Pinch Hitters
Pinch Hitters is a baseball deck-builder built in 2 weeks for the Portland Indie Game Squad's Build Your Own Game Jam 2026.
Form the ultimate team of batters as you face increasingly difficult foes. Will you be able to win all 9 matches and earn the title of the King of Baseball?
Credits:
Jose Pacio
John Guerra
Dillon
Special Thanks:
Hope Guerra
My Dad
Game Jam Modifiers:
Push Your Luck, Bonk, Extreme Sports, Genre Mashup, Deck Builder, Write a Custom Shader, Deckbuilder without cards or dice, Work with 3 different teammates, Boss Fights for no real reason, Name a character named "Little Mister"
NOTE: Right now we are using a custom branch of Godot to export C# godot games to web. It works for the most part, but because it is highly experimental, there are definitely still issues. For the best experience, download the Windows version.
Known Bugs:
- When a skeleton spawns on the web build, he doesn't appear correctly on the base. He does behave like he was there though
- Known softlock when you have robber on your team. Currently still investigating the cause.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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Such a fun game! I enjoined the feeling of "we need this hit! Please lasy liz you can do it." like in all the storys. Needed a few trys but then got a Dreamer + Starman both with Oger Bat and from that point on it was free. Also Dave died, but sacrifices had to be made.
This game is really fun, the variety of batters is cool to play around with and the evolution mechanic is really sick. It kind of reminds me in real life when athletes hit their stride after years in the minor leagues. The items allow you to really customize your characters so almost any of them could be viable which is cool. The character designs hit the perfect balance between cool and cute and fit perfectly with the baseball vibe. I agree with many others in that the game has tons of potential and would definitely be something I would be interested in buying if it got expanded on in the future. Would love to hear what yall decide is "baseball music" in the future lol.
this game is very fun and has a huge potential. more character and item would be perfect, this game also remind me of balatro
this is literally so fun i lost to the eyes but now i know what to prepare for....
Found this through Demora's "2026 "No Download Required" Browser Game Showcase" video on Youtube. Really charming! Necromancer + a buffed robot kinda makes it impossible to lose though. Would love to see this expanded more.
Not so broken good combo:showoff with stat tracker, and even more if there is a dreamer because they kind of complement each other
This is very close to a sellable Steam or mobile game as-is. (Oh, except for the need for sound design. I didn't notice at first cause I had the sound off.)
Beat this guy twice with ease with my line up so I'm guessing this is the end of the game. Great work on this! I could easily seeing this expanded on and even having a competitive area with more items and batters. Just add players the ability to add a pitcher to counter crazy batters and its a shoein. Amazing work man!
This is such a fun deck builder!!
Incredible how you've combined the mechanics of baseball and deck builders in such a satisfying way. The visual spinner representing batting odds are so nice, and the choices for my team and add ons are genuinely hard to make.I kept playing after my recording and managed to eventually beat it, though I feel bad cause I kind of cheesed it. I don't remember specifics, but I managed to get two batters with 100% averages, and could both hit 3 bases. Once one was on the field, the other would hit and move to third, pushing them home, then I just put them back up to bat and repeat.
Would love to play this more if you ever consider expanding! Had a wonderful time, thanks for making it!
Really really really nice!
this is an amazing combo: the dream with Ogre bat and the Starman with the baseball diamond
10/10, i really liked it! feel like it could be built upon further, some music would be nice maybe (?)
Very cool. Here's my ending team for balance.
love the game, think it's little unbalanced, maby i'm just lucky and got the dream team :)
At this point I guess my build revolve around having necromancer on first, doesn't matter if he strikes out because dreamer and Dave will clean house XD (and Yeti and Robot is a backup plan)
gg, 10/10 game
reellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyygood game
love the evolutions and how you don't originally know how to unlock them
The Dream + Ogre Bat lol
I'd buy a full version of this.
I see a lot of potential, but the late game is... kinda boring. The issue for me is that it's very easy to get a batter over 100% accuracy and to give them enough strength that every one of their hits is a homerun. For example, you could get the Dream, give them a lead weight and/or an ogre bat, and now you win every game forever, with just one batter.
Very fun game! Thanks for it
showoff insane. got him 8 strength 100% accuracy. otherwise amazing game
Genuenly so fun played for an hou
gave a shy guy ball and chain at the start into an ultimate bat and it is effectively >100% accuracy and has enough minimum strength to go full circle every time, making it a deterministically free wi
Incredible little game! If I needed to hire a character designer, I'd hire you on the spot!
heres the team I finished the game with! :] probably not the best but i got attached to the little guys :')
Oh my God BaseBaal is such a great pun 😂
Love this game Charles and Dreamer make such an amazing duo and I couldn't get rid of those two even when I knew I should lol
I love turn-based sports games, so I really appreciate this, even though it doesn't last very long.
I'm guessing maybe there will be more but im not sure about it actually happening.
Once you have Starman and Robot at strength 8 with Baseball Diamonds, the game becomes repetitive and allows you you spam those two for 8 rounds to guarantee a win. I assume Basebaal is the final boss and development didn't go further but I loved it! Couldn't stop min-maxing. Mad props!
Made a video
Giving a couple characters the Stat Tracker and then using Picket Bat with Mr. Baseball Junior to strike out 8 times in a row for an immediate +8% on the other characters is awesome, also really hilarious how many times I was mad at him for actually hitting the ball despite having a 1-7% chance... I think he's a liar lmao
really fun game but the end game is a bit boring, I had a character that couldn't miss so I basically couldn't lose but the requirement was 25 points so it was just a boring level to play.
Randomly clicked and surprisingly fun and cute lol
I managed to beat the game without buying any characters. Love it.
A fun little game!! it could use some music theme, but overall very cute (love the visuals and the tiny piece of story here and there!)
Really cool gameplay and beautiful artwork! Nice job!
Can you set the target platform for the download? Can't download on itch.io desktop without one.