Maximum Football aims to make every play feel realistic

Next month, Madden NFL 25 is about to get some competition. Maximum Entertainment will release Maximum Football, a free-to-play simulation sports game. It might not have the official NFL branding, but Maximum Football emphasizes a physics-based approach to gameplay that should make everything from hits to throws feel more realistic than Madden, which often relies on more pre-baked animations. Speaking to Digital Trends ahead of Maximum Football’s early access release, game director Micha Brown stressed that the game will stand out by emphasizing honing in on physics-based gameplay and emergent moments that feel more true-to-life for a football simulator.

My discussion with Brown explains why Maximum Entertainment is taking this physics-based approach to Maximum Football’s gameplay, the challenges associated with doing so, the “physics mode” option that will be in its settings, and how Unreal Engine 5 supports all of that. We also touched on how the game has evolved since its beta over the summer and why it will be free to play when it comes out. It’s an insightful conversation that indicates that Maximum Football may be the breakout rookie that the veteran Madden series will need to account for the next time it’s on the field.

Digital Trends: What aspects of previous Maximum Football games did the development team want to improve on with this entry?

Micha Brown: Pretty much everything. The original Maximum Football was a great game, especially considering it was mostly created by a single developer. With a larger development team now, we have improved on every aspect. Customization, Dynasty mode, gameplay, online play, graphics, physics, commentary, stadiums — and everything else. While our aims remain the same, it’s an entirely new game.

How does Maximum Football’s physics-based approach to gameplay differ from other football video games on the market, like Madden NFL 25?

Our goal for launch was to establish a solid physics foundation that we can build on as we continue developing. I believe we’ve achieved that. We still have a lot of improvements to make with our physics systems. Our long-term aim is to develop a physics system similar to what Backbreaker achieved, but right now, it’s principally used to make sure the trajectory of the ball is correct and that we have our players where they should be to catch it.

The big difference between other games and ours is that the way we’ve approached our game around these core physics calculations means that gameplay isn’t deterministic, which means the outcome of every play is emergent. We take into account players’ velocity, weight, direction, and attributes to determine which tackle animations to trigger. Then, we use physics again to dynamically modify those animations as players collide with each other and the ground. This adds a layer of realism that differs from other games.

Maximum Entertainment

What unique challenges has making Maximum Football’s gameplay physics-based presented?

Getting physics to look right is tough. There’s a fine line between awesome-looking physics-based collisions and goofy ragdolls bouncing around unrealistically. We have to implement constrained ragdolls on dozens of players simultaneously, and they all need to look athletic as they collide at high speeds. The principal issue with all of this is that it’s really heavy on performance — even on high-end machines like PS5! You will get a hint that we’re working on this from the ‘physics mode’ option in the Settings Menu. This turns on and off our deeper work on true physics gameplay on machines that can handle it.

Unreal Engine 5 isn’t typically associated with sports games, so why did the team decide to make it the game engine for Maximum Football?

Unreal Engine 5 has incredible lighting, animation, and gameplay tools that speed up development and make the game look better than with any other engine. The animation blending alone makes Unreal Engine 5 worth it. Plus, there’s a large pool of developers worldwide who are experienced with Unreal Engine. This makes it easier to bring new developers and artists on board compared to using other engines.

What were some of the biggest takeaways the development team had from Maximum Football’s beta over the summer? How has the game changed since then?

From the beta, we learned that people loved the foundation of the game. They loved playing on the field and customizing their players and teams. However, they wanted the bugs fixed, smoother gameplay and animations, and more impactful physics. Since then, we’ve improved the physics, though it won’t reach Backbreaker levels just yet. We’ve significantly smoothed out the gameplay and animations, and we’ll continue polishing them after launch. That’s the great thing about offering the game as a service — we can continually release updates throughout the year as we make them.

Maximum Entertainment

Why was the decision made to make Maximum Football game a free-to-play game rather than a premium release?

Making the game free to play allows us to keep updating it throughout the years after launch. We don’t have to align with NFL or NCAA seasons or release a new game every year. Instead, we can work on features for as long as needed and release updates when they’re fully finished and we’re happy with them. A lot of sports games end up being just “roster updates” each year because they have to rush out the game before new features are fully polished. Over time, those games become a mess of half-finished features that never feel as good as promised. We decided to do things differently.

As we are a smaller, far more nimble development team, we can make quick changes to the game for the benefit of our users whilst working on longer-term feature projects. This means that players who want to be part of our already bustling community can have a material effect on what we do next by getting involved in our active discussion on Discord. Our game doesn’t need roster updates, as we’re free from the need to do that due to not having the official teams, allowing us to expand and evolve the game over the coming years to make it the ultimate football sandbox universe where players can do pretty much whatever they like. The game being free to play and a live service game gives us the ability to do that, which is an ability we wouldn’t have had if we had to do yearly releases.

Maximum Football enters early access on PC via Steam on November 7. It’s also in development for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.