Football (soccer) and driving may be two totally different genres, but Psyonix has had plenty of success marrying the two pursuits together with its cult PS3 game, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars (SARPBC).
With over two million downloads, it’s no wonder fans of the series have been keen to see how the series evolves, and with the launch of Rocket League imminent we’re about to witness the evolution of SARPBC, which has been developed over the last five years with community feedback in mind.
Rocket League Release Date – Q2 2015
We recently hooked up with Jeremy Dunham, Director of Marketing and Communications, Psyonix to find out what happens when cars and soccer collide…
1. Tell us about the reception to Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars on PS3, which we understand has a cult following, and the feedback you’ve taken on board from fans for the sequel, Rocket League?
We’ve been blown away by our community’s reaction to the original Battle-Cars. The game has been downloaded more than 2 million times, which, given the era in which it was released, is pretty impressive to us. We have a rabid, dedicated fanbase that still plays SARPBC to this very day and you can still find games on our servers more than six years after we released it. We even released a pair of patches/ updates to the game last year because enough people are still around to want them.
But in regards to what we’ve done with their feedback, that is essentially what Rocket League is: more than half a decade’s worth of community feedback rolled into a newer, better version Battle-Cars.
2. Football [soccer] and driving are two totally different genres that are worlds apart, so what is about Rocket League that makes it work?
We think it’s the simplicity of it. We don’t try to overcomplicate the game with scores of additional rules, or power-ups, or other things. We take the straightforward concept of "kick the ball into the goal" and just replace the foot with a vehicle. We added a boost meter that allows you to increase your speed temporarily and allow the cars to jump, flip, and do other things that real players do in soccer games all the time. And that’s really all there is to it.
When you’re a physics-based game like we are, a lot of the fun comes from figuring out how to use the various speeds and angles of your car to score your goal. With the jumping and boosting thrown in, there’s a huge level of depth to the gameplay despite its simple concept.
3. Tell us about the vehicles. How many are there in the game, what moves can they execute and does each vehicle have different attributes?
We don’t have a final vehicle count yet, but we’re aiming for a minimum of 10 in the finished version. They won’t have special abilities or gauged attributes either. Instead, the vehicle’s shape — which influences its hit-boxes — is the only gameplay-differentiator. We want Rocket League to feel balanced no matter what vehicle you choose. Personal customization and style are what we’re hoping are the main factors in deciding your vehicle.
4. Season Mode is one of the big new additions to Rocket League. What can players expect?
We’re actually not talking about it yet — we’re saving it for a big announcement in the near future. But what we can say is that it has a lot of the same things you’d expect in any sports game’s season mode: league standings, team customization, stuff like that. We’re excited about it and it we think that it will add a lot of replay for gamers who aren’t necessarily into Rocket League for the multiplayer.
5. In some of the videos from the beta phase, we’ve noticed that players earn points. Can you tell us more about how the points system works?
The point system is there to give players credit for what they’re doing in the match. It also adds towards the player’s individual score for the game and a chance at getting recognition as the MVP. There are some other things we’re exploring with it too, but we don’t want to over-promise how it ties into the meta game until we’re sure about it. In other words, stay tuned for more on that one.
Turn over for mroe on Rocket League…
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6. One of the highlights of the original game was the multiplayer mode. Can you tell us more about the online features and modes planned for Rocket League?
Multiplayer is a massive focus in Rocket League and we have 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 variations that you can play in any combination of Human/ AI. We’re also doing splitscreen, which allows you to play with up to four people locally, who can then hop online play against four other people on their own machine. We want people to have options and to have fun with our game in as many ways as possible.
Of course, we’ve also included other things that people were asking for: dedicated servers, smarter matchmaking, leaderboards, all that stuff.
7. How many maps can we expect and can you give us some examples? And, do you plan to bring back any of the original ones?
We are trying to make as many cool maps as we can and the final number is still TBD. We’d love to have a ton of them, but it all depends on time. People have been waiting a long time for Rocket League, so we don’t want to delay the game to squeeze in another map or so (we’re a small team, so it takes awhile to complete them). What we will do, though, is continue to release new stadiums, FOR FREE, as we complete them post-release as long as it makes sense to keep doing them. No extra map in Rocket League will ever cost a dime, we don’t want to split our audience like that, and that’s a promise. The one thing up in the air, of course, is how many DLC maps we’d make in addition to those released in the game. We just don’t know yet.
8. How deep does customisation go?
It’s pretty deep, but like Season Mode we’re not quite talking about it yet. Customization goes way beyond the "Skins Only" approach in the original Battle-Cars and we’ll let you change all sorts of things with your vehicle. We also have a few surprises in store for this that we thing fans are going to enjoy quite a bit.
9. Any plans for DLC?
Definitely. We know that we want to do whatever maps we can’t finish in time for the final release as free DLC, and we have some ideas for potential paid DLC that we’re tossing around as well, but we want to finish the game first and see what people want before we know what to focus on. That’s the best way to do it in our opinion: finish the game, let the players speak, and then go from there.
10. What’s the thinking behind bringing Rocket League exclusively to PS4 when multiple platforms would have ensured a broader reach?
There are a couple of reasons behind it. First, the original Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars was a PS3 exclusive so we knew that we already had a built-in PlayStation audience and that’s where all of our original fans came from. Second, we’re also working on a PC version (all of our alpha testing was on Steam last summer) and the PS4 tools allow us to easily work in parallel on both platforms. With a small team like ours, efficiency is important. Spreading ourselves thin to work on a bunch of platforms with limited resources would hurt the game and take away polish time from the important features. We don’t want to do that.
Finally, Sony has shown us that they believe in our game quite a bit and that means a lot to us. They are big Rocket League cheerleaders and we’d like to show them that kind of mutual respect.
Could Rocket League eventually end up on another platform besides PS4 and PC? Sure, anything is possible.
11. How have you found the challenge and transition from working with the PS3 to the PS4?
PlayStation 4 is actually a lot easier to work on. The tools are less rigid than the PS3 and you can get a lot more done a lot faster. Plus, having tools like PlayStation Share, the Light Bar, Remote Play, and others, give us a lot of options for "outside the box" ideas.
A big thanks to Jeremy for taking the time to answer our questions. To follow the progress of Rocket League, check them out on Facebook.