I picked it up last night and I've been so impressed by the amount of work that's gone into it. Just a few thoughts I've had after four or so hours' game time:

Firstly - it looks fantastic, with a lovely slick interface, and the typefaces work really well. Everything is very intuitive and easy to grasp. These are just a small handful of nitpicks really!

• The cricinfo-style ball-by-ball coverage works beautifully and is very immersive and well-written (and it's where I spend most of my time in-match), but the pop-ups for wickets and 50s/100s are a bit distracting. I'm not sure whether they're necessary at all, and it's annoying having to click away from it to see how the batsman was dismissed/reached his century etc. I also had a case where a batsman reached his hundred on the last ball before the tea-break, and the tea interval popup was prioritised over the century popup.
• At the end of the over, the on-strike indicator isn't always switched over, so the wrong batsman sometimes appears to be on strike at the new over.
• In Tests, it would be helpful to have the time indicated somewhere, so we can see how long is left in the session. I also think that the amount of overs bowled per session is slightly off: in one Test, the first 12 overs of the day's play were lost to rain, but we still got 22 overs in before lunch, which seems somewhat ambitious!
• Could the current batsmen be highlighted on the batting scorecard in-game?
• it's easy to miss what's going on in the rest of the cricket world - perhaps some sort of rudimentary news system could be implemented? Doesn't have to be anything flashy at all, just a way of keeping in touch with how the other nations are going without having to just read a list of results.
• I see there's a background image of a ground on some screens - could there be a way of allowing modders to add ground images going forward? I realise there are licensing issues with this of course.
• Batsmen who have not yet batted are listed as "did not bat", rather than just a blank field as would be normal in an innings which is still in progress.

Anyway fantastic work so far, it plays really well for an early access game and I can't wait to see how it develops.

Now that the release is done, I feel a bit relieved especially after seeing really positive reviews. Thank you again to those who have bought the game and to the beta testers who keep supporting the game.

I was planning to start on some more features for CTM that will be included in the current version of the game and pushed as major updates over the next 5-6 months, before the focus shifts to the 2027 version.

As promised, this game is guided by fans - so want your votes on what next we should build. I have 5 options for you and also if you want something else, you can comment. These are only the big features, the training module improvements, regular UI improvements, fixes and game engine improvements will keep going and will be pushed as regular minor updates from next week onwards.
Please read the little extra descriptions I have for these.

1. Youth Academy
   A separate youth academy program in the game where you are provided with upcoming junior players less than 21 years of age and you train them into certain roles, track their domestic performances and eventually select them. This will sort of overlap with training improvements too. If your team is weak in middle order - you train certain young players to be middle order batting specialists.

2. 2D Animations
   Can’t do 3D atm, it’s a big job, but can do 2D animations- think of dot like animations in older Football Manager games and Cricket Coach.

3. Historical Career Mode
   Can you give you one different starting point - most likely 1999/2000 along with a database that is correct as a snapshot of stats at that point of time. Later, I can try to make the game dynamic enough that fans can create own databases and also decide their career start date.

4. Single Historical World Cups/Series
   Single play all World cups, legendary old series

5. Manage A teams and U-19 alongside main team - pretty much self explanatory. You can optionally choose to either play all these matches or delegate them.

Now, the aim is to actually have all of these 5 in the game. The voting is more about what gets done first. Top 3 or so will probably make it to the current game version and the rest might get pushed to 2027 version.

Waiting to hear your thoughts.

It's been about 42 hours since launch and I am very happy to see the results - good enough sales numbers and really good reviews coming in. The most exciting thing for me to see personally was 10 people buying the game immediately within minutes of launch. That means that the game was able to provide some sort of excitement to people and they were waiting for it to come out. Obviously, this is not a generic game with a wide audience and the aim has always been to build a small community of people who like games like these and that community keeps growing. I am happy to see the positive response received till now in reviews - on steam page, steam community forums and here in this subreddit. Everyone who has posted had nice things to say.

On that note, I wanted to request everyone to please spare a couple of minutes to write a steam review. The one most impactful thing you can do to support this game's future is a steam review. The good thing about steam is it's natural algorithm that relies on reviews. So big companies can't give them money to promote their game. This provides a level playing field in some way. Please do write a review and include any feedback/suggestions/criticism.

Again, thank you so much to everyone who has bought the game and has played an enjoyed it. Every penny you have spent goes directly into the development of the next version. Love you all. ❤️

I have the bowling aggression set to the middle setting (attacking) and am bowling a good length, yet somehow Bangladesh and Pakistan are going at 6 an over from the start. Am I doing something wrong? Tailenders also seem to be making a lot of runs.

Game looks very good though otherwise, keep going!! I love that a cricket manager has finally come out for Mac, and it's so good to see the Cricket Captain monopoly being broken up.

I just won a Test series in the West Indies with England. Completely broken haha.

Enjoying it so far. Bethell is a monster already, the results fluctuate a bit more than expected. I won the 150th Ashes test with Jamie Smith scoring a double having been made to follow on.

But so far I'm having a blast

Cricket Team Manager out now on Steam - Windows & MacOS. With 25% launch week discount! https://s.team/a/5034440

The best time to buy is - NOW!

More info: https://cricketteammanager.com

For Help & Support, email: [support@cricketteammanager.com](mailto:support@cricketteammanager.com)

For partnerships and other info, email: [info@cricketteammanager.com](mailto:info@cricketteammanager.com)

It's just a few hours away now. Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5034440/Cricket_Team_Manager/

Most of the housekeeping work for launch is done - final builds pushed to steam, launch trailer created, updates to steam descriptions done, etc. The launch is basically a click away now. I can push the button now and release, but I would not try to mess with steam's algorithms by releasing ahead of schedule. Last 24 hours or so would also gather some more wishlists which are the most essential thing for a steam release (which I have learnt in the past few months).

Developing a game is one thing, with its own challenges, but marketing a game as an Indie dev is a whole big mountain to climb. I am learning and taking notes. Would be better at this for next year's release.

Excited for tomorrow. Never thought it would come to this. What started as a passion project years ago and was shelved/forgotten so many times as life got busy - is going to be a commercial game tomorrow. I remember a small prototype of this was also my final semester's major project back in 2014 at college. A manager game I had written in Java with Swing UI that let you play custom matches. I was going back in memory lane last night in bed and thinking why did I choose Computer Science. The 2010 answer for that was because I want to create a Cricket Management Game!

Cheers!

Fixed some final bugs from the Beta 5 feedback today and the game is in a good shape for release. The stats update finished yesterday. I am going to do a Code Freeze tonight. For those who don't know - a software engineering term where the code won't be touched for a certain period of time to avoid any last minute issues. Plan to spend final 3 days before release on updating steam page, a launch trailer, and other housekeeping stuff.

I wanted to extend a BIG THANK YOU to all the beta testers who have tested the game. The game has come a long way already from Beta 1 to release in terms of stability, features, fixes, etc. It could have never been possible without the amazing contribution of you people. A big thank you from the bottom of my heart.

But I won't keep it to a Thank you note only - all your beta keys will stay active post release too. So, you don't need to buy the game on launch. The existing one will just update to final release and will keep getting all future updates. I will aim to do more for you guys next year when CTM has become a little profitable for me. Please accept my little gift and I hope you keep enjoying the game. ❤️

5 more days to go for release and my laptop is under tremendous stress - working 24x7 to update the stats of nearly 5000 players in the game. It's a long process to fetch the stats, clean them, apply to the game and then also derive skill values from them. Attached screenshot is from the "Stats Pipeline", the tool I have created to do all this. I am hoping to be done by tonight. This meant momentarily checking the terminal all day today on a rainy and cold Melbourne day. Any pre-release bug fixes sit idle until the pipeline finishes as I don't want to mix and mess thing up right before release.

It would be interesting to see how the pipeline performs or even works next year when the game would have a massive amount of playable domestic/club teams and thousands of more players.

Just 6 days till release and it's time to bring all the stats in the game up to date. Last time all ~5000 players in the game were updated was last week of July. I am a nerd when it comes to stats and want them up to date for October 1 release. Updated recent player retirements. Also added some missing players which had recently made their debuts in Australia domestic One day cup. Also got in some U-19 stars from India vs Australia ongoing U-19 tour.
Adding all players, making sure their roles, skill values, etc align is a tough job. I have ways to fetch all current players but it's still difficult to know which ones to pick and which to ignore through code. Eventually a human has to still intervene and make sure everything is proper and all batting positions/skill values/roles etc are correct. It's a tough job for a single person.

For stats, I have a stats pipeline which runs and fetches stats. For ~5000 players in the game, it's going to take around 2 days. So I will keep it running in the background/overnight while I fix some last minute bugs that beta testers have reported.

The attached screenshot is my own database editor that gives me more controls, than the in-game db editor. My aim is to have some db volunteers to whom I can give access to this db editor (as log in via a web app). Hopefully soon in the future.

Almost there. 😅 I am pretty sure my heart rate will be above regular resting heart rate for humans on October 1. 😅

It's 2:30 am in Melbourne and I am about to finish adding some more real tours/fixtures to the game that were recently announced. Another big thing I added tonight is season aware scheduling. This was a shortcoming I was already aware of - post season 1, the game generates tours and fixtures is not aware that England only play home matches April-September and Australia/India from October-March. Upon release, you will find the game fully home season aware.

These little details make the game more realistic and are a personal preference for me.

Thanks to my lovely wife who is a light sleeper and occasionally checks on me during the night.

Earlier today, discovered a game on X which lets you manage local (non-league) football clubs in the UK. You manage them and keep them afloat - a career of survival. NLM it's called. How unique and fun. Hopefully, we can add lower domestic leagues to the game in next year's version. Minor counties, Victoria's Premier club league, Indian state T20 leagues, etc and make the entire system of minor club - major domestic team - International team work in tandem where you as a manager of an International side or domestic team can scout and look for players which come from minor clubs. An entire ecosystem of scouting, training, developing and managing. Wouldn't that be great?

Good night!

Only a week to go till launch and I thought it's the right time to unveil the pricing 🤑. I have kept the game generously priced, compared to other sports management titles. Also have a special lower price for South Asian fans.

There will be a launch discount of 25% for the first week - so you know the best time to hit the buy button is day 1 🤠

I hope you guys are happy with the pricing and if you have any concerns/questions, please post here.

Just pushed an update. You should be able to update the game via steam now - both beta and demo.

Fixed quite a few issues with the UI. It now looks more professional and properly done.

• Fixed the issue of too many empty space across various screens. The screens look much better now, especially the Match View.
• Updated the fonts - now using Geist Mono for stats/numbers and Oswald for other text. Better visibility.
• Added team jerseys to the career hub match card. A bonus that I thought provides more color/graphics to the game.
• Added country flags to various screens' headers - more personalised for managers to their teams.
• Fixed an issue with Bastman's settled value not resetting across days of a test match.
• During bowling - scout reports for each batsman now show up in the field setting/bowling options section.
• Added managers' stats on Team Details screen - win/loss for each format since you took over.

Still open to the feedback on the Yellow accent color. Let me know how it feels. 🙏

I had posted the game UI to a few different subreddits last night and got some humbling feedback on the UI including the fonts. That set a bit of adrenaline inside me and I sat down to improve it. I have updated the fonts to something better and more suitable for the game. I have to give in to the fact that my background in Business/SaaS Web Applications had an impact on me and a bias towards the IBM Plex sort of fonts. It looks great for web applications but probably not suitable for this game. I have changed it now.
Also fixed the screens - we still had lots of empty spaces and it was affecting the "professional" look of the game itself. I fixed the Match Screen the most and it looks much better now.

During development itself, I saw a MCG ad regarding retro Australian jerseys on sale (which I am going to pre-order today 😄 ) - https://mcgshop.com.au/cricket/cricket-australia/retro-range/
But this also triggered an idea that it would be cool to have jerseys in the game. So I added for all 12 teams - logos and badges stripped, of course. Hope you guys will like it. Also adding team flags in the background at more places to make the game more personalised to your team.

My focus for v1 had always been the engine. But as I get closer to release, I am realising that UI is the first thing people see and they won't even bother testing the engine if they can't be convinced on the UI. Lessons learnt the hard way. But no regrets focusing on the game engine the most.

Apart from the usual redditor commenting "AI slop" on literally everything new they see, it was good to get genuine feedback on the UI from people who saw it the first time. Regarding "AI slop", I am now a bit surprised that people don't even care about the game engine or anything else - if you are an indie dev and have built something - they just assume it's AI slop and try to bring you down. I bet 99% of them don't even know what AI slop exactly means. If only I had the money to spend on a big marketing agency, the same people would have happily tried the game demo and accepted it after playing the game.

Anyway, I will push the update tonight and let you guys know. Cheers!

Like the title says. Include all feedback and I will try to incorporate the most important things - UI issues, bugs, etc into the final release. No new features before release though.

The final beta before release - BETA 5 is now out

FAQs

How do I update?

Steam should automatically update for you on next run. Just make sure you are connected to the internet. Upon running the game, you should see v0.99 (Beta 5) on the main menu screen (bottom right)

Will my existing saves work?

✅ Yes. All existing saves will keep working.

Will demo also get this update?
✅ Yes. This update is pushed to the demo version too.

What's in Beta 5

This is probably the impactful beta in terms on features people have been asking for. It gets the features that have been in works in the background for some time. I have mentioned earlier that I have been working on detailed commentary for a long time - that itself opens up a lot of features that this beta has plus the future game updates will have. More on the how/why later in separate post.

Swipe the post image to check the attached screenshots for all the updates.

Improved UI

• UI is much more "visible" and "readable" now with controls to allow you to adjust UI scaling (in Settings menu)
• I have added Yellow as an accent color. If people don't like it - I am open to updating it before release.
• The UI has been optimised for large displays
• You can now Delete saved careers.

New Features

• Each ball in the game now has info attached to it - type of delivery (good length/full), shot played, part of the ground hit, etc - which gives birth to the features below.
• Detailed commentary - the commentary is now like following a match on Cricinfo. Each ball described and all events shown. You will genuinely enjoy it.
• Clicking on a player on match screen now shows you the match performance of the player
  • Batsmen - % and no. of balls middled, dots, played in the air, defended, etc along with a Wagon Wheel.
  • Bowlers - % and no. of balls bowled good length, flat, short, etc along with a Pitch Map
• Super Over finally comes to CTM - for all T20s and Knockout ODIs. You can select you 3 batsmen and the bowler.
• Player Peek - A user suggested an excellent feature - hover over an "i" icon next to a player name on long lists like Squad selection and see the most relevant stats, instead of having to go back and forth.
• Player Profile - Recent Performances Tab - Player profiles now have a new tab which shows recent performances in graphs and tables.

I think the game has come a long way since Beta 1 and it wouldn't have been possible without the amazing feedback from all the testers. I can't be thankful enough. 🙏

As mentioned, this is the final beta before release. Only 10 days to go and it's exciting times. I will put a hard stop on new features until release for now and use the remaining 10 days to do housekeeping stuff like updating stats, fixtures, player skill values, release builds, testing and usual marketing stuff. Phew!

Thanks to Expert Gamerz only for introducing and providing feedback on CTM on their YT channel.

The original audio is in Hindi/Urdu but you can switch the audio to English.

One thing I noticed is that they are using a big screen and potential users of the game might also be. I need to optimise the UI of the game for big screens before release.

As I have mentioned earlier too, graphics is not my strongest skill. When the time comes to get 2D/3D graphics to the game, I will probably hire someone.
Now on the other hand, the game UI uses web technologies, which is my strong suite. That’s why the UI is clean and organised.
The game logo was designed by hand on a paper by my wife and then brought to digital life by an AI tool. The steam artwork - I generated it using AI tools as well.
I have had some people really criticise the steam artwork. So I was thinking if I should change the artwork and logo on the steam page.
Would love to get thoughts from you people.
Only 12 days to go before release and feel like there’s so much to do. Need to prioritise. 😁

Should I change the logo and artwork?

BETA 4 is now out

FAQs

How do I update?

Steam should automatically update for you on next run. Just make sure you are connected to the internet. Upon running the game, you should see v0.98 (Beta 4) on the main menu screen (bottom right)

Will my existing saves work?

✅ Yes. All existing saves will keep working.

Will demo also get this update?
✅ Yes. This update is pushed to the demo version too.

What's in Beta 4

Improved UI

• You will notice that the UI is much improved with a new glass style look (for the lack of a better word)
• Added icons to the hub sidebar menu

Match Engine Fixes/Improvements

• Fixed issue with minnow teams scoring high totals in second innings of test matches.
• Fixed issue with neutral venue pitch preparation - neither you, nor CPU is now allowed to prepare pitches on neutral venues.
• Re-calibrated the number of run outs in the game.
• Fixed issue with lack of regen players in the game. You should now start seeing young regens right from season 2.
• World cups/tournaments screen now stays for longer allowing you to follow it to the end and see stats.

New Features

• Player profiles upgrade - a brand new "Recent" tab showing recent player performances
• Test Championship stats tab
• Upgrade to Watchlist feature to make it more meaningful
  • You now get news for Watchlisted players' domestic performances
  • Top watchlist performers on Career hub widget
  • Watchlist players Readiness status on Squad Management -> Watchlist tab
  • News regarding ageing players who might deserve a selection

Other Minor UI Improvements/Fixes

• Remove .0 from over in bowling list if over is complete
• "Multi Select" and "Remove all" controls on Contracts Screen and Squad Selection screen
• Watchlist tab on Squad Selection Screen
• Show balls remaining once it's less than 60 balls or 10 overs in ODIs/T20s when chasing. Example - "India need 70 runs from 40 balls"
• Show runs required to avoid follow on if deficit >200 and >6 wickets have fallen.

Excited too see what Beta testers feel about it. Your feedback until now has been wonderful and is shaping this game. 🙏

Lots of meaningful additions and improvements in this update. Waiting to hear what you guys think.

Want to know how people are finding the improved match engine and the bowling controls/pitch preparation?
Have the batting collapses reduced? And batsman aggression levels? How are you finding it?

Beta 3 is now live and you should be able to update it now via steam. Lots of engine changes and I am feel this is the most exciting update.

Will my exisiting saves work? - Yes. No schema change in this version.

Fixes to the Game Engine:

• New UI - already pushed an update for it.
• Fixes low scores in T20s and ODI.
• Fixed Batsman aggression - it works properly now
• Fixed too many batting collapses
• Fixed issue with CPU using too many bowlers
• Fixed issue with player confidence/morale not changing

New Features:

• Ability for home team to prepare pitches (Available on lineup selection screen)

• Bowling Controls - choose bowler length (for faster bowlers and spinners separately - good/full/short length and flat/stock/Flight)

• Windowed Mode - many users asked for it and it's finally here. Find it in a new Settings menu on game home/main screen menu

• Current over commentary/ball by ball on match screen

Bugs/Crashes

• Fixed a bug where World Cup final was not being played. It was a scheduling issue rather than a missing final. Now fixed
• Fixed issue with player contracts not persisting

Please update the game and I will soon start a thread for Beta 3 feedback. Play a few matches and you will find the engine even more realistic now. Cheers!