MFL – Micro, Focus and lights on … Quentin🕹️!

Hello Quentin,
Welcome to « Micro, Focus, and Light », and thank you for accepting our invitation!
I’m very happy to be conducting your very first interview, and it is with great joy and honor that I welcome you today.
Before we dive into the main topics, could you take a moment to introduce yourself to the community ?

One of the hardest questions—I’ve never been good at introductions. I’m Quentin, almost 30 years old, and I mainly work on the MFL match engine, so if there’s an issue with a match, it’s often my fault. Aside from that, in terms of passions: game development (game jams, personal projects, etc.) and cycling.

When and how did you join MFL and the development team?

It’s not the most extraordinary story, but I was job hunting (after being laid off for economic reasons just three months after joining a company and moving to a new city for it), and I came across a great opportunity to work on the development of a football match simulator. It combined coding, algorithms, video games, and football—it seemed perfect. And on top of that, I didn’t yet know that the team was absolutely amazing. It was a great fit, and I started in late June 2023.

What was your background before arriving at this position?

A relatively standard path—I did well in school, went through a scientific preparatory class, followed by an engineering school (aeronautics). After that, I mainly followed challenges and gut feeling, choosing positions in startups and small companies rather than big IT consulting firms. Most of my experience has been focused on 3D applications and augmented reality, where I’d define myself as a Unity 3D developer.

Do you have a private league among MFL team members?

Not really—we have a test environment with other players and clubs that we use to try out new features, new engine versions, etc. But we don’t run separate seasons with our own clubs alongside the official season.
For example, when testing player progression, we would simulate entire seasons over 2-3 days to chain them together and make sure everything worked correctly across multiple seasons.

Is each match result independent, or is there a rebalancing based on certain parameters (e.g., formations)?
Is there a team dynamic?
If a team has won 10 matches in a row, is it harder to beat in the 11th match?

For all of these questions, the answer is the same and very short: not at the moment.

Is there a home advantage? If not, is it planned for the future?

There’s no home advantage at the moment. It might change in the future but it is not planned short term.

Is in-game fatigue taken into account?

No, it’s not taken into account at the moment, but that’s something we want to have in the future especially once we have substitutes as it would give more depth to substitutions by bringing in fresh players for key positions.

Can too many individual instructions cause confusion for the players?

This is a big challenge we often face. Making the game more complete and complex is great, but we always have to balance that against clarity and ease of entry for new managers. An experienced manager will be happy to have a new aspect to customize since they already master everything else, while a new manager has to take in everything at once.
Right now, I’d say a new manager only really needs to set up their formation. They can stick with the default instructions, avoid individual tactics, and not worry about assigning set-piece takers—and they’ll likely have more success than a mad scientist trying anything and everything.

Are there individual instruction combinations that could be incompatible? (For example, asking a player to both cross more and shoot from distance.)

I wouldn’t say incompatible, but certainly suboptimal. One example could be the combination of « take fewer risks on passes » and « play direct ». Playing direct means moving the ball forward quickly, often with longer passes. If you ask a player to avoid taking risks while also playing forward rapidly, they might find themselves stuck with limited options.

A 3D engine in the future?

Most likely! It’s kind of the ultimate goal for the match engine, and it could really help MFL grow and attract new users. I originally come from a 3D development background, so from the moment I joined, the idea of a 3D engine was already on the table.

When can we expect the addition of predefined substitutions and adaptive in-game tactics?

We briefly mentioned this in a previous dev update—we’ve started thinking about this feature. On my end, I’ve been testing its potential impact on the engine to assess the complexity. So, it’s definitely coming, but it’s impossible for us to give a release date. A big part of the work is figuring out how managers will set these options—finding the right balance between depth and ease of use.

Could a custom formation feature be added?

It’s something we’ve considered, but right now, formations need to be balanced—otherwise, some would be significantly stronger than others. With custom formations, we wouldn’t be able to fine-tune that balance, and some users might create setups that seem logical but end up being very ineffective.
I already feel frustration around certain formations being seen as unplayable, so I worry this could make that issue even worse.

Could we consider bonuses or specific rules like:
– A bonus if all players speak the same language?

In the whitepaper, there’s the idea player chemistry where  players could perform better if they are from the same nationality, but this isn’t implemented yet. So, if something like this were added, it would likely be based on nationality rather than language. Although, this is not considered as a strong priority at the moment .

– A rule about players trained in the club’s country?

This has never been discussed, but the idea could make sense.

Could retired players have a second career (youth academy, goalkeeper coach, fitness coach)?

Nothing is defined at the moment, and I don’t really have an opinion on this topic.

Wen VAR ?

I think the real question is more like Wen human refereeing because, in the end, all decisions are already made with VAR. There’s no « refereeing error » on offside, fouls, etc. All player positions are known precisely. However, refereeing might lack that human sensitivity to situations, like detecting whether a pass to the goalkeeper should be considered a back-pass or not, depending on the context.

If you had a magic wand, what would you bring to the game engine?

This might surprise you, but it would probably be to have the « perfect » 2D engine with all the things we’re still missing. I imagine the standard answer would be to have the engine in 3D, but 3D is just a visualization of the engine, and since I come from a 3D background, it’s not what concerns me the most. I believe that if the engine is « perfect » in 2D, transitioning to 3D would be a long process, but not necessarily complicated.

Are you already playing on a 3D engine internally?

Unfortunately, no. Aside from a small attempt a few months ago in my free time, the development of the 3D engine hasn’t really started yet.

Any final word?

I think this is the first time I’ve ever been interviewed, so thanks for that. Thanks to everyone for your kindness— the engine is far from perfect, but little by little, with everyone’s help and support, we’ll try to get closer to that.
And finally, if you’re just discovering me, thank you for taking the time to do so.