OOTP Developments announces Beyond the Sidelines Football

[Syt]

http://files.ootpdevelopments.com/newsletters/nl0134/index.html

Last year they launched a hockey title which was met with a very mixed response - no ideas where that one stands now. I'll be sure to watch this one, thougj.

Get Ready For the Kickoff!
Beyond the Sideline Football Announced

Last week's Out of the Park Baseball 15 announcement wasn't all we had planned - Today, just in time for this Sunday's big game between the Seahawks and the Broncos, we're unveiling the latest addition to our excellent lineup of sports management games - Beyond the Sideline Football.

BTS Football is being created by lead developer Francis Cole, who previously worked on Football Manager at Sports Interactive and joined Out of the Park Developments in October. He is a lifelong football fan and even created a football simulation as part of his college studies.

"I've known Francis since my days working at Sports Interactive," says OOTP Developments co-founder Markus Heinsohn. "He is a tremendously talented programmer who knows American football as well as anyone I've ever met and he has been working on his own football gaming projects for years. I am convinced that his skills, combined with our experience creating award-winning sports management games, will result in an amazing American football game which will bolster our product lineup for years to come."

"Having known Markus from our time at Sports Interactive together, and playing OOTP every year since, I was delighted at the opportunity to bring my football game to OOTP Developments," says Beyond the Sideline lead developer Francis Cole. "Beyond the Sideline will be an amazing American football GM game, thanks to technology such as FaceGen, releasing on PC/Mac/Linux, and having an existing code base that enables players to easily customize their leagues."

Beyond the Sideline Football will reach Beta in about a year, with a shipping date sometime in 2015. The game will offer these features:

    A realistic modern day American football experience with all current rules and regulations.
    All 32 real American football teams with their real players and current rosters.
    A realistic 2D game engine that represents all the action on the field, with the ability to call plays and watch them unfold, complete with the roar of the crowd and other sound effects.
    You dictate the action on the field: Set depth charts and develop strategies around your preferred style of play.
    FaceGen support allows realistic images of all players.
    A complete box score for every game played in the league during its history, so you can always look back on thrilling victories and agonizing defeats.
    The ability to sim decades into the future and watch teams' fortunes rise and fall as dynasties emerge, crumble, and eventually renew themselves.
    You call the shots from the front office: Participate in the draft for your team every spring; trade players; and negotiate contracts with draft picks and free agents.
    All of the (non-playable) Division I colleges as well as many more, with real players, so you can draft the next crop of superstars every year.
    A living, breathing world full of news articles from around the league and a message system that lets you field offers from other GMs and hear what your players have to say.
    Complete histories, including stats, transactions, injuries, and contracts, for all players who have participated in a training camp during the past decade.
    Nearly 50 tracked stats, allowing you to go beyond the usual numbers and dig deep into players' performance.
    Each player features a Health Scan that lets you quickly assess their current situation by showing you which areas of their body are hurt, which areas are okay, and which ones are worn.
    Customization options, including the ability to change team names, the number of teams, the league structure, the league's country, and a variety of settings.
    Many benefits from utilizing the OOTP code base, like the user-friendly interface, online league support, HTML output, customizable text database and much more!

We know you're excited about this news, and we're ready to start receiving your questions and look forward to your feedback. Help us make the football management game you've always wanted!

Look for more information in the coming months, including additional features, screenshots, and more.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/bts-general-discussions/240265-story-beyond-sideline-football.html

Hello everyone!

Yes, the time has come. We're doing a football game.

About 2 years ago we decided to expand our product line as Sebastian (our iOOTP programmer) introduced us to his buddy Malte and told us about their hockey game, which they had been developing in their spare time - Franchise Hockey Manager. Now, the game was released a few months ago, and apart from a few hiccups and lessens learned, FHM is a big success for our company.

Early in October 2013, Andreas and I discussed why we shouldn't try the same approach with the most popular sport in the US, football. I personally enjoy watching football games on TV, but my knowledge about the sport is far from good, so I wouldn't be able to develop a good football game. But, sometimes in life things just fall right into place, and a couple of days after Andreas and I had the conversation, we found out that a very nice and clever English chap named Francis Cole, who is a lifelong football fan who I've known from my days working for Sports Interactive in London, has been developing his own little football game for about a year. And after talking for a few days in October, Francis agreed to join Out of the Park Developments and develop a football game with us.

The game is called Beyond the Sideline Football. Trust me, it was quite a ride until the whole team managed to agree on a name. And this is it. We feel that it is a good match for our product lineup and "BTS" sounds like a pretty tasty sandwich (in Daniela's humble opinion), and what can possibly be wrong with tasty sandwiches?

BTS will be based on the complete OOTP code base, which means that the GUI of BTS will be very similar to OOTP and that it will have all the great technical functionality that we've developed for OOTP in the past (FaceGen, online leagues, HTML output, text engine, storylines, world database etc.) and which are tested & verified to work quite okay, I guess.

Obviously, football is a different game than baseball, so the game flow will be a different too. After all, the teams just play one game per week, so there has to be stuff to keep you busy on the 6 days that you are not playing. But we'll talk about all that once we reveal more info in the coming months.

There is no scheduled release date. We will release the game once we feel it is rock solid and has a good set of features. Francis already had an impressive football code foundation with an awesome 2D engine and saves plenty of time because he will use parts of the OOTP code, but still it's way too early to make a good estimate on how long this whole project will take.

I am really excited. We are now covering three major sports and have a tremendous foundation for many years to come. Out of the Park Developments has a bright future ahead and all its games and fans will benefit from that. So, tell all your friends about Beyond the Sideline Football, it'll be a fun ride!

I think I'll have a beer (or two) and a Bratwurst sandwich tonight

[Grey Fox]

These games are way too expensive. Who do they think they are? Matrix?

[sbr]

$40 for the new version, and each older version reduced in price?
Doesn't sound very Matrix to me

[Syt]

The OOTP15 pre-order is $35, or €25. I don't mind paying that once a year for a product I like (even though I don't play it nearly as much as I used to).

If the price bothers you, OOTP usually goes on sale twice or so for 50% off - around the play offs, and then for Christmas, I think? So if you don't mind being behind a couple of months behind the release schedule (which actually means a patched product) that may be an option.

[Grey Fox]

FHM is 50$C + tax. That's too much money. They are exactly like matrix, as in they sell niche products for too much money.

But I know I'm spoiled by 4$ Humble Bundles & Steam/Gog sales that I have a really hard time considering buy any games for a price point of more than 10$.

[sbr]

Meh. If you want a niche product you have to pay for it. Small developers are not charities.

[The Minsky Moment]

There were rumors about this -- someone even guessed the name (from "BTS")

I don't think however that a game like this really works for football.  In baseball it is much easier to quantify individualized performance accurately and across multiple dimensions, and there has been many years of research on how players age and develop over time.  That really doesn't exist for football. 

I guess it could be entertaining as a game with a football themed premise as long as you don't get hung up on the realism.

IMO the pricing on OOTP baseball is reasonable.  An enormous amount of work is put in to create a highly customizable and complex sim.  It is constantly being refined and improved.  This is not Generic Shooter Part IV.  And they are not playing the DLC/price discrimination game. 

[Syt]

I don't know what role the lead dev of BTS played in Football Manager, but I think that experience is much more helpful for an American Football game than if an OOTP only dev moved over, so it should be interesting to see.

Front Office Football is still the reference in the genre, I guess, the efforts of games like Football Mogul or Professional Football Simulator notwithstanding.

[FunkMonk]

I never played OOTP because I hate baseball but if this turns into FM: NFL then I'll buy the shit outta this game.