Baseball Nation Interviews OOTP Founder Markus Heinsohn

[Mr. Baseball]

Markus Heinshohn is the developer and founder of OOTP Baseball. For more information regarding this game please visit http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/index.php

Q: Baseball Nation - You've managed to create what is undoubtedly the best sports simulator on the web. What triggered the idea to attempt to create something like this, and what was your motivation for doing so?

A: Markus Heinsohn - I started playing baseball in the early 90's, and after a couple of years got interested a lot in MLB and all sorts of baseball stats and history. At the same time, soccer management games were extremely popular here in Germany, so I started looking for a similar baseball game because I grew tired of the statistical inaccuracies of arcade baseball games. However, I did not find a game which allowed career play, so I started to write my own.

Q: Baseball Nation - I've always wondered, are you currently in any online leagues or competing in one with the rest of the developers? If so, is your team any good?

A: Markus Heinsohn - Unfortunately, I do not have the time to actively participate in an online league. I once tried, but my team was so bad that I decided to retire and play Farmville instead.

Q: Baseball Nation - On the forums, you hear a lot of rumors spreading about OOTP making a possible shift towards 3-D game-play. Is this something you could see happening in the future?

A: Markus Heinsohn - I am pretty sure the simulation engine itself will not be 3D (physics based) in the near future. That would slow simulation speed down to an unplayable state. However, we are currently working on a 2D/3D representation of the play results calculated by the traditional engine. And who knows, maybe this will open the door for other fun graphics-related features in the future.

Q: Baseball Nation - Being a baseball fan, who is your favorite Major League Baseball team?

A: Markus Heinsohn - Actually, I am not a fan of one specific team, but there are a few I like more than the others. In no particular order: Red Sox, Braves, Phillies, Indians, Rockies.

Q: Baseball Nation - What was your greatest challenge in creating Out of the Park?

A: Markus Heinsohn - Time management. There are so many ideas out there that I'd love to built into the game, but our team is very small and hence we have to make (sometimes painful) decisions on which features to implement and which we leave out.

Thanks Gavin,

Markus

[RickD]

Nice interview. I like that the site is grabbing a few of these now.

[Mr. Baseball]

Nice interview. I like that the site is grabbing a few of these now.

Yeah. Still working on my interview with Jonathan Axford.

[Old Sweater]

I know deep down in his heart that the Rockies are his #1 team.