AFGM-->BTS (Francis Cole/OOTPDev Football Game Project)

[Marc Vaughan]

Fran is someone I've literally known for years, he used to work at SI and is a very passionate Football fan ... he wrote an (American) Football Sim at university which was sadly stolen (literally) when his place was burgled, he's currently writing a new sim and has started blogging about developing such a thing and I thought a fair few people here might be interested in it.

Football General Manager

[FLC28]

Hi,

I am Francis. I'd be delighted to answer any questions people have here, or any questions in the comments section in the blog.

I remember I used to have an account here many a year ago, but unfortunately I couldn't find it, so I created a new one

Francis

[EagleFan]

If it's an American football sim you might want to lose the word match.

[FLC28]

Thanks. The word "Match" isn't used anywhere in the game.
But not using it in the blog either is a good idea.

[DaddyTorgo]

Great news - it's not exactly SI writing one, but spiritually I suppose it'll be somewhat close!

[Eaglesfan27]

I will be following with great interest.

[FLC28]

Thank you Torgo.
If anyone wants me to write about a specific area in a future blog post let me know.

The next article I plan will be about the use of historical data in the game (e.g. want to know what transactions your team made on 23rd Oct 2008? No Problem)

[DaddyTorgo]

Where can I preorder (he asks, not even joking)?

[markprior22]

I'll be watching too. Best of luck!!

[FLC28]

If anyone is interested I have posted another update to the blog.
This post focuses on the (real life) historical data in the game:

Football GM | The Development of the 'Football GM' Game

Stats History - The stats the player has produced throughout his career up to the start point of the game.
Transaction History - Every transaction the player has been involved in.
Injury history - The player's past injuries.

As always, if anyone has any questions or comments I'll do my best to answer

Thank you.

[Apathetic Lurker]

The UI looks great but hows the engine coming along?

And yes, I will buy it.....

[Antmeister]

Okay I am very interested in this after seeing the blog, but I do have a question. Since you have taken the route to base the engine after player movements, is there still a good chance this will be a multiplayer game on its first iteration? And if this is the case, will this most likely mean to fast sim a game will take significantly longer to run? If you can nail the statistical engine first, that would make me excited for the other portions of the game. This and a good financial AI would be great. The other stuff would be icing.

[FLC28]

The game engine (which calculates) fixtures is coming along nicely.

It's at the stage where it produces realistic scores/stats etc.

However, what may take quite a few more weeks (worse case longer?) is that I need to make the AI much more intelligent when it is playing against the human.
As the user can call the plays (if you wish) is it possible to find a play or a combination of plays which produce significant yardage and keep doing that. I need to make the AI notice these trends, and counter act accordingly.

Other computer games (Madden was like this last time I played it) accomplished this task simply by making the defence (if you are on offence) psychic and "know" what play you have called so they can call the best defence. I don't wish FGM to be like that, ideally I want the opposition to look at your play calling trends and the situation and work out what to do that way, which is why it may take a while to code.

[FLC28]

Since you have taken the route to base the engine after player movements, is there still a good chance this will be a multiplayer game on its first iteration

Unfortunately multi-player will not be in the first version. However the underlying code supports it, so I would say in future versions it is very likely
I know that news will disappoint some, but unfortunately the time required to make it MP is too much at this time when I am still doing everything else.

And if this is the case, will this most likely mean to fast sim a game will take significantly longer to run

One fixture currently takes just under 2 seconds to calculate (depending on your computer obviously).
I hope to do a few things which may make it a touch quicker, though it's (unfortunately) probably never going to be at the stage where one year takes 2 mins or something like that.

There is currently an option to leave the computer to sim an entire regular season, and I'll add more options to sim the pre-season, post season, half a season etc when I get the time.

[fortheglory]

Will this be available on the mac platform?

[FLC28]

Not the first version, second one I'd say quite likely as I wrote it from the start with porting it to Mac in mind.

edit: My first task for that to happen is to buy a Mac

[SegRat]

Looking forward to this.

[BYU 14]

Very interesting. Has that old XOR look in a more modern presentation. If the game engine is as good as XOR with management features I would be VERY happy.

[Antmeister]

Originally Posted by FLC28

Unfortunately multi-player will not be in the first version. However the underlying code supports it, so I would say in future versions it is very likely
I know that news will disappoint some, but unfortunately the time required to make it MP is too much at this time when I am still doing everything else.

Not a disappointment in my view. I was just curious. I like this approach because if you can make a single player experience competitive, then that will drastically help with a multiplayer game further down the road. Okay you have me excited for another American sim on the market. Looking forward to the progress you make on this.

[Izulde]

I haven't read the blogs, but will the first version include expansion and/or customizable league sizes?

[FLC28]

Unfortunately not. My aim at the moment is to make it realistic as possible, so all the proper rules/regulations/teams/players etc.

I'll see in the future how much interest there is the fantasy side of it

[Sweed]

Thanks MarcV for posting this and FLC28 coming here to post updates. Very interested to see how this turns out.

[PilotMan]

OMGOMGOMG, I have literally been waiting for years for something like this! Certainly exciting, and I'll be there to support it too. Good Luck!

[Huckleberry]

I look forward to the college version.

Seriously. But also seriously, thank you for posting here.

[FLC28]

I look forward to the college version.

I've already thought extensively about that. IF (and we are not talking anytime soon) that happens I would (in an ideal world) like to make it the same game.
The only technical thing standing in the way would be if processing pro and college games would make the game too slow for the user to put up with.

[FBPro]

Really interested in this and will follow it closely, any idea when it will be ready for consumer use?

[Super Ugly]

Good luck!

[Julio Riddols]

I'll chime in to say 2 seconds a game sim speed is fine, IMO. Since a football season is only 17 weeks, sim times really aren't that big of a deal as long as we aren't sitting around for a minute per game or so. I'd gladly sit through the time it would take to sim college and pro if it were an option I could turn off a league startup depending on what kind of league I want to play.

Count me in the excited bunch. Things are getting good for football simmers.

[MizzouRah]

Interested... will be following!

[KWhit]

This looks great. I love the game presentation!

[Carman Bulldog]

Wow, that injury history really encapsulates what my vision has always been for a football sim. That right there has me really excited.

I'm looking forward to more posts, particularly about how the entire draft and ore-draft process works.

[jaygr]

Very much looking forward to this. Is there a general idea for a release time? Late this year? Sometime next year? Longer?

[FLC28]

If it's longer than sometime next year I'd be very disappointed!

I would hope that I can give you all at least some kind of demo or something to play with by Christmas (even if it's only being able to play the pre-season or something).

If anyone would like help test it at some point that would be great.

Thanks everyone.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by FLC28

If it's longer than sometime next year I'd be very disappointed!

I would hope that I can give you all at least some kind of demo or something to play with by Christmas (even if it's only being able to play the pre-season or something).

If anyone would like help test it at some point that would be great.

Thanks everyone.

In for testing (as I'm sure pretty much everyone here will be).

[MalcPow]

I will definitely be following. The smaller number of games in American football has always led me to believe it would be a fantastic fit for the general pace and flow of an FM-style game.

[MJ4H]

IN FOR TESTING

[digamma]

Completely agree.

Additionally, I've always kind of poo-pooed a combined pro/college environment, but the thought of it yesterday, in an FM type format, got me pretty excited. I realize it's a long way off, but I'll be watching.

[FBPro]

I'm in for testing as well.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Im in for testing....but more in for buying

[EagleFan]

I think there are a wealth of potential testers here.

Will be watching this as it progresses and hoping for the best.


(I still dream of an FM style football game, FBPro could have become that but sadly that is just a fond memory.... hard to believe it's been that long since FBPro already)

[Balldog]

Very interested in how this evolves

[Julio Riddols]

Would definitely help test this as well.

[MizzouRah]

Just want to say.. I REALLY like all of your ideas and the way the game is laid out!

[PilotMan]

Yeah, who wouldn't love to test this out? I know I would!

[FLC28]

A new (brief) article on the trouble between making the game as realistic as possible, and also making it fun for the user to play.

Football GM | The Development of the 'Football GM' Game

If anyone has any ideas for what they would like to read about in the future let me know. I'm not sure if I should go down a more technical route on how things are done or not.

Thanks everyone

[BYU 14]

Enjoying the articles and really looking forward to this.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Enjoying the articles and really looking forward to this.

+1

Sanchez needs a butt fumble stat.

[mtolson]

The videos and blogs are awesome. Count me in for any testing help needed.

[DaddyTorgo]

I can't believe the alpha engine - that's awesome. I hope you don't over-simplify injured reserve and contracts too much. There's no doubt a balance there.

I bet this is something where if it went up on kickstarter you'd be flooded - if you needed funds for additional resources/staff or whatever.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

you asked for suggestions on articles . I would be very interested to see how gameplanning is handled. also would be interested in league customizability and stat customizability ie can different eras be replicated and is it possible to win with vastly different offensive and defensive strategies. I gotta say, all of this is looking great! very excited to see more screenshots etc