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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
# 61 BadAssHskr @ 04/01/15 12:00 PM
just somehow stumbled across this game today while looking at pc gams, as i sit here deciding weather or not to hit submit on a laptop i've had in my amazon shopping cart for the past 2 days.

assuming this is still a go? i've never heard anything but great from ootp baseball, this game has to be exactly what i've been waiting for.
 
# 62 aholbert32 @ 04/01/15 12:50 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BadAssHskr
just somehow stumbled across this game today while looking at pc gams, as i sit here deciding weather or not to hit submit on a laptop i've had in my amazon shopping cart for the past 2 days.

assuming this is still a go? i've never heard anything but great from ootp baseball, this game has to be exactly what i've been waiting for.
Yeah but probably will be released closer to football season if not after its started.
 
# 63 R1zzo23 @ 04/01/15 06:11 PM
Can't wait for this game. As long as it is capable of online leagues it will probably be my favorite sim game regardless of any bugs it will have. I've been waiting for a new football sim for so long.
 
# 64 mestevo @ 04/01/15 06:55 PM
I glanced at their forum earlier and the few questions about online with friends went unanswered, and they look like they're running behind after originally saying they wanted to be in beta this past January.
 
# 65 R1zzo23 @ 04/02/15 08:48 AM
After the way FHM was released and was a mess I'm sure they are going to make sure that when this releases it is as playable as possible without tons of bugs. They originally said release date was 2015. I don't see it coming out any time before September but I'll assume it will be closer to November or December.
 
# 66 aholbert32 @ 05/20/15 04:28 PM
Bad news about this game and its creator's health:

We know there have been questions about the current state of Beyond the Sideline Football’s development, given Francis’s lack of involvement on the forums in recent weeks.

Unfortunately, Francis has suffered a severe stroke several weeks ago that has left him unable to work on the game for now. We've been communicating with his family, and agreed that any announcement should wait until his recovery path was a little clearer. He is now in the very early weeks of his recovery, and BTS development is temporarily on hold while we discuss our future plans.

We ask that everyone respect Francis’s privacy and not inquire about his situation. We also cannot answer any questions about when BTS v1 will be released, nor any other details about the development plans. Please be patient until we are ready to make another announcement. We understand that all of you are very excited about the game, and so are we, but Francis’s health comes first. Thank you.

Francis does monitor the forums, though. He currently cannot respond, but he will see and read your posts.
__________________
 
# 67 LingeringRegime @ 05/20/15 05:13 PM
Puts everything in perspective.

All the best to Francis and his family.
 
# 68 Perceptor @ 05/20/15 06:47 PM
All the best to Francis and his family.
 
# 69 BradOOTP @ 05/21/15 12:36 PM
Thanks, all. It's been tough for Francis and the whole OOTP team is pulling for him.
 
# 70 gr18 @ 05/25/15 09:40 AM
As many of us are excited for the game,Francis certainly should take as long as he needs to.
 


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