The founder of Panenka approached us with a bold vision: a football manager game powered by AI to deliver an ultimate gaming experience. The goal was to combine team-building, digital collecting, and strategic management in a vibrant online multiplayer environment. A key aspect of the project was the AI-driven features, which included generating culturally diverse player names and evolving player visuals, such as aging faces over time. Tackling such a complex challenge requires deep expertise in AI and game development—precisely where our team excels!

Panenka is a multidimensional and technologically advanced game, and the structure of our development team reflects this complexity. The project required a diverse team of engineers with unique, specialized skills working closely together. We identified four core components of the project, each presenting unique challenges:

Developing diverse and realistic player visuals and names involved:

• Dynamic player appearance generation: Football players' images needed to age realistically over time.
• Culturally relevant names: Ensuring player names were appropriate and diverse for various countries required innovative AI solutions.

The gameplay is one of the most important aspects of Panenka. We needed it to be as smooth and life-like as possible while also taking various aspects, like athletes’ age, experience, or stamina into account. The matches had to be simulated in a realistic way that would showcase the strategies employed by the managers. It was a unique and complex challenge as there were many possible approaches to designing the game engine.

One of the biggest challenges related to infrastructure was the live-streaming feature. Usually in similar games and services with live-streaming capabilities, there is a need for a dedicated team with specialized low-level network knowledge. We had to design an efficient workaround to eliminate the need to engage a team of network specialists.

The visual design of Panenka needed to balance appealing aesthetics with intuitive usability tailored to the game’s unique features. One of the core challenges was creating both UX and UI that could handle the complexity of the game’s functions while standing out in a competitive market. A thorough analysis of the gaming industry allowed us to identify opportunities to deliver a visual and functional edge.

From its inception, Panenka aimed to push the boundaries of football management games through cutting-edge AI and game development technologies. Through the development process, our team delivered lots of custom solutions to tackle the specific game requirements and needs. Here’s how we overcame the challenges mentioned above.

When it comes to the AI-powered parts of the game, we quickly found out that the basic prompts were not enough to create diversity in the athletes’ images and names. Our team developed a 'genetic' approach by making lists describing facial elements like lips, noses, eyebrows, cheekbones, freckles, etc.

Dynamic player aging was achieved by storing the original prompt, seed, and other settings, ensuring consistency in appearance as players aged.

Before generating an image, a random face was created from these lists. Initially, Leonardo.ai struggled with this method, so we used OpenAI models like GPT-4o to describe the entire list of features in a few sentences, creating a prompt that Leonardo.ai could use effectively.

To generate diverse names, we used GPT-4o with Chain of Thought prompting combined with Self Consistency. This ensured the generated names were culturally relevant and representative of the diverse player base.

As for the game engine development, we discovered that the mixed approach was the most efficient for satisfying and smooth gameplay. Initially built for turn-based gameplay, the engine was restructured to support real-time mechanics, enabling a more dynamic player experience.

Early plans to integrate large language models (LLMs) for AI decision-making were abandoned due to their slow performance, necessitating a pivot to more traditional rule-based AI. The final iteration introduced a physics-based engine, simulating realistic movement for players and the ball, which required extensive modifications to the AI to align with the new constraints. This iterative approach resulted in a fluid, engaging, and visually appealing football simulation that balances realism with playability.

Our objective was to design a modern and user-friendly interface that could display a wealth of data in an accessible way without overwhelming the user. Consistency across all elements (like match views, team management screens, and the marketplace) was critical to ensure a seamless and cohesive user experience.

The project also included advanced 3D visualizations, distinctive token designs, and a complete suite of graphical elements that give the game its signature style. These components were meticulously crafted to combine aesthetics with functionality, resulting in a design that captures attention and enhances gameplay quality.

Panenka is a testament to the fusion of creativity, technical expertise, and adaptability. By overcoming hurdles in AI integration and real-time gameplay, the team has crafted an innovative football management game with unique functionalities. But that’s not the end of the development journey! Panenka's roadmap looks equally promising, with exciting upcoming features like youth academy and live commentary. Be sure to check out the game and stay tuned for future updates!