BTS Update - February 23rd
 

Hey folks,

let me officially introduce Michael Winter, the new lead developer of BTS Football. Michael lives near Berlin in Germany and is a lifelong fan of sports management game and a huge football fan, having lived in the US for several years rooting for the Packers. He has plenty of experience in the game industry, having worked for EA on their German soccer management games for example.

We are shooting for a Summer / Fall 2017 release date now, so we take our time to get everything right. BTS 1 will be based on OOTP 17 GUI code base and hence should remain solid and stable and focus on a realistic representation of the NFL. Things like colleges / highschool football, fictional leagues and advanced customizable features will be added throughout the years in later versions.

Alright, we'll keep you posted with monthly development updates. Michael will be active here in the forums from now on :)

Cheers,
MArkus

Thanks for the update Marcus.

Welcome to the show Michael Winter.

Really, really glad to see this.

I know the Summer/Fall 2017 release can seem pretty daunting, but for a game like this, the wait is more than worth it if the updates keep coming.

Good luck, we're all counting on you.

Welcome aboard and excited to see the final product when it is ready!

Good news! Good luck with the continued development!

Welcome Mr. Winter. Excited for the release of this.

Winter is coming...

Great to hear!

Better late than never! So excited for this game, knowing this is the same company that makes OOTP means it will be of the highest quality and keep on getting better.

Hello everybody,

thanks for welcoming me. Some months ago I came to this place as a potential customer. Just wanted to find out how the development was progressing. That's when I learned that OOTP Developments were looking for a new developer due to Francis' current health situation. I immediately thought they might be looking for me since I love these kind of games a lot and have been playing them for many years. So I contacted Markus and Andreas and we decided to work together on this fantastic project. Currently, I am evaluating Francis' code and I am also working on the player attribute system. We will keep you updated on a regular basis here in this forum. I'll also be around and more than happy to answer your questions and listen to your suggestions. Ok then, let's create a great game together!

Welcome, Michael!

Absolutely great news! Looking forward to the next year!

Thanks for the intro, Markus! Sounds like he has all the necessary credentials. The OOTP 17 GUI based code should result in a really fine finished product.

Great news. that means only one more year of Front Page Sports Football 97 for me !

We're in good hands fellas.

http://i.imgur.com/CQ9y43X.jpg

Titletown, baby!

Thank god he's not a Steelers fan!

I had to double-check that Michael Winter wasn't the same guy who made Maximum Football. Thankfully, that was David Winter, so I feel better now. ;)

Glad to hear it's not being rushed out and the strategy of quality over quantity of features for 1.0 remains. Looking forward to playing this! :-)

Same here.

from possible customer to developer, that's pretty cool, good luck

Welcome Michael. Looking forward your efforts!


Made me so happy I had to pay homage to what you have taken on for us lost souls!


http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps24pxtbap.png

Will this be a reboot? As in not built off of the original concept?

There won't be a reboot. We will continue with to work with the code base that Francis created.

This is fantastic news. Welcome Michael!

This is great news! Looking forward to getting my hands on this game. Welcome Michael!

:club:

Profile page for BTS Football has been updated. Beyond the Sideline BTS Football (PC, Mac) - NFL Manager

Welcome Michael!

Amen to that. Yes, I know I'm late, but welcome Michael!

Go Vikings!

Nice to see you on the boards already Mr. Winter. I am not sure if you ever played
XOR NFL Challenge from many years ago but many people would like to see
a game along those lines with updated rules, rosters, drafting, trading, etc.

Thanks, I'll check out this game.

Good News!!!

XOR is actually an amazing game when you take it's age into account!

Yup, XOR was addictive and exciting. I hope there's a way for Michael to see it. I guess it's, what, 25 years old? Hopefully there's at least a write-up about it somewhere.

I saw an image of the 'start screen' for BTS. I really like the fact that they're basing the interface on OOTP 17 code.

Well I googled it and found several references. This is one of them I looked at.


Download NFL Challenge - My Abandonware.

First, welcome to your new home! Second, if you need any kind of testing or thoughts, let me know. I'm a disabled vet stuck at home, so, other than writing a novel I am free. I love the baseball and have wished for American football. I'm a lifelong Packers fan wherever I have lived and got to go to "The Frozen Tundru" on a nice cold day a couple years ago (winning the NFC North vs. Detroit in the last regular season game). For "football" in the rest of the world my wife is a pro as she is from Brasil. lol

Game Pics
 

Quick question:

Will BTS have a facegen for fictional leagues similar to OOTP?

Yes, BTS will use facegen.

As corny as this is going to sound, I will ay it anyways. This just made my day. I have always wanted a football management sim with the features that OOTP has to offer. Welcome, Michael. I don't want to wish my life away, but summer 2017 can't get here fast enough.

Count me among the excited! If you can find any way to look at front page sports football pro from around 1997, that is another game that was close to the pinnacle for football simulation games!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Completely agree, so good I still play the 97 version.
Hopefully BTS will bump it aside for me.

those games (front page sports 94-97 at least) had 2 or 3 routes you could run that would always be open. you could average 20yards/attempt or more, if you wanted. it was almost as bad as tecmo super bowl '91 with bo jackson, et al, as far as putting up arcade-like stats.

The amazing part about the FPS games was that it was as enjoyable in coach mode than any joystick game. (And I play Madden, NCAA etc)

Gambo speaks the truth !

This sounds awesome! I'm just getting into OOTP 17 for the first time over the last month, and I've been obsessed with re-creating history with my Yankees franchise (always wished Shoeless Joe never got banned), and I was curious if I'd be able to do the same thing with this first iteration of BTS, i.e. create a true winner in the 90's with the Giants and prevent the Cowboys from succeeding at anything ever. I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I was just curious. Really excited about this, particularly the play calling aspect sounds awesome!

Historical stuff won't be in the game anytime soon because of all the rules changes that have happened over time.

This is all great news. I haven't been on the BTS forum for a while as I have immersed in OOTP17 but it is wonderful to have you aboard, Michael!

My favorite football game was the Lance Hafner football from way back in the day, very simple but enjoyable to play.

As a former play by play football announcer, it will be a joy to see the game develop and if help is needed, we are out here!

Welcome again!

Welcome aboard Michael Winter now we are seeing LIGHT at the end of the tunnel we have a lot of trust and hope in your work to give our modders and contributors to do their job to help us none modders like me but i see a long future in this project. Thank You And Welcome Aboard.

Plus a Packer Fan to Boot!!!! :thumbup1::thumbup1:

Really looking forward to Beyond The Sideline. If it's anything like OOTP 17 we're in for a great one. Would love to find Lance Haffner's 3 in 1 Football sim to play around with in the meantime.

I believe that, through the use of an emulator on your PC, you should be able to find a ROM to this game pretty easily.

There was also this thread, if you haven't seen it already, that talked about it.

OOTP Discussion Around Lance Haffner 3-in-1 Football