Bush League Baseball

Eight teams. None of them are good, and one of them is good in a way you are going to resent.

Nine innings of REAL BASEBALL: force plays, double plays, tag-ups, the infield fly, extra innings, the whole apparatus, played by people who cannot be trusted with any of it.

All 106 players have a name, a face, a number, and ONE THING WRONG WITH THEM. It is printed on their card, the booth brings it up when it happens, and it will change how you manage the inning. That is the game.

EIGHT BALLPARKS, IN 3D

Every game is played in real-time 3D, with bobblehead ballplayers who have their own faces, stances and walk-ups, and every park plays its own way. THE PALACE has a royal box and triple decks. THE SANDLOT has a dog in the weeds and no fence in left. MUNICIPAL FIELD has a 40-foot wall. COW PASTURE has a cow that moves between innings. GLASSWORKS has a factory window in right that stays broken once you break it. THE MOSH PIT has a light tower that has been out since spring. THE SPEEDWAY has a dust devil, and HARBOR PARK has a seagull on the dock. Crowds with signs and opinions, a band, a seventh-inning stretch, and a mascot for every club, from Sir Barks at The Palace to one for the club you found.

CHUCK BASEBALL IS IN THE BOOTH

Every call is voiced. Chuck Baseball is a loud, warm announcer who is delighted by every sloppy play. An error is not a tragedy to Chuck. An error is the best thing that has happened all week. What he says is what the caption says, so the two never disagree. (Spoken in English; the captions follow your language.)

THE FRANCHISE

Found a club of your own: pick its hometown, crest, name and colours, and the face of the franchise. It joins the league in LAST place, one game from the end of a bad season. Then run it for years: the draft, training, tryouts, the market, the winter, the retirements. Your players' careers go in THE BOOK. The great ones go on the wall, in THE HALL, and their numbers come off the board for good. Franchise progress saves automatically on your device.

BUILD YOUR OWN BALLPARK

Your club starts in a yard with no lights and a gopher. Every winter you spend the purse on it, zone by zone: a monster wall, ivy, a short porch or a deep alley in left, center and right, with berms, double decks, triple decks, a pool or fountains behind them. The walls you build change how the game plays there, the seats you add pay at the gate, and the wacky pieces go as far as castles, volcanoes and rockets.

ONLINE

Your whole club fits on one line: the men, the batting order, the crest and colours, and the park you built. Send your code to a friend, paste theirs, and play their club at your park or theirs.

Online scoreboards and tournaments arrive in a free update two weeks after launch, with TODAY'S DERBY on a scoreboard for everybody.

THE MODES

• EXHIBITION: any two clubs, any ballpark, three to nine innings.

• PENNANT: found a club and play for years.

• HOME RUN DERBY: solo, a duel, or TODAY'S DERBY, one daily challenge for everybody.

• PRACTICE: batting, fielding and baserunning, with nobody watching.

TWO PLAYERS, ONE KEYBOARD

Player two sits on the right. Keyboard or a standard controller.

ALSO FROM QUORUM

• Veil of Time: a hand-painted JRPG set in the clock-tower town of Castra. Parry in real time or command the party turn by turn.

• SUNSTONE: A Tale of the Briar King: an 8-bit action-adventure seen in 3D. Nine tombs, eight Sunstones.