Great Concept but…..
Response from developer
Thanks for the detailed review — it genuinely helps, and I'm really glad the roster-building and depth are landing for you. Good news on the funds: the latest update adds starting scenarios, so you can now choose your difficulty and starting cash and begin with a much healthier bankroll. No more getting spiralled into not affording to watch your own fighters — those live fights are meant to be the best part, not something you get priced out of. On the booking, let me clear it up, because the game handles it two ways depending on where the fighter is. While they're a free agent on the local circuit, you set their fights up yourself in the Fight Finder. Once they're signed to a promotion it switches: you either wait for that promotion to send you offers, or go to the promotion directly and hit the Lobby button to request a matchup. That second path is the one that's easy to miss, so if it felt like booking dried up after signing, that's almost certainly what you were looking for. Fair feedback that it should be more obvious in-game, and I'll work on surfacing it better. Thanks for pushing me to make the game better — more on the way.
Report
Response from developer
Thank you for the great rating and for flagging this! You're right — those opportunities (YouTube videos, podcasts, commentary gigs) are meant to be a fun part of the experience, and it sounds like a recent update may have knocked them out. I'm putting this straight on the to-do list and will get it sorted in an upcoming patch. Really appreciate you taking the time to report it — these reports are exactly what helps keep the game tightening up. Thanks for playing!
Has Potential
Response from developer
Thank you so much for the kind words and the 5 stars — it means a lot! You've pegged exactly where my head's at: a steady stream of updates and fixes to keep sharpening the game. There are several improvements already in the pipeline, so stick around. Really glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for backing the project!
Good needs some work.
Response from developer
Thank you for taking the time to write this — feedback like yours is genuinely what shapes where the game goes next. You're right that the opening stretch is currently too tight. The intent was to make the climb feel earned, but if the first few weeks read as 'stuck in debt waiting for the phone to ring,' that's a pacing problem rather than a difficulty one, and it's something I'll be looking at in an upcoming update. The starting money and early-week activity are both on the list. Really appreciate you giving the game a chance at this stage — there's a lot more coming, including a fix for some of the matchmaking friction (teammate offers being one) and deeper systems around how your fighters actually feel about the fights you book for them. Hope you'll check back in after the next few patches.
Cool game so far
Response from developer
Thanks for taking the time to write all that out — genuinely useful, let me go through it. On the real bugs: the contract crash is under active investigation, and the detail about it sending you back a couple of weeks is new and important info — thank you. A speed-up option for fights is a great idea and I'll add it to the list. A few of the others might actually be design choices rather than bugs, so let me explain in case it helps: The 5-0 fighter not appearing in "make a fight" — if his reputation has moved up to Regional, he won't show up on that screen, since it's for Local fighters only. Worth checking his reputation tier. Fighters not getting fights — if a fighter is signed to a promotion, the promotion offers them fights rather than the other way around (same as real MMA). If you want to push for a specific matchup, head to the Promotions screen, pick the promotion and weight class, and use the Lobby button on the fighter you want. On takedowns — the fight engine is calibrated against two studies covering 1,600 real UFC fights, and takedowns are actually much rarer than most people expect (around 1.8 per fight on average). A wrestler needs to either earn an advantage or catch the opponent off-balance to land one, and dominant wrestlers need speed, strength, explosiveness and fight IQ working together. So a takedown-stat-heavy fighter who lacks the supporting attributes will struggle to shoot effectively — that's by design rather than a bug. On your fighters always losing when you watch — I've put over 200 hours into testing and haven't seen this pattern, and the watched and unwatched fights run through the exact same simulation. It's possible there's something specific to your save that I'm not seeing, though. If you can share a few examples on r/EladanGames I'd genuinely love to look into it. Speaking of which — since App Store replies are limited, the best place to follow up on any of this is r/EladanGames. Happy to dig into specifics there. Thanks again for the detailed feedback.
a few glitches, but the dev seems nice
Response from developer
Thank you so much for updating the review — genuinely made my day. Quick updates on the bugs you flagged: there's another fix for the short-notice fights going out in an update today. The first one didn't fully sort it, so this is round two — fingers crossed it lands properly this time. The negotiation crash is news to me — I suspect it crept in when I was trying to improve negotiations in the last update, so I'll dig in and work out what's going on. Apologies for that one. Since I only get a limited number of replies here, the best place to reach me for any more bugs or feedback is r/EladanGames — it's where the community is most active and I can actually have a proper back-and-forth with you. Discord and email work too if you'd prefer, but Reddit is where I'm most responsive. Thanks again for sticking with it and helping make the game better.
almost
Response from developer
Thanks for taking the time to write this — booking confusion is by far the most common piece of feedback I'm hearing, and you're absolutely right that the game should be teaching this better. A proper tutorial is the headline feature of the next update. In the meantime, here's how booking works at the local level, so you can keep playing without waiting: At the start of a new save you're running a tiny local agency. You don't have the money or reputation to attend events and approach fighters yourself, so fighters have to come to you — they'll reach out through your inbox when they want representation. Sign them through there. Once a fighter is signed, they'll let you know in the inbox when they're fight-ready. While you wait, tap their profile and scroll down — you can lock in sponsorship deals to bring in steady money between fights. Take what you can get early on. When they're ready, head to the Fight Finder (the Gig Board). Pick your fighter, then choose one of three matchup types: Build Confidence — a weaker opponent. Useful after a loss or when debuting a new signing. Even Test — a similar-level opponent. Tests where they really stand. Showcase — a stronger opponent. Risky, but a win builds the reputation that draws promotions. Tap "Start Calling" and the offer will arrive in your inbox the following week. Accept it like any other fight offer. One thing worth knowing: at the local level you usually can't afford to attend events in person — that's fine, just skip ahead to results when event day comes. You'll still get the full fight breakdown and your fighter still gets paid. Attending becomes worth it later when you can afford VIP access. Once your fighter has built a reputation on the local circuit, promotions will start contacting you with contract offers, and the game opens up from there. Hopefully that unsticks you. Sorry it wasn't clearer from the start — that's a fixable problem and the next update fixes it. Thanks again for the feedback.
Solid Game, needs a better tutorial.
Now, about these mechanics. The devs made this game WAYY too grindy for a $5 paid manager sim.
But once you learn them, they grow on you. There should be a sandbox option for sure, infinite money, hire who you want, start from wherever, etc. I was going into this expecting there would be one as most management mobile sims have this as a payable option…and you have to pay for this game…
However, I will say, if this was free I’d recommend it to everyone, it has layers, there’s thought out sponsorships and contracts, fighters can get called out, I appreciate these small additions…but It feels like a standard sim game with 0 freedom. it should just have ads, be free, and have a payable option to turn them off.
I would love to see other modes, like a Dana White Mode or something that makes it worth $. I feel this offers LESS than the MMA team manager games, and other free mma games like project MMA…but at least there’s no in game purchases.
Response from developer
Genuinely appreciate this — it's the kind of review that helps me prioritise. Let me take your points one at a time. The tutorial: you're right, and the next update fixes it. New saves will open with a walkthrough covering exactly what you ran into — signing fighters, sponsorships, manually booking fights, and how the game opens up once you build reputation. The button descriptions on the booking flow are also being rewritten so the three matchup types explain themselves at a glance. That hour of frustration shouldn't have happened. The grind: fair feedback, and I'm continuing to balance the early game so it feels less like a slog without removing the constraint that makes the local-circuit climb meaningful. The fact that the mechanics "grow on you once you learn them" is the bit I'm most relieved to hear — it tells me the systems are working, the on-ramp just isn't. Sandbox mode: I want to be honest with you here rather than say "great idea, considering it." I've decided against a sandbox mode. The whole game is built around the constraint that you start with nothing and have to climb — fighter trust, career pitches, retirement outcomes, the way promotions assess your reputation, all of it only matters because the resources are scarce. Take that away and the mechanics you said "have layers" stop having stakes. Project MMA does sandbox brilliantly and a Dana White Mode is exactly what it does best — I'd genuinely recommend it if that's the experience you're after. It's the experience I built this game to not be. Free-with-ads: also a no, and I'd rather be upfront. This is a paid game with no ads and no in-app purchases, which means when you buy it, that's the deal — no upsells, no "watch an ad to skip the cooldown," no premium currency. Several reviewers have specifically called that out as the reason they trust the game. I'd rather keep that and lose some buyers than chase volume by inserting friction into the experience. Things I genuinely am working on: better balance in the early game, the tutorial, more career narrative variety, and continued polish on the fight engine. The game you bought is going to keep getting better at being the game you bought — it's just not going to become a different game. Thanks for the honest feedback and for sticking with it long enough to see the layers underneath. That's appreciated.