FROM THE DUGOUT
Manage your team to glory in this text-based football manager. Win trophies, master the transfer market, and live the life of a real coach. Balance locker room egos, manage your personal wealth, and work your way up to buying your own club. Your life off the pitch matters!
Live the dugout, not just the scoreline
From the Dugout is a football management game for those who love decisions as much as results. You're not shuffling rows in a spreadsheet: you sit in the dugout, manage a dressing room full of personalities, negotiate transfers against the clock, face the press and answer to a board that expects results. Every season is a story you write yourself.
What is the game about?
You pick a club from one of Europe's five major leagues and take full control of the sporting side: the squad, the tactics, the transfer market, your budget's finances and the life of the dressing room. You compete week by week to meet the target set by the board — from avoiding relegation to winning the league — while managing egos, contracts, injuries and everyone's expectations.
Key features
⚽ Data from 5 major leagues
Over 18,000 footballers and the clubs of the first and second divisions of Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France. Every player has their own attributes, age, potential and personality.
📊 A realistic match engine
Results reward the quality of your squad, but leave room for surprises, just like real football. Form, morale and your coaching staff subtly but genuinely affect how your team performs.
💼 A living transfer market
Negotiate in two stages: first with the club, then with the player and their contract. Set release clauses, bonuses and length. Receive offers for your stars — even the ones not for sale — loan players out, sign players on loan and compete for free agents. Six months before a contract ends, agree pre-contracts to sign a player for free next season.
💰 Realistic (but fair) club finances
You manage two pockets: yours, which pays for transfers and wages, and the board's, which pays the coaching staff and improvements. Split your season budget between transfer fees and wage room with a slider. Going into the red limits your signings, but a credit cushion keeps you from easy bankruptcy. Ask the board for reinforcements… if you've earned them.
🧑🏫 A coaching staff that makes a difference
Hire coaches who improve your team's form, morale and performance. Each club has a limited number of staff slots based on its size, which you can expand by negotiating with the board.
🗣️ Dressing room life
Every player has a promised role — prospect, rotation, starter or star — and expects the minutes that come with it. Fail to deliver and they grow frustrated, their satisfaction drops and requests reach you: they want to play more, or they want to leave. Talk to them in option-based conversations where your tone, their character and your relationship decide the outcome.
🎤 Press conferences with consequences
Face the media before and after every match. What you say into the microphones affects your players' morale, the fans and your board's patience. Choose your words carefully.
🎯 Board objectives and pressure
Each season the board sets you a realistic, negotiable goal. Meet it and you'll have their trust; drift away from it and the pressure builds, warning after warning, all the way to the sack. Your job is always on the line.
🏆 Promotions, relegations and two living divisions
The second division is simulated in parallel. Go up, go down, and watch your club change tier carrying your players' history with it.
🎨 Pixel-art aesthetic
A polished interface with retro pixel-art styling, designed to be comfortable and full of character.
In development (Early Access)
From the Dugout is growing fast. These features are part of the roadmap and will arrive during early access:
International cross-league market: sign players and receive offers from clubs in other countries.
Domestic cup and European competitions as additional objectives.
Youth academy and reserve team: young players rising to the first team.
The manager's personal life: your salary, your career and decisions off the pitch.
Owner mode: build up money, buy a club and make decisions from the boardroom (ticket prices, infrastructure, stadium upgrades and much more).
More languages and continuous polish.
Who is this game for?
For anyone who misses a manager that treats players as people, not numbers. For those who want to feel the pressure of a bad run, the euphoria of meeting an impossible goal and the satisfaction of building a project from the ground up. If you enjoy reading, deciding and living your own story on the touchline, this is your game.
From the dugout to legend. Your story starts now.
