#124 | SimFBA Broadcasting Network | Streams & Announcers

[TuscanSota]

Hi everyone,

 

Hope y'all are well. We're nearing the end of development in the offseason and I want to make two more *surprise* announcements. I think y'all will like both of these.

 

The first one has to do with play by plays. Currently as they stand, thanks to the new format, we are able to provide y'all with play by plays on the interface and through exports. The format of these is standard and should be used as reference when scouting games.

 

Part of the reason for storing play by plays on the interface is not only to give y'all ease of access, but to allow some creative flexibility with how we stream our games. Previous seasons, we relied on a process involving moving CSVs to a file format and reading the play by plays directly from there.

For the discord streams, we've been busy for the past couple of weeks putting together a more creative edge with how we broadcast games. The intent and design of this feature was to bring the radio-broadcast experience for games right into our play-by-plays, and I think we've achieved it.

Basically, the play by play text ONLY for the discord streams are even more dynamically generated than what we're providing through the interface and exports. This experience is only for the Discord channels, and is meant to capture the experience and expression of plays as best as we can.

 

Here's an example of what users will see on the interface:

Now, here is the same play but in the discord:

As seen, the text generated provides a bit more flair on than what happened on paper. And the kicker is -- the result text is broken up into more phrases randomly selected and combined together for the result text. Meaning, if this game was ran again, the text to describe the start of the snap, the throw, and the interception itself will change.

This level of dynamic phrases applies to just about every play that occurs within the sim, that is streamed. This will make every stream unique, with hundreds of combinations of text output that can occur.

With that said, streaming is now available on the interface.

Secondly, here is the second announcement:

 

Announcers

Before the start of every streamed game, an announcer will welcome you viewers and provide you with information on each matchup. Each announcer is unique and provides some flair to welcoming you to the stream broadcast. The hope is that this provides a more personalized experience, and in the meanwhile, adds some lore to our simulation. There is currently a shortlist of broadcasters, some unique only for CFB matchups and some only for NFL matchups.

As for which announcer is selected, it will depend on the league. Some announcers cover only SimCFB, while some only cover SimNFL games. Some cover both. An announcer is randomly selected before any game.

Without further ado, here are the current list of announcers:

Spoiler

ToucanSoda

ToucanSoda is certainly not me. An avid fan since the age of four, Toucan witnessed his first game with the San Diego State Aztecs while under care at the San Diego Zoo. Following his dream of being a radio broadcaster, Toucan graduated from American Samoa College with a degree in media and communications and has been covering games since shortly after his graduation. He currently has no biases

 

Spoiler

Bread Man

Bread Man hails from Yeast, Georgia and covers College Football games on the Eastern Coast of the US. He is an avid fan of the Michigan Wolverines and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Coming from a family passionate for baking, he often promotes his family business by wearing a headgear akin to a large slice of bread.

 

Spoiler

Dante the Bison

Dante the Bison is a friend of Toucan's and another passionate College Football broadcaster. He covers only SimCFB games and is low-key a Wyoming Cowboys fan. Hailing from Yellowstone National Park, Dante covers primarily West Coast games but will also broadcast games on the eastern seaboard. He can talk hours on end about astronomy and the power run offense.

 

Spoiler

Holly Park

Holly Parker is from Goyang, South Korea, and is a streamer who's passionate for American Football. Constantly streaming games for fans in South Korea, she has taken the chance to partner with SimFBA Broadcasting to host and announce games for us. She is diligent with her work and is always excited to cover a college football game.

Spoiler

Craig Newton

Craig Newton is a Miami-U alum who's been broadcasting for SimCFB for years. He loves ACC Football and has broadcasted games all across the conference save for Florida State, for reasons later shown below. He is at odds with fellow announcer, Bill Kirksby, after he called him out for incorrectly describing a play.

Spoiler

J-M-988

J-M-988 is a robot created by the tech company Punt.R, designed to be the most optimal and descriptive broadcaster for American Football. 988 is currently in an alpha phase and is only covering College Football matchups. Strangely, the tech company Punt.R is registered as Seed B startup and allegedly has not designed a robot before.

Spoiler

Captain Jonas

Captain Jonas is a West-Point graduate positioned by the Army to promote the military sports complex by broadcasting American Sports. Captain Jonas is dedicated to covering primarily SimNFL matchups, but is always keeping track of games playing in West Point, the US Air Force Academy, and the VMI military institute.

Spoiler

Leftenant Amy Cross

Lt. Amy Cross reports directly under Captain Jonas and primarily covers SimNFL matchups. She previously played the Safety and Kicker positions during high school before enrolling at West Point. Her husband, a former Rutgers linebacker, suggested that she cover football matchups after noticing her particular attention to detail and her passion for watching the game. Amy Cross holds no bias for SimNFL teams but covers SimNFL games with more vigor than Captain Jonas.

Spoiler

Bill Kirksby

Bill Kirksby is a sports-nut who's been broadcasting for over a decade. Covering mainly SimNFL games, he previously covered mainly SEC and B1G matchups. After an altercation with another broadcaster over how they covered a coveted matchup, Kirksby decided to cover only SimNFL games moving forward. He is a die-hard Broncos fan but will report on any SimNFL matchup.

Spoiler

Phil Mattenborough

Phil Mattenborough is a reporting intern studying at Boise State University. We don't know how get got into the broadcasting booth, but I will say he's very dedicated to this craft and the medium. He will cover any CFB game if it means adding more experience to his resume so that his application for a full-time position for the SimFBA Broadcasting Network may actually pass through the company's ATS system successfully.

Spoiler

AK-T-Y4M4

AK-T is a robot who claims they are not from Earth but found our broadcast several light years away in outer space. Intrigued, AK-T-Y4M4 flew to earth, observed SimNFL matchups across the country and decided he wanted to broadcast games not only for us but for... his species back home? Wait, am I reading this right?

Either way, he's been with the company for at least a few months, so I'm not suspecting anything weird. He has claimed that his hair is indeed real and no, you are not allow to feel how sharp and pointy it is.

Spoiler

Terry Ross

Terry is an old-school broadcaster who's been broadcasting and reporting SimNFL games since the late 70's. He famously covered the Kick-6-Wonder in Manhattan in 1979, and has been addicted to the thrill of the matchups since. His favorite player is Donny Burns, a former Miami Dolphins QB and the father of current high school QB Douglas 'Douggie' Burns.

Spoiler

Mackenzee 'Mad Dog' Howard

Mackenzee is a wild card of the College Football world. He's a former Seminole alumni and former quarterback who has been broadcasting for over 30 years, specifically for Florida State Seminoles home games. He’s disgruntled and a shade of his former self -- a former quarterback prodigy playing for Seminoles. He famously beat the Clemson Tigers and snubbed them from the ACC Championship game in what is known among SimCFB fans as the Seminole Chop of '88. Shortly after that game, he had to medically retire from the game of football. He is the uncle of NFL quarterback Matt Howard, and is not on formal good terms with the rest of the family. Some say he lives near the stadium, but this is a rumor.

 

FAQ

That's an extensive list of announcers! What if I want to only have a specific announcer cover my games?

Great question. If you're a tier 1 subscriber on our discord channel, you can have an announcer specifically cover either your SimCFB team's home games or your SimNFL team's home games.

 

How do we sign up?

Look for a thread shortly.

 

Can I have a custom announcer?

Sure. If you're a tier 2 subscriber, you can create your announcer who will cover your games. There will be a thread shortly on how to do that.

 

What's next?

Honestly, not a whole lot. This took a lot of work to put together, but I'm excited with what we've been able to cover thus far. There will be bug fixes to work out the play by play and to ensure a better-quality experience with the interface. For now, I'll be adding more discord commands so that we can have more lookup info during games.

 

Anyways, I hope y'all are doing well and are excited for this new feature. Before heading out, I want to give a shoutout to @Rocketcan who's been a tremendous help with putting together the play-by-play logic on the engine side, which has allows this to happen. We've both been busy with the changes for this offseason, but I do want to recognize and appreciate the work that he's done to make this possible.

 

~Tuscan

 

[Kirby]

MAD DOG FUCKING HOWARD BABY.

[ATonOfLaw]

Bread Man is a professional and *surely* won't display his preference for my Yellow Jackets

[alexfall862]

I already have 3 great ideas for commentators that are going to make opponents hate to play me.

[TuscanSota]

I do want to preface too -  the announcers are introductory at the moment. The play by play text generation and the announcer introductions are completely separate at the moment. I haven’t gotten that far into development for the play by play result texts to have the same emphasis or personalities of the announcer broadcasting