3D is easy to add and hard to justify. A spinning model on every page would make the game slower and no clearer. So after the stadium, we only built 3D where it answers a question faster than a flat screen can. Two places passed that test in September 2026.
The season at a glance
The matches page used to show your season as a grid of dates. It was accurate and hard to read: to understand your next month, you had to scan rows of small cells.
It is now a rail of months in 3D. Each month is a slab showing its days, with your home and away matches marked and results filled in as the season goes on. Every one of your fixtures rises from its slab as a small pillar carrying the opponent's crest. At a glance you can see a congested month, a run of away games, or a quiet stretch where your squad can rest.
If your device cannot show 3D, or the screen is very small, the familiar grid comes back automatically.
A tactics board you can touch
The tactics screen gained a 3D board: a pitch with your players as markers in your club's colours. You can drag a marker to move a player, and see your shape exactly as the engine will read it. It is the same pitch that appears in your stadium — we rebuilt it once, properly, so that both places share it.
Where we took 3D away
Choosing where 3D helps also means choosing where it does not. The 3D stadium briefly appeared on the dashboard as well as on the stadium page. Seeing the same scene twice made it feel repetitive rather than special, so we removed it from the dashboard and kept it where it belongs. The dashboard got something of its own a few days later — the dressing room.
The rules we follow for 3D
- It must answer a question — "what does my month look like?", "what is my shape?" — faster than the flat version.
- It must never be the only way. Every 3D view has a flat fallback.
- It must be light. We measure the weight of every 3D scene and keep phones on lighter versions.
- It uses real data only. Crests come from the badge designer, kits from your club's colours, positions from your tactics — the game never invents a detail to make a scene look busier.
Next in the diary: the dressing room, and knowing when to start over.
- 30We redesigned the whole game — then rolled it back
- 31A stadium that grows with you
- 323D where it helps — the season rail and the tactics board
- 33The dressing room, and knowing when to start over
- 34Rewriting the guide and wiki with real numbers
All 38 parts
- 1Why we're building ManageFC
- 2The first version — a world that ran on a clock
- 3Two-factor authentication for anything that touches money
- 4Why we deleted our battle pass
- 5Why ManageFC is English-only for now
- 6The inbox is the heart of the game
- 7Substitution plans, set-piece takers and a proper Christmas break
- 8The pivot — from one online world to a private world per save
- 9Rebuilding the game around private saves
- 10The bug that made time stand still
- 11Build your own world — 211 countries, up to 40 leagues
- 12Your money, your units — currencies and expense periods
- 13A security review in June
- 14A quieter month under the hood
- 15When registration broke — a post-mortem
- 16Players now age like players
- 17A season is 245 days
- 18Stepping into a live match
- 19One crest, everywhere
- 20From eight minutes to eighty-four seconds
- 21Recalibrating goals and morale
- 22Every word on screen, checked
- 23We audited our own website — and deleted what was not true
- 2415,000 matches to answer one question — do tactics matter?
- 25AI clubs finally choose their tactics
- 26Why you start in division 3
- 27The day the league tables froze
- 28Crises scaled to your division
- 29Half the game is played on a phone
- 30We redesigned the whole game — then rolled it back
- 31A stadium that grows with you
- 323D where it helps — the season rail and the tactics board
- 33The dressing room, and knowing when to start over
- 34Rewriting the guide and wiki with real numbers
- 35A new front door, and a blog
- 39ManageFC 3.0: why we closed the game, and what we rebuilt
- 40Your club's mailbox: everything that happens reaches you
- 41Objectives, a head coach and the end of a season
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