TBCB News

[RANGER11JP]

I have left word that my Headstone will read:

"He expired waiting for a Title Bout"

I figure that's ambiguous enough to sound almost noble, yet not let everyone know what a long wait it's been!

[Scoman]

I wonder if it will ever happen,between iOOTP and OOTP 12,13,14 etc, I just doubt very seriously it will. But we all knew that any way.

[Rob Morris]

Originally Posted by Scoman

I wonder if it will ever happen,between iOOTP and OOTP 12,13,14 etc, I just doubt very seriously it will. But we all knew that any way.

My sentiments exactly. The longer time goes by with no product the more people will lose interest imho, my fear is that in a year or two Andreas will release an update to TBCB (2.5.28?), the take up will be poor and the conclusion will be there isn't the interest in the boxing game, lets go back to the baseball.

[Scoman]

It seems that a Pro boxing management sim is just in between a rock and a hard place for sometime now. On one hand you have a game like WMMA 3 which already includes boxers,so it wouldn't be a real stretch to spawn a boxing only sim from it,but the developer has no interest in doing that what so ever.


Then here you have a developer who has the interest but just does have the time or resources to dedicate to a major overhaul of the game.

Its beyond frustrating to say the least,but it is what it is,still a good,fun boxing game but has so much potential of being a great boxing game.

[Cap]

I watched Robert Helenius stop Lamon Brewster and Sam Peter on Youtube.(Thank gawd for Youtube) Then I watched Bermane Stiverne KO Ray Austin and Tyson Fury finish off Dereck Chisora. There are some good crowd-pleasing heavies out there, especially in Europe. The problem is there's no Tex Rickard to promote them. Even old Don King seems to be overwhelmed and befuddled by the Digital Age. The interest is there even with all of the black eyes boxing has given itself.

The thing is, there's still an audience out there for Title Bout, particularly in Europe. Problem is I'll bet that thousands of potential buyers don't even know it exists. The game needs to be MARKETED to that audience. We've only been saying this for the last ten years or so. Make the game and send copies to media people who might be interested. Maybe find some young up-and-coming Euro-heavy to lend his name and face to the game for a small fee or use images that are Public Domain. I don't think Tommy Burns or Fred Fulton or Sam McVea have agents.

There's still money in Boxing if you handle it right.

Cap

[Cap]

Originally Posted by pisdpaul

Hi Guys,

As you have asked for updates, here goes..

Development is progressing steadily, and I am pleased with the progress. The intresting news is that in the next few weeks I will be flying over to Germany to meet with OOTP Developments. We will be discussing a number of topics, but most importantly Andreas and I have set aside some time to talk about TBCB.

This will be an internal technical meeting so most of the detail wont be posted here, but we should have some news as a result.

I thank you for your continued patience, and look forward to posting more detail after this meeting...

Paul, you've seen the present version of Title Bout. Will the game you're working on be a complete revamp to draw new users as well as old, or will it just be Title Bout 2.5 with a fresh coat of paint?

Cap

[javier_83]

Cap and other guys! i can help with Advertise for the game!!

i can tell the WBC to put some banner or something like that in all his webpages.

also i have friends on notifight.com and fightnews.com and other webpages of boxing.

so just tell me to do that and i can do it

[Mark42661]

Originally Posted by Cap

I watched Robert Helenius stop Lamon Brewster and Sam Peter on Youtube.(Thank gawd for Youtube) Then I watched Bermane Stiverne KO Ray Austin and Tyson Fury finish off Dereck Chisora. There are some good crowd-pleasing heavies out there, especially in Europe. The problem is there's no Tex Rickard to promote them. Even old Don King seems to be overwhelmed and befuddled by the Digital Age. The interest is there even with all of the black eyes boxing has given itself.

The thing is, there's still an audience out there for Title Bout, particularly in Europe. Problem is I'll bet that thousands of potential buyers don't even know it exists. The game needs to be MARKETED to that audience. We've only been saying this for the last ten years or so. Make the game and send copies to media people who might be interested. Maybe find some young up-and-coming Euro-heavy to lend his name and face to the game for a small fee or use images that are Public Domain. I don't think Tommy Burns or Fred Fulton or Sam McVea have agents.

There's still money in Boxing if you handle it right.

Cap

Agree with you 100% Cap... on everything you just said.

[zyberianwarrior]

cap the major problem is EA and their joystick happy eye candy mentality. It someone actually has to THINK about a game they wont push it that is why they went with eye candy (graphics) they know they cannot touch title bout on a realistic scale and the people here in the US are fat lazy and stupid (which explains why Obozo was voted in) Title bout is a great game if people give it half a chance but without eye candy they wont.

[jofre]

Originally Posted by zyberianwarrior

cap the major problem is EA and their joystick happy eye candy mentality. It someone actually has to THINK about a game they wont push it that is why they went with eye candy (graphics) they know they cannot touch title bout on a realistic scale and the people here in the US are fat lazy and stupid (which explains why Obozo was voted in) Title bout is a great game if people give it half a chance but without eye candy they wont.

The younger generation is the major user of EA Sports (Basketball, football, etc.). They are use to playing either against the computer game or somewone else with joystick dexterity being the key to wins and losses. My grandkids are big into the EA Sports games because of this as well as the graphics. They don't have a clue about todays fighters because there are no CHAMPIONS because the alphabets have watered down the sport. But they know the names of the UFC and MMA Champions. It makes me sad.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by zyberianwarrior

cap the major problem is EA and their joystick happy eye candy mentality. It someone actually has to THINK about a game they wont push it that is why they went with eye candy (graphics) they know they cannot touch title bout on a realistic scale and the people here in the US are fat lazy and stupid (which explains why Obozo was voted in) Title bout is a great game if people give it half a chance but without eye candy they wont.

I wonder if getting TBCB into the hands of someone associated with Friday Night Fights would help.

[Tommysixfingers]

Originally Posted by zyberianwarrior

cap the major problem is EA and their joystick happy eye candy mentality. It someone actually has to THINK about a game they wont push it that is why they went with eye candy (graphics) they know they cannot touch title bout on a realistic scale and the people here in the US are fat lazy and stupid (which explains why Obozo was voted in) Title bout is a great game if people give it half a chance but without eye candy they wont.

Yes and no.

EA has taken a ridiculous amount of criticism over the lack of realism on their board. Many of the guys that post there wants all the eye candy AND a realistical game. Full customization, boxers fighting in their real life style, relevant judging, working game sliders, full simulation style gameplay and more. Based on what I've read there I believe that there is a market for a text based accurate sim when it comes to boxing. EA's FIFA series isn't competing with Football Manager for instance. I'm aware that the market for Football (soccer) makes boxing look like a niche sport but I still believe that both kind of games can appeal to many of the same fans.

Look at what Greydogsoftware have done with their World Of MMA game for example. Won't pretend that I know how many copies they've sold but based on the activity on their board I would say that quite many guys are playing and enjoying it and the graphics are pretty basic at best. World Of MMA is not a game you buy and play because of the pretty graphics. Maybe MMA is more appealing to the younger guys than boxing is today, maybe not. As far as sim games goes we couldn't know as there isn't a single game that portrays boxing in a realistical way on the market today.

As good as WMMA is, I think that TBCB has a far better sim engine to build around and could very well apeal a lot of people if it could be transformed into a "real" game. Biggest problem today imo is that it isn't. TBCB today (as much as I love it) is an engine, a platform for simulating fights and it requires 100% imagination and sometimes tedious work out of the users.

[magiccitydawg]

Originally Posted by Tommysixfingers

Yes and no.

EA has taken a ridiculous amount of criticism over the lack of realism on their board. Many of the guys that post there wants all the eye candy AND a realistical game. Full customization, boxers fighting in their real life style, relevant judging, working game sliders, full simulation style gameplay and more. Based on what I've read there I believe that there is a market for a text based accurate sim when it comes to boxing. EA's FIFA series isn't competing with Football Manager for instance. I'm aware that the market for Football (soccer) makes boxing look like a niche sport but I still believe that both kind of games can appeal to many of the same fans.

Look at what Greydogsoftware have done with their World Of MMA game for example. Won't pretend that I know how many copies they've sold but based on the activity on their board I would say that quite many guys are playing and enjoying it and the graphics are pretty basic at best. World Of MMA is not a game you buy and play because of the pretty graphics. Maybe MMA is more appealing to the younger guys than boxing is today, maybe not. As far as sim games goes we couldn't know as there isn't a single game that portrays boxing in a realistical way on the market today.

As good as WMMA is, I think that TBCB has a far better sim engine to build around and could very well apeal a lot of people if it could be transformed into a "real" game. Biggest problem today imo is that it isn't. TBCB today (as much as I love it) is an engine, a platform for simulating fights and it requires 100% imagination and sometimes tedious work out of the users.

The problem with some of the younger players is that they have been spoon-fed the video games version of sports, and have never played the board games before the video game age. I played the Title Bout board game and enjoyed it very much. To the point that I wish I never gave it away. Now, I enjoy Title Bout as is on the computer. I also play OOTP 11, and plan on buying 12 just as I can make room, financially speaking. The generation out now have an attention of about 10 minutes, which is part of the problem.

I would like to see a new version before I turn 50, which will be November next year. Until then, I wouldn't be opposed to an update to this game once in a while. One thing that needs to be fixed is setting up a true, time specific boxing universe where boxers come in and retire as they are supposed to. Everytime I try to do so, I wind up with Mike Tyson vs Joe Louis, which I love IF I were doing a strictly fictional universe. And, I may do so. But I would like to start in 1900 and not have to worry about Mike Tyson butting in.

[pisdpaul]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delay in replying but I have been away for a few days. Reading through the recent posts I detect the following main areas I would like to comment on:

1) Marketing - You are totally right, just throwing the game out there and moving on will not make the most from the game. However, all of us are busy making games and it can take a lot of time. As I have worked on CM/FM at SI for 10yrs I am fully aware of the need for press packs and we will create them for TBCB releases. The biggest resource in the marketing game is voices, so if you guys shout about it on all the websites/boards and social networking sites you can it will help secure the next release!

2) Dev-time - This is always a balancing act. Its the main reason I joined the TBCB project (apart from wanting to play it myself and 2.5 does not run on Linux as wine has issues!). Andreas is very busy so I agreed to do a lot of the 'donkey' work to make TBCB viable. OK, I too have responsibilities to OOTP and iOOTP but TBCB is high on my priorities.

3) Releases - There are 2 major internal releases, TBCB 2.6 which is 2.5 with a new skin based on PISD. This version will technically work on Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and OpenPandora. Then after that we will produce TBCB 3.0 which will be 2.5 with a role playing mode allowing you to progress a career in boxing.

IMPORTANT: Andreas and I have not yet decided which platforms we will release on as each extra platform has artwork, testing and development overheads. Also we need to decide if both versions will be released, when and at what price. These are all topics on the Agenda for our meeting next week.

[javier_83]

Can you tell us a % of how much do you have with the change of the code???

[pisdpaul]

Originally Posted by javier_83

Can you tell us a % of how much do you have with the change of the code???

I am not sure what you are asking here, I think there are two possibilities. Tho I dont think a % is going to be that meaningful, so I will talk in terms are code areas.

1) How much code will change from 2.5 to 2.6?
The GUI, Database and infrastructure as 2.5 uses the Windows API and classes. 2.6 will use the PISD API that allows it to work on many systems. The fight engine will remain unchanged for 2.6 (except possible bug fixes).

2) How much code will I be changing?
I am coding the game framework but NOT the fight engine. Andreas does a brilliant job with the fight engine and will continue to develop it. This will insure the that the heart of the game continues to be realistic and fun to play. The new code for 3.0 has yet to be fully defined so I am unable to comment at the mo.

[Marciano6]

I am 24 years old and i have purchased both the MMA games and the tbcb games. I enjoy watching MMA a lot more than boxing but i still do watch the odd boxing match here and there. I have to tell you all I would much rather play TBCB anyday and that's the truth. The reason more people are turned onto WMMA over at GDS is because they are constantly making versions and putting them out. I have a couple friends who i've told about both games to and they've all loved TBCB because it has real fighters with realistic stats. None of my friends come to the board anymore because there is nothing to offer them anymore. The problem i believe isn't with age it's with the team, I can and have waited for a new version. I'm still here i'm going to continue to wait but i can see how others would be turned off to the fact that there are no updates on the progress of a new version. The people at GDS always keep their fans happy by keeping a developers journal. Look how many of us get happy when one of the mods announces how progress is coming if it was like that on a constant basis a lot more people would understand.

[PWillisTheMan]

Originally Posted by Antonin

I wonder if getting TBCB into the hands of someone associated with Friday Night Fights would help.

As long as it isn't Atlas. Everything he touches turns to sh*t.

[Bam Bam]

Thanks for the updates. I know you're trying....It's just all kinda depressing, I mean -realistically - judging from the pace of your timelines, posts, vagueness, and "meetings" and no real direction as far as an RP goes, this is just fizzling for me. I was really hoping to put my money in someone's pocket for it too. SMH.

I guess WCBM was as close to an RP as I will ever play. It and it SUCKED!

[Mr Foo]

Well I doubt anything will happen with this, or if it does, it will continue to be at snail pace progression.

But seriously guys, another guy is building a boxing game too, and his is coming along a lot quicker than TBCB.

Boxing Man