BASEBALL RISING is a 5v5 online multiplayer game that challenges players to build and maintain a game of baseball in an unforgiving prehistoric environment, or face collective extinction.
BASEBALL RISING is my original IP and thesis, developed alongside the Interactive Media and Game Design MFA students in the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media and Games Division. The project was developed over two semesters by a core team of four developers and playtested by hundreds of volunteers.
USC Games Expo 2024
Concept
The project draws from various games, as well as theoretical and personal influences including everything from working at a coop, to dealing with player toxicity at scale first hand, and games as a method for modeling/learning real-world systems
BASEBALL RISING asks players to play a part in becoming a game maker by building a game (of baseball) in real-time. What results is an essential act of play, one that we are (or were) familiar with as children — where we make up our own games as we play them.
Glitch City BYOG 2024
Gameplay
BASEBALL RISING gives players tools to create their own game of baseball. Key among these tools is home plate, an object of mysterious origins that focuses the game and gives players mini-objectives on their way toward creating and completing a game of baseball.
In BASEBALL RISING, Baseball is Life, literally. The game’s unique Caretaking mechanic asks players to create and maintain a complex process (a game of baseball) in real-time. The game’s systems measure progress by tracking player actions to determine how ‘baseball-ey’ they are.
Ultimately, players must care for their game of baseball or face extinction.
BASEBALL RISING gives players the freedom to assume different roles at any point during a match. Within a single match, players may focus on: building the game, being a pitcher, gathering resources, organizing the team to play more effectively, ward off a threat to the game or teammate, or simply act like a gremlin.
Through this dynamism, players are able to play parts in a performance for each other.
Placing home plate reveals a blueprint for a field for players to complete
The Extinction meter tracks ‘how much baseball’ is currently happening and how imminent failure is.
USC Games Winter Showcase 2023