Backyard League is a Gaming Baseball that encourages kids (from 6 – 14) to actively play outdoors rather than play video games indoors on their devices. They do that by integrating sensors into the baseball and an interactive app that keeps users engaged with competitive throwing games. The gaming aspect (scores, rewards, achievements etc) is meant to motivate kids, while the metrics gathered in the different games can show how much they improved over time.
I was sent one by Playfinity, the company behind the Backyard League Gaming Ball and given the chance to try it out. Here’s my initial review of the Gaming Baseball.
What’s in the box?
Unboxing the Backyard League Gaming Ball, I could see that everything a user needs is packed into that box. It’s all pretty well thought out. There is the smart ball itself, the sensor puck and the screw that secures the cover for the sensor. They have included a coin cell battery (CR2032) that powers the sensor puck and a screwdriver for undoing or fastening the screws in place. There is also a bag of tuning weights which can be inserted into the ball to modify the balance of the rotation of the ball. It’s not necessary at all because the ball is of the standard weight (5oz or 142g). Adding the tuning weights is entirely a personal preference. For those interested, here’s a video that explains how to install the tuning weights here: link.
The ball itself feels really solid and well-constructed. Some physical specifications and features of the Smart/Gaming Ball include:
- Water resistance
- One coin-cell battery can power the sensor/ball for up to 70 hours of play
- The sensor measures the speed of throws, airtime, height (of a throw), the accuracy of the throw and the transfer speed.
- It can also determine/identify throws, catches, misses and ground balls.
- Backyard League has both an iOS and Android app that works with the Gaming Ball.
Next, let’s look at the setup.
Setting Up The Gaming Ball (App)
To set up the Gaming Ball, we need to first download the app. Running the app will then guide the user through the process of setting up and connecting the ball via Bluetooth. The whole process for me took about 10 minutes. It could have been shorter but I had a bit of trouble with 2 things: 1) the battery cover on the sensor puck, which I spent a bit of time fiddling with, trying to get it out and putting it back in correctly. 2) During the initial throw test, the app didn’t recognise the throws. I had to tap around different sections of the app before I realised the ball needed a firmware update. After the update, it worked perfectly. So a tip for anyone who got stuck during setting up the ball, update the ball/sensor firmware. You might need to restart the app and tap on the ball icon.
Below is my setup experience (edited and fast-forwarded) or you can also check out the more refined version by Playfinity here: link. (I probably should have watched how they did it first!)
Playing With The Gaming Ball
I have been playing with the Gaming Ball for the last six months with my 11-year-old son. Throughout that period, there’s been lots of changes and updates to the app, including adding new features and additional gamify-ing with levels (refer to the image below to see some of the changes we picked up in the last 6 months). So some things might be different by the time you see this (including the setup process mentioned above). But the nature of the app remains the same. It’s still based on using metrics, gamification and competition to motivate play and physical activity.
Most of the games and activities require 2 players to play them and they involve variations of throwing the ball to each other. The only exception is the game “Higher and Higher” which is a single-player game. At the time of writing this up, there are a few sections when we hit PLAY. They are [The Camp], [Bob’s Lab], [My Games], [The Challenges], and [League Games] which is under construction. I am going to mainly talk about [The Camp] and touch a little bit on the rest.
The Camp:
This is like a “training” section where there are different activities focusing on specific ball-throwing and handling skills. For example, “Fast Hands” is a game that measures how many times players can throw the ball to each other within a certain time period. “Freeze Ball” is all about the precision of the throw and catch. “Higher & Higher” is a practice of throwing the ball to a certain height. These first three activities of The Camp have been gamified with levels. In each level, players can get ratings from 0 stars to 3 stars when they attempt and complete that level. Getting 1 star is the minimum to progress to the next level, where the difficulty increases. Besides the stars, there are actual metrics of the throws (e.g. Airtime, height, power)
The other three activities (Fly Ball, Longer & Longer, and Ground Ball) allow players to practice different ball throws and catches. The Fly Ball (or Pop Fly) game lets players practice catching a Fly Ball and passing it back. The higher the ball goes, the more points you get. The faster the transition and the further you throw also contribute to better scores. Longer & Longer is a game where players start at a minimum of 3 yards (2.75 m) away from each other and they gain points as they increase the distance from each other with every throw. With this one, you learn to gauge how hard to throw as you move further. Lastly, the Ground Ball game develops the players’ ability to catch a ground ball and quickly throw back the ball. The less time it takes for transitioning (from the catch to the throw), the higher your score.
With these games, players will score higher points as they improve on their throws and as a bonus, they can usually score more points if they increase the distance between the throws (i.e. between the 2 players playing). Sometimes, it is even possible to “game” the system and find easier ways to get higher points! I won’t share that here but it is quite amazing what kids can figure out when it comes to games.
Bob’s Lab
Bob’s Lab is basically a Speed Test. Players who do this can test how fast they throw the baseball (Gaming Ball). You could do this with someone (who will catch your throw) or do this by yourself by throwing the ball to a padded wall or a net. The important thing is to measure the distance of where you are throwing because the app will use the given distance (10m or 15m or 20m) to determine the speed. At the end of the test (10 throws), we will get the results which include the speed of every throw, the average speed of all the throws and a consistency rating (out of 5 stars). The accuracy of the throw makes a big difference because if I miss the target and it goes further or shorter, it will still calculate using 10m and the speed calculation wouldn’t be correct. For example, when I did my speed test, I was throwing the ball to a net and when it landed short, my speed went up to 81km/h. Then when it flew past the net, I got a 26km/h. So as with everything, it just takes a bit of practice.
My Games + The Challenges
My Games and The Challenges are basically options for us to build our own games with different types of activities (throws, catch, bounce, miss), and requirements (time, speed, airtime, height). Then create challenges with those games. I haven’t gone into it because I have found the existing games pretty challenging enough (at least for now). Perhaps it is something to try after I have completed all the levels or hit a wall with some of the levels.
What I Like About The Gaming Ball
After having the Gaming Ball for some time and playing it for a period, these are some things that I found are great about Backyard League:
1) Helpful instructional videos and audio guides
There are videos and guides throughout the app to help a player with almost everything. From setting up the ball, how to start each game/activity and what to look out for, there’s always enough information to follow along. And if you are not sure what to do next, look out for a Coach Bob icon at the bottom corner. Click on Coach Bob and he will point you in the right direction. Throughout each game, there is also audio feedback that tells us how we are going, whether it is a good throw or if there is something we need to improve. The sound effects also help enhance the gameplay experience.
2) The gamification that keeps players going
The latest format with different levels and star ratings really makes it like a typical video game you would play on your smartphone or tablet. The star ratings can push a person to want to do better and achieve the full 3 stars before proceeding to the next level. It may not affect everyone but it definitely had an effect on my son and we can never end a level at 2 stars. I also like that they add motivational audio messages as you tap through your outcome or as you start a new game. Just watch the video below to understand what I mean.
Even before this new levelling interface was introduced, the scores and notifications of Personal Bests (PB), and the league games (which allow you to compete with someone else) also had a similar effect. The idea of wanting to get a better score is a great way of motivating a player to keep going out there to playing and practise more.
3) It is a decent workout
Each time I play Backyard League with my son, we can do between 10 -15 gameplay on the app and that takes anywhere between 15-30 minutes. There might not be a lot of running (or cardio) but I reckon there is enough (anaerobic) activity to consider it a workout because I do feel a bit puffed each time we play. Just check out the clip below of my 15-minute play compressed to under 2 minutes. Pretty sure it is also good training for concentration and focus.
4) Metrics/Stats
Besides the scores and star ratings from the gaming aspect, there are metrics (or measures) that give players an idea of where they are doing well or where they could do better. For example in the game of Fly Ball (or Pop Fly), we can get metrics such as the average transition time, the number of misses and the number of throws within the 60-sec game. Then we can compare those stats with our previous games or with other players on Backyard League.
What Would Be Nice (To Have)
There are some bugs/glitches that happen once in a while and then there are some user flows that I thought could be better. But to me, those are not huge problems and I believe Playfinity are always working to resolve those issues that come up. Hence the regular updates. On the other hand, there are a few things that I wish could be improved on this product.
Ability to create and choose different player profiles.
Backyard League requires two people to play (most of the games), and assuming the same two people keep playing the games, the stats technically belong to both of them instead of one person. It would be nice if player profiles could be created on the app so other people could play and have their stats recorded instead of having one set of stats that could be mixed up with scores from different players. That way, we could have some friendly competition within the family or with neighbours and friends, by simply switching player profiles.
I understand from the founders that they have designed the app this way so it minimises the need for creating an account with an email and it maintains privacy and security for users. But if they do decide to add this player profile feature, it will be really cool.
Recommended games/activities to improve certain skills
And if a player has their own profile on the app, they would also be able to see their own stats and which activities they are better at and how that translates to different throwing skills. Then the app could recommend specific games they could spend more time on to improve on those weaker areas.
Teaching or coaching on techniques.
Then as an add-on to the last point, the app could have actual videos demonstrating proper techniques for throwing or pitching with drills to help players practice their throws. With the built-in sensors, I am sure it is possible to track the mechanics of each throw (and possibly combine that with video footage captured using the smartphone camera), and then provide some feedback on it. Or at least allow the player to compare their own video with the demonstration video.
Final Thoughts
There have been a number of gamified sports products on the market, particularly balls with in-built sensors. They include adidas’ smart soccer ball that tracks goal kicks, 94Fifty’s smart basketball that tracks workouts and skill training, Wilson’s connected basketball that works similarly, and Wilson’s smart football that tracks throws and their spin rate (and there are probably others). Unfortunately, the only common thing about them all is they aren’t available on the market anymore. My guess is there wasn’t enough interest in those products. I reckon most people weren’t sure what they wanted to get out of them – is it to track their performance, is it for coaching or is it just a game? The price tags definitely didn’t help. Or perhaps those products were just ahead of themselves and most people weren’t ready for smart balls back in that period (early 2010s – 2016).
Coming back to the Backyard League Gaming Ball, they (Playfinity) are very focused on the gaming aspect. They are using motion data from the Gaming Ball to track what players are doing during the games and score them on it. Although there are some metrics about throws (like speed and height of throw and transition times), those are not the main highlights. Scores and star ratings and “Personal Bests” are things that stand out in the app and once you start playing, you want to keep going to get a higher score or beat your previous best. The accompanying audio is also a big feature of Backyard League. The “announcing voice” at the start of a game and ongoing commentary throughout the activities really enhance the experience of the game.
On the one hand, I think that it would be nice to have “coaching features” and recommendations to help players improve specific skills. On the other hand, it is a good thing that Backyard League has narrowed their attention to gaming so it is all about play and physical activity. Which means we know exactly what we are getting. Parents who play it with their kids also get a great time bonding and having fun. Apart from the Gaming Baseball, Playfinity has previously developed a Smart Ball that works with a bunch of different games, and they are working on a new Gaming Softball. For those who are interested in the Softball version, you can sign up to be notified here – waiting list. Lastly, I think it is great that the Playfinity team is always looking for ways to improve and they have even started a Discord channel where users can share their feedback or suggestions on how to make the app and game better.
That’s it for this review. If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to leave a comment or drop us a message here (link). Thanks for reading!
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