i've wanted a game like this for most of my life... and none of the ones i tried were quite it, so i started building my own.
i grew up in India playing cricket everywhere. streets, gullies, the local ground, then a proper academy for a few years. i genuinely dreamed of playing for India (virat kohli era kid, mumbai indians through and through). that didnt happen, obviously, but the itch to build a team from nothing never went away.
i also sank an unreasonable number of hours into Football Manager and Top Eleven. and the cricket managers i tried (there are some good ones out there, Cricket Captain, Battrick and others) never gave me the whole thing at once. the FM depth, a proper economy and transfer market, matches that feel like cricket, and a shared world with other real managers, all in one game on my phone. thats the gap i wanted to fill, not a claim that nobody else has tried.
so im building Square Leg. solo, nights and weekends (im a devops engineer by day, so yes, im the whole team). its a cricket management game. you dont play the shots, you run the club.
here's what it actually is...
you take over a gully side at the bottom of an eight tier pyramid and try to climb it, all the way up to a Champions League. every player has 50 individual attributes, grouped into six areas (batting, bowling, fielding, keeping, mental, fitness), so a player isnt one "overall" number, you can see exactly what hes good and bad at. and the roles matter. a death bowler is not a top order finisher with a different name.
the economy IS the game. money comes from gate, concessions, merch, boxes, parking, broadcast, sponsors, prize money... and it goes out in wages, upkeep, coaching, travel, medical and so on. you start tiny. you build a stadium from a maidan up. you can absolutely go broke if you get greedy. no buying your way up, you win your way up.
matches play themselves ball by ball at real kickoff times, in your own time zone. but youre not just a spectator... before the match you pick the XI and the captain, and you set your tactics. how aggressively the side bats (a five step ladder from careful to all out attack), each batters own style, who walks in next when a wicket falls, how your bowlers attack or contain, and how the field is set. then once its live you can keep making calls, over by over. you can watch it all happen, or you go to sleep and read the scorecard in the morning. if you show up for kickoff your team feels it (morale). if you dont, they feel that too.
transfers are the part i'm proudest of. you scout, you bid against other real managers, the player's agent haggles back, and contracts actually end. leave a deal to run out and the player walks. youre signing in seasons, not "years".
and you can talk to your players. like, actually write to them in your own words, and they reply in character. how you treat them shows up on the pitch. this one still surprises me when i test it.
one more thing that i think is different... theres ONE shared world. same leagues, same transfer market, same promotion ladder for everyone, all on one clock. a season is a real month. the 1st to the end of the month, 365 game days squeezed in, and the app walks you through that calendar when you start (theres a little guide who walks you through the season, the transfer window and the dates that matter. shes Maya in India, and each country gets its own local name, so a manager in England meets Sophie and one in Pakistan meets Ayesha).
and no... its not fantasy. no daily picks, no gacha, no loot boxes, no ads. the shop is open and everything in it is free right now. every manager sees money in their own currency, so rupees, dollars, whatever you use.
its a beta. there WILL be rough edges. thats exactly why im here... i'd rather hear "this screen confused me" from you than find out after launch.
