The New BuzzerBeater: Open Beta
I was 14 when I signed up for BuzzerBeater, in January 2009, during season 7. My first team was Romanoro Thunders, and I still remember coming home from school to watch the games.
Years later, in season 35, my team NativeStudios won league V.73 undefeated: 22–0. 🏆
Today I have the chance to take care of the game that taught me what being a manager means. I’m doing this for that kid, and for every one of you who was that kid too. ❤️
We want to personally thank every one of you for your patience in the years since the Spicy Sparks acquisition. 🙏
We’re not strangers who bought a game. We’re managers who got the chance to save the one we grew up with, and it has not been forgotten: we have been working on it very, very hard.
While we built the new game, we left the current one in the trusted hands of members of the previous management, who knew every quirk of its code and could keep it running for you. We want to thank them with all our hearts: all these years, they kept the lights on for every one of us. 👏
We hear you 👂
We know you didn’t like the latest updates to the current game, and they will be reverted in the beta.
We also know the game needs a new salary formula. It will be our priority as soon as we reach a stable version.
Our approach will be data-driven and community-driven at the same time: the numbers will show us where the game is out of balance, and you will tell us how it feels to play it. 📊🤝
BuzzerBeater, reborn 🌅
This isn’t just an update. This is the rebirth of BuzzerBeater: the game that kept us checking our results for years, rebuilt from the ground up so it can live for many more seasons.
On 21 September we opened the doors to 121 veterans of the original game. They played it, pushed it and told us everything, and every manager who has tried it has appreciated the direction it’s going.
The beta testers realised that the first opinion they had formed of BB’s new owners, rightly or wrongly, wasn’t true: the BB team are hard workers who really care about the game, have no intention of abandoning it, and have the right ideas and ambition not only to make it more modern, but to make it better, while listening to the game’s longest-standing, most experienced members.
Today we open it to everyone. The court is ready and the lights are on. All it’s missing is you. 🎉
Our goal for the game is to make it accessible to everyone: new users, veterans, and whoever is in between. Our goal towards the community is to be as open, responsive and reactive as possible. Our closed beta players have told us they noticed, and we are very proud of that. 💪
And we aim high. We want thousands upon thousands of managers online, so that the world feels alive: full leagues, a busy market, and someone to talk to on every match day. An immersive experience, a real 2.0. 🚀
The soul stays ❤️
We know what this game means to you. Many of you have managed the same club for well over a decade, and you don’t want someone else’s idea of basketball management. So for more than two years we did the slow, careful work of carrying BuzzerBeater over as it is.
- 📜 We went through the original game’s source code, rule by rule. Its routines for training, the economy, transfers, the draft, cups, playoffs and national teams were translated from the original engine and became the blueprint for the new one.
- 🔍 When the code and the screens disagreed, we followed what you could actually do in the game, because those are the rules you played by.
- 🤝 When even the code wasn’t clear, we asked the people who wrote it: the original developers.
- 🧪 121 veterans played it through the closed beta and told us wherever it didn’t feel right.
- 🏝️ The details you love are still there: Utopia for your second team, and the Classic layout and player portraits in Settings if you prefer the old look.
If something doesn’t feel like BuzzerBeater, it’s a bug, and we want to hear about it.
How does the beta work? 🤔
It’s simple!
- 🌍 The beta is a completely separate universe: you register again, create a new team and play as a new manager.
- ⭐ Everyone is a Supporter during the beta, so you can create two teams!
- ⏱️ Seasons are faster: in the beta, season 1 lasts 2 weeks, and from season 2 each season lasts 4 weeks.
- 🛡️ Your team in the current game is not affected and keeps playing as usual while the beta runs. This game isn’t going anywhere until the new one has earned its place.
- 🔄 When it has, your club comes with you: its name, its players, its trophies, every season you played. The teams created in the beta will then be deleted, along with all their progress.
How to join 🎟️
📧 Check your email! We are sending 11,000 emails to the players of the current game, each with an invitation code.
You can also get an invitation code on this page, and once you are registered, the game gives you 2 invitation codes for your friends too, even if they have never played BuzzerBeater! 🤝
It’s a beta, so expect bugs and things that are still changing, and tell us about them on our Discord and through our email beta@spicysparks.com.
This is only the beginning. The future ahead of us is extraordinary, and we can’t wait to build it with you. ✨
For the kids we were, and the managers we still are. See you on the court. 🏀
Marco, Alessandro, Jack, Chris, Mattia @ Spicy Sparks
