iOOTP Still a Home Run as New App for iPhone
(SPORTS TECHNOLOGY)
Porting a successful game entity over to an app is always a dicey proposition – one made even trickier when the game is as statistics-laden as baseball.
iOOTP developers faced just this challenge while recreating their Out of the Park Baseball game into a mobile app. The pc version of the game has been wildly popular for the past ten years. But, with a game more intensely associated with the facts and figures of the game rather than eye-popping graphics and bells and whistles, would the transition to an app work?
Consider the answer a resounding yes.
iOOTP Baseball 2011, the first mobile iteration of the OOTP series, does a tremendous job bringing over the best aspects of the game by redirecting its focus slightly. Sebastian Palkowski, one of the game’s developers, acknowledged that his team was completely aware of the sort of challenges they faced.
“OOTP is often seen as a game for hardcore gamers,” Palkowski told Dan Kricke from Yahoo appolicious. “We wanted iOOTP to be a more fun experience that you can play for a few minutes on the bus, while waiting in line for a coffee, or during a rain delay at the ballpark. The hardest part was finding the sweet spot between depth and casual fun.”
While the app version of OOTP lacks much of the hardcore details of the original, it does not fall short in playability as it instead turns it focus to the essence of the game itself. The result is a seamless transition.
“iPhone gaming is a great way to get your product into the hands of people who have never heard of you before,” Palowski added. “We wanted a version that captured the spirit of OOTP but was aimed at the more casual user who wanted to enjoy a baseball simulation on the go. iOOTP is not just an advertisement for the desktop game — it is a game that will evolve as its desktop counterpart does.”
For the type of games, including many sports games, that don’t seem to lend themselves to the quick and easy app world, iOOTP may have taken the lead role with it latest offering.
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John Lahtinen is Community Development Editor for TMCnet. He has more than 15 years of combined professional and educational experience involving news, education, and marketing. John holds a master's degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree in English from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Rich Steeves
