Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Out of the Park Baseball 2020 lead developer Markus Heinsohn, who lets us know what makes this version of the game a special one. A simulation and stat lover’s dream come true, this year’s OOTP Baseball the best in the series.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What makes OOTP 20 better than last year’s version?
Markus Heinsohn: We’ve got the biggest development team ever, which has allowed us to focus on a combination of new features – like our new live services for player ratings and our new 3D animations – while also diving deep into core areas like AI for scouting and trading. We’ve also made sure to be up-to-the-second with what’s happening in the real major leagues, so incorporating things like ‘openers’ to start games in short bursts has been a lot of fun. Basically, we just do everything possible every year to add new features and improve existing ones. We feel like we’ve done all that and more this season!
Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s your favorite new feature?
Heinsohn: I love Perfect Team, and with our new Tournaments that are coming soon I feel like we’re opening a whole new way for people to play Out of the Park Baseball that will be a huge success. It’s such a different way for players to compete with each other – we really think it’s groundbreaking. We can’t wait for everyone to play in Perfect Team Tournaments!
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
Leave a Reply