Could you provide a brief overview of your career in game development and how you got started in the industry for those that don't know about your body of work?

I started developing Out of the Park Baseball 1999 in the year 1997. It was my first attempt at creating a game; my programming background was from developing utilities, for example a file manager. Out of the Park (OOTP) started slowly with just 250 copies sold the first year, but it grew gradually and for several years now is widely regarded as the best baseball management game on the market.

Are there any games that you played in your formative years that influenced your desire to make games or how you developed your games?

Definitely. I loved the Hardball series, and played Hardball 4 every day until my eyes went red. After I found out that I preferred more statistical accuracy, I purchased a copy of Diamond Mind Baseball 7, but I disliked the fact that the game just stopped after the season was over. I wanted to continue playing with my team and build it for the future by trades and contract signings. But no game that I was aware of offered these features along with statistical accuracy, so I decided to try to create my own. Apart from sports games, I always loved Civilization and Sim City, but I also played the first couple versions of Doom for months.

Sports simulations often require an extraordinary amount of detailed testing. What are the biggest obstacles for your development team in regards to making sure that your games are tested to the fullest extent possible?

I do not think we have found the perfect approach for testing the game yet. Of course, the more testers the better, but too many can become a hassle as well, especially when you try to follow the discussions on the beta forums. For several years we have been using professional bug logging software. That has helped tremendously with logging, organizing and fixing problems. I cannot believe that we did testing without it for so many years.

Text simulation gaming is generally a niche market. What do you believe are some of the best ways to target consumers for your games?

We need to get into the fantasy sports market, and somehow get people to realize that simulation leagues are much more fun than fantasy leagues because you have so much more control over the outcome and it is a far better reflection of your skills. Here in Europe it is the other way around, fantasy sports is almost unknown, and sports management games are always among the best selling games each year. I hope the American market will be similar one day.

The OOTP Baseball series has had multiple iterations. Some were developed solely in-house while other versions were developed as a part of a larger development company. What have you learned about developing in each of those environments and which do you personally prefer?

I have learned that staying independent is something that works very well when your product is a niche product, and that joining a big company does not necessarily mean that your product turns into a mass-market game. However, working with a big company teaches you a lot about coding technologies and how to properly organize the development cycle. I don't want to miss my time working with Sports Interactive; I met a lot of wonderful people and improved my coding skills. But in the end I feel a bit more comfortable being my own boss.

Do you believe in releasing a new version of OOTP Baseball each year or do you lend any credence to the notion that a longer development lifecycle might be a better option from a quality perspective?

No, a development cycle of 1 year is perfect for a sports simulation in my opinion. Of course, one day you need to step back and see if you can continue improving the current code, and as we found out in 2004, sometimes a complete rewrite makes sense to open up new possibilities. That's the only reason for leaving the 1-year cycle in my opinion.