Indoor Baseball combines sport and mischief which should come with a “don’t try this at home” disclaimer. As the name suggests, you will be able to live your childhood dreams of ignoring your parents and playing ball games in the confines of your home. It’s destructive, hectic, and brings a new challenge to the sports genre. The main goal? Prove you belong on the school baseball team after you were cut from the line up.
We had the opportunity to speak with Colby over at Snow Day Software, all about the development of Indoor Baseball to give players an insight into what’s to come in the arcade-style sports game.
GameScout: Introduce us to Snow Day Software!
Snow Day Software: My name is Colby and I’m the solo developer over at Snow Day Software. I’ve been a professional software developer in the healthcare industry for 15+ years and I started making games in my free time about 11 years ago. I’ve always wanted to make video games since I was a kid, so after I was a professional software developer for a few years, I tried my hand at making games and it finally started making sense. I’ve been consistently doing game development for myself since then.
I enjoy playing a lot of different genres of games, so I try to make games in the genres that I most enjoy. My first few games were sci-fi action games, but now I’ve more recently been making sports games which I’ve always enjoyed. I used to play a ton of sports games as a kid, and I still do play sports games a lot of the time. Some of my favourite sports games are NHL2k8, NHL Hitz Pro, The Bigs, and Rocket League, to name a few. I’ve made games in a lot of different genres, but I’m finding that I really enjoy making sports games so I think at least for my next couple games, I plan to stick to that genre.
Indoor Baseball acts as a successor to Indoor Kickball, the first entry in the series. Indoor Kickball brought ball games to forbidden environments of a house such as the living room, kitchen, bedroom, and basement. Indoor Baseball will follow in its footsteps, but will be bigger, better, and with more destruction (sorry parents.)
GameScout: What inspired the creation of Indoor Kickball and then Indoor Baseball?
Snow Day Software: A few years ago I started making a prototype of a game I was calling Super Kickball. It was a 9v9 full field game of kickball, with power ups and silly things like that. I had a mostly functional demo build created, but when I started working beyond that, it became too big of a project to make by myself in my free time. I really liked the idea of a kickball game so I tried to think of ways to scope things down to be able to realistically make it myself.
I thought back to when I was a kid and my brother and I would literally play baseball in our living room and one time, I smashed our fish tank with my t-ball bat. Luckily my dad was quick to save all the fish but, of course, that was the last time we played baseball in the house. But this gave me the idea of how to scale the game down, while still having a unique idea for a kickball game. It seemed like playing kickball inside with crazy bounces and obstacles all over would be a great idea for an arcade-style sports game. Then after I was happy with how Indoor Kickball turned out, I thought Indoor Baseball would be a great natural progression. It’s similar enough to share the fast, hectic pacing, but different enough to feel like a new game.
GameScout: What kind of player do you think will be interested in Indoor Baseball?
Snow Day Software: Indoor Baseball should be fun for anyone who might be interested in arcade sports games. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were a lot more arcade sports games like NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, MLB Slugfest, Super Baseball 2020 and a bunch of other games similar to those. So I think maybe on a smaller scale, this should fit in well with some of those unrealistic but fun sports games. I’m not trying to make an ultra realistic game like MLB The Show, but I’m trying to make something with familiar mechanics, so it should feel natural enough to pick up and play for beginners and also have enough going on for players who are veteran baseball game players.
If you enjoyed Indoor Kickball, you should definitely have your eye on Indoor Baseball. Although it’s a different sport, the similarities will be noticeable, while providing a fresh and improved experience across the board.
GameScout: For those who have played Indoor Kickball, what are the biggest changes you’ve made going into Indoor Baseball and what have you kept the same?
Snow Day Software: I’m kind of treating Indoor Baseball as a bit of a sequel to Indoor Kickball. The whole game is technically rewritten, but they have similar themes in that they are a ball game played in the house. Indoor Baseball will have more mechanics involved like the pitching and hitting, it will have a story mode, home run derby game mode, and the players have their own stats with their own strengths and weaknesses. Overall, I think Indoor Baseball will feel familiar but it should be bigger, better, and more polished in almost all regards.
GameScout: Why did you decide to add strengths and weaknesses to characters in Indoor Baseball? How are you going to make sure a character isn’t overpowered?
Snow Day Software: I think I knew when I started making the game that the players should have their own stats. Especially now with baseball instead of kickball, it made sense to give the players their own stats so they can have their own unique selection of pitches to choose from for each character. I plan to use the current demo and a future demo for Steam Next Fest to help balance any characters from becoming overpowered. But also sticking to my theme, some characters might intentionally be a little overpowered, like Mom or Dad.
No matter which mode you play, Indoor Baseball is strictly a 1v1 experience against the CPU or a friend in local multiplayer. Despite the absence of a full team, there are unique ways to hit home runs on each field and obstacles to avoid as you run the bases. Due to all the chaos that will follow from you smashing through the various levels, 1v1 games play perfectly well in Indoor Baseball, and it’s probably best it stays that way.
GameScout: Why have you chosen 1v1 battles rather than a team based game or a mixture of both options?
Snow Day Software: There are two main reasons I stuck with 1v1 games. The first is because it’s just simpler for me to make myself. It’s easier to design and code the CPU AI which scales down the scope for me, so I can realistically release the game in a reasonable amount of time. The second reason is just the size of an indoor field. Most indoor fields would get a bit too cluttered with any more than 1v1 and that game wouldn’t be as fun if 90% of your hits would just bounce off the wall and get caught by one of the fielders.
GameScout: How are you going to ensure you cater to both competitive and casual players?
Snow Day Software: I’m planning to have two different types of hitting modes. One simple mode where it’s just 100% timing based and you don’t need to aim anything to hit the ball. The other mode will be the default mode where you try to track the ball as it’s pitched, then swing the bat at the right time. The more advanced mode will give you the added benefit of allowing you to try to aim your hit. Depending on where the ball hits the barrel of the bat and your timing will determine where the ball is hit into the field.
Indoor Baseball has a demo on Steam where you can put your batting and ball serving skills to the test. Aside from the basics, it doesn’t give too much away, but that’s about to change.
GameScout: I noticed the demo strictly focuses on hitting the ball and serving the ball, rather than a more complete baseball experience. Was that intentional? What challenges have you faced fine tuning these mechanics?
Snow Day Software: I released a very early demo of just the home run derby because I specifically wanted to focus on polishing the pitching and hitting mechanics before releasing a demo with a normal game mode. I do plan to release an updated version of the demo with actual 1v1 baseball games for a Steam Next Fest in the near future.
Pitching has been a challenge, balancing implementing something flexible enough that gives the players the control of the pitch they expect, but also it’s an arcade baseball game of kids playing in their house. So it was never meant to be 100% accurate in any way, so that mechanic is still, even now, a constant work in progress.
GameScout: Will Indoor Baseball be supported for a long time? Or do you have plans for another entry in the series? Indoor Dodgeball, perhaps?
Snow Day Software: For Indoor Kickball, I released around six new fields and had a bunch of quality of life improvements based on the feedback received after release. I plan to do the same for Indoor Baseball. I’m always looking for feedback and ideas for my games because I’m constantly trying to improve them, especially after release since I will hopefully get the most feedback from the game after it’s released.
Beyond that, I’m also developing a 4v4 wiffleball game that will hopefully come out next year. It will have some similar mechanics as Indoor Baseball, but will be outside in more wiffleball-like fields with a Pitcher, Catcher, Left Side Fielder, and Right Side Fielder. I definitely would love to do more indoor sports in the future, I have a ton more ideas of what I’d like to make, so who knows!
GameScout: Can you tell us a release date or when we can expect a release date to be announced? Will a console port arrive at the same time?
Snow Day Software: Right now, my goal is to have the game released by the end of summer 2025. Unfortunately It’s too early to give an estimated release date. I will be porting the game to Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. I’m hoping to release the console ports at the same time as the PC game. But since I’m doing all the console ports myself, I’m not sure yet if that is a realistic goal or not. I released Indoor Kickball on PC a few months before the console ports.
To be notified when Indoor Baseball launches, make sure to add the game to your Steam wishlist. Keep up with the latest from Colby at Snow Day Software by dropping them a follow on your preferred social media platforms:
