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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
# 1 DiscountCleric @ 01/30/14 03:14 PM
Sounds like I need to start saving my money.
 
# 2 shaikio @ 01/30/14 03:14 PM
Let this be real. OOTP is such a great game, and I have no doubt they'd make a great football sim.
 
# 3 poster @ 01/30/14 03:58 PM
Sounds awesome, and would be a great starting point for an annual installment of the game. Everything is pointing to it happening, so happy news for football fans.
 
# 4 Brandwin @ 01/30/14 04:04 PM
Sounds great. Now I just need a release date! Hopefully we don't have to wait until next football season.
 
# 5 johnnyg713 @ 01/30/14 04:08 PM
To make this game "all 32 teams" wouldn't they need licensing from the nfl.
 
# 6 Brandwin @ 01/30/14 04:13 PM
Those guys on the OOTP forums figured out the news and ran with it, all with just a blurb about enjoying the Super Bowl in the OOPT 15 newsletter. Hell, someone on the site even figured out the correct name.
 
# 7 yougo1000 @ 01/30/14 04:27 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyg713
To make this game "all 32 teams" wouldn't they need licensing from the nfl.
No because the NFL only owns the logos not the team names.
 
# 8 Benz87 @ 01/30/14 04:29 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyg713
To make this game "all 32 teams" wouldn't they need licensing from the nfl.
I don't believe so, OOTP does not have a license or claim any affiliation with the MLB. This is why the game does not contain any MLB logos or correct award titles when downloaded, not sure of the exact legality to this but I assume OOTP Developments would be able to produce an NFL based game with similarity.
 
# 9 Brandwin @ 01/30/14 04:51 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by FaceMask
What's really telling (if this is what they meant to put out to the public) is this:

All 32 real American football teams with their real players and current rosters.

There is only one real American Football league with 32 teams, and fake players aren't "real" players, and you wouldn't need "current rosters" for fake teams.

Something is going on here.
It's the same way for OOTP. They do not have the MLB license, but they have team names, correct MLB rosters with real players, even most of the minor league as well.
 
# 10 johnnyg713 @ 01/30/14 04:58 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Benz87
I don't believe so, OOTP does not have a license or claim any affiliation with the MLB. This is why the game does not contain any MLB logos or correct award titles when downloaded, not sure of the exact legality to this but I assume OOTP Developments would be able to produce an NFL based game with similarity.
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
 
# 11 Brandwin @ 01/30/14 05:17 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by FaceMask
Interesting.

So they have names like the Phillies, Astros, Yankees, etc? And they have players like Derek Jeter, A-Rod, etc in the game? Or is that all something you have to edit in?
Nope, all comes prepackaged with the game, except for team logos.

From the OOTP 15 announcement newsletter.

Quote:
2014 Opening Day Major League Roster Set

Our 2014 roster set includes all Opening Day major league team rosters, as well as the complete minor league system down to the rookie leagues. OOTP 15 also features the Venezuelan and Dominican summer leagues for the first time. All major league (and certain minor league) player ratings are based on Baseball Prospectus' industry-leading player forecasting system PECOTA. The thousands of remaining minor league players are carefully rated by hand by our established research team.
Will Clayton Kershaw maintain his level of excellence and justify his new mega-contract? Will Mike Trout continue his MVP-caliber play in his third full season? How will Masahiro Tanaka perform in the Big Apple?
Will your favorite team have the puzzle pieces it needs to contend for the pennant? Play OOTP 15 and find out!
 
# 12 tarek @ 01/30/14 07:03 PM
Okay, so this is some utterly amazing news. If confirmed I will be in total heaven. Between OOTP and football manager, I just need a better football and basketball GM text sim and i'm done.

To all those concerned about legality and such, it would such a poor sign of the times if a major body shut these types of efforts down. Customers and gamers LOVE these games, and the passion of the OOTP dev team shines through in ALL their games. It's small fish compared to the big console efforts so they should actually try to embrace this type of thing than get annoyed with it.
 
# 13 drewst18 @ 01/30/14 07:11 PM
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
It hasn't. There are a few NFL sims just not strong ones.

Pro Football Simulator
Front Office Football
Football Mogul

Text based simulation games use no player likeness so there is no copyright issues. Most of these games ship with City but different Team Names that take literally 30 seconds to edit. Full real life roster and the community usually has logos ready for launch.

If you were referring to Console type simulations like head coach those use player likeness.
 
# 14 Cryolemon @ 01/30/14 07:11 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Benz87
I don't believe so, OOTP does not have a license or claim any affiliation with the MLB. This is why the game does not contain any MLB logos or correct award titles when downloaded, not sure of the exact legality to this but I assume OOTP Developments would be able to produce an NFL based game with similarity.
The MLBPA lost a court case a while back, the upshot of which is that team names, player names, dates of birth, stats, etc don't need to be licensed. That's what OOTP Baseball uses. Logos, etc are a different issue, and aren't covered.

As for the actual topic, I really hope OOTPD are making a football game. If not I will continue to lobby for one lol.
 
# 15 BradOOTP @ 01/30/14 07:24 PM
What Cryolemon says is correct: MLB sued fantasy baseball sites a few years ago, but the court decision said that player names, stats, contract info, etc. is all public domain information. That means that not only are the fantasy baseball sites safe, but game publishers like us are in the clear too.
 
# 16 BradOOTP @ 01/30/14 07:26 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by dukebeatsuncagain
The feature list makes it sound pretty awesome. Reminds me of Front Page Sports Football games from years ago.

The video was quite pointless, but yes, this looks very interesting.
And hey, don't be too harsh on the video - my son and I had fun making it.
 
# 17 24 @ 01/30/14 07:29 PM
Any information on whether or not we can sim from past seasons? Would love to play as the mid 80's niners.
 
# 18 Cryolemon @ 01/30/14 07:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BradOOTP
What Cryolemon says is correct: MLB sued fantasy baseball sites a few years ago, but the court decision said that player names, stats, contract info, etc. is all public domain information. That means that not only are the fantasy baseball sites safe, but game publishers like us are in the clear too.
Thanks for confirming that. I was 99% sure that was the case.
 
# 19 poster @ 01/30/14 08:56 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by 24
Any information on whether or not we can sim from past seasons? Would love to play as the mid 80's niners.
That would be awesome, but after reading the feature list I got the feeling that it won't be an option. Hope I am incorrect. If not, I would assume it would make it in the future.
 
# 20 Culture Rot @ 01/30/14 09:12 PM
really bad name, but im excited for this
 

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