itch.io

Current State: The Speed minigame includes fair/foul balls, despite no batter or animation. The Speed minigame also does not allow you to return to the main menu after completing a game. It would also be nice to have a catcher's glove for the minigame, although this does add to the challenge (perhaps make this an option the user can toggle?). I noticed the emphatic ball and strike call still doesn't seem to do much, is it just me? I think maybe there should be a small point boost for a correct emphatic call (10-20%), but a large point loss (30-50%) for an incorrect emphatic call. Love the check swings and foul balls, so awesome implementation of that feature. Would be cool to have the check swing feature something the batter challenges like another commenter said. Would also be nice to view your final pitch breakdown against each team, so that I can see how I expanded the strike zone for my team and tightened it up for the other team.

Future Plans: Not sure what the full game plans are, but it would be cool to have different teams offer you different rewards (bribes, money, XP, etc.) for calling the game a certain way. Some examples I can think of are 1. # of strikeouts in a game, 2. blocked challenges, or 3 # of wrong calls in their favor.  I could see this being implemented as a message from a coach of one of the teams prior to the game, offering you a mini-goal that you can achieve regardless of who wins. This way, you can still have the team you want win while still making the other coach happy. And then maybe you can have an "opposing coach trust meter" that changes after each game based on how your calls are towards them, and if it gets too low, you may be investigated by the league. Also, we're all looking forward to doubles, triples, and home runs. I think the transparency aspect is fun as far as hit chance goes, so it would be cool to either be able to see the chances of different hits, or maybe even have this unlockable as you progress your umpire skills. For example, a new umpire would not be able to see the hit chances, but you could unlock different umpiring features as you go, such as the strike zone box displays and player (both home and away could be unlockable) quality stats. Once again, these are just some ideas to keep your creative juices flowing!