BuzzerBeater Forums

We know there are lots of people which offered to help us with the development of BB for free and this would be a chance to prove that they meant business. They would get some kind of reward, surely, we're not robots

That's why we are considering outsourcing the app to the community and interested devs as a semi open source thing but the greatest obstacle, as has already been said, was code and data access. We don't want developers to be able to gain ingame advantage due to their work on the app.

The only possible solution I thought of so far would be a tight cooperation between the devs and us, where we'd need to build a platform which would give the devs the needed data for their work without giving too much away. It would be a slow and painful process but could be basically essential for the survival of the game in the long run.

I'm open to suggestions (if you don't mind me hijacking this thread) on how to do this, especially from people who have information on how this is kind of thing is usually done. I can also make this more official once we get the general idea on how to do this.

I just saw this right after posting this in another thread.....


First off, I want to say that I have played BB for 5 years in real life and love this game. It is the best online game I've ever played. However, I believe I am one of those managers that EBW was talking about in the first post of thinking about quiting.

Overall, despite BB being a great game, it does not cater to those that are busy. Many of the people who have played BB for awhile and have kept the game running for so long, have grown in real life to a point where there is less time to manage their teams. Like myself, I graduated college, started a career at a bank, just got married, and just bought a house. So as you can see, I am very busy and don't have time to whip out the laptop just to change a roster or make a bid on the TL.

Many others are in the same situation as me, and others will be joining us in the coming years as you see newer managers going off to college and starting their lives. Despite being an amazing game, there just isn't enough time to whip out the laptop, once again. Everyone would rather open an app on their phone and do what they need to that way.

If BB doesn't find out how to get an app in the coming years, I'm afraid it'll come to a point of needing to be shut down. The user base will continue to plummet as the older people get to busy and the younger crowd uses computers less and less and every game become mobile based. BB needs to figure it out so that they don't get left behind.

Now I have never really urged any change to the game during my time on BB, but I am saying it right now, MAKE AN APP AT ALL COSTS!

Use the money generated from the second teams if you have to. Hire on people who play BB if you have too. Do anything you can. This is the one thing that I think everyone will benefit from and there won't be complaints. This should come way before anymore game changes.

I want to thank you Marin for actually posting in this thread. Means a lot to the community to know your really do care.

As you said, an app will be vital to the survival of the game and I'm sure we can all work together to come up with a process for you guys to take to make it happen. :)

If that is what you want to do, then I think your first step would be to make a visible and apparent announcement asking for help. I'm not sure if you have the ability or even want to send a mass e-mail out to the active users, but that could be an option. Once you have the people willing to volunteer for it, set up a private forum where you can exchange information between yourself and the developers. Even though you don't want to give too much away to them, I would err on the side of a "fight or flight" mentality that BB's long-run existence and money-making ability could possibly hinge on the effectiveness of this app.

Hey Marin,

I have some experience in coordinating projects when development is mostly unilateral and systems communicate with different frameworks.

I'm not sure how BB is coded, but if there was some kind of form or method to set up lineups, for instance, it wouldn't really be expensive or difficult to create an interface to receive roster data, enable users to play with it and then send it back. I know I'm talking about one simple functionality inside the game, but I'd recommend an incremental approach anyway.

This should enable the mobile devs to code an app without ever touching or seeing the code behind BB as they would only need some kind of spec of the data exchange.

I'd be glad to help with that part, I'm not a coder, but I can contribute in some other ways. :)

P.S.: Even if there aren't any forms like that, I don't believe the cost to create them would be high anyways.



Last edited by Welington at 7/3/2014 11:09:38 AM

Did you think about outsourcing the whole app-development to a student or group? Like a bachelor/master thesis. You would have a dev who isn't interessted in gaining advantage and who has an own interest in it's success.

Hi Marin,

nice to hear this words. I have question to You, Do You have any plan for implement and put on market na App?
I think there is few ways to bouild an App and do not give the code and data to market. I do not know in Your intellectual property law but everything can be done properly. Best way should be hire a specialist to Your team which know how to bouild it :)

An app would be the best idea for Buzzerbeater right now.

I know it is incredibly hard to make one, with the game and all of that stuff but if thy could make an app, imagine how great it would be.

Let's say the app gets into top 150 on apple. Even if users don't get the app, they still may check out the website anyway. We also have to think of this. Mobile is taking over the world. People enjoy mobile and stuff rather than computers I believe. Right now, people on mobile may not go on the site because if they have a device that doesn't have flash, they cant watch games. They cant do lots of things. I go on mobile a ton, home or away to go on the site anyways. But I would love an app.

Make a user friendly application, if you're going to make one at all. People need to be convinced not just to use this with wifi, but use data if they have any.

I don't think there should be a price on the app. I think there should be a good amount of ads, and 5 in app purchases.

1. Supporter 1 Year
2. supporter 3 months.
3. Supporter w/ second team
4. Second team
5. Remove ads ($.99-$4.99, automatically no ads with supporter)

Another suggestion would be that once you login you stay logged in and don't have to on the app.

It's a stretch, but you have to make the app free. I would see 5000 downloads at least, and I would highly recommend something like write a review for a free 2 weeks of supporter!

Another idea, try to use tapjoy (Apple) to get people to get supporter points.

An app may save BB, and I honestly think if anything needs to happen it should be an app, I know its incredibly hard but it needs to be a focus. Hire some people that are capable, is a suggestion.

Think of it like this - create an app, many people happy.

One more idea I am having is make the way you watch the game cool on mobile, you could even do something like ESPNs game cast or something like that, where it shows the X shoot the ball, and has a nice game flow chart.


Keep in mind these are just suggestions.

Those ideas seem very well thought through to me ...I would definitely support an app, as in my opinion this is long overdue. I'm mainly using my mobile to set up lineups etc as the only time I have at hands is when I'm on a train or have a short break at work. And I almost never have my laptop with me..so the process of setting up a lineup etc is very annoying with a smartphone and I'd be glad to buy those suggested in app purchases...

And I think I wouldn't even need every function in the app but the most important ones (lineup, TL, training setup ... maybe make a poll to find out what people need the most ...)

I hope you'll start developing the app as soon as possible ... it would love to see BB grow again with a BB-App!

Thanks all, we are aware of the importance of the app, that's why this discussion is happening.

We need help to make it though, and have limited resources. If you ask me, the best way to go is to setup a wiki or similar for the devs and start documenting the project there. As I said, there's a lot of people interested in helping us, which really makes me proud and happy, but for the same reason, I wouldn't limit the dev group to a student project or similar. I guess, we can make something similar to BBAPI that can actually receive data too, not just display it. I wonder if BBAPI would be a good platform for this or there's a better way, and that's what I'm asking.

@Wellington: I would gladly accept help with coordination. I agree with everything you wrote (incremental approach, unilateral development and spec building...), and seems to me like you know what you're talking about. If you like, propose how to start this (where to make a project site, what it should consist of, what are our obligations as BBs and what are the obligations of the community devs) and we'll then take steps and make an official post for it.