tons of new players tried out the game, and we saw the highest concurrent players ever (647). Really awesome to see, so thank you again. This is a smaller update, following up on the v1.0 changes, fixing some bugs, changing some UI, and adding two new achievements. The download size may appear larger than normal, because I transitioned to a new development PC and updated several versions of packages I'm using; the actual functionality changes are not as big, as seen below. Trophy image support: With v1.0, the 'Trophy Room' was added for teams and coaches. Now, you can customize the images of each trophy displayed, just like you can with teams, bowls, and playoff games. All that's needed is a new 'Trophies' folder in the images folder, with subfolders for 'League' or 'Conferences'. This wil…
- Update v1.0: Steam achievements, trophy rooms, legacy scores, and more! - 16 January 2025
https://i.imgur.com/FKielUb.png I'm so happy to announce that Football Coach: College Dynasty has finally exited Early Access and is now version 1.0! Though I will still be releasing a few more updates to the game, this means that I feel confident in the state of the game and can view it as a complete polished product, including Steam workshop and achievement integration. If you have been waiting to get into the game, there's never been a better time to start a new coaching career. I also want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone for being a part of this Early Access journey! The feedback from the community has been invaluable to me as I worked on the game the past 2 years. So thanks again, and cheers to v1.0! Steam Achievements: The big change for this update is the addition of Steam Achievements. There are 68 in all, any more may be added in the future. To earn achievements, make sure…
- Update v0.38.0: Steam workshop support! - 13 December 2024
Football Coach: College Dynasty has Steam workshop support (finally)! With this update, you can now browse the workshop, subscribe to items, and use them right away in your saves. These files include league universe files, image packs, and recruiting classes. Check it out! Downloading items From the main menu, you can now click "Steam Workshop" to view all your subscribed and published items. To subscribe to items, you can click "Browse workshop items" and be taken to the Steam workshop hub for the game. From there, you can now view items of all kinds. "League universe", "Images", and "Recruiting Classes" are the 3 categories, pertaining to the type of content they replace in the game. After clicking an item and 'subscribing', Steam will automatically download the content and make it available for use in the game. https://i.imgur.com/I4fzMcS.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/I4fzMcS.png Using work…
- Update v0.37.7: Recruiting recommended targets and pre-scouting - 8 December 2024
This is another smaller update, which is focused on helping get recruiting kick started when starting a new year. Now that CPU teams are smarter about who they target, it can be tedious to scout a ton of players to find the right fits. To help this, I've added two features: a new 'recommended targets' dialog, and pre-scouting of recruits. Recruiting recommended targets: I've added a new "Recommended targets" dialog, accessible at any time in the "targets" header card, which lists recruits your staff thinks may be worthwhile to pursue. This is effectively the same as doing 'auto-fill' targets and then looking at those, but now more easily accessible, without having to fill your board all at once. This list will update in Spring 1 with recommended HS/JUCO recruits, and again in Offseason Recruiting 1 with recommended transfers. Super helpful to get your board started! https://i.imgur.com/…
- Football Coach: College Dynasty is on sale! - 27 November 2024
As part of the Steam Autumn Sale, the game is now 40% off! This is the deepest discount yet, so it's the perfect time to jump in and play, or gift it to that football fan in your life. Start your coaching career and build your legacy today! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2151290/Football_Coach_College_Dynasty/ Happy gaming! Follow me on X/Twitter Join the official Discord
- Update v0.37.5: Recruiting & prestige balance - 25 November 2024
Minor improvements: Add +75 as the cap for max total bonus priority points for a recruit Slightly reduce coach pedigree bonus active chance for blue chip recruits Weigh playing time higher in recruit priority generation for blue chip recruits & "wants to be a star" personality players Intelligently sort targeted recruits for CPU teams when not on easy difficulty, change how they use actions to favor better actions on higher priority targets Make CPU teams smarter when initially targeting recruits, to look a bit further down for better potential recruits Reduce auto-recruit penalty, now no penalty for normal and slightly less penalty on hard/legend Raise expected prestige score for 9-10 star schools, remove playoff bonus for 10-star when in 6+ team playoff Add 25% extra penalty for 10-star schools losing prestige if they have 50k+ prestige points Add 'zoom' preference which can be config…
- Update v0.37.4: Follow-up bug fixes for OOC scheduling - 22 November 2024
Bug fixes & changes: Fix late game win percentage calculation when XP is being attempted Fix booster rivalry gifts for OOC rivals so inactive rivalries aren't used Fix FCS assignment logic to avoid double booking opponents after swapping games Change code in OOC schedule customization page to be more resilient if unexpected state is present Change logic for getting available OOC opponents to prevent double booking issues, should now have slightly more options Sort OOC contracts by payout in the dialog list Prevent editing OOC rivalries during the 'Schedule Config' phase to avoid mismatches Prevent invalid schedules from hard-locking game, will now continue even if small issues are present Fix `timeOfPossession` not being an integer when inserting into the DB This is a quick follow-up to last update, fixing several issues found by users and by me with extended tests. I've also modified t…
- Update v0.37.0: OOC scheduling contracts and rivalries, plus audibles and more - 19 November 2024
OOC scheduling contracts: The first big feature is a totally new OOC scheduling system, which now uses contracts to schedule opponents. These contracts can be single home/away games, or home-and-homes, or 2-for-1s, and each may pay or cost money for your school. This system is more realistic, and forces you to choose wisely when scheduling OOC opponents. Do you take an easy win against a 2-star school, at the cost of a couple million dollars? Or do you schedule a home-and-home with a more evenly matched team, at the risk of higher SOS? This feature can be toggled on/off in the "Scheduling" section of the settings. https://i.imgur.com/jsTDzyF.png Permanent OOC rivalries: The second big change to scheduling is the addition of permanent OOC rivalries. These can be imported in league universe files, or set up manually in the "Game Settings" page near the top. These rivalries can be configur…
- Release date announcement and upcoming price increase - 16 October 2024
First of all, thank you! Before we get into the details, I want to give a sincere thank you to everyone who has played Football Coach: College Dynasty during this Early Access period. The community feedback has been invaluable during development, allowing me to add new features I never would have thought of, tweak existing ones, and fix pesky bugs found by you all. Thank you for being part of this journey to create the college football management game I've always dreamed of! 1.0 Release Date https://i.imgur.com/CkifCWE.png I'm excited to announce that Football Coach: College Dynasty v1.0 will be launching on January 16th, 2025! This leaves three months of Early Access development left, allowing me to add a couple big updates, add better Steam integration, and polish the game for the full 1.0 release. I had originally intended the game to release to 1.0 before the end of 2024, but after…
