GM Games

The Grand Championship League (GCL) is an annual event that brings together 25-30 representatives from OOTP’s community of online leagues and throws them into a competition for bragging rights. I like to say it’s the World Cup of OOTP, without the vuvuzelas. Last year’s edition saw USBL down PATP in six games to win the […] View the full article

Every so often, we hear from someone prominent in the baseball world who loves OOTP. A few years ago, it was former pitcher Curt Schilling, who told us “there is no comparison to any sports sim I’ve ever played.” Just recently, it was Boston Red Sox principal owner John Henry, who wrote to us and said: […] View the full article

Yes, we have tons of great stuff in store for Out of the Park Baseball 16, leading off with an official MLB.com license that includes league and team logos, jerseys and ball caps, and historical MLB logos. OOTP 16 also features 2015 Opening Day rosters, new team owner goals, improved team finances, an upgraded manager […] View the full article

Top Eleven has fans from all around the world. Our fans live on different Continents, support different teams, and now we want to meet you!!! We want to dedicate our Instagram page to you, the fans. Send us in your favourite football pics that you have taken, and we will add it them to our Instagram page. Some ideas of the kind of pics we are looking for: • Wearing your team’s jersey • Playing football • A picture with a famous football celebrity • Inside your team’s football stadium • Your local team Pretty much any pic you have taken of yourself that is related to football. All you have to do is upload your pics below and we will add our favourites to our Top Eleven Instagram page. Upload your entry If you wish to upload more than one file, you may package several into a zip archive. Maximum file size is 7 MB. Allowed formats are .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, .tif and .zip. Name Email address Instagram username Facebook ID Image file I agree to upload terms and conditions The post Upload your FOOTIE PHOTOS! appeared first on Top Eleven - Be a Football Manager. View the full article

As GM Games continues to highlight the evolution of sports management games, there are certainly those who must be recognized for their contributions to where we are today. We plan over the next little while to compile exclusive conversations with influential people in the sports simulation industry. One of these integral people happen to be Risto Remes of Sports Interactive Games (SI Games). Here is a bit of background about who he is to those not familiar with him. Risto is originally from Finland and holds title of Senior Software Engineer at Sports Interactive. Home of the world famous Football Manager series. He has worked on every Football Manager product since Championship Manager 03/04. Prior to working with and at SI Games, Risto was the creator of a hockey simulator that would be known as Eastside Hockey Manager or EHM . EHM started off as independent freeware that became so successful and advanced that it caught the eyes of the programmers at Sports Interactive. Between 2002 and 2007, Risto was able to leverage SI Games and some of their proprietary code to advance the 2D game engine to new heights. Eastside Hockey Manager was a leap forward in hockey simulation and over time became one of the finest sports simulation algorithms ever produced. So much so that GM Games has enshrined Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 to the GM Games Hall of Fame Classics. User communities such a The Blue Line, FHockey, Thebreakaway all grew at a rapid rate and continue to have thriving user communities. Then, everything changed. The decision was made between SEGA, Sports Interactive, Risto, to stop the investment in EHM due to a lack of game sales. SI Games claims piracy was the leading reason. Users claim the marketing campaign and product name attributed to the overall downfall. In the end, too much of SI Games’ code lived in EHM and thus the franchise has been shelved ever since. Exclusive conversation with Risto Remes as of February 2015. I have (Chris V @ GM Games) remained in communication with Risto. Telling him about the flagship leagues we have put together to bring hockey sim realism to new heights. He has always been interested to know why the 2005 version has been the most popular for these reasons. Those conversations aside, we setup a formal conversation with him to find out how he’s been and there is even a very interesting footnote he leaves us with. [GM Games] Thanks for taking some time in your schedule to chat. Tell us a bit about your role now with SI Games? [Risto Remes] Since 2006, I’ve been working on the Football Manager project, initially working on finances and player progression and various other areas. Nowadays I’m mainly working on newgens, player progression, training, team talks and attendances with some other bits here and there. [GM Games] How rewarding was the Eastside Hockey Manager series to you? [Risto Remes] Making the three EHM games with SI was very rewarding. Working full time on a project that started out as a hobby project on the side of my studies was like a dream come true, especially as the football management games made by Sports Interactive had been the original inspiration to my own projects. [GM Games] What did EHM help bring to SI Games in terms of engine improvements or strategy? [Risto Remes] Having two different projects like the hockey game and the football game helped by feeding new ideas into both projects as some aspects of the games were approached from different angles in the two projects. Obviously coming to SI to work on EHM originally helped massively with that project as we benefitted from the management game code base and other technology already established at SI. [GM Games] What are your thoughts on the hockey simulations being made today on different platforms? [Risto Remes] It’s nice to see hockey games coming along on different platforms. I tend to play a bit on my mobile or tablet occasionally and we obviously have Football Manager Handheld for the mobile platforms at SI. I think sports management games in general are well suited for the mobile platform as something to play whilst on the train or on the bus. [GM Games] Now, the question we all want asked lol. Do you believe that the Steam platform has potential to revive the hockey series? Perhaps even re-branding from ‘Eastside’ to a generic title? [Risto Remes] I like Steam as a platform for distributing and playing games and it has worked well for us at SI for the Football Manager series. I’ve always maintained that I want to bring EHM back some day when the time is right and Steam would be something to obviously look into if that time comes. [GM Games] Wow. We’ll let those reading here interpret that last answer on their own. Maybe expect a busier e-mailbox Are there any sports you enjoy or games you would consider making in your free time? [Risto Remes] I still play floorball competitively in Finland and follow both football and hockey actively. I’ve been asked to do a Floorball Manager game occasionally but I haven’t seriously considered that so far… [GM Games] Thank you again for joining us. Finally, what are your thoughts on the website General Manager (GM) Games? [Risto Remes] I think internet communities are vital to smaller games, especially sports management games that don’t maybe get the mainstream coverage like the big sports games. Sites like GM Games are good for finding out about similar manager games in different sports and meeting other people enthusiastic about the genre. [GM Games] And that concludes the broadcast. The post Exclusive: Risto Remes (EHM) joins GM Games in conversation appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games. View the full article

Online versions of sports managers have been increasing in popularity in recent months. Although they will never be able to benefit being a member of Steam, they have the potential for very large user communities. This can lead to very fun multi-player experiences and often the games themselves may even be free. One of the most recent games to come around is Game Plan Hockey Manager. GM Games has agreed to participate in the growth of the support and user discussion around Game Plan Hockey Manager. The game’s creator, Anders Granberg has a strong web development background and a passion for making a great hockey experience. The combination of understanding web user interfaces and back-end development experience of the game engine will make this a project that many should keep an eye on. Here is an excerpt from Anders’ blog on the approach he took in creating this game: Stats. I love stats and can browse hockey databases for hours and hours. Most online hockey manager games that I’ve tried didn’t have a lot of stats, and if they did they didn’t play as important role in the game as I wanted.Realsim. I often missed that feeling of realism when I played a manager game, specially online. That made me tire quickly and most likely logout and never come back. With ”realistic feeling” I don´t mean the use of real player and team names. It was never an issue that I couldn’t play with my favourite team Ottawa Senators and sign Sidney Crosby to the team. What I´m looking for is much more subtle. I want to get the feeling that there is real persons behind the all the numbers and facts. I missed a game where the psychological values played an equal part to all the numbers.Details. Most manager games either lacked details or it quickly became obvious that the player details didn’t matter. Therefore I thought that if I should make my own game one day every detail shown in the game should matter, at least in some way.Game play. Who likes a random result? I often got the feeling that the game results was somewhat random. One game you lost the next game you won. It made me doubt that games wasn’t even played, just randomised results. I wanted to make sure that, in my future game, games actually was played shift by shift. The players on ice that instance should actually face each other, skill vs skill, tactic vs tactic.More can be read about his approach here: http://www.gameplanhockey.com/blog/why-another-hockey-manager-game Below GM Games caught up with Anders Granberg to ask him a few questions of our own: [GM Games] Where do you see the game evolving? [Anders] It would be easy to answer something like, I want the game to be the biggest game out there or I want to have 1 million registered users. But that’s not what I had in mind when I first started creating the prototype more than a year ago. I wanted to create a manager game that focused on the things that I loved about a great manager game. Things that I actually found very hard to find in most games out there. I wanted stats to be detailed, realistic and a big part of the game. I wanted to get the feeling that there was realsim behind player ratings and interactions. I wanted more than just a few ratings on the players and I wanted every detail to matter, everything from height/weight to contract happiness. Not least, I wanted games between teams to actually be simulated shift by shift with every little detail in play. So this is what I want to continue developing. One little bit at the time. I have so many ideas for new features but my first goal is to get the game out of the “prototype status” and to feel comfortable to release a stable version 1.0 [GM Games] Do you have plans to move beyond the default leagues? [Anders] Yes, I’ve always had plans for creating two sets of game worlds with different league styles. The current style can best be described as European influenced with team promotions and relegations. But I want to create another type of game world with more North American influenced leagues with affiliation teams, trades, drafts and so on. [GM Games] What games inspired you? [Anders] I’ve played manager games, mostly football (soccer) manager games, since the late 80’s, then on my Commodore 64 machine. I was hooked right from the start. It has been really exciting to see the games evolve in more than 25 years. Games today includes more and more graphics and video but I must say that I’d always preferred the text based games. The first great hockey game I tried was NHL 93 to SEGA. This was not a manager game but I remember to been blown away by the feeling to be able to play with a real NHL team and create my own lineup. It took until I tried Risto Remes early version of Eastside Hockey Manager before I found a hockey manager game that I really liked. [GM Games] How much effort do you see yourself putting in to this game? [Anders] This is actually a tough question to answer. The last year and a half I’ve put in several hours a week – every week. Being on my own it’s hard to find time for every feature or great idea you have. That’s why I’ve decided to first put out a prototype and let people try it out and provide feedback on what they think. So far the reception of the game have been much better than I’d anticipated. Many people out there have provided great feedback, suggestions and feature requests. For that I’m truly grateful. But to be honest, to put in even more effort I need to find a way to finance my hours and maybe in the long run create a whole team that can take the game to the next level. That sure would be a dream come true. We thank Anders for speaking with us. His game can be found here: http://gmgames.org/game-plan-hockey-manager/> You can speak directly with him at our forums, here: http://forums.gmgames.org/forum/280-game-plan-hockey-manager/ The post Interview with Anders Granberg of Game Plan Hockey Manager appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games. View the full article

We were as shocked as the rest of the baseball world when we heard during last fall’s championship series that St. Louis’s budding 22-year-old outfielder Oscar Taveras had died in a car accident. Our thoughts have remained with his friends and family in the Dominican Republic and throughout the baseball world. Unlike Thurman Munson, who […] View the full article

One of the newer simulation games to grab some attention is the release of Rugby Union Team Manager 2015. The game was released on Steam approximately 3 weeks ago and since then the reviews have been Mostly positive hovering around 72% The good news is there is another developer with a passion to put out great management experiences. It truly is one of the high point of sports management as the artificial intelligence (AI) continues to improve, the user interface (UI)’s get a treatment with the recent times and thus better and better sim’s are born. Here are the details of Rugby Union Team Manager 2015Rugby Union Team Manager immerses the player in the dynamic world of Rugby management. Allowing the player to battle their way through season after season; securing success both on and off the field. Pleasing the fans, and the star players whilst maintaining the backing of the boardroom. You are in complete control! Introducing a unique manangement systemFully integrated 2D/3D match engine that allows full interaction whilst matches are being played. Control your team from the touchline and issue orders on the go, as you turn the tide of the game in real-time. Choose from a 2D or 3D viewpoint. Adapt tactics, defence zones, attack moves and playing style, to break through your opponent’s lines. Build a winning teamChoose players from the best leagues and competitions around the world. Over 14,500 players, and over 320 playable teams to choose from. Build your backroom teamAssistants, Coaches, Agents, Physios, Doctors and Scouts. Balance team transfers and club investment to develop both aspects of your club. Improve your club facilitiesWith upgrades to the Stadium, Gymnasium, Training paddock, Kicking Enclosure, Physio Suite, Tactical Briefing Room, Colts and Academy Clubhouses. Take your game to the next levelManage International teams and test your skills with the very best in the Sport. Discover the superstars of the futureExplore the scouting network system to monitor and sign the best players. Utilise Agents and Scouts to negotiate the best deals for your club. We encourage everyone who has tried this to leave a user review and let everyone know what you think. The post Rugby simulation takes a leap forward with Rugby Union Team Manager 2015 appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games. View the full article

In time to come, when fellow managers, football fans, even your grandchildren ask where you were on this historic day, you will answer proudly: “I was there! I was there for the launch of Top Eleven 2015!” Today marks the most important update yet in Top Eleven’s history. Top Eleven 2015 brings a revolutionised modern design, new features, and provides the most seamless football management gaming experience out there. If you haven’t played Top Eleven before, then what a time to start! If you are already a loyal Top Eleven manager, then your star squad now has the graphics and stage it deserves. Don’t miss out on the chance to win those extra tokens, invite friends you believe have the desire needed to succeed in this cutthroat business and refer them now. With a global community of over 100 million registered players, you will enjoy all aspects of managing a soccer club; create and train your team, bid for talented players in the live transfer market and compete with other managers in League, Cup and Champions League fixtures. Join the Top Eleven 2015 army now, prove your worth and lead your club to immortality. Your destiny starts, restarts or continues now! Be the best manager you can be! Play Top Eleven 2015 now. Top Eleven 2015 – Your Questions Answered 1 – Why can I not see Top Eleven 2015 on the Web or in Facebook? Top Eleven 2015 is currently available on Android and iOS. But fear not desktop users, this historic day will come to your screens soon. 2 – Can I go back to the old version of Top Eleven on my mobile device? Top Eleven 2015 is our latest and greatest offering, as with all updates it is not backward compatible, and older versions of Top Eleven are no longer supported. 3 – Features are different, I am unsure of where to find things. Check out the in-game Help by clicking on “?” and our support page. 4 – I really like the game, how can I give feedback to make it even better? We love to hear your feedback so please let us know what you think, tweet @TopElevenHelp or contact us via our support. The post IT’S HERE: Top Eleven 2015 appeared first on Top Eleven - Be a Football Manager. View the full article

Yes, Out of the Park Baseball will enter its 16th year with something it has never had before: An official license from Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which covers MLB.com and MiLB (Minor League Baseball). OOTP 16, which is available for pre-order now at $34.99, will have AL, NL, and MLB logos, as well as […] View the full article

As per the OOTP Developments Blog update, there has been a major licensing announcement. Note: Sections of this press release are direct excerpts from the OOTP Newsletter entry. The 16th edition in the year 2016 will include all the branding from Major League Baseball Advanced Media. This association includes MLB.com and MiLB (Minor League Baseball). OOTP 16 will have AL, NL, and MLB logos, as well as logos for all MLB and MiLB teams, all MiLB leagues, and even all historical MLB teams. Markus Heinsohn (Lead Developer) Offers His ThoughtsStatements from the lead developer of OOTP 16 describe the journey to achieved the MLB license. “Getting OOTP officially licensed has been in the back of my mind for a long time,” he told me. “MLB.com has always known about us, and every so often they’d inquire about us getting a license, but it always seemed so daunting. We’re not a major game developer, with our own legal department and things like that.” He continued: “However, sales of OOTP have steadily grown the past few years, and we’ve gotten to the point where I could finally ask, ‘Well, what’s involved in getting a license?’ without fearing the dollar amount they would reply with. “As it turns out, they had pretty reasonable terms, and they were easy to work with, so one thing led to another last year. By the fall of 2014 we were hammering out a contract, and over the winter we’ve worked with them closely to get approvals for our initial round of marketing and PR, including the pre-order newsletter, the press release, the OOTP 16 logo, and other things.” Just before he told me he had to return to work, he added: “We’re also considering doing more around OOTP 16, depending on how the pre-orders shape up. That could include a bigger advertising push than we’ve ever done before, so we can reach more baseball fans who would love to run their own teams. We’ll see how it goes.” Features of the new OOTP 16 as per their Newsletter2015 Opening Day RostersBrand new 2015 roster sets include all Opening Day MLB rosters, as well as the complete minor league system down to the rookie leagues. 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 San Diego’s offseason frenzy pay dividends? Is this finally the year the Blue Jays return to the top of the American League East? Find out for yourself! New International and Independent Leagues AddedLast year, we introduced 7 international leagues in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Cuba, Italy and The Netherlands. This year, we added the Australian Baseball League to that list, along with several independent leagues in the US and Japan. All of those leagues feature real rosters, of course, with countless hours of work invested in researching realistic bio info, statistics and ratings for thousands of real players. New Team Owner GoalsReal-life GMs may not want smarter owners, but we think you’ll appreciate your new team owner, who won’t just tell you to go out there and win as many games as you can. Now he’ll give you short- and long-term goals, which may include: winning the World Series within X seasons; fixing a certain weakness on your roster; extending the contract of a star player; and much more. Your ability to meet those goals not only decides if you’ll be fired but also determines if your contract will be extended at a higher salary, which is another new feature this year. Improved Team Finances and ReportingWe have redesigned large chunks of the team finance system, including new season ticket sales, a team finances screen based on widgets, a new accounting screen, and much more. You’ll be better at the money-related part of your job than ever before. On top of that, we have recoded and improved the entire AI related to finances, resulting inmore realistic player contracts and negotiations and more stable long-term team finances. Completely Redesigned Manager and Coaches SystemOne of our favorite new features this year is the redesigned coaching model. Managers and coaches now have certain personalities and special skills or preferences, which will result in plenty of interesting choices. Do you want the manager of your team (if you decide to play GM-only) to be an easy-going stathead, or do you need a veteran hard-nosed manager who is able to cope with the disgruntled players in the clubhouse? Do you want a pitching coach who is an expert in working with power pitchers, or is your staff based more on control artists who could benefit from a coach who knows how to work with finesse pitchers? Recoded Team Strategy SystemYou spoke and we listened: We agreed that setting your team’s in-game strategy was a tedious task, so we’ve completely redesigned that part of the game. Now you can quickly set your preferred strategies and move on to more important matters. Beware, though: If you play GM-only, you’ll find that some managers won’t let you dictate certain strategies. Better Playoff CoverageThe race for playoff berths is the most exciting part of every baseball season, so we added a new Pennant Chase screen that displays the strength of the remaining schedule and the chance for each team to make the playoffs. We also improved the related news coverage. Who will win it all? Improved 3D Ball FlightLast year we introduced support for 3D stadiums and realistic 3D ball flight, which was a big step-up for the series. OOTP 16 improves on that 3D presentation and includes great-looking 3D models of all 30 MLB ballparks. Additional FeaturesOf course, that’s not all. Every year we offer many smaller features, and OOTP 16 is no exception. It includes: New play modes (Manager only, GM only, and GM + Manager), so you can decide exactly how you’d like to run your teamAn improved simulation engine that incorporates the latest research and trends, such as infield shifts and pitcher usageRainouts with automatic rescheduling, adding the realism that comes with rain-shortened and cancelled games. Is your bullpen strong enough to handle those late-season double-headers?Better in-game soundAn enhanced interface, such as a player info pop-up when resting the mouse pointer over a button which links to a player, or automatic syncing between lineups and depth charts when making changes to either of them.A great new Find-A-Player feature: Define certain criteria (ratings, stats, salary etc.) and find exactly the player you were looking forRecoded All-Star Game features with real voting (including online league support)Realistic OOTP Hall of Fame selection process, including simulated voting andnew stats like JAWS, HoF Standards, Black & Grey Ink TestsMore player awards, for example Most Valuable Player, Playoff Series MVPs, best hitters by position and Reliever of the YearBetter playoff history tracking, including career playoff stats for all real players in the database and playoff leaderboardsAlternate currencies (Euro, Pounds Sterling, Yen, etc.)The option to define background pictures for teams and leaguesPre-Sales InformationGM Games NOTE: We do not receive any royalties or affiliation from the sales of pre-orders or sales on Steam. This is for your reference. OOTP 16 offers many other new features, and you can pre-order it now through February 15 for just $34.99! Before we get to all the features, here are the pre-order details: Now through February 15, pre-order OOTP 16 for the special price of $34.99 and earn an entry in our best sweepstakes yet.*Three winners will each receive a $500 MLB.com Shop gift certificate, which can be redeemed without limitation, for example jerseys, caps, books, DVDs, and much more!** (You may also opt for a $500 Amazon gift card.)You’ll receive an additional free Steam key after release of the game.***Get the game three days before its official March release!We won’t be done with the giveaways after the price goes to $39.99 on February 16, though. Everyone who pre-orders between February 16th and three days before the official release in March will still receive a free OOTP 16 Steam key and get the game three days early.*** For the original Newsletter and Blog entry, it can be seen by going to: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/newsletters/nl0154/ The post OOTP 16 Features MLB.com, MiLB Licenses appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games. View the full article

We have taken note of a new Android based simulator from the team at ‘Blank Snow’. Basket Manager 2015, available free from the Play Store has been released to the public last. Here are some details and screens of an interesting new addition to the simulation genre. At the moment the game sits at “4.5 out of 5″ on Google Play based on 300+ votes. SummaryBasket Manager 2015 is a free game in which you take control of a basketball team in a professional league for several seasons. Build your own dynasty. You can do your lineup, transfer players, sign free agents, designate your stars and see the stats of all the players and teams. Use the draft to get new stars in the league. Our goal is not to make an ultra-realistic game, but a simple game that is easy to use and allows to feel the sensation of carrying a team to win a ring. This is the humble work of a couple of friends in his spare time. We don’t have the resources of big studios, but we do have tons of illusion. Keep this in mind when judging the game, please, and remember we will try to improve it from time to time, it’s a “continuous game”, not a finished one. The post Free Basket Manager 2015 arrives on Android appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games. View the full article

As per Brad Cook, of OOTP Developments summarizing the development progress of Sebastian Palkowski. Early summary from OOTP DevelopmentsOver the past several months, we copied and pasted every forum post about FHM 2014’s GUI into a file and reviewed it. We took every comment to heart and reworked the new game’s GUI based on the “flat” look used by OOTP 15. Our goal was a shinier game with less crowded screens. We’re happy with the work done so far, but we will continue to improve some of the screens, particularly the lines and tactics screens. We didn’t just want the GUI to look better — We wanted the game to be easier to navigate too. With that in mind, we rebuilt the navigation from the ground up, resulting in a larger upper area that doesn’t lose much space because we removed many of the rows of buttons, except the “Action” button and the buttons belonging to tables. The menus that you had to click to open have been replaced by a ribbon-style menu that always has the most important buttons, such as Team and League, available at all times. A few more notes before we get to the screenshots: We put Team and League in one menu that’s open most of the time, so you can reach nearly all the important screens with just one click. With the drop downs always available, it’s very easy to change teams and leagues. We also added small arrows that allow you to quickly go through all the teams or leagues in a specific country.The leagues in the selected country are the only ones shown, so the League menu is less crowded. A new World menu lists all the available leagues, as shown in the screenshot below.One News screen replaces the three previous ones, and it’s always available through the ribbon menu.A new Bookmark menu that’s also always available in the ribbon menu lets you bookmark screens, like in OOTP. You can access the first 11 bookmarks with the F2-F12 keys.When playing on a higher resolution, the white space in the tables, which was covered by the Name column in 2014, is now covered by all available columns. You’ll no longer have the Name column covering half your screen.We tried to make as many items clickable as we could, so the navigation is even easier to use.The History area was redesigned with an eye toward easy navigation. For example, you can now click on the draft information in a player page and go straight to that year’s draft list. A later Road to Release article will get into the History area in more detail.A future Road to Release article will also get into more detail about FaceGen, which, as we said, is still a work in progress.About Fictional LeaguesFictional leagues in 2014 never felt quite right. On one hand, FHM didn’t offer as many options as OOTP does, but on the other hand, there were enough options available that fictional leagues could be prone to crashes. We quickly discovered that the number of possible option combinations was large enough that we couldn’t anticipate all of them. So for 2015, we went back to the drawing board and redesigned the fictional mode from the ground up. We aimed for two goals: making it fun to play and keeping it as stable as possible. We looked at feedback on the forum and thought about what we’d like to see in a fictional hockey league. We decided that we wanted to let you create a small world to play in, since real life hockey is so complicated that we can’t give you numerous options for each aspect of an actual league (again with those pesky stability problems). With that in mind, we created a fictional mode that is centered around one default major league. If that’s all you want, great: You should be able to quickly run through the wizard and get started. The default league features an annual draft class with fresh fictional players, and every team has a reserve list, or you can set up a minor league to replace the reserve lists. You can also add a major junior league level, in which case those teams draft players and then the major league teams select from them later in an entry draft. If this isn’t the kind of fictional mode you were hoping for, please understand that it’s more important for us to deliver a rock solid game than to cram in a lot of options that only a small percentage of our customers want. If we can expand fictional mode in a later version of FHM, we will, but for now, we want to keep it simple. The post Update on the FHM2015 Dev Journey appeared first on GM Games - Sports General Manager Video Games. View the full article

Last month, we decided to turn to our loyal fans and see if you could help us come up with a promotional tagline that would sum up our company as the publisher of great sports management games. Over 250 of you sent in entries, and many of them had multiple suggestions (one person sent us […] View the full article

Nordeus is looking for experienced hands-on Community Manager to join our Top Eleven team and help us establish, cultivate and grow the Top Eleven – Be a Football Manager active community and build transparent and interactive communication with our players. Community Manager is responsible for developing and executing strategy to engage users across the globe. Responsibilities: Creating and engaging loyal Top Eleven community across the globeClosely communicating with the community to inform them about future game updates, current statuses, listen to their feedback and taking that feedback to the product teamUtilization of our social media channelsHiring gamemasters that will further spread Top Eleven knowledge to the communityEvent planning and execution in cooperation with product and publishing teams – both online and offline eventsBe part of the Top Eleven development team and collaborate within the team in order to define game improvements by providing users’ feedback and your own expertiseConstant issue reporting to the product team in order to solve our users’ problemsClose collaboration with Publishing and Social Media teamsAdministration of Top Eleven forum – lead forum administration, hire moderators, set rules, create engaging content, etc.Stay up to date with the game industry and what is going on in a community management fieldRequirements: 1+ years of experience in working with communities (online and offline) – social media, forums, event managementKnowledge of Social Media, PR and Marketing, collaboration with mediaLOVE for video games and video games knowledge (especially Football Management games) and have a passion for footballCreative thinking, multitasking, threat detection, “getting under the skin” of our community, appealing to our player baseFluent in EnglishGreat verbal and communication skillsExcellent time management, organizational and analytical skillsPluses: Highly creative — everyone here designs the games we makeHave “get a things done” attitude!Being a team player in a dynamic and iterative environmentSounds interesting for you? Send us your up-to-date CV and cover letter explaining why you believe that you are a match together with some samples of your work in online communities! The post Top eleven – Be a Community Manager appeared first on Top Eleven - Be a Football Manager. View the full article

It was a late night for your humble webmaster, as I went through the first major server upgrade. Those of you night owls probably noticed the site was down from about 11 PM to 2 AM Pacific Time. The good news is the migration was a success, and I have noticed the site running a lot smoother and faster in general today.The plan is to monitor this upgrade until our second server expires in April and see how much improvement we're actually getting. Then once April arrives, make a decision on how to upgrade the second server. Another exciting piece of news is that I'll be working with a designer this week to freshen up the mobile app! It's exciting to be able to start putting some of the reserve funds back into the website for you guys!Appreciate all the feedback you have given to let me know how things are going. View the full article

Please note, this was written last summer, but I have decided to post this as a great example for newbies on what it takes to manage a team through a season on Pennant Chase, no matter what sort of luck you have in the Auto Draft... and I think veterans of PC will find it an interesting read as well...Journal of drafting lastA while back, someone emailed me and complained there were “no good players left” in a Mid-Century Auto League. I checked the league, and although 10 teams had already drafted, there were still 18 hitters batting .340 or better (which is great for a Mid-Century league) , there were 18 players left with over 30 homers (plenty of power available!) and there were nine starting pitchers with WHIPs under 1.00. In total, there were two pages worth of free agents hitting over .300! His claim was ridiculous – there was plenty of talent remaining. The problem lies in folks not knowing how to compete when you draft toward the end. A lot of people complain about drafting last in a league. I am keeping this journal to document my experience drafting last in Auto League 35, All-Time Greats. I have one title in this league, but forgot to re-draft and was booted from the league. I rejoined the league last and ironically got my original team back. The Auto DraftRight off the bat, I had some good pitchers to choose from. The best offered were Bob Gibson and Jack Chesbro. You can’t go wrong with either guy - they have nearly identical career ERAs in the league, but Gibson has an edge in strikeouts and on fire, so he’s the obvious choice for me. I also ended up with Jack Coombs, who I always find to be an interesting pick – some years he can be great, other years he just sucks thanks to that high BB/9 ratio. I figure if he struggles, I can move him into slump buster where he can be pretty effective. The rest of my rotation is garbage, and I was sandbagging a bit by picking Loazia, hoping the weaker player would boost my Supplemental Draft position. The rotation I ended up with:Bob GibsonJack CoombsKevin BrownMike CuellarEsteban LoaziaI know I can’t win with that rotation, so I’ll need help in the Supplemental Draft and free agency if possible. I also know I’ll need a strong pen so I can set some of my crappy starters to be pulled before their pitch count – I want them off the field as soon as possible.My bullpen:JJ PutzAndre BaileyBobby JenksDamaso MarteLee SmithAgain, I may have been sandbagging a bit here (which is a perfectly fine strategy) so that my bullpen doesn’t hurt my supplemental draft ranking. I could have had better pitchers than Lee Smith and Damaso Marte, but there are so many good relievers in All Time Greats leagues that I know I can eventually swap them out in free agency. And Putz and Bailey are plenty good enough to give me strength out of the pen.My lineup was a struggle. I landed Sam Crawford in the OF, who has speed and a high average. I got Luis Castillo at 2B, who I am fine with due to his speed and switch-hitting ability. I also got Smokey Burgess at C, who should do fine. At 3B I reached for Tony Fernandez, hoping his high OBP would make him somewhat of a contributor. I landed Joe Sewell at SS, but I then picked Omar Vizquel later because I hate Sewell’s low FLD PCT at SS, where he makes a lot of errors. Vizquel also provides speed and switch-hitting. I can tell this team will be bunting a lot.An interesting selection was Ken Williams in the OF. He is a .357 hitter with 29 homers. My hope is I can Slump Bust him, turning him into an elite-level player to combine with whatever stars I am able to acquire in the draft. These are the sorts of things you have to bank on when you have a lousy Auto Draft.Supplemental DraftI ranked sixth for the supplemental draft, which means the CPU thinks there are six teams worse than mine. I can only suspect Gibson and some of the high averages I drafted bumped me up, in addition to the speed I acquired. I also picked up Jim Edmonds who has 40+ homers. At any rate, this goes to show that drafting last doesn’t mean you start as the worst team in the league.I really screwed up my draft rankings. I got lazy and left Babe Ruth ranked fourth, thinking there was no way I would get him anyway with the sixth pick. But as it turned out, several teams above me failed to participate in the draft, moving me up to third! Here are the results:Round 1Nittany Lions: Barry BondsRustlers: Ty CobbKermits: Lou GehrigDodgers: Babe RuthSox: Wade BoggsWunderkinds: Nap LajoieDragons: Todd HeltonHellcats: George BrettRound 2Nittany Lions: Jack ChesbroRustlers: George McQuillanKermits: George SislerDodgers: Mike ScottSox: Greg MadduxWunderkinds: Mordecai BrownDragons: Norm CashHellcats: Nolan RyanRound 3Nittany Lions: Jeff KentRustlers: Frank TananaKermits: Christy MathewsonDodgers: Clayton KershawSox: Dennis EckersleyWunderkinds: Jonathan PapelbonDragons: Joe DiMaggioHellcats: Chipper JonesI am pretty happy with the results. Landing Mathewson with my third pick was huge. I badly needed another ace to tag with Gibson because my lineup is lacking power. Gehrig was great to get, but I could have had Ruth had I not been lazy and moved him up my rankings. Now Sisler has to play DH. Still, Gehrig and Sisler vastly improve my lineup.All is not lost. I was the third team to hit free agency as soon as it opened after the supplemental draft. I added Harry Heilmann and Cy Seymour to my outfield. But since I want to stick with my plan for Ken Williams, I am going to platoon Heilmann and Seymour, letting Heilmann hit lefties while Seymour hits righties. With Crawford, Sisler, Seymour/Heilmann, Gehrig and Williams, I have 5 really great hitters in my lineup (although certainly lacking some power). Burgess, Castillo, Vizquel and Fernandez round out my lineup.Team StrategyI have five players with 8 speed or better. I want to use that to my advantage. I am going to steal them at a 70% clip (although I will shut down the run game against strong-arm catchers). I am also going to let the entire bottom of my lineup sacrifice bunt and crank that up, hoping we can manufacture runs. My goal is to put Coombs and Williams into Slump Buster, hoping to transform them from mid-level players to elite players. I have set Kenny Lofton (.993 FLD) as my only defense sub, who will be a nice upgrade in close games.The Season BeginsI started 1-2 in the first three games (pre-Supplemental Draft), with Gibson throwing a shutout, and my team getting shutout twice. My first game after the draft, Mathewson was able to pitch and win 6-2. My free agent pickup Heilmann delivered a huge three-RBI triple. Despite Sisler and Gehrig going hitless, my moves paid off quickly.After six games (when drops are turned on and free agency opens in full) my team was 2-4. Kevin Brown got rocked in his first start and Bobby Jenks is sucking out of the pen. Time to hit free agency. I picked up Cy Young (0.89 WHIP) and Claude Hendrix (6.5 H/9). If my plan to slump bust Coombs doesn’t work, I could slump bust one of these new starters. I have used that for Hendrix before and he becomes a pretty great pitcher. Per my plan, I upgraded my pen. Lee Smith and Bobby Jenks are gone, Keith Foulke and Octavio Dotel are in. My pen is now loaded with low WHIP, high K/9 guys. I now feel this team should be competitive once I can put a couple players into slump buster.Slump BusterDue to a vacation, I unfortunately missed about 10 games where I could have leveraged Slump Buster. On Day 28, my team is 13-15. (Usually you can leverage Slump Buster by about Day 15.) As planned, Jack Coombs is my eligible pitcher. Ken Williams is not eligible, which is both good and bad. I was hoping to turn him into a stud, but he’s doing well enough without Slump Buster which is okay too. Omar Vizquel is my only eligible hitter.Losing StreakSlump buster doesn’t pay off right away. A six-game losing streak puts my team at 16-22. I am scratching my head. I know we’re better than this. George Sisler is only hitting .222, which is hurting. We also rank DEAD LAST in homeruns. I knew we would not have a lot of power, which seems to be hurting. Cy Young and Claude Hendrix have been awful at the bottom of the rotation. (On the bright side, we rank third in the league in hitting with a .272 team average.)Keith Foulke, for whatever reason, is getting rocked out of the pen. Time to check on free agents. There are still amazing relief pitchers out there. I decide to try an upgrade, adding Jon Broxton and Mark Eichhorn, sending Foulke and Damaso Marte down to the minors.As for starting pitching, there’s not much better than what I have. I could try John Tudor or Guy “Doc” White, but I don’t see how that’s going to be better than Young or Hendrix. I start checking out other teams, especially the Wunderkinds, who are running away with our division. (They are run by the very talented user rfb60609.) They have a pretty good lineup, with Rogers Hornsby, Nap Lajoie, Arky Vaughan, John McGraw, Frank Thomas and Larry Walker. But I am not blown away by their pitching. Pedro Martinez is the ace, but the rest of the rotation is just okay. I know we can compete. We have Gibson and Mathewson and now Jack Coombs in slump buster. That’s a great rotation, even if our lineup is not as good.I debate moving Jim Edmonds into the lineup to add power, but I decide against it. I am sticking to my guns with a scrappy lineup that can run.Winning StreakSince the six-game losing streak, we are 15-3, including an eight-game winning streak. We have moved into second place, three games behind the Wunderkinds, and six games out of the wild card. This is going to be a dog-fight, but at least we are in it. We still rank last in homers, but we moved to second in hitting (.275). We are middle of the pack in runs scored. Our team ERA is much better – we have moved up to fifth from ninth. Broxton and Eichhorn are doing great out of the pen. Since being Slump Busted, Coombs is 3-2. Not amazing, but we’re getting more quality starts from him. In his three wins, he went at least eight innings. Cy Young has lowered his ERA to 4.24 from a high of 6.43 and has won his last four games. TweaksGeorge McQuillan was recently dropped, so I picked him up and gave him Cy Young’s #5 spot in the rotation. I also moved Claude Hendrix to slump buster and moved him to the #3 starter. In addition, I placed George Sisler in slump buster. Normally, I don’t like placing an already-great hitter into slump buster, but Sisler has been brutal, and he’s batting third in my lineup, which is just killing me. We don’t have enough pop in the lineup to survive with a slumping #3 hitter. After moving Sisler, his average jumped from .219 to .248 in just 15 games. He has hit safely in 12 of those 15 games!Mid SeasonAfter 81 games, the Kermits are 45-36, just one game behind the Wunderkinds. My team is 8 games out of the wild card. Gehrig and Gibson were my two All-Stars. The Wild Card looks like a long shot. But it seems clear we should be involved in a thrilling battle for the division in the second half.Kermits Fall One Game ShortAfter a crazy race in the second half, the Kermits fell one game behind the Wunderkinds. We were actually ahead most of the second half. We finished just two games behind the wild card! It proved my theory that the teams ahead of us weren’t that much better than my team. Had I been on the ball in terms of getting my slump buster players in order, I may have won that one extra game to get me in the playoffs.But all in all, I think this has been a great use case to show how drafting last in an Auto League is in no way a death sentence, and as a matter of fact you can put together a playoff team, or even a champion. View the full article

The Professional Football Simulator winter updates have been released. Over the last 4 months we’ve had 4 releases with several updates and feature enhancements. Major features include 2014 rosters, sliders to fine-tune your league to replicate various eras, new league formats, and new settings for playcalling tempo. 2014 RostersSliders to adjust rushing/passing yardage (BETA)Adjustments to DB AI for coverageAdjustments to DB Interception logicAdjustments to DB Blitz logicAdjustments to reduce long scoring plays to NFL norms2 New League formats to cover gaps in NFL historyAdded additional Passing Stats to stat screens in gameUpdated AI and late game logicNew playcalling strategy: TempoDownload Link: http://www.barcodegames.com/download/ Forum Link: http://www.barcodegames.com/Forum/ The post Pro Football Simulator Winter Update appeared first on Barcode Games. View the full article

1:43 PM Pacific time, 1/12/15: We’re no longer accepting entries for this contest. We received hundreds of submissions and thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts! Today we unveiled Beyond the Sideline Football’s logo and start screen. As our stable of sports management games grows, we realized that we need a great tagline to […] View the full article

We hope you’ve heard about our next game, Beyond the Sideline (BTS) Football, which will ship sometime in 2015. We announced it in a newsletter at the beginning of the year and teased it in this fun video that I filmed and edited (yes, that’s my son running into me; he’s wearing his older brother’s […] View the full article