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Beyond the Sideline Football News Post



Rumors are swirling over a new football game being made by the team over at Out of the Park Developments. The same team that makes the popular Out of the Park Baseball series.

Take this for what it's worth, but someone has sent us what seems to be the feature list for Beyond the Sideline Football with a teaser trailer to go along with it.

Below is the text from the email that was sent to us.

Quote:
I am someone who works at the concessions stand at our indoor replica of Fenway Park. I snuck this teaser and feature list out of our spacious 10-story office building and want to give it to you.

I risked my job getting this video to you guys, but I wanted to blow the lid off this thing. I’ve been overlooked for a promotion for way too long. It’s payback time. Now if you’ll excuse me, Markus is waiting for his usual Bratwurst sandwich, so I need to get back to work.

Beyond the Sideline Football 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 2D 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.
  • FaceGen support allows realistic images of all players.
  • You dictate the action on the field: Set depth charts and develop strategies around your preferred style of play.
  • 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.
  • A realistic sim engine whose creation was informed by 15 years of experience developing OOTP's sim engine
  • 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.
  • A clear, clean interface that lets you easily find the information you need.
  • 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.
UPDATE: It is official, press release below.

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!

Beyond the Sideline Football screenshot gallery - Click to view
Game: Beyond the Sideline FootballHype Score: 10/10 - Vote Now
Platform: Mac / PCVotes for game: 2 - View All
Beyond the Sideline Football Videos
Member Comments
# 21 teampunjabi @ 01/30/14 09:43 PM
Words cant even describe how excited I am for this. If this is true OOTP is making a smart move to capitalize on the NFL.

Yes I agree the name needs some work haha, it sounds like some weird version of backyard football.
 
# 22 Brandwin @ 01/30/14 09:58 PM
Beyond The Sideline works for me. Just like Out of The Park for baseball.
 
# 23 conception @ 01/30/14 10:01 PM
If this is true (and it really does seem as if the OOTP folks have somewhat confirmed these things) then it really does seem too good to be true. How could it be that in the span of a week, we found out that OOTP is setting up the first real building block for graphics down the road, and yet at the same time find out a football game is being made?
 
# 24 jsl05 @ 01/30/14 10:17 PM
I never played Outside of the Park, so what type of game is this?
 
# 25 conception @ 01/30/14 10:51 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsl05
I never played Outside of the Park, so what type of game is this?
It's a sports management sim where you don't play out the games with a controller but instead your primary focus is the assembly of the team's talent. OOTP is very detailed, very refined, and the developers are both accessible and dedicated to delivering a quality product. Not only does the game work great, and look great as well in its menus despite not having graphics, but it offers a level of customization that is simply astounding. The flexibility of the program is unbelievable, to the point where it can be confusing at first, but incredibly rewarding later.

I first played OOTP in 2007, and while it took me awhile to get used to the wealth of pages available and figure out where the meat was at, I've played it non-stop since first buying it. All the games are backwards compatible, so I've had leagues that I've played for (real-life) years and years.

Some claim that Football Manager is tops in this field (and it has more of a market because of the worldwide prevalence of soccer), but OOTP and it leave competitors in the dust in the market of sports management.
 
# 26 Brandwin @ 01/30/14 11:17 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by conception
If this is true (and it really does seem as if the OOTP folks have somewhat confirmed these things) then it really does seem too good to be true. How could it be that in the span of a week, we found out that OOTP is setting up the first real building block for graphics down the road, and yet at the same time find out a football game is being made?


Well apparently the game had been in the works for months by someone. I'm guessing OOTP guys swooped in and partnered up with him.

This was the blog
http://footballgeneralmanager.wordpress.com/

This is a link to FOF Central forums that talks about it.

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=87622
 
# 27 dman08 @ 01/30/14 11:47 PM
To the developer will this be pc only or any chance of a ps4 version of the game.
 
# 28 ripwalk @ 01/31/14 12:04 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman08
To the developer will this be pc only or any chance of a ps4 version of the game.
I am not the developer, but I can say there will without a doubt not be a PS4 version.
 
# 29 JohnDoe8865 @ 01/31/14 01:03 AM
This is GREAT news!!!
 
# 30 LeBlonde James @ 01/31/14 09:43 AM
They got Wes Welker to be in the teaser, so I think this is pretty legit.
 
# 31 aholbert32 @ 01/31/14 09:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyg713
I see your point, I'm just confused because this whole time logos are the only reason other publishers don't put out nfl sims? If it's okay to use team names and team rosters that replicate the nfl legally, I don't understand why a game like this took 10 years to make
The logos and the team names are owned by the NFL. Both are considered marks owned by the nfl. More likely than not, BTS will feature a Dallas team with silver and blue colors and give you the ability to add the logo and change the team nickname.
 
# 32 LingeringRegime @ 01/31/14 04:21 PM
For some reason my earlier post disappeared.

In light of the Madden/NFL exclusivity deal this is tremendous news indeed.
 
# 33 jvalverde88 @ 01/31/14 05:29 PM
Once I read "previously worked on Football Manager" I got more hyped for this game. Not only will I spend my money on OOTP but this too:

 
# 34 ubernoob @ 01/31/14 08:45 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jvalverde88
Once I read "previously worked on Football Manager" I got more hyped for this game. Not only will I spend my money on OOTP but this too:

Let's just hope the game is slanted more towards the FM side than OOTP side, in terms of interface and everything.

I'm sure it won't be, though.
 
# 35 drog1602 @ 02/01/14 09:03 AM
This is fantastic news! I hope they are working on an NHL game as well
 
# 36 Francis Cole @ 02/01/14 09:06 AM
Quote:
Let's just hope the game is slanted more towards the FM side than OOTP side, in terms of interface and everything.
Aside from interface, how else would you like it to be more towards than FM than OOTP?
 
# 37 tbennett54 @ 02/01/14 09:57 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by drog1602
This is fantastic news! I hope they are working on an NHL game
Here you go. http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/fran...ockey-manager/
 
# 38 ubernoob @ 02/01/14 08:16 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Francis Cole
Aside from interface, how else would you like it to be more towards than FM than OOTP?
I always felt that FM did the attributes better. OOTP is a fantastic game, but it has an "unpolished" feel to it almost.

The weighting you can give to ratings, players being able to go above their "max rating" and have that reflected, progression/regression seemed quite random... and that's without touching the "scouting system" they had in place (which for the last... I don't even know how many years) most people played with it turned off or set to 100% accurate. It all just seemed a bit too random.

The handling of players/ratings/resulting statistics in FM seems leaps and years better than OOTP. However, especially if BTS is going to be able to sim past seasons in the future, OOTP's league-wide stat modifiers is amazing. They get major kudos for implementing something like that. I wouldn't want to start a season in the 1950s/60s and see QBs throwing for 4,000+ yards.
 
# 39 Francis Cole @ 02/02/14 05:29 AM
Thank you. Most of these things I'm aware of and will be looking at improving them all
 
# 40 MarkusOOTP @ 02/02/14 06:05 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ubernoob
I always felt that FM did the attributes better. OOTP is a fantastic game, but it has an "unpolished" feel to it almost.

The weighting you can give to ratings, players being able to go above their "max rating" and have that reflected, progression/regression seemed quite random... and that's without touching the "scouting system" they had in place (which for the last... I don't even know how many years) most people played with it turned off or set to 100% accurate. It all just seemed a bit too random.

The handling of players/ratings/resulting statistics in FM seems leaps and years better than OOTP. However, especially if BTS is going to be able to sim past seasons in the future, OOTP's league-wide stat modifiers is amazing. They get major kudos for implementing something like that. I wouldn't want to start a season in the 1950s/60s and see QBs throwing for 4,000+ yards.
I need to comment on this The player ratings development in OOTP is probably the most realistic part of the whole game, it matches real life extremely well. Also, scouting has been worked on the past couple of versions and now has the balance that most people seem to prefer.

I do not know what you exactly mean with "players/ratings/resulting statistics", but simulation results is something where OOTP definitely shines. Also, you cannot compare FM to OOTP in this regards, in OOTP most ratings directly relate to resulting stats, which in FM is not the case because of the nature of the sport.
 


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