Wolverine Studios to release Draft Day Sports:Pro Basketball

[Tim Tellean]

Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball
Posted : Tuesday, September 5 2006
Troy, MI September 5, 2006 - Wolverine Studios, a leading developer of computer game sports simulations is proud to announce the first in our upcoming line of professional and collegiate sports management simulations, Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball! DDS: PB is the follow up to the acclaimed pro basketball simulation, Total Pro Basketball 2005 and will mark developer Gary Gorski's third version of a pro basketball sim.

Do you think you have what it takes to guide a franchise to the top of the professional basketball world? DDS: PB lets you totally customize your game world from team names, logos, uniforms and home courts down to the players, coaches and player agents. Even better, you can customize your gaming experience as well. Do you want control over every decision in the organization and the ability to see all player ratings? It is there if you want it or take on the challenge of choosing just the role of coach or general manager and be forced to interact with an AI counterpart who may or may not do things the way you want them done. You can even play with a limited ratings mode so that you have an even more realistic uncertainty about players. For an even greater challenge start yourself off in the developmental league and see if your coaching or managerial skills get you a shot to run a team in the big show.
Some of the brand new features of DDS: Pro Basketball include:
- all new gameplay presentation with improved state of the art 2D engine and same unmatched level of statistical accuracy
- addition of a working developmental league that you can use as a minor league team for your players or choose to be the team you play as
- increased capacity for storing historical player stats
- brand new "Agent Mode" allows you to play as a sports agent rather than a coach or GM
- increased media presence in the game with more news stories
- increased interaction dynamic with owners, general managers, coaches and players
- improved AI management: the most realistic trading AI in a sports game gets even better

DDS: Pro Basketball is scheduled for a 4th quarter release in 2006. For the latest news and information on DDS: PB please visit our website at www.wolverinestudios.com or visit our forums to discuss the game with our community members and developer Gary Gorski.

[miami_fan]

Great news

[MrBug708]

Agent Mode eh?

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Agent Mode eh?

You know you are ready to negotiate a deal for far less than market value for your client that would be of great benefit to the team right? Like having LeBron sign a 10 year deal at $500,000 per?

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

You know you are ready to negotiate a deal for far less than market value for your client that would be of great benefit to the team right? Like having LeBron sign a 10 year deal at $500,000 per?

That would be great...except that LeBron will fire you and no other player will ever hire you to be their agent so if you don't mind that

[fjvieane]

another must buy, hmm, now where to hide the funds from the wife

[Icy]

Awesome news! i guess it will be able to import TCB draft files, am i right?

[Gary Gorski]

Yeah I will definitely have some way to import TCB draft files

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by fjvieane

another must buy, hmm, no where to hide the funds from the wife

This is why I love digital download for all these text sims. I also, usually move the game .exe icon to my folder labeled "mainframe audit logs reviewed files" My wife just sees it and has no interest at all. ...........well, unless she goes on here and reads this shit!

[Marc Vaughan]

Cool

[RedKingGold]

I was a big fan of TPB 2005, so Gary's earned my trust (and credit card number)

Man, with HW3, DDS: Basketball, and the Solecismic game coming out....my wallet is going to be praying for mercy.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by RedKingGold

I was a big fan of TPB 2005, so Gary's earned my trust (and credit card number)

Man, with HW3, DDS: Basketball, and the Solecismic game coming out....my wallet is going to be praying for mercy.

Still am not holding my breath on that one.

[BigMak]

Originally Posted by RedKingGold

I was a big fan of TPB 2005, so Gary's earned my trust (and credit card number)

Man, with HW3, DDS: Basketball, and the Solecismic game coming out....my wallet is going to be praying for mercy.

Has a Solecismic game been announced?

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by BigMak

Has a Solecismic game been announced?

Oh boy, here we go.

[RedKingGold]

Yeah, Front Office Football: The Mothball Edition was announced months ago...

[watravaler]

I will buy this game, but I am also hoping for a new FastBreak game. Anyone have info on the series?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Still am not holding my breath on that one.

I'm just curious. You've mentioned this several times. What's your thinking here? Are you thinking that Jim is intentionally lying to us, or that he's going to fail to get the new game released by 12/31?

[Anthony]

great news, guys. best of luck, i'll be following this one closely. Agent Mode sounds intriguing.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

great news, guys. best of luck, i'll be following this one closely. Agent Mode sounds intriguing.

Same on all counts here. The pro basketball cap situation generally makes me not excited about playing a pro game, but Agent Mode might get me going on this one.

[Anthony]

i think it'd be sick if this game had MP abilities (don't know if it does or not) and people get to be Agents in MP as well. i'd love to represent players and negotiate w/ real "GMs". now that's fun. perhaps one day.

[MizzouRah]

You are a busy man Gary!!

I loved TPB, so I'll be keeping an eye on this one as well.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i think it'd be sick if this game had MP abilities (don't know if it does or not) and people get to be Agents in MP as well. i'd love to represent players and negotiate w/ real "GMs". now that's fun. perhaps one day.

Hehehehe. I think I'd pay to see Agent HA and GM Chubby negotiating.

Seriously, though, the Agent thing would be SO abused in multiplayer without some serious parameters.

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Same on all counts here. The pro basketball cap situation generally makes me not excited about playing a pro game, but Agent Mode might get me going on this one.

BTW just to take off on this quote - DDS: PB does allow you an option other than the Agent Mode to play if you don't like dealing with the NBA cap - you will be able to be a GM or Coach in the D-League as well. I think that's going to be pretty interesting because while your main method of getting players is just signing the leftovers the NBA teams don't want each team is also now affiliated with NBA teams and they can send players down and call them up like a minor league system so you'll have to follow your affiliates and see who they are drafting and you might get some of the kids who aren't ready for the court on your team for a little while and you'll always have to deal with the looming option that at any time any of your players could be taken away by one of the pro teams.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

BTW just to take off on this quote - DDS: PB does allow you an option other than the Agent Mode to play if you don't like dealing with the NBA cap - you will be able to be a GM or Coach in the D-League as well. I think that's going to be pretty interesting because while your main method of getting players is just signing the leftovers the NBA teams don't want each team is also now affiliated with NBA teams and they can send players down and call them up like a minor league system so you'll have to follow your affiliates and see who they are drafting and you might get some of the kids who aren't ready for the court on your team for a little while and you'll always have to deal with the looming option that at any time any of your players could be taken away by one of the pro teams.

This has increased my interest level for sure.

I've never played any other text sims besides football, this one has me interested now...

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I'm just curious. You've mentioned this several times. What's your thinking here? Are you thinking that Jim is intentionally lying to us, or that he's going to fail to get the new game released by 12/31?

SkyDog,

I am not trying to start trouble or am at all inferring that Jim is lying to us or that the game is not going to come out by 12/31. I have only been posting on the board for a few years (two I think), liked both of the last two vesrions of FOF, and also think Jim is a decent guy. That being said, I am not sure where all the optimism comes from in relation to another FOF being released in the anytime this year. I know Jim has mentioned it in passing but nothing definitive. I have no doubt Jim will release another version in the near future, I just don't see the value bring it up now since there is no evidence that it is even in development yet. Sorry, to sound like I was slamming the board's name sake that was not my intention. Don't mind me just a bad day at the real job.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Galaril

SkyDog,

I am not trying to start trouble or am at all inferring that Jim is lying to us or that the game is not going to come out by 12/31. I have only been posting on the board for a few years (two I think), liked both of the last two vesrions of FOF, and also think Jim is a decent guy. That being said, I am not sure where all the optimism comes from in relation to another FOF being released in the anytime this year. I know Jim has mentioned it in passing but nothing definitive. I have no doubt Jim will release another version in the near future, I just don't see the value bring it up now since there is no evidence that it is even in development yet. Sorry, to sound like I was slamming the board's name sake that was not my intention. Don't mind me just a bad day at the real job.

From http://www.solecismic.com/sole/index.php :

While the last two years have been more family-focused, with no new products seeing release, 2006 will mark several changes for the company. We will release a fully updated version of one of our football games this year.

This is why people make statements about a Solecismic game this year. From the sound of your post, i get the impression that you have not seen this.

[Emiliano]

Awesome!

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by RedKingGold

I was a big fan of TPB 2005, so Gary's earned my trust (and credit card number)

Man, with HW3, DDS: Basketball, and the Solecismic game coming out....my wallet is going to be praying for mercy.

And FM2007 here

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Tim Tellean

...lets you totally customize your game world from team names, logos, uniforms and home courts down to the players, coaches and player agents. Even better, you can customize your gaming experience as well.

5 bonus points to the first person who can tell me what game I thought of immediately when I read the snippet above.

FTR: This is not intended as a new round in my recent set-to with GG, nor as a knock on Tim, nor anyone at Wolverine.

If what I thought of is as easy to figure out as I believe it will be, I seriously wonder if the word "customize" will ever be looked upon in connection to sports sim without a chuckle.

And again, I am not implying for a second that this game will resemble the other in any way, shape, or form. Just a commentary about the use of that word & whether it's linked forever (or for the lifespan of our collective memories) to a particular game.

[jbmagic]

Will it have random fictional players generator everytime you start a new league?

[Vince]

Between shooting for 5 bonus points, or taking the teed up AI joke, I can't decide. So I'll pass.

Good luck, Wolverine Studios. I can never remain interested in a Basketball Sim (I have no idea why), so I'll probably just be cheering from the sidelines, but good luck nonetheless.

[KeyserSoze]

Gary, just a silly idea, maybe not for this release but for futures releases.

In Europe there have been some "basketball managers" in basketball countries as Spain, Italy, Greece.... If you add the Euroleague (and maybe the 3-4 best leagues?? ) at the side of the "minor leagues" (with the capacity of playing these teams) you could gain in three dimensions.

1-Improving the simulations, as you could add the "New Bright Stars" as Gasol or Bargnini and the "Old Warriors" that jump to the NBA as Garbajosa or Calderon (players with 25 or older less skilled but with more poise).

2-Add new challenges to the game. In the FM series one very nice factor is that you can take challenges very differents. One day you could manage Chelsea and the other one team in the rumanian second division. In american managers one day you could manage Miami and the next Golden St. but the challenges are not so different. Instead, if you one day could manage Miami and the next Panonios, well, there are so different things.

3-Increase your market objetive. There is no basketball manager in europe (no modern at least) and I think the basketball is the second team sport in Europe (at least in a several number of countries). You could approach this market with this combo (NBA-Euroleague) product. This kind of approach is not possible for Baseball or Football (your football ) but basketball has a niche in Europe


Just my two cents in the long term.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

3-Increase your market objetive. There is no basketball manager in europe (no modern at least) and I think the basketball is the second team sport in Europe (at least in a several number of countries). You could approach this market with this combo (NBA-Euroleague) product. This kind of approach is not possible for Baseball or Football (your football ) but basketball has a niche in Europe

This would make for the greatest basketball sim yet... the addition of customizable foreign leagues, so you could set up the Spanish/Italian/Australian/etc. leagues. I'm surprised such a thing has been yet to surface because, as you say, basketball is the most international of all these sports, and look at the success of FM.

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

Will it have random fictional players generator everytime you start a new league?

Yes, you will have this option

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

Gary, just a silly idea, maybe not for this release but for futures releases.

In Europe there have been some "basketball managers" in basketball countries as Spain, Italy, Greece.... If you add the Euroleague (and maybe the 3-4 best leagues?? ) at the side of the "minor leagues" (with the capacity of playing these teams) you could gain in three dimensions.

1-Improving the simulations, as you could add the "New Bright Stars" as Gasol or Bargnini and the "Old Warriors" that jump to the NBA as Garbajosa or Calderon (players with 25 or older less skilled but with more poise).

2-Add new challenges to the game. In the FM series one very nice factor is that you can take challenges very differents. One day you could manage Chelsea and the other one team in the rumanian second division. In american managers one day you could manage Miami and the next Golden St. but the challenges are not so different. Instead, if you one day could manage Miami and the next Panonios, well, there are so different things.

3-Increase your market objetive. There is no basketball manager in europe (no modern at least) and I think the basketball is the second team sport in Europe (at least in a several number of countries). You could approach this market with this combo (NBA-Euroleague) product. This kind of approach is not possible for Baseball or Football (your football ) but basketball has a niche in Europe


Just my two cents in the long term.

This is very much on the radar for the future of the game. Pretty much the only reason it's not on the feature list this time is that I don't know enough about how the Euroleagues work. I realize there are some slight rule differences in the game itself but that doesn't really concern me - at the end of the day basketball is basketball. What I need to learn more about is how the teams are run. Where do they find new players? How does their contractual system work? How do players change teams? How are the leagues setup? Do they have a system where teams move up and down like in soccer? If anyone is a big fan and can help me understand how things work a little better I'd love to add that into the game at some point and at the very least open the coding to it now so that the code is ready to handle it whenever.

[King of New York]

SI Games + EHM = Success!

SI Games+ DDS:PB = a possibility down the road? (Hint hint)

[Capital]

Originally Posted by King of New York

SI Games + EHM = Success!

SI Games+ DDS:PB = a possibility down the road? (Hint hint)

I actually hope not. While I like the above games (and intend on purchasing EHM when it's released), I don't want every text based games to look the same. Between FM, OOTP, and EHM, they all have a similar look.

Gary's artist as well as some of the one's used by GDS, are top notch.

[KeyserSoze]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

This is very much on the radar for the future of the game. Pretty much the only reason it's not on the feature list this time is that I don't know enough about how the Euroleagues work. I realize there are some slight rule differences in the game itself but that doesn't really concern me - at the end of the day basketball is basketball. What I need to learn more about is how the teams are run. Where do they find new players? How does their contractual system work? How do players change teams? How are the leagues setup? Do they have a system where teams move up and down like in soccer? If anyone is a big fan and can help me understand how things work a little better I'd love to add that into the game at some point and at the very least open the coding to it now so that the code is ready to handle it whenever.

I'd love to help

[Gary Gorski]

Thanks KS - PM sent back to you with my limited knowledge of Eurobasket. Like I said, I don't know if it can be in the initial release but I would like to at least be able to code in what I needed so that it could be added in later. I also don't want to get too complicated with it - I don't want like 50 leagues going on around the world but if I'm adding the ability to run a team in the developmental league I should be able to add that same ability to run teams in a Eurobasket league as long as I can model the process pretty closely. I don't want to basically stick European team names on teams operating in the NBA system

[Icy]

Gary as we talked in the past, i did a research for you but i forgot i had it done as we never talked again. Please PM me your email and I'll send you what i compiled for you:

- Rules diferences between International and NBA basket.
- European basketball statistics manual (stats explained)
- Euroleague competition rules and estructure.
- List of the main European basketball websites for info, stats, news, etc.

I'm sure both Keysersoze and me are in a good mood to help you now, we both are Spanish and we are happy of being the new world basketball champs

[jbmagic]

Gary

Have you been looking at all the suggestions that was posted at grey dog forum for the pro basketball sim?

[Passacaglia]

I'm tempted to buy this just because of the company name and location!

[Tim Tellean]

Yes jb obviously Gary has looked at and noted all the suggestions from the GDs site. Now will they all make it into DDS:PB thats a different story.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Capital

I actually hope not. While I like the above games (and intend on purchasing EHM when it's released), I don't want every text based games to look the same. Between FM, OOTP, and EHM, they all have a similar look.

Gary's artist as well as some of the one's used by GDS, are top notch.

I second the hope not . SI screwed up a perfect fine OOTP IMHO, trying to please every person on this planet.

[Groundhog]

The main things I can think of regarding international leagues would be:

1) The rule changes. They differ slightly from league to league, but sticking to FIBA rules would be the safe bet.
2) Imports. 2 per team is pretty much the norm I believe.
3) Talent/Financial scale. Some of the Euro leagues are able to pay their imports several millions of dollar per year, and their talent levels are very high. A comp like the Australian comp, however, and you've got imports getting about $150KUS, and the talent level is perhaps half that of the big Euro leagues.
4) Young talent comes up through the junior basketball ranks. In Australia we have like a high-level youth league, and it's from these sorts of institutions that teams sign young talent. In a game, I guess you'd basically have a crop of 17 year olds signable to minimum contracts in the off-season each year. Over here teams tend to go after local talent, but I doubt that happens in the bigger leagues.
5) International free-agency, where foreign teams go after USA Imports, would be a very difficult thing to program, I'd imagine!

[Groundhog]

dola

Keeping NBA rules, rather than programming a FIBA engine as well, in the Euro leagues probably wouldn't be a big deal.

[Gary Gorski]

Ok since there is some interest in international play - what level of detail and realism are you looking for in a first version? I researched the European setup today (thanks KeyserSose and Icy) and it looks like theres 24 leagues in Europe that basically send a set amount of teams to two championship seasons and those teams play in both their home league and the championship league in that particular season. That's to say nothing of the rest of the world. I was thinking of starting simply by letting you play a modified version of the European system - take a specific number of teams, divide them into my own divisions and still model the two championships but just get the teams from a smaller number of combined domestic leagues. Would that be of interest or is this a feature you are looking at as an all or nothing type one?

[TroyF]

If they are there, that's fine. If they aren't, that's fine.

I'm going to play with the NBA in any basketball game I purchase. I have zero interest in the European models. But if they are there, don't slow down the game and have a scouting component to them, I'm all for it.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

Ok since there is some interest in international play - what level of detail and realism are you looking for in a first version? I researched the European setup today (thanks KeyserSose and Icy) and it looks like theres 24 leagues in Europe that basically send a set amount of teams to two championship seasons and those teams play in both their home league and the championship league in that particular season. That's to say nothing of the rest of the world. I was thinking of starting simply by letting you play a modified version of the European system - take a specific number of teams, divide them into my own divisions and still model the two championships but just get the teams from a smaller number of combined domestic leagues. Would that be of interest or is this a feature you are looking at as an all or nothing type one?

It's certainly not an "all-or-nothing" concept for me. What you suggest would be great for a start IMO.

[Neuqua]

Nothing wrong with babysteps. Globalizing the game could be a great feature for some of us, myself included.