BSTEVR — NFL game simulator development
NFL games simulator and game reviews generator application development project
The Idea.
This project was inspired by the founders’ love of football and the game’s huge popularity in the United States, especially as the National Football League (NFL). The fans constantly engage in fervent disputes over the ‘best ever’ team or its particular line-up, speculate as to the possible outcomes of clashes between legendary players, and seem to never have enough stuff to satisfy their endless curiosity, imagination, and passion for the sport.
The founders of BSTEVR came up with an idea to create an NFL games simulator that would not only provide another stream of football content 24/7 free of charge. They envisioned a way for fans to live out their football fantasies and resolve personal disputes over the favorite teams’ or players’ supremacy.
The BSTEVR NFL game simulator app would give fans a chance to simulate matches between teams and line-ups that would never have met in real life, and find out the presumed results. All they need to do is sign up and enter the names into the online simulator configurations.
Moreover, the experience should be social and shareable, providing fans with a creative outlet and a means to connect with and involve other fans.To do this, the BSTEVR founders needed to create an NFL team simulator that would accurately simulate NFL games, calculate the points that might be scored, and deliver detailed descriptions of the games’ key points in a format interesting for football fans.
Start of the project.
The founders had thoroughly thought out the NFL game simulator development, so at the time they approached Onix, the project documentation, including plans and development diagrams with requirements, was ready.We were matched through Aloa, an intermediary company that facilitates outsourcing software development partnerships. With 20+ years of experience in most varied projects and few things our experts haven’t tried yet, Onix may be the best partner to build your own NFL team simulator.Luckily, Onix's leading developer Alex Belous was free at that time and took a keen interest in the NFL team simulator development. He came up with a solution and quickly delivered a demo version of the complex mechanism.
Thus, after a tender, three teams took over the project:
the California-based team Neuron were in charge of the UI design
the Spanish company Real Core was responsible for the website through which users can access the simulator
Onix took on the ambitious task to develop an NFL game simulator
The project solutions
and technology stack.
Onix's team built three major elements of the BSTEVR NFL games simulator application development project:
a fast and reliable simulator of football games
a database that has accumulated data and statistics about all the players and matches of the American National Football League since 1966
recapper — a system for automated generation of articles in English describing the simulated games' events and results
The main challenges during the development were:
the initial low performance of the simulator
the need to calculate the various ratings of all players to generate reliable game results
API Development
Innovative Algorithm
Rigorous Verification Process
Turbocharging Simulator Speed
Precision in Outcome Predictions
The application’s
user flow and features.
This resulting system is unique on the market. BSTEVR empowers users to simulate competitions between any two NFL teams, even incompatible teams or players who would never have met in real life, e.g., Dallas Cowboys 2003 vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1992.
Users can also share the details of fantasy matches with friends, colleagues, or other fans.
The online simulation of football matches implies six steps:
First, the user selects the teams and match type. Both teams must be NFL members and on the list of available ones. The user can also select each team’s line-up by year.
The user sets up a matchup (a single game or the best of 7 series) and game style (standard NFL or backyard).
The user sets up both teams: selects players for all positions and appoints the captains. The user may even select a specific year in a player’s career.
After running a simulation, the system displays a median of three presumed results and brief statistics about them. The user can choose one case out of three.
The user reads a newly generated article about the match and its key points, e.g., who scored the points, who made the decisive pass, who broke the rules, etc., as well as the final extended statistics.
The user can add comments to the game’s quarters and a title for the article to attract other readers. Then, they proceed to publish the article on the website where it will be available to all visitors.
The visual design.
For BSTEVR, Onix’s team was implementing the design created by the California‑based agency Neuron.Like the development, the design was realized in increments, using Agile methodologies. After completing one stage, we jointly analyzed the outcomes and planned the necessary changes and the next stage’s tasks. All design-related work was done in Figma. Although the main work on the visual part is carried out by Real Core, we also contributed our help.
Minor adjustments were made upon Real Core’s request, but generally, the product’s design has been successfully realized as closely as possible to the original mockup.
Results and prospects.
The cooperation between the three agencies and the three founders of BSTEVR has been smooth, productive, and mutually beneficial.
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The Onix team has been smart, proactive, fast, and responsive. It's been a pleasure to work with them, and great to have them as part of our team.
A beta version of the NFL game simulator app was successfully launched, and currently, Onix's team is in charge of its maintenance.Moreover, we are already working on the second version of the product, adding increasingly useful and interesting functionalities that users will definitely appreciate. We expect to release it in the near future.