UNDER THE BONNET
What is actually running.
THE CLUB IS A MODEL, NOT A MENU
Every named person keeps a permanent, weighted record of what you did and said — who it happened to, how they were already disposed toward you, how much history you have already. Big things become Gazette stories and move the mood of the town, whether or not the person was in the room.
Six referees run on the same machinery, each with his own temper and his own record of you. The whole squad is rated side by side — form, confidence, value, honours — and the same table exists for every manager in the league, twenty clubs deep, so you can see exactly who you are up against.
The economy is one continuous thread across the whole thirty-season career. Costs rise season on season and are priced honestly for whatever year the story has actually reached — a wage in 1959 is not a wage in 1985.
None of it is decoration. It is the game.
SPONSORSHIP IS EARNED, NOT GIVEN
At the bottom of the Fourth Division in 1959, nobody good wants their name on your shirt. Three tiers exist; your division sets the ceiling, your reputation earns how much of it, and the ladder moves one rung at a time — up when you deserve it, back down if you don’t. Even a signed deal moves with your form: a good run gets it topped up, a bad one gets it cut.
One sponsor on the list isn’t fiction: PITCHWORK STUDIOS, on the same terms as any other small local firm, with a perk of BUG FIXES — training injury risk cut in half. Sign it and the name goes up on the hoardings round the pitch, visible in every match you play. It is the only joke in the game that costs a sponsorship slot to hear.
THE SIMULATION DECIDES. THE MODEL ONLY PHRASES.
A language model, running locally on your own machine, puts the club’s conclusions into words. It never decides them. No trust, no money, no consequence in THE GAFFER is chosen by a model — all of it is computed and written to the save first, and generated lines that contradict the save are thrown away. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Dialogue is generated by a third-party model on the player’s own device; its output is not written or endorsed by us. The model shipped may be substituted for another of similar or modestly larger size where that improves the writing — what it is allowed to decide never changes. Full notice shown in-game — see THE HISTORY.
THE SNUG: SIX PEOPLE WHO WANT SOMETHING FROM YOU
The back room of the pub holds the vice-chairman, the shirt sponsor’s managing director, a local businessman, a councillor, the mayor, and the chair of the supporters’ club. They set the gate price, sell your shirt space, ask for your best player, and fund the training ground — and every one of them remembers how you answered. Take the sponsor’s money and the supporters’ chair hears about it. Over a long enough career, some of them retire and someone new takes the seat — the boardroom ages with you, the same as everyone else.
AROUND THE CLUB
Training runs two sessions a week, each one costing you, with a report telling you who is about to make the leap and who has hit his ceiling for good. Before a match, a scout’s report on the opposition and their danger man flagged, with every player’s fitness and form sitting in front of you. The match itself plays out with both sides’ shapes laid out beneath it, live ratings on every man. At half time the floor is yours — calm, a rally, or the hairdryer — and it is remembered either way. Afterwards, every game is written up as a page of the Football Gazette: the gate, both sets of scorers, the table, and what the board make of it. Local radio wants you live whenever there is news worth having you on for, and whatever you say goes out to the whole town unedited.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Small game, ordinary machine.
MINIMUM
- OS
- Windows 10 64-bit or later
- PROCESSOR
- Intel Core (10th Gen or newer)
- MEMORY
- 8 GB RAM
- GRAPHICS
- 4 GB VRAM
- STORAGE
- 2 GB available space
The Gaffer’s in-game intelligence is primarily powered by a compact language model running locally on your own machine, with only limited scripted behavior. All AI processing happens entirely on your own hardware — no internet connection required, no data sent externally. The model shipped may be substituted for another of similar or modestly larger size where that improves the quality of the writing; the stated requirements are set with that headroom in mind.
RECOMMENDED
- OS
- Windows 10 64-bit or later
- PROCESSOR
- 16-core CPU (e.g. Intel Core i9 / AMD Ryzen 9) — required to match GPU-level performance for CPU-only AI inference
- MEMORY
- 16 GB RAM
- GRAPHICS
- 4 GB VRAM (optional if using a 16-core CPU instead)
- STORAGE
- 2 GB available space
The Gaffer’s in-game intelligence is primarily powered by a compact language model running locally on your own machine, with only limited scripted behavior. For best AI performance without a dedicated GPU, a 16-core processor is recommended to maintain performance comparable to GPU acceleration. All processing is local, no internet connection required, no data leaves your device. The model shipped may be substituted for another of similar or modestly larger size where that improves the quality of the writing; the stated requirements are set with that headroom in mind.
MINIMUM
- OS
- SteamOS 3.0+ / Ubuntu 20.04+
- PROCESSOR
- Intel Core (10th Gen or newer)
- MEMORY
- 8 GB RAM
- GRAPHICS
- 4 GB VRAM
- STORAGE
- 2 GB available space
The Gaffer’s in-game intelligence is primarily powered by a compact language model running locally on your own machine, with only limited scripted behavior. All AI processing happens entirely on your own hardware — no internet connection required, no data sent externally. The model shipped may be substituted for another of similar or modestly larger size where that improves the quality of the writing; the stated requirements are set with that headroom in mind.
RECOMMENDED
- OS
- SteamOS 3.0+ / Ubuntu 20.04+
- PROCESSOR
- 16-core CPU (e.g. AMD Ryzen 9 or equivalent) — required to match GPU-level performance for CPU-only AI inference
- MEMORY
- 16 GB RAM
- GRAPHICS
- 4 GB VRAM
- STORAGE
- 2 GB available space
For CPU-based AI inference without a dedicated GPU, a 16-core processor is recommended to maintain performance comparable to GPU acceleration. All processing is local, no internet connection required, no data leaves your device. The model shipped may be substituted for another of similar or modestly larger size where that improves the quality of the writing; the stated requirements are set with that headroom in mind.