Designing a Baseball Board Game

Roll for your outcomes

DK Lab Co., Ltd.

Seven years ago, Matt JS Kho’s wife mentioned that dice, if each side of the die were dedicated to the outcomes of a thrown pitch or an at bat, could make for a pretty good baseball board game. The thought stuck with Kho as he went about his normal life. He began to sketch out ideas, and a few years later, Base On Board was a 2025 honoree for the CES Innovation Awards.

Base on Board is a tabletop game that captures the game within the game of baseball, the mental battles between pitchers and batters, between managers and managers. The game includes a 3D board that unfolds like a pop up book into a baseball stadium as well as custom dice and cards. The dice are used to determine pitch a pitcher throws, if a batter hits the ball, and where that ball goes. The cards are used for offensive and defensive tactical play, and for extra drama, there are challenge cards as well as an infield fly token too.

As a baseball fan (he supports the KIA Tigers), Kho hopes that Base on Board will help fans understand the game more deeply, as they take part in the strategy and logic that goes into the playing of the game. He also hopes the game will familiarize players with the more confusing rules of baseball (like the infield fly). “I tried to [add] the real situations of baseball into this game, so every baseball fan can enjoy easily and think about strategy,” he shares. “It’s really helpful to educate kids or beginners, it made me understand the very comprehensive rules that sometimes confuse even professional players.”

But just because the game is about to launch to an excited public (it has already exceeded its funding goal on Kickstarter), Kho isn’t ready to stop his work on Base on Board. In fact, he considers this current version a 1.0 and has many ideas about future developments including possible applications of e-ink dice, which adjust based on a character’s stats. But for now, Kho hopes fans will be able to gather with family and friends and have a nice time playing the current version of Base on Board.

Base on Board is currently funding on Kickstarter, with their campaign set to end on October 28. Check out their campaign here.