The “manager” genre in sports video gaming has usually been a soccer thing. Manager titles are the PC games where you’re not on the sticks but you actually play as the general manager and simulating the building and management of a team, etc.
With the popularity of fantasy football and the fact that “moneyball” has gone mainstream, it’s not surprising that a video game developer would test the market with a PC based American football manager title…cue Beyond The Sideline Football.
BTS Football is being created by lead developer Francis Cole, who previously worked on Football Manager, one of the very popular soccer manager titles, so the team isn’t starting from complete scratch.
Upcoming features below (from press release):
- 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!
For more info on the game that will beta this year, visit their website.
[Joystiq]
