MindSports Baseball is a new game developed specifically for Facebook integration. It aims to pit supporters of MLB baseball teams against each other to test their knowledge of the sport in order to win points for their favorite teams.

Players compete to win prizes such as baseball memorabilia and virtual rewards, test their skills, and to see how they rank both against other fans of their favorite team, and fans of the other teams, to ultimately decide which MLB team has the smartest supporters.

Having worked with MindGames Inc over the past few years on a number of related projects, the founders again approached okellydesign to design the game itself. The game had to appeal to both casual gamers and to those who do not normally play games on Facebook, but who are big sports fans. As such, the interface had to be structured and designed in such a way that it did not alienate either camp. Ease of play was the primary goal, ensuring that those who accessed the game for the first time felt comfortable with trying it out, thus, would be more likely to become a regular user.

The overall aesthetic is obviously designed with baseball in mind, and takes its cues from the graphics used in MLB games as shown on tv. It was important that the game feel rich and deep, engaging the user to have fun exploring the game areas and to continue trying to win trophies and point for themselves and their team.

To differentiate it from the many more ‘cartoonish’ Facebook games, I decided to make everything feel as ‘real’ as possible, primarily through the use of photography and sharp graphics throughout. The images are different for each section, and relate to the screen content and user action.

Every team has a custom-designed logo and a custom team page, each of which utilize photography related to that team’s home city. This give the user a further reason to explore each team (you can easily change teams and play with whichever one you please) and a means to interact with other team fans. The logos and trophies were designed three times each, one for each of the sizes that they will be used at, with tweaks to each to ensure consistent legibility at each size.

In order to keep users interested over time, a series of potential trophies were designed, which are displayed on the players profile page. Each trophy was custom-drawn, and relate to ‘real’ MLB trophies, whilst also being unique to the game.

The game was launched on October 22nd, 2010 and grew steadily in popularity steadily, with a daily-expanding active user-base. I am very pleased to note that this poster was a winner for interactive distinction in the prestigious 2011 Communicator Awards. The game has now left beta and is no longer available online to play. You can check out its sister project, MindSports Football if you’re interested!