The gameplay can be broken into the competition between…

• The batter and the pitcher,
• And once the ball is in play, the batting team on bases and the fielding team.

 

I’ve broken the screen down the centre so that we have two panels which references the comic strip feel of the cartoon.

This cartoon strip feel is emphasised with the cam’s fixed to a side view.

Two teams compete in baseball and each of the two teams is assigned a panel, much like the two player experience in car racing titles.

Screen layout for console system

 

Our two example teams are ‘Snoop Doggy’ who are at ‘bat’ in the top half of the screen and ‘Beethoven’ who are fielding in the bottom panel.

 

The need for a complex HUD is negated by all relevant game info being portrayed in the playfield.

The score is displayed on the large scoreboard, which should be easily read in the ‘batting’ teams view-port.

 

Both players view the batter/pitcher duel in the ‘batting’ teams panel, and use the ‘fielding’ teams panel to examine placement of fielders and base population.

 

The participants in this game are constantly in motion, jumping on the spot, running in little circles, gesturing and calling to each other. All the colour of a back lot baseball.

 

Splitting the teams across panels also make’s it a lot easier to retarget the game for portable systems like the PSP.

Two PSP unit’s linked by wireless network

Gameplay might run something like this…

• Game starts and there is a single player vs. the computer.
• A playfield is selected.
• The game flashes to the selection screen and all the potential team members
• The player always has first pick and they need to select a captain.
• Once selected the player can enter a team name.
• Now the computer selects a captain, and names the team.
• The player and computer now alternate selecting team members.

 

• Once the teams are selected the game screen is displayed, coin is tossed to decide on whom bats first, and the first innings is declared.
• The batting team decides what the order is and the first batter walks up to the plate. A ‘power-up’ character may also be selected and they walk up and stand in the foul zone near the batter. This is also the time that the fielding player decides on field placement and their pitcher approaches and stands at the plate.

 

• An innings is played, the end of which occurs when three batters have been forced out.

 

• Then the teams swap between fielding and batting
• Once again an innings is declared. Batting and fielding setups are decided and the game commences.

 

• The game is called at the end of nine innings (we could allow the selection of less innings which would allow shorter games.)

Gameplay ‘3D single screen’

The view port would zoom in and stall in for batting action. When the player is fielding the view port stays out while pitching is in progress, and only zooms in when the ball needs to be fielded.

• Keep the view side on so the characters all look much like they do in the comic strip
• Fielding: us the diamond shape on the ps2 pad to immediately fire a ball at the base you desire.

 

Since the screen is focused on a single aspect of the game, a radar system will need to be implemented in the HUD.

The HUD could be a simple diamond that shows the position of the batters team on the bases, and the movements of the ball.

The same HUD could be used for both batting and fielding.