New Features: Added Award Race pages for national and conference awards, updating game by game throughout the season. Added Player of the Week tracking for National, Conference, and Freshman honors. Added a full Pro Draft with 30 fictional pro franchises, team colors, round/pick info, and player bio tracking. Added full Draft History so every draft class is saved league-wide. Rebuilt the History section with Records, Awards, Draft, Legends, Hall of Fame, and all-time leaderboards. Added RIM, the game’s NET-style resume metric. Added National TV games for ranked vs ranked matchups. Added deeper Story Event settings with Off, Normal, and In-Depth options. Added player-driven events with avatar popups, morale effects, attribute changes, hot/cold streaks, missed class decisions, and more. Added push notification support. UI / Presentation: Stat Leaders received a full UI pass with larger top-player cards and cleaner ranked lists. Award Race pages now have a cleaner mid-season layout. Player bios now show more award, weekly honor, and draft information. Coach setup screen received layout and presentation polish. Tournament, schedule, recruiting, and roster screens received cleanup. Gameplay / Sim: Improved sixth-man usage and award logic. Improved CPU rotations and bench usage. Improved CPU player progression across sim paths. Improved postgame morale consistency between live games and mass sim. Improved overtime labels across live game screens. Improved player event presentation with clearer attribute names and better popups. Rankings / Tournament: Improved Top 25 ranking logic. Added stronger resume-based evaluation through RIM. Improved ranked-win movement, mid-major logic, roster strength weighting, and schedule context. Improved tournament seeding, head-to-head tiebreakers, conference champion logic, and rematch avoidance. Improved national tournament, conference tournament, and postseason invitational tracking. Improved tournament results across brackets, schedules, team cards, records, and history. Improved schedule tagging for CT / NT / PI games. Recruiting / Transfers: Improved auto-recruiting so targets better match program prestige. Improved recruiting feedback when players commit elsewhere. Improved transfer portal signing flow. Improved offseason transfer handling. Improved JUCO / transfer labels. Improved roster full messaging. Roster / History / Saves: Improved redshirt display in lineups. Improved eligibility and offseason roster flow. Improved career history tracking. Improved draft tracking between player cards and History. Improved coach record tracking. Improved GOAT score and record book displays. Improved NIL stability across reloads. Improved older save support and save recovery. Improved Selection Day, postseason, and season transition stability.

Bug fixes and improvements throughout the entire app.

Hardwood Empire 3.2 This update focuses on major stability fixes, progression bug fixes, and realism tuning. • Fixed an issue that could cause crashes when advancing from Training/Development into the next season. • Fixed a crash that could occur after the Conference Tournament Championship. • Fixed an issue where some saves could become stuck around Game 3 or 4 of a new season. • Added automatic repair for certain corrupted schedule/save states. • Fixed Force Advance failing in affected stuck-save scenarios. • Fixed a crash that could occur when using Sim to Recruit Window. • Fixed an issue where dropped recruits could still count against your NIL budget. • Fixed tournament games not appearing correctly in your team Schedule history (Conference Tournament / National Tournament / Play-In). • Fixed Year-by-Year records not correctly counting all postseason games. • Fixed duplicate entries appearing in certain All-Time Player histories. • Fixed recruiting commitment percentages showing inaccurate post-commit values. • Tuned recruit generation to reduce unrealistic freshman dominance while preserving rare elite prospects. Stability improvements and save-state reliability enhancements.

Hardwood Empire 3.2 The biggest immersion + gameplay update yet. Most asked-for features and improvements are in this one, and everything is completely free. Live Interactive Court Gamecast now has a full live court built directly into the sim. Watch shots happen in real time with live shot mapping, dynamic home court branding, center logos, and full arena styling. No more reading a text feed during close games. Dynamic Crowds Arenas feel alive. Crowds scale based on program prestige, so blue blood home games feel packed and smaller gyms feel smaller. Neutral site games can have split crowds depending on the matchup, and fans react live during big moments. Usage Control System Run your offense your way. Keep the classic 1st / 2nd / 3rd option setup, or use the new full usage sliders for total control over offensive shot distribution. One star taking over, balanced motion offense, or anything in between. Plugs directly into the actual sim engine. In-Game Music Added in-game soundtracks for a more immersive gameplay atmosphere, with more music coming in future updates. Smarter Sim Engine Major realism pass under the hood: Late-game decision making is much smarter Offensive systems behave more realistically Sim rates tuned so scoring, assists, rebounds, pace, and advanced metrics better match modern college basketball Long-term dynasty balance tuned so smaller and mid-major schools can still have real breakthrough runs without turning into permanent national powers every save New Player IQ Attribute Players now have an IQ rating that affects shot selection, turnovers, and how well they fit different offensive systems. Quality of Life + Fixes Working haptics on iOS and Android Transfer portal affordability indicators Career and retirement history fixes International recruit fixes Schedule and MTE fixes UI polish across multiple screens Many additional bug fixes and stability improvements Customization Most new features are toggleable. If you prefer the classic Hardwood Empire experience, you can play that way too.

This version is filled with primarily bug fixes. The majority of the fixes will apply to pre-existing saves, but new saves will perform even better. Recruiting was also redesigned to make sure users lose fewer battles with extreme odds. Thank you for all the support.

This update is focused on bug fixes and overall gameplay. There will be another bug focused update shortly following this. Thank you for the support!

Revamped Transfer Portal: Portal rebuilt from the ground up. Player cards now show fit at last school, why they're leaving, role they played, and minutes pattern so you know who you're getting. Stars are harder to land at low prestige unless you're spending real points and NIL. Also added JUCO players alongside the D1 transfers. Flips and Decommits: Recruits can now flip schools or decommit between windows. Rare but real. Full screen flip alert pops when you reach the dashboard so you don't miss it. Pure decommits put the kid back in the pool. Don't want any of it? Toggle flips off in settings. Freak Recruits: Generator now occasionally rolls something special. 6'9" point guards, stretch bigs that pass, athletic freaks at center. Tagged with a Freak badge. Rare enough to feel like a real find. Power Metrics: New analytics section. Pace, efficiency, four factors, strength adjusted ratings. If you want to actually know who's playing the best basketball this is where you go. Series History: Pregame card now shows your full all time series vs the opponent. Win counts both sides, last meeting, current streak. Switch jobs and the series stays with the school. National Game of the Day: Featured matchup from across the league each game day. Tap in for the full preview just like your own games.A new way to follow the rest of the country. Dream Jobs: Pick a dream job when you create your coach. Offers roll in as you build prestige. This school will keep a close eye on you. Old Stars Become NIL Donors: Players who graduate or go pro show up years later as NIL donors. Build a legacy and the donor pool builds with you. God Mode + Custom Realignment: Force Commit works reliably now and every other reported God Mode bug has been fixed. Force Wins added for CT and NT. New: every offseason in God Mode you can manually realign conferences. Move teams around and build the league you want. UI Changes: Polish across the interface. Cleaner cards, better spacing, mobile first layouts. New Series History card design. Diagnostics page in Settings if you ever get stuck.

Rebuilt Avatars: Player avatars completely redone. 14 hairstyles, 8 skin tones, 6 hair colors, beard options, all at higher resolution. Over 50,000 combinations across the 4,700+ players the game generates. Coach avatars got the same revamp. Player Cards: Cards rebuilt from scratch to feel like a broadcast graphic. Team-color gradient hero that pulls each program's actual colors, oversized OVR display, archetype line, headline stat strip, and tabs for stats, ratings, game logs, and bio. Coaching Systems: Biggest gameplay shift in this build. You pick an offensive scheme and a defensive scheme and they change how your team plays. 6 offensive options (Run & Gun, Motion, Pick & Roll, Princeton, Post-Centric, Balanced) and 6 defensive options (Man, 2-3, 3-2, 1-3-1, Press/Trap, Pack Line). Run & Gun teams shoot more threes and turn the ball over more. Pack Line teams give up fewer paint points but allow more open looks. Same modifiers run in live games and background sims so your scheme matters either way. Scout Cards: Tap any team and you can now see their offensive and defensive playstyle laid out in full. Real game-planning is finally possible. Facing a Press team, you can scheme around it. Facing a 2-3 zone, you can prep your shooters. Pull up an opponent before tipoff and actually know what you're up against. Recruiting Pipelines: Recruit generation now mirrors real basketball geography. Top talent clusters in real hotbeds. Class rank, position rank, and state rank show on every recruit. All-American badges flag elite prospects and State Player of the Year badges call out standouts in smaller states, but neither is an auto cheat code. An All-American is a strong prospect on paper, development still matters, and not every one pans out. State POY varies a lot by state. The real edge is taking a job in a strong pipeline state. Better states produce better players more often, and coaching in a hotbed gives you home state advantage on recruits everyone else is fighting over.

2.8 — QoL Update Transfer Portal: sort by OVR/POT, roster needs strip, POT shown on signed/declined rows Halftime: top 6 player box score with hot/cold shooters, US/OPP tabs Coach Profile: career accolades section New stat: Players Sent Pro Settings: roster default view toggle AD Talk: tap-skip protection 140 new names added Bug Fixes

nternational Players and Pipelines: International recruiting is now in the game. The more you recruit from a certain pipeline, the stronger that pipeline becomes and the more players you can pull from that region. Build up your connections overseas and it'll pay off long term. Coach Retirement: Added a coach retirement screen. Once your coach turns 85 you'll be prompted to retire and create a new coach in that save. Your legacy carries over. Coach GOAT Score: Added a coaching GOAT score so you can compare your legacy against other users and see who's actually the best. Tap the three dots next to any score to see what difficulty they played on. No more wondering if someone built their resume on Easy. Award Logic: Tuned end of season and conference award logic. Voting should feel a lot more accurate now. God Mode: Added God Mode. You can change player appearances, names, and attributes, add to your NIL budget, change your team branding, and more. Full control of your save. Seeding and Bracketology: Fixed seeding and bracketology issues. Brackets should look right now. In-Game Coaching: Added halftime adjustments. You can now choose an offensive and defensive adjustment at the break and it will directly affect the simulation. Actually coach your team through the game instead of just watching. Bug Fixes: A lot of them. If you posted something in the Discord, me and the testing team got to it. 2.8 will once again be more bug focused.

Update Notes Improved postseason and Selection Day flow to ensure tournament brackets, results, and team placement load consistently Enhanced save reliability so progress, stats, and season state are preserved more accurately when reopening the app Improved handling of Conference Tournament transitions to prevent blank or delayed screens Fixed edge cases where awards, team records, or coaching results could display inconsistently across screens Improved player career history tracking so season-by-season stats display more reliably Resolved rare cases where tournament data or progression screens would not appear as expected Improvements NIL weighting has been tuned for more balanced and realistic recruiting outcomes Added a Force Advance option in Settings to help move forward if a save ever becomes stuck General performance and stability improvements across dynasty progression + Much More

You guys asked for certain features and now they're here. 2.5 has been submitted. NIL: NIL has been added into the game. Every player values NIL differently. You can increase or decrease your NIL offer as part of your recruiting pitch for high school prospects. NIL is also built into the transfer portal now. Offseason NIL: After each season your donors will meet with you and depending on how your program did they'll tell you whether they're increasing or decreasing your NIL budget. Some of your current players might also ask for an increase in their NIL deal and you can accept or decline. Say no and they might not be happy about it. Postseason Invitational: Didn't make the National Tournament? Your season might not be over yet. The Postseason Invitational has been added for all teams who just missed out on the National Tournament. Full 16-team bracket, all playable, same bracket viewer as the conference and national tournaments. Impossible Mode: New difficulty tier above Extreme for everyone who's been saying the game is still too easy. Good luck. Quality of Life: A lot of QOL improvements in this one. You can now filter by overall in the out of conference scheduling screen. Tons of bug fixes across the board. If you posted a bug in the Discord, me and the testing team have addressed it even if I wasn't able to respond to you directly.

Version 2.4 — What's New Transfer Portal Redesign: Expanded player pool with sign chance percentages, departure reasons, and position filtering for a more strategic portal experience. Save State Fix: Resolved remaining cases of the 0-0 save glitch. All save and load paths are now fully stable. Win Probability Chart: Live play-by-play now features an interactive win probability graph that updates on every play. Extreme Difficulty: New difficulty tier added for experienced players seeking a greater challenge. Postseason Game Preview: Full matchup previews now available before Conference Tournament and National Tournament games. AI Roster Intelligence: Improved AI recruiting, transfer portal usage, and roster construction with position-aware decision making across all teams. Flexible Scholarships: Available scholarship slots now adjust based on projected roster departures, preventing scenarios where recruiting is blocked on a technically full roster. Scoring Balance: Tuned long-save scoring environment to maintain realistic stat distributions across extended dynasties while preserving elite individual performances. Conference Invites: Invitations to move up conferences now appear directly on the Dashboard. Live Sim Indicator: Visual feedback during play-by-play showing which team currently leads. Player Profiles: Swipe navigation between Stats, Ratings, Game Log, and Bio tabs. iPad and Mac Improvements: Improved modal presentation, layout spacing, and desktop input support including ESC to close and click-outside dismissal. Additional Fixes: Community names added. Bracketology logic improvements. Auto-redshirt cap. Over-roster-limit warnings on recruiting and portal screens. iOS long-press highlight fix. Expanded pregame analyst panel with more varied commentary. General polish and stability improvements throughout.

What's New in Version 2.3 Pregame Matchup Screen Tap your next game from the dashboard to see a full pregame breakdown. Compare both teams side by side with stat bars for PPG, RPG, APG, FG%, and 3P%. See the projected spread, model-projected final score, and stat leaders matched up head to head before you sim or play it out. Sim Tuning Overhauled how points, assists, and rebounds are generated. Scoring now runs on a possession-based system tied to team tempo and coaching style. Stat distributions across the roster are more balanced and team averages sit in realistic college basketball ranges. Coaching Style and Scoring Options Your playstyle and offensive scoring options now carry more weight in sim results. Run and Gun, Lockdown Defense, System Ball, and Motion Offense each shape pace and tendencies. AI coaches have randomized styles too. First, second, and third scoring options have a bigger impact on shot distribution. Conference Prestige Bands Each conference now has a prestige floor, average, and ceiling. Teams near the top gain prestige slower and teams near the bottom are protected from freefall. Tap any conference name in the standings to see its band. Redshirt Screen Revamped with OVR and potential visible for every player. Auto-redshirt is smarter about targeting bench guys with high upside. Easier to read across the board. Team Stats Check any team's PPG, RPG, APG, steals, blocks, turnovers, and shooting percentages from a new stats tab on the team card. Additional Updates Confirmation prompt when switching jobs. More players stay at your old school when you leave. Fixed Opening Four bracket bugs and career log issues. Swapped roster page for lineup page in the bottom bar. Cleaned up the lineup screen. New team color mode replaces the gold accent with your team's color across the app. Fixed crashing bugs. Added more player names. Thanks to everyone in the Discord and subreddit for the feedback.

Gameplay Free throw volume increased to realistic levels Assist totals now scale with team passing ability Turnover frequency tuned down Improved rebound tracking on missed shots Injury rate increased so injuries actually impact seasons Late-game possessions now run through the final buzzer Scheduling Fixed extra OOC games repeatedly scheduling the same opponent Fixed issue where backing out of an MTE could prevent games from simulating Conference tournament history tab correctly labeled Postseason Other teams' schedules now show conference and national tournament results Play-in bracket display improvements Coaching Job offers now include a wider variety of programs including rebuild opportunities More total offers per offseason UI Player offensive and defensive ratings display correctly on roster screen

What's New in 2.1 Gameplay Multi-Team Events added to offseason schedule builder for tougher non-conference matchups Scouting is more realistic — potential ranges are wider and harder to predict Star rating now affects potential ceiling — low-star recruits rarely reach elite ratings Overall game difficulty increased for a more competitive experience Reduced blowouts between similarly rated teams for more realistic scores Late-game pacing and score gaps adjusted for closer finishes Fixed rare box score bug where guards could post extreme rebound totals More coaching job offers each offseason, including rebuild opportunities at smaller programs Rankings & Postseason Bottom-150 team power rankings are more accurate Improved Selection Sunday seeding and committee logic Bracket seeds now always match the Selection Show reveal Fixed play-in tournament bracket display glitches Recruiting Fixed commit chance calculations for more predictable recruiting You can now remove a target from the recruiting board Recruit interest and commitment pacing feels more balanced UI & Polish Replaced all emoji with clean matching icons across the entire app Analyst takes have more variation and personality Transfer stats no longer display incorrectly Morale toggle works more reliably when turned off Former player history tracking fixed Player of the Year award logic improved Added more player names to the name pool Stability Fixed scheduling for conferences with an odd number of teams Fixed conference tournament bracket crash Expanded offseason autosave checkpoints to prevent progress loss

NEW FEATURES OOC Schedule Builder: pick all 10 non-conference opponents, set home/away, choose a rival with series tracking. Bracketology tab: live projected 68-team field with regions, First Four, bubble watch, and quadrant records. Analyst Opinions on team sheets with dynamic resume breakdowns. Selection Sunday show: animated broadcast with seed reveals, bubble teams, and full bracket reveal. Quadrant system: every game tagged Q1-Q4. Quad record drives bracketology, seeding, and prestige. Simulation Difficulty: Easy, Normal, and Hard modes in Settings. Recruit decision timing shown: "Deciding now" vs "Decides at Signing Day." BALANCE 3PT shooting: more game-to-game variance, slightly lower ceiling, diminishing returns when stacking shooters. Prestige gains now tied to quadrant quality. Need Q1 wins for big jumps. Soft cap for low prestige programs. Draft board: potential rating weighted slightly higher. High-ceiling freshmen rise. Job offers: small chance of offers from slightly worse programs. Player potential is now a hard ceiling across all growth paths. Recruiting rebalanced: user blue blood gravity matches AI. Transfer portal: elite players at small schools now transfer up realistically. UI Redesigned player cards for recruits and rosters. SPG/BPG added to stat leaders. STL/BLK added to game logs. Bracket logos, team sheets, and recruiting displays improved. General polish pass for spacing and readability. BUG FIXES Conference tournament bracket, Selection Sunday, and championship logic fixes. Recruiting interest, contract extensions, and redshirt exploits fixed. NaN guards on all stat paths. Prove It Deal button visibility fixed. STABILITY Save data pruned each season to prevent late-dynasty crashes. Crash recovery and checkpoint saves improved. General stability and performance improvements.

Recruiting System Overhaul Completely rebuilt how recruiting commit decisions work. Now there's even less variation across if you're leading and whether or not a player commits. For those of you who want recruiting to feel more forgiving, Easy mode now gives you a real advantage when you're the clear leader on a recruit. Not a reroll, an actual probability boost. If you're ahead by a big margin on Easy, you're landing that guy. Easier mode is easier. Transfer Portal Visibility When the new season starts, the News tab now shows exactly where each of your former players transferred to. The player's name is clickable and opens their player card on their new team. These are real roster moves, the player actually exists on that team, not just a text notification. Scholarship / Portal Bug Fixed an issue where the portal could show you as maxed out on scholarships even when you had open spots from players leaving for the draft. The portal now correctly reflects your true available roster slots. Player Development + Coach Impact Dev coach impact has been significantly increased for both in-season and offseason growth. A maxed development coach now gives a clear advantage in player progression that you'll actually feel over a season. Redshirt freshmen with high potential will make noticeably bigger jumps. Also tuned potential distribution so extreme potentials are rarer and more exciting when you find one. Hidden gems still exist but finding a 99 POT sleeper actually means something now. Lineup / Minutes Bug Fixed an issue where swapping players in the lineup could break the minutes display or make the minute bar disappear. Record Mismatch (Coach of the Year) Fixed the Coach of the Year award to use regular season record consistently so your record in the awards tab matches what you see at the top of the screen. Tournament Game Log Numbering Fixed tournament games all showing the same game number in player game logs. Game numbers now increment correctly through the postseason. Award Spam Fixed an issue where player bios could show the same award dozens of times in a single season. Awards now only appear once per season. Tournament Autobids (Custom Files) For those of you using custom conference files, every conference now gets an actual tournament simmed so autobids come from real conference tournament winners regardless of your setup. Tournament UX The button to advance to the next tournament game is now a big gold pulsing "NEXT GAME" button that's impossible to miss. Close Button Issues The bracket close button hitbox has been enlarged so you're not fighting with the battery icon area anymore. Also fixed close buttons across the app to work on the first tap every time. AD Firing Logic Added hard floors so dominant seasons are properly protected. A 29-1 coach cannot be on the hot seat anymore. AI Recruiting Class Sizes AI teams now recruit realistic class sizes based on actual roster openings instead of stacking 5-10 players per year. AI also considers positional needs when recruiting so they build balanced rosters. Career / Job Market The job market now always includes some rebuild opportunities so you're not limited to only elite programs when looking for a new job. Roster Construction Fixed a position distribution issue that was causing too many players to end up as Small Forwards. Position generation is now balanced across all five positions. AI teams also maintain proper guard and big coverage so you won't see teams with zero point guards anymore. Turnover Realism Tuned turnover generation to produce realistic college basketball numbers with varied turnover types across bad passes, lost balls, traveling, and shot clock violations. Steals are properly attributed. Both played and simmed games now produce the same turnover environment.

v1.6 Patch Notes Tournament Brackets Added a real bracket viewer for both conference and national tournaments. You can now see the full bracket layout with matchups, scores, seeds, records, and logos round by round. Your team is highlighted so you can follow your path through the tournament. Rebounding Fix Rebuilt how rebounds are calculated. Team and individual totals should look a lot more realistic now. Also fixed an issue where the play-by-play and box score could show different rebound numbers for the same game. Player Ratings Fixed an issue where player overalls could get out of sync with their actual attributes over time. Growth now goes into real ratings so what you see on the player card matches their OVR. Job Offers Top programs are pickier now. Blue bloods won't come knocking after one good season. You need to build a track record, win consistently, and make tournament runs before elite jobs open up. Save System Added crash protection for saves. If the app closes unexpectedly during a save your file won't get corrupted. Automatic backup recovery if anything goes wrong.

small bug fixes

Recruiting Overhaul Points and investment matter more — big leads now convert reliably Home state, pipeline, and fit bonuses are stronger Better recruit distribution across the league Transfer portal now shows balanced positions instead of all SF/PF Tap any portal player to see their full stats, ratings, and game log New Recruiting Difficulty setting: Easy, Realistic, or Hard Dynasty History Fixed national champion repeating or showing the wrong team across seasons Every completed season now stores the correct champion Bug Fixes Fixed duplicate lineup bug where one player filled all 5 starter slots Fixed injuries not counting down when simming one game at a time Fixed conference schedule using old conference after realignment Fixed contract display showing conflicting year counts Fixed redshirt freshmen declaring for the draft Improved team logo persistence across app restarts

In-Season Player Development Players can now improve during the season based on performance, minutes, and potential Toast notification when a player levels up mid-season Hot and Cold Streaks Players get hot or cold based on shooting efficiency Fire and ice indicators visible on the lineup screen Good shooters get hot, bad shooters get cold — no more fake streaks Offseason Growth Timing Natural development now shows before the training step Green banner displays each player's growth so you can plan training around it Bug Fixes Fixed player stats not tracking correctly during game sims Fixed streak and breakout events not firing on the main sim path Improved save stability

his update focuses on major stability improvements, deeper player development, and new features based on community feedback. Save System Fixed progress not saving after games Added autosave after sims, app backgrounding, and errors Backup save system with recovery if data is corrupted Player Development Overhauled growth system (training + natural development now stack) High-potential players develop more realistically over time Playing time and coaching style now impact growth Added diminishing returns at high OVR to keep elite players rare Team History New History tab for all teams with year-by-year results, records, and achievements Postseason Improvements Clear Selection Sunday results and tournament entry Full bracket simulation even if eliminated Added tournament viewing options Recruiting Fixed unrealistic recruit decision outcomes Added ability to withdraw offers Additional Fixes Fixed disappearing team logos Fixed scheduling inconsistencies (all teams now play 30 games) Fixed OVR mismatches across screens Fixed redshirt and morale bugs Improved crash handling and overall stability

- Fixed live game box score stats matching post-game summary - Full roster available when making substitutions - Improved live game play-by-play visuals - Bug fixes and stability improvements