Scott Andes: From the dugout with Mike Scioscia to talking baseball with Orel Hershiser

July 27, 2018 by OOTP Staff

Yes, that’s former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher and current LA Angels manager Mike Scioscia between two smiling kids. That photo was snapped in 1990, and the kid on the left is Scott Andes, who went on to become such a respected blogger that he was able to earn press credentials and meet and interview many Dodger players and other luminaries.

Of course, Andes’ love of baseball also led to his discovery of Out of the Park Baseball in 2016, when he launched his newest site, LA Dodger Report. He recalls: “I played OOTP because I love simulated baseball games that are realistic where you can begin a campaign/season and build your own roster.

“OOTP was one of the most if not the most realistic computer simulated baseball games I have ever played. It gets pretty addicting especially when you get deep into the season. You can make trades, sign players, build and tweak your roster and the game play is fantastic.”

OOTP attends the 2018 All-Star Game in Washington, DC

July 27, 2018 by OOTP Staff

Three members of the OOTP Developments team — creator and lead developer Markus Heinsohn, co-developer Matt Arnold, and Chief Marketing Officer Rich Grisham — attended this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game and All-Star Home Run Derby in Washington, DC. They spent some time letting us know how the trip went.

What does 2018 hold for the LA Angels and Milwaukee Brewers?

July 8, 2018 by OOTP Staff

While David Carducci, owner of new OOTP blog The Yakker, indulges in historical “What if?” scenarios, our own T.J. Lauerman and Kris Jardine are forging their own paths through the 2018 season and beyond at the helms of the Los Angeles Angels and Milwaukee Brewers, respectively.

They’re streaming their seasons on our Twitch channel on Mondays at 8:30 and 9:30 PM Eastern time, so check it out to follow all the action. All of the broadcasts are archived on our YouTube channel.

We talked to Lauerman and Jardine to find out how their sims have been going so far. Among other things, it turns out that Bryce Harper will unsurprisingly have multiple suitors during the next offseason.

The Yakker explores the OOTP multiverse

July 8, 2018 by OOTP Staff

“Exploring the Out of the Park Baseball multiverse,” it says on the homepage of The Yakker, the new blog from sportswriter David Carducci, who has covered multiple World Series and spent six years as a beat writer focused on the Cleveland Browns, among many other media roles.

True to its tagline, The Yakker indulges in the “What if?” scenarios that make OOTP’s historical option so much fun. There’s “Save our Expos,” a series in which Carducci takes over Montreal in 1995 and tries to keep the team competitive so they don’t leave town. And then there’s “Beyond the Sixth Game 1976,” where the Boston Red Sox attempt to avoid the real life letdown they had after that classic 1975 World Series.

Mike Silva fills the demand for historical stadiums in OOTP

May 22, 2018 by OOTP Staff

When Out of the Park Baseball 15 debuted the ability to play out games in 3D stadiums, Mike Silva found his calling and began creating historical 3D stadiums and sharing them with others. (You can find the complete list on our forum.) “I had always had a love for baseball stadiums and their unique appearances, as well as their effect on the sport,” he says.

Silva continues: “I began my sports gaming days with Microleague Baseball in the mid-80’s as a 10-year-old. I was completely sucked in at that point, but it only had one stadium. When Pure Stat Baseball came out, there was an optional stadium disk which I got as a birthday present and it opened me up to every MLB stadium in the league.

“I would always take graph paper as a kid and try to draw out many of the field layouts from the various stadiums. Being from Boston, Fenway had its obvious charms and I would draw the Green Monster and the unique shapes of the outfield every day.”

Wrigley Field, 1979 (Silva also has versions from 1928 and 1938)

The OOTP meet-and-greet: ‘It was a blast!’

May 22, 2018 by OOTP Staff

During the OOTP crew’s trip to PAX East for an indie game marketing panel, they held a meet-and-greet for fans at Boston Beerworks, which is across the street from Fenway Park. The event saw 25 people show up, including longtime OOTP players, members of the games media, and several OOTP marketing team members.

OOTP Dev talks indie game marketing at PAX East

April 20, 2018 by OOTP Staff

With nearly 20 years of game marketing under its belt, the Out of the Park Developments team has learned a few tricks along the way. Rich Grisham, OOTP Dev’s CMO, shared them in the “So You Want to Market an Indie Game” panel during the recent PAX East video game expo in Boston.

Also participating were Kris Jardine, Associate Community Manager for OOTP, Genevieve St-Onge, co-founder of PopAgenda, and Mike Futter, author of “The Game Dev Biz Handbook.” Over 220 people were in attendance for a rousing 60-minute discussion, during which Rich presented OOTP’s nine principles of marketing and his fellow panelists shared their thoughts on the subject.

Connecting with OOTP and FHM fans on Twitch

February 27, 2018 by OOTP Staff

OOTP 19 is available for pre-order now. Save 10% and get the game 3 days early!

Like any good network, the OOTP Developments Twitch channel has steadily expanded its programming options during the past few years. It currently offers this lineup of streaming hosts:

Jeff Riddolls (Franchise Hockey Manager Producer): Jeff is currently running the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League, a Canadian major junior hockey league comprised of 16-to-20-year-olds, during the 2017-18 season.
Adam (FHM Community Manager): Adam took the reins Florida Panthers® of the National Hockey League® in a modern day sim and is currently in the year 2020.
Kris Jardine (OOTP Associate Community Manager): Kris is in an historical play-through, guiding the Montreal Expos in 1982, after their “Blue Monday” loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1981.
T.J. Lauerman (OOTP Community Manager): T.J. is trying to see if he can put the 1990s era Cleveland Indians over the top and bring a World Series title to the city.

An interview with OOTP creator Markus Heinsohn

January 25, 2018 by OOTP Staff

OOTP 19 is available for pre-order now. Save 10% and get the game 3 days early!

Creating a deep baseball management game and releasing a new version of it annually for 19 years is a pretty impressive achievement. Doing so while living in Hamburg, Germany is even more impressive, considering the fact that Major League Baseball scouts aren’t typically scouring that country for talent.

Compared to fans raised in the United States, Out of the Park Baseball creator and head developer Markus Heinsohn became a baseball fan a bit late in life. He recalls: “I started playing baseball when I was 15 years old. It was just a random coincidence because a friend of mine brought a baseball bat and a couple of gloves back from a family trip to Florida. That’s how it all started. A couple of years later we started playing in organized baseball leagues and I really fell in love with the sport and its history.”

An interview with FHM creator Sebastian Palkowski

January 25, 2018 by OOTP Staff

The Out of the Park Developments games roster expanded in 2011 with the release of iOOTP Baseball, now known as MLB Manager for iOS and Android. Developer Sebastian Palkowski was responsible for that game, and he used that experience as the foundation for a more ambitious project, Franchise Hockey Manager, which simulates not just the NHL® but also more than 20 other leagues around the world.

FHM 4 was released this past fall, and Palkowski took some time out of his busy post-release schedule, which has seen him release multiple updates to the game, and talk to us about his background and his thoughts on the game franchise.

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