Beyond The Sideline Football Preview
The managing simulation sports game is part of a fast growing genre that takes players off the field, court or rink, and puts them smack dab in the middle of a management role. From head coach to general manager to owner, fans give up directly impacting the outcome of the game as a player, but instead try and assemble the best team possible to lead their city to a championship while always dealing with the risk of being fired.
Games like Football (soccer) Manager from Sega, and Out of the Park Baseball and Franchise Hockey Manager from Out of the Park Developments have really helped the growth with the genre to a point where a number of fans are looking forward to the new installments of these games as opposed to the rehashed roster updates of games like Madden, NHL or MLB.
Knowing the rise of the genre with fans, Out of the Park Developments has decided throw its name into another hat with the addition of Beyond The Sideline Football to the lineup of text-based management simulations the company offers.
Being lead by lead developer Francis Cole, who has been developing football sims for the better part of the last decade, Beyond The Sideline Football is hoping to give fans the most realistic football simulation experience from the moment the game first launches.
“We are concentrating on a realistic NFL game, with all the real rules and regulations one would expect – however still with customization which will allow users to create their own fantasy league with fantasy teams,” Cole said.
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The game won’t have some features like historical seasons or a 3D environment that the much more polished big brother OOTP Baseball has, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to lack in the enjoyment factor.
The game will feature a 2D representation of a football game to help fans visualize the action as it happens on the field. It will also feature customization options that from simply realigning the current NFL, or creating your own brand new league with brand new teams. BTS Football will also feature online gameplay so players can get go toe-to-toe with friends as they battle for the league championship.
“They can create their own league and teams from scratch,” said Cole. “There are some limitations, though, such as you have to still keep the leagues fairly realistic. No 100 team divisions!”
Oh, and if you think that once a team is in place it can’t be moved, think again. The game will support relocation, and, potentially, even expansion.
“Though you are the general manager/head coach of the team – not the owner – so it may not be up to you if your team moves!” Cole exclaimed.
Unfortunately, Cole couldn’t go into too much more detail regarding the online leagues in BTS due to the developers still working on the mode, and figuring out the best way to run it.
Though non-playable, BTS Football will feature all of the Division I colleges. Cole is even hoping that, despite all of the player likeness lawsuits surrounding the NCAA and video games, real players will be installed into the game in order to give players the most realistic draft experience possible.
While there is nothing major in the form of new announcements on tap for the immediate future, Cole does believe that fans should see the first official screenshots from the game sooner rather than later.
BTS Football is expected to launch in 2015, and will be available on PC and Mac.
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