A Call to Action to Steel City Interactive’s Designer(s)

 

A Call to Action to Steel City Interactive’s Designer(s)

This is not an attack.

This is not hate.
This is not “fans telling developers how to do their jobs.”

This is a call to action—because the window to get the next boxing game right is shrinking.

Stop designing in a vacuum

Boxing is not a generic sport, and boxing fans are not interchangeable with other sports audiences. Designing systems based on assumptions, internal consensus, or loud online subsets has already shown its limits.

The community has done something rare: it organized its expectations, criticisms, and ideas into a coherent, system-focused framework. Ignoring that doesn’t protect creative control—it increases risk.

Use The Boxing Blueprint/Wishlist as a diagnostic tool

No one is asking you to copy it feature for feature. The ask is simpler and more professional:

• Use it to pressure-test design decisions

• Use it to spot missing systems early

• Use it to understand why certain frustrations keep repeating

• Use it to separate short-term noise from long-term value

This is what good designers do. They seek friction before the market creates it for them.

Boxing games live or die on depth, not hype

Flashy trailers, licenses, and surface-level realism won’t carry a sequel. Boxing fans stay when:

• AI behaves like real boxers, not puppets

• Career modes feel authored, not procedural

• Presentation respects the sport’s culture and history

• Offline play feels complete, not secondary

These are not “wishlist fantasies.” They are retention pillars.

The community you’re overlooking is the one that stays

Casual players may sample. Competitive players may stream.
But long-term boxing fans:

• Buy full-price

• Play offline for years

• Evangelize when trust is earned

• Abandon franchises when they feel dismissed

Designing without them is how franchises stall.

This is about credibility, not control

Engaging with structured community work does not weaken authority. It strengthens it. Studios that last:

• Listen without posturing

• Filter without ego

• Adapt without overcorrecting

If your design vision is strong, it will survive scrutiny. If it isn’t, it’s better to know now.

To designers like Jason Darby and others at SCI

You don’t need to win arguments online.
You don’t need to promise the world.
You don’t need to defend the past forever.

What you do need is alignment—between:

• The sport

• The systems

• The audience

• The future of the franchise

The Boxing Blueprint/Wishlist exists because people still care enough to do the work for free.

That won’t last forever.

The bottom line

This is the moment where you either:

• Build the foundation for a respected, long-running boxing series

• Or repeat the cycle of excuses, patches, and lost trust

The community has handed you a map.
You don’t have to follow every road—but pretending the map doesn’t exist is the real mistake.

Use it. Engage with it. Challenge it.
That’s how better games get made.