Rocket League facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Rocket League |
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| Developer(s) | Psyonix |
| Publisher(s) | Psyonix |
| Director(s) | Thomas Silloway |
| Producer(s) | Sarah Hebbler |
| Designer(s) | Corey Davis |
| Programmer(s) | Jared Cone |
| Artist(s) | Bobby McCoin |
| Composer(s) | Mike Ault |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 3 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release date(s) |
July 7, 2015
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| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Rocket League is a super fun video game where you play soccer with rocket-powered cars! It was created by a company called Psyonix. The game first came out in July 2015 for Windows computers and PlayStation 4. Later, it also became available on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
In 2016, you could buy a physical copy of the game in stores. Then, in September 2020, Rocket League became free to play for everyone!
Imagine playing soccer with cars that can fly and boost! That's what Rocket League is all about. Up to eight players can join two teams. You use your awesome rocket cars to hit a giant ball into your opponent's goal. The game has modes for playing by yourself or with friends, both online and offline. You can even play with friends on different gaming systems, which is called cross-platform play! Later updates added cool new ways to play, like modes based on ice hockey and basketball.
Rocket League is actually a follow-up to an older game by Psyonix called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars from 2008. That game wasn't a huge hit, but it had a small group of loyal fans. Psyonix worked on other games to earn money while planning the sequel. They started making Rocket League around 2013. They used ideas from their fans to make the game even better. They also did a much better job of telling people about the game, even giving it away for free to PlayStation Plus members when it first launched.
People loved Rocket League! They praised how much better it was than the old game, especially its cool graphics. The game won many awards and had over 40 million players by early 2018. Rocket League is also a popular esport, which means professional players compete in big tournaments like the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS).
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How to Play Rocket League
The main idea of Rocket League is similar to its older brother, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. You control a car that has rockets! Your goal is to hit a giant ball, much bigger than your car, into the other team's net. It's like indoor soccer mixed with a demolition derby.
Your car can jump to hit the ball in the air. You can also drive over special spots on the field to get a speed boost. This boost helps you zoom across the field, hit the ball harder, or even smash into other cars to temporarily destroy them. Don't worry, destroyed cars quickly reappear on their team's side! You can also use your boost while in the air to fly around and hit the ball high up. You can even change your car's direction while flying, which helps you control your shots. Plus, you can do quick dodges to nudge the ball or get a better spot on the field.
Most matches last five minutes. If the score is tied, the game goes into sudden death overtime until someone scores. You can play matches with different team sizes, from one-on-one up to four-on-four. There are casual games and ranked games. Ranked games are for competitive players who want to climb up different skill levels each season. Winning makes your rank go up, and losing makes it go down.
The game also has a single-player "Season" mode where you play against computer-controlled cars. In December 2016, a cool update added "Custom Training." Players can create their own practice drills and share them. You can set the ball's path and even add computer opponents to practice specific shots over and over again!
Fun Game Modes and Customization
A few months after the game came out, Psyonix added "mutators." These are special settings that change how the game plays. For example, you can change the gravity, ball size, speed, or how bouncy the ball is.
For the 2015 holidays, they even added an ice hockey-inspired mode called "Snow Day." You play on an ice rink, and the ball is a hockey puck that slides differently. People loved it so much that it became a permanent option! In April 2016, a basketball-based mode called "Hoops" was added.
Another mode called "Rumble" came out in September 2016. It adds crazy power-ups, like freezing the ball in place or making an opponent's car hard to control. In March 2017, a new mode called "Dropshot" was added. In this mode, there are no goals. The field is made of hexagonal tiles. When you hit the ball, it gets more powerful. The more hits it gets without touching the ground, the more it damages the tiles when it finally lands. The goal is to break a hole in the opponent's floor so the ball can drop through and score!
Psyonix also added ways to get cool items for your cars. In December 2019, they introduced "Blueprints." These show you exactly what item you can get. You can then use in-game money called "Credits" to build the item, or buy Credits with real money. There's also an "Item Shop" that changes daily, where you can buy specific items like painted cars or cool wheels. This way, you know exactly what you're getting!
Since September 2018, Rocket League has a "Rocket Pass." This is like a battle pass. It lasts a few months and has challenges. As you play and complete challenges, you unlock new customization items. There's a free Rocket Pass for everyone, and a premium option you can buy to unlock even more items faster.
There's also a mobile version of the game called Rocket League Sideswipe. It's similar, but it's played in 2D instead of 3D.
How Rocket League Was Made
Psyonix made their first car-soccer game, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, in 2008. The idea for these car games came from Dave Hagewood, the founder of Psyonix. He used to make special changes (called mods) to other games, like Unreal Tournament 2003, to add vehicle gameplay. He found that adding a ball to the arena made it super fun! Adding rocket-powered cars made it even better, allowing cars to fly around.
When Psyonix finished Battle-Cars, they tried to find a company to help sell it, but no one was interested. So, they released it themselves on the PlayStation Network with almost no advertising. Even though many people downloaded it, it wasn't a big success. Psyonix kept working on other projects, including helping with big games like Mass Effect 3 and Gears of War. This money helped them fund the development of Rocket League.
Making Rocket League officially started around 2013 and took about two years. Psyonix used feedback from Battle-Cars players to make Rocket League better. One important goal was to make the game run smoother, at 60 frames-per-second. They also wanted to make it easier for new players to join in and have fun, even against skilled players. They focused on making the game look great and encouraging players to try online matches after playing the single-player mode.
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Psyonix knew that online play could be tricky for fast-paced games. They used a special physics system to make sure all the cars and the ball moved smoothly for every player. For Battle-Cars, Psyonix couldn't afford their own game servers, which sometimes made online play slow. But for Rocket League, they built their own server network. This helped them offer cross-platform play and better matchmaking, so players could find games easily.
Psyonix thought about making Rocket League a free game with small purchases, like Team Fortress 2. But they decided to sell the game normally and only charge for cosmetic items (like car decals) that don't give anyone an advantage. The name Rocket League was chosen because it's shorter and easier to remember than the old game's name.
In April 2021, Psyonix announced Rocket League Sideswipe, a mobile version for phones and tablets.
Playing with Friends on Different Systems
Rocket League is famous for letting players on different gaming systems play together. This is called cross-platform play. It helps keep the game's player base strong, so there are always people to play with.
At first, the Xbox One version didn't have this feature. But in March 2016, Microsoft announced that Rocket League would be the first game to allow Xbox One and Windows players to play together. This feature was added in May 2016. Microsoft even said they would let other systems, like PlayStation, connect to Xbox Live for cross-platform play.
Psyonix worked hard to make cross-platform play happen. They just needed the different console companies to agree. For a long time, Sony (PlayStation) didn't want to join. But in September 2018, after a lot of players asked for it in another game called Fortnite Battle Royale, Sony changed its mind. By January 2019, Psyonix announced that Sony had agreed! Now, Rocket League players on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC can all play together!
Extra Content for Your Game
Psyonix planned to keep adding new things to Rocket League. They decided that all gameplay updates would be free, and they would only charge for cool cosmetic items.
In November 2015, a free update added the "Mutate" feature, letting you create custom matches with different rules, like low gravity or a cubed ball. They also use this for holiday events, like the ice hockey-themed mode for Christmas.
The game's first extra content pack, called Supersonic Fury, came out in August 2015. It added two new cars, rocket boosts, wheels, and more. Later, the game was also released for macOS and Linux computers. Other content packs like Revenge of the Battle-Cars and Chaos Run added more cars and customization items. A new arena called "Wasteland" was also released for free. It was the first map with a different size and shape, inspired by the Mad Max movies.
In June 2016, a new arena called Neo Tokyo was added. This update also brought new cosmetic items that you could earn after matches. You could even trade multiple items of the same type to get a rarer one. Psyonix also added a way for players to trade items with each other. They also introduced a system where you could get "locked crates" from playing games. You could buy "keys" with real money to open these crates and get special decorative items for your cars. The money from these purchases helps support the Rocket League esports tournaments.
Psyonix also made deals to include cars and items from other popular movies and games!
- The PlayStation 4 version had Sweet Tooth's car from Twisted Metal.
- The DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future was released as a separate item.
- The Xbox One version included cars from Gears of War and Halo.
- The Batmobile from the 2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie was added.
- Dominic Toretto's Dodge Charger from The Fate of the Furious movie was added.
- Content based on Rick and Morty and Jurassic Park was also released.
They also did cross-promotions with other games, adding flags from Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and items from the Portal series. You could also get items based on Goat Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, The Witcher, and Worms W.M.D. For the basketball mode, they partnered with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to offer flags with all 30 NBA team logos. Even Hot Wheels cars were added to the game!
For the "Radical Summer" event in 2019, they released the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters and KITT from the TV show Knight Rider. The 2019 Halloween event added cars and items from Stranger Things. In May 2020, they had a "Modes of May" event with limited-time game modes like "Heatseeker," where the ball curves towards the goals!
Rocket League Music
The awesome music for Rocket League was released as a soundtrack in July 2015. It has original songs by Psyonix sound designer Mike Ault and his electronic music group, Hollywood Principle. New songs were added to the game with updates, and these were later put together in a second soundtrack album. You can even get a special three-disc vinyl version of the soundtrack! In 2017, the game's second anniversary update added music from the EDM label Monstercat.
Rocket League Sideswipe
Rocket League Sideswipe is a free mobile game that came out in late 2021 for Android and iOS phones. It's a spin-off of the original Rocket League and keeps the same fun gameplay, but it's played in a two-dimensional space. You can play quick 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 matches online.
Rocket League as an Esport
Psyonix noticed how popular Rocket League matches were on streaming sites like Twitch. In February 2016, they decided to make the game a big part of esports. In March 2016, they announced the first Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS). The finals were in August 2016 with a prize pool of $55,000! Over $1 million from selling in-game items was used to fund more tournaments and support community events.
Soon after it came out, Rocket League became an official esport, joining big organizations like ESL and Major League Gaming (MLG). In July 2017, a $75,000 Rocket League tournament was held at the Summer X Games, and the finals were shown live on ESPN3! NRG Esports won that tournament.
In 2020, Rocket League esports changed to a new format with three main parts, each having regional events and a big tournament at the end. Teams earn points based on how well they do, and the top teams get to compete for a grand prize of $1,000,000!
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See also
In Spanish: Rocket League para niños
