Hardwood Empire 3.5 is being submitted to the App Store today and should be out in the coming days. This one adds a coaching pressure layer, a real player development system, a rebuilt transfer portal, and a reworked pro draft. Player Development
Set a Focus for every player and his growth follows it. New Offseason Training Camp lets you spend development points to push guys toward 99, and a Growth History tab tracks every player's year-by-year climb. The redshirt call now comes after camp, so you decide once you've seen the jump. Coaching Pressure & Season Story
Your AD sets preseason expectations, and you're graded against them with a new End-of-Season Report Card. Morale & Locker Room rebuilt, talk to any player, make real promises, and keep them or lose his trust. New Story Events pull real players from your roster, with real consequences. New Transfer Portal
Portal points now scale with your open roster spots, so rebuilds get real chances. Recruiting skill matters more than prestige, top transfers are harder to land, and position crowding is respected. No more free superteams. Smarter Pro Draft
The entire pro draft was reworked, who declares and who can be talked into staying now weighs position, OVR, potential, stats, your development track record, and more. Game Day
New Game Preview Gameplan you can mix and match inline, redesigned halftime adjustments (now 3x2 with a sixth option), and a cleaner post-game box score. Plus bigger title celebrations, conference and national championships now get logo glow, confetti, haptics, and sound. Custom Rosters
Add a logo per conference at center court, plus one-tap Update Conference Logos for existing dynasties. Polish
Premium in-game notifications (the gray toast pills are gone), tabular figures on scores and clocks, bigger tap targets, and real press feedback everywhere. Bug Fixes & More
Faster recruiting with arrows to flip through prospects, committed recruits now show true OVR/POT, more social-media takes with clickable player names, injuries now correctly miss games, fixed dead taps at the top of screens, and squashed a recruiting-changeover crash. Full patch notes: empiresportsapps.com/patch-n… Appreciate everyone who keeps playing and pushing this game forward.

Stayed up all night with the group of testers getting 2.5 done. I went through every single reply even if I wasn’t able to respond. 2.5 will be filled bug fixes and implementations you guys asked for. Get ready for NIL. Will have more tomorrow!