TuscanSota

Hey guys,

We meant to put this out earlier, but there are a few things going on behind the scenes. My job right now is to bring you guys up to speed. I'm also using this as a sort of dev blog of sorts to let you know of my intentions and so forth.

Is the sim still being built?

Yes. There are two developers currently working on this: me, and Rocketcan. Rocket is busy with school and work, so it's mostly me doing what I can to finish up the interface so that I can transition to the game algorithm.

What's taking so long?

Thank you for being patient during this time. I've been doing a bit of learning behind the scenes. While I have a template up here, I'm making an effort to make sure that the interface remains efficient, secure, and easy to develop. The tech that I'm learning is what I'm hoping will make that possible. I'm focusing to make sure that we build the best interface possible, without cutting any corners. In terms of deadlines, we're still on task.

For those who didn't know, I was juggling three things: work, a job hunt, and this project. And the good news is, I accomplished one of those three things. No, I'm not leaving the project, and no, I didn't lose my job -- well, actually, I found a new job. So all in all, that means I can prioritize two things: 1) New Job, and 2) SimFBA.

And honestly, I'm a little relieved. I don't have to shift and refocus on so many different things all at once.

How Can I Help?

Most of the work that we have at the moment is focused around building the website and building the game algorithm. This doesn't require heavy math, but rather more of a focus on logic and coding. The work we're doing is the type of work that is not limited to just this site -- you can take the experiences from building this project and apply to your own, and even place them on your own resume/portfolio. I don't expect anyone we're bringing in to know how to build the website from the ground-up and shoot it into space; but rather if you are genuinely interested in learning how to build a website and code, and are willing to invest the time in learning, this might be the project for you.

If this sounds like you, please message me. I'll send you a few tutorials, and some of the technologies we're using, and how you can learn them too.

What's After This?

This is the section of the dev blog which is more blog than it is dev. As I've mentioned above, I've ended my job search and will be focusing more on the development of simFBA. Once we have the project in a comfortable state for Beta testing, the team and I will put together a roadmap of the features that we want to implement into the site later on.

After the official development of simFBA, I'm not sure. For those who know me from CFBHC, I am very passionate about storytelling and games in general. I finished a writing competition 3 1/2 years ago (over 200 pages of an unfinished draft!), and even made an Oregon-trail clone about being a bison.

I'm looking to get back into that. I have a few ideas swirling in my head. Each idea I believe is unique in its own way.

If you want to help me decide, hit up the poll.

Anyhow, I need to head out. WIll edit later. peace.

Hey everyone,

Coach Toucan here. I'm sorry it's been a while but I'm writing this now to update you on progress within the Simfba.

As you all might have known, I took a bit of a break - I got to get out of town for a while, which was a nice change of pace. Now that I am back, I'm getting back into developing the UIs and wanted to show you all a bit of progress made.

What Progress?

In the last Dev Diary, I asked y'all to post as much as you can. Don't worry, you're now seeing the fruits of these very minor labors:

https://calebrose.io/simfba-interface/

Yes, this is a working demo for the Simfba interface.

I would like to point a few things out though, this is in a VERY Alpha stage. Here are a few known bugs that I need to point out:

• Refreshing on the URL that isn't '/simfba-interface/' will throw a 404 error. This is currently being looked into, so please don't panic.
  
• The site has not been optimized for mobile devices. That hamburger icon doesn't work yet. It will, just not at this moment. I would highly recommend viewing the site on a desktop if you can. If you want to give the tablet a go, by all means.
  
• The depth chart, scheduling, and recruiting pages will send you to a version of the launch page. That is because these pages aren't ready yet.
  

Feel free to navigate through the site. If there are some oddities that you might find, send them here or let me know - I'm more than happy to look into the issues so that we can provide a better service.

For those who haven't gone through the Interface link just yet, here are a few screenshots on what you'll find different from development over the past week:

There is now a dropdown allowing the user to browse the roster for their team. I've added a few teams based on those who commented and posted in the last Dev diary. Here is an example of the interface rendering new teams:

Hyun-Jin Robinson doesn't have a high school because he didn't play School.

If you click on any of the names, you will now see icons for relevant attributes as well!

What's remaining for the UI Interface?

The item remaining for the 1.0 version that we're planning for is the Depth Chart UI. This is the UI that you will use to manage your team and assign the starting positions for your players. The current plan is to allow the user to view their own Depth Chart, with a later implementation on viewing other team's Depth Charts. Development on this UI should be complete by the end of the week, latest being Sunday.

Okay... then what?

Once the User Interfaces are complete we'll be moving to the next stage for Developing the interface and the simulation. We have an idea of what the roadmap will look like, but rest assured we will continue to make these each week. Visual signs of progression may be minimal until we reach a certain point, but I promise to show some snippets of code when appropriate.

Speaking of code, I would like to state one last thing before I finish up: We're going to complete as much as we can by the Holidays, at least December. We're doing as much as we can, and we promise to have something to show. If you're interested in help speeding up that process, please reach out. We're not looking for anyone with prior programming experience, but those who have a genuine interest. The next stage of development is different from visually building a webpage, we will be designing and building the backbone of the application. This is the type of work that will allow you and everyone else in this community to use the interface in realtime and manage everything in a snap. Everyone's team won't be Washington State. @subsequent will be able to manage his Michigan Wolverines and @brightfalls will manage his Oregon Ducks. The goal is to let you manage your team on the interface so that you don't have to manage your team on the forums.

If any of this sounds interesting to you and you want to leave a personal touch on this project, let me know. I'll bring you up to speed on what we're doing and provide you with the tools necessary so that we can hit the ground running once UI development for 1.0 is complete. We're not throwing you out onto the deep end, we're teaching you how to swim. On the shallow end of the pool, obviously.

And that about wraps it up. I need to head out for the moment, but I will begin UI development for the depth chart very soon. I hope y'all are doing well, and that you enjoy what we're showing you so far.

~TuscanSota

First person to reply to this will get a neat surprise in the next dev diary.

edit: Actually, everyone please reply