In this Dev Diary, I’m going to tell you all about the TM database. Now, while it might not seem exciting on the face of it, it’s actually a completely vital part of our games, and it’s perhaps the main component for achieving the realism our series is aiming for.
How the Database Works
All our information on players comes from various professional databases, which we combine into a unique one to suit our needs at Tennis Manager. Through this, we naturally take all theplayers that participate in the ATP, WTA, and the ITF Juniors to start with. Following that, we then go through the process of adding flavour: every player needs to have an assigned weight, height, sex, playstyle, and hand that they use. It goes without saying that we also add in their previous records. With close simulation in mind, it is important that our players can experience the game with all the existing records intact, to allow them to build off of decades of tennis history when forming their own careers.
On top of this, it is great for us to know even more about the player. This is, after all, the most intricate and detailed tennis simulator on the planet (and we’ll get into that in a future Dev Diary). That’s why we also go after strengths and weaknesses, or preferred surfaces, in an effort to make each virtual player as close to their real-life counterparts as possible. All of this knowledge and all of these stats are translated when we input players into the game. They are put in as the player’s attributes and preferences for game plans. Therefore, when a manager decides to hire that player, they can manage off their existing characteristics.
Just some examples of the attributes we include are the quality of the various shots that each tennis player performs. This includes volley, forehand, backhand, as well as their serve. We have to input the level of potential we feel they can achieve over the rest of their career from where they are – this can differ massively depending on the natural talent of a player, or how advanced they are in age. The Scouts are invaluable when they input this information, as it has a direct effect on every single match that the virtual player takes part in. That’s why it is paramount that the data is absolutely accurate to reality.
The types of player progress are also monitored by our Scouts, who identify through statistics and records the “kind” of progress that a player makes. This will again be explained fully in a later edition, but our Scouts will consider whether the player in question is an early, normal or late bloomer in terms of achieving their talent peak. The Scouts work on any extra, more abstract attributes that they can attach to the player as well. This could be their perceived level of fame, which can have really positive effects on success in some scenarios. There are also the attributes applied to young tennis players who have a “wonder kid” status, which can greatly affect their in-game performance and confidence.
Transforming players’data and stats into tennis attributes – A custom automatised matrix
The Human Touch – The Scouts
It is not just the devs on our team who work on this, however. We also work with our experienced tennis experts from all around the world. They are known as The Scouts, and they are very important in that they watch around the clock all year for the development of the world’s tennis players. They watch out for juniors with strong potential, and they take note if a player’s performance is improving or getting worse.
Highlighted: determining the potential and game plans according to the comparison of the visions of our Scouts
The Scouts are invaluable to us in both the short- and the long-term. When we have collected all of the data and all of the estimations, we then run the whole database in a simulator over the course of a few in-game years, in order to see how it processes the information. Ideally, the players we think have the highest potential will eventually rise to the top line of tennis, while the experienced players will slowly fall down the ranking as they begin to age. We use big data processing tools to compare thousands of runs, adjusting the DB according to the results.
Ready for Use
After all of these validations, there are still a few more tests lined up in the process. The final iteration involves small adjustments that we will make towards the final steps of the game release. The QA department will have a close look at various long-term simulations to detect any obvious anomalies, while the beta tests will serve a similar purpose.
The latter allow our trusted players to give their own feedback if they feel that there is something grossly unrealistic or incorrect about the way the simulator works in their own saves. Therefore, while we do base a lot of work on our own judgment, we also trust and depend upon our players for the final word and the all-clear to go.
And that concludes our process for creating the Database. It’s a lot of work and involves many different steps to come to fruition as a functional part of the game. However, it is perhaps the most vital step in achieving the realism we so strive for in the Tennis Manager franchise.
Join the Scouts!
Would you like to become one of our Scouts? We are always interested in working with tennis enthusiasts and experts from all around the world to join our existing team. Through this, you can be in regular contact with our devs here at Rebound, and have an influence in how we direct the realism aspects of our upcoming game.
If you’re interested, please contact our team anywhere, from the form you can fill out on the Tennis Manager website, to our Discord server (https://discord.gg/freFrxQj), or on any of our social media pages. Get in touch!
See you next week, where we talk about the real-life players, and how we bring them to the game! Until then --- Jeremy
To close off with something different, I’m going to present one of our top Scouts for Tennis Manager 2021, who is coming back tohelp us update the database for the coming year! Some of our Scouts are ATP, WTA or Junior coaches. Some are university teachers, some coach at the local level. Some are media journalists and streamers. Some are simply tennis enthusiasts witha lot of experience watching and absorbing.
Let’s say hello to Damian, one of our Scouts for 2021:
Damian Kust - TM21 Scout
“My name is Damian Kust and I am a tennis journalist. You can link up to my Twitter profile at https://twitter.com/damiankust.
The category I’m probably most knowledgeable about and analysing the most would be the ATP Challenger Tour. Regardless, the most important competency in being a Tennis Manager Scout is the ability to dissect a player’s game and figure out their strengths and weaknesses. Of course, you should watch a lot of tennis! And have a good eye for talented players that are under-ranked.
The players I think will have the most progression in 2022 are Jiri Lehecka, Dominic Stricker, Arthur Cazaux, and Jack Draper. I think that Tennis Manager is an excellent game for tennis geeks who love realistic stats and nerdy details!”