Hour lecture at the GDC 2016 Developer Conference.

He told about how the studio, previously engaged in outsourcing, came up with an extremely successful game Rocket League. Also, measles shared the details of the development, the tribes of startup on several platforms and told what mistakes the team made on the path to release.

Editorial DTF publishes the translation of the speech.

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My name is Corey Davis, I am a senior designer of PSYONIX. I have been working in the company for 10 years, initially it was a programmer, but now I went to the design team. In the studio I follow the development of our projects, including Rocket League racing game. Probably, you want to know what general means the word PSYONIX. Bate Daeva, it he invented us a difficult-acting name.

We are an independent studio located in California. Dave gathered us together, taught to work, and we began to fulfill the tasks of the contract for other developers. Before the release of Rocket League PSYONIX, he participated in creating a canceled Nosgoth shooter, and earlier our hand touched Mass Effect 3, Gears of War, Bulletstorm and Xcom. We worked with such large projects, but no one heard about us. And when people once again ask how our company immediately achieved such unexpected success, I indicate that we are not the first day in the industry.

So, that's what will happen today. Let's start with the history of the company: from 2008, when we released our first independent project, and before the release of Rocket League. Then I will talk about key solutions that have affected the development. During the creation of Rocket League, we have come across problems several times with problems that solutions were seriously influenced by the vector development vector. I will tell you more about these decisions and explain why I consider them one of the key causes of the success of Rocket League.

Then let's talk about certain invisible details and interesting mechanics, which keep the game. I will explain why they work so, and not otherwise.

Then I will try to analyze our success. I will try to pretend that at least somehow understand why Rocket League has become so popular.

In the end, I will share with you lessons that we learned (or not very learned) after the release of the game. 9 months have passed since then, but they were completely insane. And I will tell you what we, as a studio, have learned.

History

This video is not a trailer for the Rocket League version for the N64 console. In fact, it is SuperSonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, a game with the worst name in history. And I regret that we came up with this name, every time I have to pronounce it.

This is our game, we have not crawled anything. We released it in 2008 on the PlayStation Network, and most people never heard about it. About her learn, reading articles about Rocket League. And what is the matter: it is 67 points out of 100 on the assessment aggregator Metacritic.

The game is almost the same as Rocket League, and it has such a low score. And when I carefully looked at the page at Metacritic, I suddenly noticed that our SuperSonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars stood in the list of the best games on the PlayStation 3 console in 2008, in the 92th place.

You will say that we were just obliged to make a second game after such success. But then we did not understand this, and did not know what mistakes made, what can be done better. It was our first game, and we were just a small independent studio, which, moreover, at that time worked on the game Gears of War.

But we learned that people who dragged into SuperSonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, loved her very much. Few knew about her, but those who knew wrote to us letters very well responded about her, and some still play that for the 2008 project without any advertising is rather impressive.

Even then we introduced to the game support for downloading video on YouTube, and an innumerable amount of steep video edges appeared on the network, just as it happens now with Rocket League.

And then then we realized that during the development there were several errors. We, like many players, loved this game, but nobody heard about it. Therefore, it was worthwhile in marketing and bring it to mind.

In addition, we realized that players on the PlayStation 3 played at all in the wrong game in which we played in the office. We played it on computers for 60 frames per second, connecting through the local network, and they - God for 30 frames per second via the Internet. What led to constant signal delays and a hanging image on the screen. Such problems can push many.

In general, several years have passed. It came in 2011.

This World Battle Car League, an excellent name, isn't it? Restarting the game generated by greed. In 2011, everyone did. But, in fact, then we noticed that many games like Monday Night Combat began to go to that steppe, which is now called cybersport. And we understood that our idea is great for this suit. But it is difficult to do something without a publisher and an adequate budget.

The second game I wanted to make better and more realistic. Many hours spent on working out the concept and scaling concepts, wound in vain. We even come up with realistic stadiums.

Then there was too many changes with the game, she left the original concept, but we never managed to create a normal and interesting prototype. And in PSYONIX it is almost a death sentence. It was just boring to work on the game: we made changes, change cars, changed the model of physics, and just confused.

We tried to find the publisher, but no one took the game, and I can't blame them for it. In addition, after time, I understand that the game tried to get ahead of his time. In 2011, the cybersport was gaining momentum, but not yet reached the level that we see now.

And therefore we did that all the developers loved to do at the time: began to develop the game with an open world. Our leading technical artist is a real wizard who could create an open world than we decided to take advantage.

We assumed that the player would be able to do a lot of different things. He, of course, could go to the stadium to play football, but it was one of the options. The idea is good, but, perhaps, noticeable for a small studio. We were only 15 people. We began to invent different races and mini-games.

The scale of the game grew, we could no longer stop her. We had to pay attention to each element and mechanics, and as a result, no aspect of the game did not achieve the desired level of quality. And physics, which perfectly approached the game football, was not very suitable for other activities. We did it specifically for jumps and flights by the arena - when with the same physician the car began to jump along the hills, nothing good came out.

Rocket League.

Finally, came to the development of Rocket League. At that time, however, she was called wrong. We decided that we would like to make a game that SarBPC should have become - yes, this is the official abbreviation. Perhaps the worst abbreviation of all time. We allocated a small team that could work without distracting the entire studio at once.

We abandoned the extra mechanic, just wanted to bring the basic idea to mind. There was to get a game about football on cars in which people would play on highlighted servers. Our task has become as soon as possible to create the first alpha prototypes. And we were going to make the game conditionally free.

In the courtyard stood 2013, Team Fortress 2 shooter and the Dota2 team game were on the wave of success, no one has yet become mistaken by making a free game on personal computers.

We thought it was worth creating a free-to-play game, the money of the vendors are sick to the doors of our office.

What changed?

We are often suitable and asked: "You have done almost exactly the same game, but they received a completely different result. So what exactly is the difference? "

First, this time matches pass on the allocated servers. This is a very big change. But in 2008, we could not afford something else. The signal delay between the players was really a big problem. From the very beginning we needed selected servers for Rocket League.

Secondly, we almost got up to 60 frames per second even on PlayStation 4. For the game, where every second, every share of a second, the high frequency of updating the image is a necessity. The first game on PlayStation 3 was played on such a low frame rate, which simply seemed bad, too wooden. Much more wooden than her version, in which we played on the PC.

Thirdly, we greatly improved the selection system of rivals. But I will not go into details, just say that we have made the rating system, selecting opponents for the player with a suitable skill level. The system was very flexible.

And, also, we expanded the possibilities of customization of cars. This is very important for any competitive sports game. And besides, everyone loves hats.

And of course, we spent two years to bring to mind of all our ideas and a mechanic. There is nothing breakthrough here, but, discussing the development, people often forget what it matters. And not everyone can afford to spend two years to improve every aspect of the game. But we could: work under the contract brought enough money to make us calmly worked on the game.

Our experience of outsourcing studio played a very large role at this stage. We have seen how other companies work, we understood a lot - what should be done, and what not. We have not previously watched the development teams get tired of endless stand-ups and meetings. We also honed our knowledge of the Unreal 3 engine to perfection. We would seem to know everything about him: all the stupid things that he sometimes throws out, all the dark magic, on which he worked.

We also pulled out our own development process. Before Rocket League, we made a game on the IOS platform called Arc Squadron. Then a lot of strength was invested in bringing it to mind. And criticism praised the game, it was well accepted, but it was sold sold weakly.

Many people come to the GDC conference and talk about their successes, but few mention failures. We personally started to develop and threw a huge number of projects. There were many of them, but it is completely normal.

The development of games is a difficult matter. Everyone makes mistakes, but if you can learn about these mistakes, then everything is fine.

Two problems stood for us particularly acute.

First, while the development team has grown, we often lost control over the situation, everyone had their own opinion, their wishes that were difficult to satisfy. And this is a big problem.

Secondly, due to the large size of the team, we often could not understand and decide what exactly I create. But in the case of Rocket Leagues of the very beginning, it was clear about what we work, and what we go. Therefore, everyone clearly understood what to do at every specific point in time at each stage of development.

Key solutions

First, our game is quite simple in its essence. Somehow we decided that the cars would not have the characteristics in Rocket League. And many, coming to the game, ask the question: why do machines have no characteristics? "I want my car to have characteristics, I want a car that is more suitable for standing on the gate."

But, the fact is that we did not have characteristics and in the first game, and we, as it were, in principle against this approach. Rocket League is a simple, but very dynamic game. For 3 seconds, the player can get away from the position of the goalkeeper and attack the enemy gate. And if the cars were divided according to the characteristics, it would prevent such an important concept. We just felt that entering different types of cars were wrong.

We decided to abandon the characteristics, but for us it did not become an obvious solution. We really worried about it, because in the reviews to the first game it was written that it was lacking depth. But we were trite not enough time to test the version of the game with different machines with different characteristics. That is, as a result, our "brilliant" decision was born from a lack of time.

Secondly, we were very disturbed that the players could simply not be impressed with the game with one single regime. Make only football mode was dangerous. But we, again, did not have enough time to study something else. And at the time of the release of the game, if you think, we have already worked on football more than 7 years. Later we released additional modes as special events, and everything turned out well. However, at the stage of development, everything looked not so obvious.

Thirdly, inside the studio, the dispute went on the number of stadiums. As a result, we decided that we would leave one kind of arena. Sarpbc had different stadiums, right up to "bagels", for which they had to drive the ball towards the opponent's gate. But when we began to poll players, they realized that most prefer to play on the map called Urban, which became the basis for the playing field in Rocket League. Therefore, we decided that we would not spend strength and resources to create different cards if the players still prefer our version of DE_DUST.

This solution gave us a few advantages: we managed to concentrate forces on one thing again, each angle was worked out, each field meter. We spent a bunch of time to create a card, and if we had to create several cards, we would not have achieved this level of quality. Some veterans of the series did not like it, they did not understand why in the second version of the game there is less content than in the first. But with this minus everyone had to compete.

Not free game

It is often suitable for us and ask where the studio came from the courage to make the game paid. And this is a very good question.

Initially, we were going to release Rocket League in the Free-to-Play version. Then everything was logical, such an approach seemed to be a logical way out for a strange game about the car kicking the ball. We also needed to gather a large base of the players as soon as possible so that the enemy selection system could work normally. We watched Valve and thought that everything would be simple.

Here is the real screenshot from the early version of the game

At that time, Rocket League was a whole craft system. Players could collect details and create spare parts for cars from them. And we all threw it away when we decided that our game would not be free-to-play, although they spent a bunch of effort to study the system.

In the summer of 2014, the Vice President of Marketing Jeremy Don convinced everyone that such an approach would be a mistake for which thank you very much. We realized that the development of a full-fledged paid game would better affect the game itself, and on our reputation. We were able to focus on the game, and not at thinking free-to-play systems. We then almost turned out of gamedizainers in monetization designers. It was necessary to work not to players be better, and in order for them more than paid.

Freedom: Finally, you can think how we make Rocket League as high quality as possible.

We also worried that if we go along the way free-to-play, Rocket League would hardly be able to distract people from major projects, if initially they do not fit a little in the game. If you think about it, it turns out a very interesting psychology.

And, unexpectedly, the calculations showed what to make a game of paid, not free, it would be more frequently more profitable. Average profit from one free-to-play on a PC from one to four dollars. And we thought based on the popularity of the last game and hoping for the help of Sony's company that we would succeed in selling at least 50 thousand copies of $ 20. Even by calculations, the rate on a paid game seemed more profitable. In the case of Free-to-play, sell enough hats for cars would not be easy.

Here is a slide with one of our meetings

Please note that as a result, we have spent twice a large amount for development. But on these addictions, we realized that for the game at least would pay for, it was necessary to sell at least 2 million hats, or at least 56 thousand copies of the game.

Necessary mechanics

Initially, the game was planned to be launched in November 2014, that is, six months earlier. But we knew that there were mechanics that needed to finish before the release of the game.

We have quite late realized that we cannot start the game without the command system. Now it is obvious for multiplayer games, but then we immediately did not understand how important it is to allow players to gather with friends. When it became clear that we need this system, it turned out that there was no foundation for its creation. I had to develop it from scratch, it took quite a lot of time.

We knew that the development of team mechanics would force us to postpone the release of the game, but decided to take a chance. And the risk in the end paid off, although we spent the decent share of an additional budget and pushed the release date.

The second mechanic was the selection system of opponents. When we still tried to enter the release in November, she worked not as now. I will not go into details, but we decided to change it, and now the system directs all players to one server, which picks up each worthy opponent. I had to build an infrastructure from scratch, it turned out well, but she, of course, almost burned after the release of the game.

These two mechanics have become an integral part of the game, allowing players to gather with friends and fight against opponents of a similar level. But only for them I had to postpone the release and seriously inflated the budget. It was a risk, but he cost him. I understand that not everyone can afford a similar risk, but if possible, do not be afraid.

Platform

Many people do not know that initially we assumed to release Rocket League on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. When we developed the game, the last thing was still selling quite well, but soon we realized that we simply not be able to optimize the game so that she could work normally on the old console. And on the Steam platform, we were going to start the game "later." But at the last minute, it was decided to make Rocket League for personal computers as soon as possible.

And it was the best of all solutions that we have ever taken. If you were interested in sales data Rocket League, you know that in the first month the game was heard on PlayStation + for free, and she downloaded 6 million people. We were afraid that we would not be able to pay enough servers to have enough, but the sale of the game in Steam paid off all the costs of maintaining infrastructure. And, moreover, Steam pays very quickly, which is very important. And I can't imagine how we could do if you launched the game only on PlayStation 4 and collected such a number of users.

Non-obvious facts

Special physics

The interaction of the ball and machines in Rocket League does not work according to the standard physical rules. We did not use the physics built into the unreal. The problem is that "real" physics works too accidentally and unpredictably, which already sounds strange for "cyberports", based on physics. But in fact, I want to expect a certain constancy in the blows of the machine on the ball from such a game, and the real physics behaves too strange.

We wanted the system to follow the initial idea of \u200b\u200bthe player, and not real physical rules. That is, if the player has a ball between his car and gate, the blow to the projectile must send it to the gate, and not in a random side - depending on how he bounces off the car.

But this is not obvious, it would seem if the game is based on physics, it should work clearly and according to the rules. However, with our physics, the game was calmly balanced as we need. If real physics were used, it would be carried out accordingly - very difficult and confusing. If you beat the ball at high speed, he departs from you with great strength. And if the ball and the car quickly fly each other to meet, then we do not always need that all the power of the clash affects their interaction.

And now take a look at the picture of an incredibly well thought-out Hitbox machines.

Yes, it's just a box. And this is also strange, it may seem that in such a serious competitive game you need to strive for absolute accuracy. But, in this case, again you have to sacrifice the predictability. It is very important that the player hitting the ball at a certain angle, has always received more or less than the same result. And we realized that at least a hitsbox (zone around the object model, the fall in which the fact of the collision of two objects is recorded - ed.) The box seems strange and inaccurate, it gives clear and predictable results when colliding.

Before you, an example of an unreal physics.

Left an example of real physics. The way the ball departs depends on the speed of the machine, the angle of impact, speed and direction of the ball. It seems to be nothing wrong, such a system sounds quite predictable. But our system, the example of which is depicted on the right, works more clearly. The vector between the ball and the machine is always directed to where the player's chamber looks. That is, the player to score a goal, should look at the gate and hit the ball towards the gate. Everything is simple and understandable, and experienced players know what to expect in certain situations.

When the development has just begun, we have not had this simple model. In fact, we wanted to make Rocket League more realistic than the first game. And realistic physics has its advantages.

For example, if you present how a large soccer ball hit your car, you suggest that it should roll up the bumper up. And then, taking it with a bumper, you can bypass opponents. But in the final model, the ball will simply bother from the car - it is more reminiscent of ping pong than real physics. But we thought that the system with picking up the ball could be cool and interesting, and showed it to our alpha testers. They did not like it very much.

They remembered how physics worked before, and could not get used to the new model. She was different, and the other is always bad. But partly, their discontent was clear. The system lost the predictability that had from the time of the first game. We read the reviews and realized that even though it turned out a comprehensive and interesting system - constant and predictability were lost.

And now I want to show you my most beloved quote. These words were told two months before the release of the game.

This game is on the greed of developers and lazy design. That's the way, and I really hope that it fails. There are too many good independent games whose developers think about their buyers and respect them. And because Rocket League simply does not deserve success.

What is ironic, as a result, Veteran began to participate in Rocket League competitions and win them. So he seem to refuse his words.

But with what we encountered shortly before the release of the game. This is now everyone says that Psyonix is \u200b\u200ban excellent studio that listens to his players, but then even our long-standing fans were sure whether we should trust. They did not know whether we actually do.

But one of the examples of what things are able to players with the help of strange Physics Rocket League. When we see something like that, always very wonder, because none of us is capable of such. It's just incredible. Such videos are constantly appearing on the Reddit forum, which is due to the predictable physical system.

Unexpected skills

If you have not played in Rocket League, I will explain. A player can make a double jump, double-clicking on the A button twice. And if during the second jump, it clamps a button of a particular direction, the machine makes the car in this direction. That is, the player can jump back, forward or sob.

And we almost accidentally changed this mechanics in such a way that the second leap uses a sharp fugitive pulse, and not a gradual acceleration, as it was in the first game, the name of which I will not pronounce. And our solution has an unexpected result.

Here is an example of how I use this chip incorrectly.

I flew to the ball correctly, but too early used the second jump. As a result, the ball flew past the gate, because he lost the initial impulse before hitting.

But how to do.

If you do not pay attention to a slightly different trajectory, this time I used the momentum from the second jump on time, so I got into the gate.

Initially, we thought that such a mistake could be fixed. Because the game did something that she should not have done. But then they understood: the ability to turn something like this is an indicator of the player's abilities. Experienced users can stronger and more accurately beat the ball, but for this you need to use the second leap very carefully and at the right moment.

And newcomers at the same time do not know that it is generally possible. During the development of Rocket League, our goal was to create a game that newbies could understand. And for them, the game seems fairly enough so that they can understand what is happening, but the same veterans play at high speeds.

Also, this mechanics adds a tactical depth game. After all, to turn the trick with a strengthened blow, you need to sacrifice the initial pulse of the flight, refusing a double jump.

Magic scratch seconds

We almost accidentally added a zero second mechanics in the first game. The fact is that when the timer reaches 0 seconds, the match does not end until the ball concerns the Earth. It may seem that this is something completely small, but it is not. Because the mechanics again allows you to turn very interesting tricks. And it also enriches the game at the competitive level.

Final of the first major tournament on Rocket League.

We watched the ending of that match in the office in the literal air, and it was something incredible. The magic of zero seconds in the game has been for a long time, but she never ceases to delight us. But at first glance, it does not seem like something large, because it appeared not thanks to the design document, but simply due to the idea of \u200b\u200bone person. And it seems to me that it is such small solutions and mechanics that give games taste.

Destruction of machines

Destruction is a very controversial topic for discussion. I do not have a video about this, but the essence of the mechanics is that if one machine is crashed into another, the second explodes. Sounds not very good, right? In the first game, this mechanic was badly balanced, she was generally stayed there as a reminder that initially we did the game about the battle of cars, and not about football.

The player does not affect the explosion of the enemy machine, and in some sense the opportunity to destroy the enemy generates cruel and aggressive behavior. But the mechanics remained in their place.

The best players began to use the opportunity to blow up the enemy as a strategic tool, for example, against teams that too love to stand together on the gate. And for less experienced players, it became an intense. We often say something like: "I can't scold, but I can blow up the machines of opponents."

I do not know how much this mechanic is not balanced, but even if it is so, then maybe such functions do not always be deleted from the game? Even if we were not confident in the decision, we simply began to observe the reaction of the players. And they liked it.

Quick Chat.

We added the ability to share fast messages right during the game almost least in the last minute, about one or two months before the release. Before going out the game, we cut the system, but added it back in a couple of weeks. As can be seen in the photo from above, harvested phrases became meme. And we added a quick chat only because we were worried that players would be right during the game to spend time on messages.

And I want to believe that the quick chat has a beneficial effect on the game community, because it allows you to easily praise a team member after he scores a goal.

Analysis of success

Now I will try a little verify that I know why we have achieved success.

The first reason is the state of the market. How people look at a diverse video content now. In 2008, the Twitch service did not exist, and YouTube was completely different. I will always be proud of it: somehow we overtook League of Legends for a short period of time by the number of spectators. As for YouTube - I really like these terrible pictures on video covers. Just look at them.

But there are people: video creators, streamers who need our games to collect spectators. And for us it is actually free advertising. We spent exactly zero dollars on traditional advertising methods. Our entire advertisement consisted of a company on Twitch, YouTube and cross-advertising.

Secondly, the REDDIT Forum was an important reason for our success. If we speak more specifically, then Sabredoda PlayStation 4 has advertised us during beta tests so that the players drew attention to Rocket League before reaching it.

Frames with the game filled the forum, nothing but Rocket League did not appear on it. We started to apply the streamers, asked beta keys, because they saw the game there.

So everything started. And I can not even explain how important it is to actively communicate with the community of your game.

cybersport

Celebrate is becoming more important. What is interesting, the popularity of the first game in narrow circles gave us a ready-made professional scene for Rocket League. Previously there were a problem that if you suddenly do not know how you can play football on the machines at all, you will not understand that it is generally possible. In some reviews, the game was written that the ball and cars behave too unpredictable, and, accordingly, the game is not so interesting.

But, after the release of Rocket League, from the very first day, people like the Kronov strik member led the broadcast on Twitch, and potential players saw what tricks can perform a professional. And they wanted to learn the same. They saw that all this is possible, and that the game can be eSports. In addition, the audience is used to looking cool video from tournaments or just interesting moments from the match. Now it is normal, but in 2008 it would not work.

Today, even a small indie game can get some advertising. People are interested in similar games. The market has changed, now the little games have much more chances to be noticed.

Congenital virusity

This is a little stupid term, but Rocket League has something that allows it to be very easy to spread through social networks. Of what is happening in the game it is very easy to cut the animations, and even a unreleased player will be able to understand what is happening for them. He can be surprised and admire. But, for example, in the case of the Moba genre, a person unfamiliar will not understand anything at all. Even if you did not play Rocket League, you understood what happened on those video that I showed.

The game itself captured Sabreddite, it was not spent no cent. We did not give out the keys imperceptibly with placent accounts, nothing. The community organized an advertising company for us.

Rocket League is a game in which you can easily understand the basic rules, but in order to fully master it, we will leave years. And it is interesting to play at any level of skill. Initially, we were afraid that new players could push the complexity and understanding that they could not do anything. But it turned out that even novice is very interested to play, losing the whole team. And thanks to the system of selection of honest opponents.

And seeing what good players can do, newcomers were inspired. Here is one of my favorite fragments.

But then, when we had only the first game, people simply did not believe that something like this is possible in some random indie deliver. As you can see, with the growth of players skills, they get the opportunity to do incredible things, and not alone, but with the team.

Twitch.

Twitch was another important component of success. We did it not specifically, but Rocket League turned out to be very suitable for the streamer game. The battles between popular players happened by themselves. One streamer could call the other on the duel and so on.

And we distributed the game to everyone with the condition that they will broadcast. And they fulfilled the promise. But we did not pay them. We did not buy anyone, because personally I disgust to think about these people, as about car marketing machines. We simply gave them the keys if they wanted it, went on their broadcasts, answered questions.

Matches, leaving for an extra time, was interesting to look, the audience in the Twitch chat was very funny and enthusiastically reacted to what was happening. We, as developers, caused popular streamers to play against us. And all Twitch felt the developers.

PS Plus.

For many, this is a rather controversial question. No clear confidence that the PS PLUS service can somehow help the developer. But in our case, PS PLUS turned out to be a useful system. Rocket League was sprawling on Reddit and Twitch, and a person who saw the game and interested in her, could download for free and look at her with his own eyes.

It really helped us. Rocket League remained paid, but managed to catch the Free-to-Play audience. We have received profits in parallel with Steam and received a large amount of free audience.

Good game output time

There are factors that influence the success of the game to which we do not have a direct relationship. In the summer of 2015, not so many games came out. And we thank the marketing department, which has specially chosen for the release of the game this time. There were not so many items in the PS4 games catalog, and each new release became a real event. We did not need to knock on the door to news sites and blogs, because they ourselves needed an informational reason to write about.

The game was very noticeable on the console, which rooted its popularity in the Steam service. The press wrote about us completely free and so much that it was already comical. If I'm not mistaken, Kotaku produced about us 19 days in a row, as if the site was no longer about writing. And all because we chose a good time to release.

The indie developer can make a mistake, thinking that he does not necessarily worry about big games he is not an opponent. He may seem that there is nothing terrible to release the game in parallel with the giants like Call of Duty or Destiny, because they have a completely different audience. But it is not. Social networks, news sites and streamers have a limited amount of attention. And because a good moment for the release can help the game gain success, and unsuccessful - to cause it to fail.

Luck

Very often, people come here and say that it is enough just to make a good game, and you will receive a well-deserved success. But this is not the case, luck also matters.

I will not go into large psychological details, but during the analysis of your own success, it is very important not to succumb to the temptation "" or something like that. We are accustomed to paying attention to only what has brought us success, but maybe somewhere there were already ten similar Rocket League, which failed.

We may have just lucky, and we released the game in a good time. The success of one game does not mean that a similar game made according to the same rules will definitely be successful.

Even if we ourselves try to repeat the trick. Sometimes the usual good luck may seem like a sign of genius, even when it is not.

However, in the forces of the developer, to maximize the likelihood of one's own success. You can gently plan the release. And you can also embed the opportunity to share some kind of information on the game, steep moments with friends so that the game can sprawl on your own.

What do we understand?

Our biggest test was the scale of which we accidentally reached. During development, we assumed that a maximum of 10 thousand players will be played at the same time. But the number got to 180 thousand, which is approximately 35 times more than the maximum simultaneous number of players on beta test.

Our server burned almost literally. But I do not know how to make it possible at all, at the time of the Beta number and were not close to such high. We could not download your own servers so much, even to check. I can not give any advice on this. Just try to cook. And be prepared not to sleep at night.

The second big problem was the need to produce patches on several platforms. If you once had to do something like that, then you know how terrible it is. Miscellaneous time for certification and patch output greatly make it difficult to play between different platforms. We hope that soon it will become more general practition, especially with the speed of Rocket League on the Xbox One console. But, anyway, your producers will go crazy about this, and all sorts of things will constantly postpone. We had to delay the output of PC patches until Sony finished certifying Patches on PlayStation. The same applies to the release of DLC: every time we had to wait for the approval of Sony 10 working days.

If you played in Rocket League, then you know that we are not shyling to stuff in the game different icons and cars as advertising. We can stuff in the game anything, if thanks to this we will be able to re-advertise yourself. More recently, for example, we added Delorean and Batmobile to the game.

Rocket League does not have any hard setting or plot, but we are afraid that we will not have a game, but a platform for advertising machines. I can't say that we have some rigid internal restrictions on this, but we constantly follow yourself.

The growing community

Another test for us was the adaptation to the ever-growing community of the game. We started with 10 thousand simultaneous players, and with so many users it was easy and pleasant to interact through forums and twitter. Easy to respond to questions, communicate with users and so on. But with an increase in the number of players, this level of interaction has become impossible.

Just physically unrealized to answer questions 180 thousand stakeholders. And it can put you in a bad light: unexpectedly developers are no longer so easy to contact, not so much communicate with the public. There is no universal solution to this problem, but it is important to make every effort to minimize the consequences. We can not answer all questions, but do everything in our power.

Sale of DLC

Initially, it seemed that the DLC would be sold simply. We gave them a game for free, and therefore they decided that they would gladly become an additional content. In fact, DLC is sold on Steam much better than PS4.

And the fact is that if the player has already bought the game, he is more likely to agree to spend a little more. And the one who received the game is free, will not find the reason in his head suddenly spend money on it.

What would we like to do otherwise

Write

horaryHellFire player.

ERAIAL is not an indicator of skill. Learn the physics of the game. Come into the training mode "Free game" and just beat on the ball, pay attention to acceleration and slow down the ball, to bounce. Over time, you feel the power of gravity of the ball, learn to "read" the game. Complete all the tutorials in the game (Basic and Advanced). Thanks to training, you will understand the mechanics of double jumps, stop the ball, flights, slip, game with the Ball Cam turned off, etc. etc.

Change the camera settings, first try setting up other players, with time adjust them for yourself.
In the game, the machines have 4 shock surfaces and all of them, when they hit, give different acceleration the ball.

1. Wheels. The weakest impact surface of the machine. If you need a weak blow, perhaps just just stop the ball, use the punch wheels.
2. Roof. It has the best shock properties than wheels. If you need a blow of the middle force, then the roof is your friend and comrade.
3. Bumper. The front bumper has a strong blow. If you need a strong, fast punch, Bates bumper.
4. The corner of the bumper. The most powerful impact surface in the game. The only problem, accurately get the bumper corner on the ball.

Slip (Drift, PowerSliding). Used to quickly turn the machine. By default, the side of the machine (Air Roll) is installed on the same button, the nuance is silent about this tutorial, but nevertheless the use of Air Roll is one of the main high-level game criteria. The rotation of the car will not allow you to get an instant advantage over rivals as the same double jump, however, in general will allow you to more subtly use the physics of the machine, adapt to the blows, to land always on the wheels (like a butter or cat, for example), and of course This is the base of freestyle, which is not a necessary game tool for a beginner. Try using Air Roll and PowerSliding on different keys, it will allow you to improve control over the car control.

Boost management. Always pick up the boost without sacrificing the favorable (necessary) position on the field. The ball on the side of the opponent, does not threaten your goal? Well, pick up the boob, he is yours. When you are heading for the boost, turn off the Ball Cam, however, do not lose the game situation, control the game.

Use walls. You can drive around the walls and beat the ball. Such punches are difficult to work without workout, however, allow you to get an advantage over the opponent.

Supersonik. This is the maximum speed in the game, on Earth and in the air. As soon as you achieve the maximum speed, purple traces appear under the wheels of your car. Continuing to use the boost, when you reach SuperSonic Speed, you spend the boost, your speed will not be faster, it is already at the maximum. Use the boost wisely. While you press the acceleration button, the machine will go at maximum speed, until the moment of sharp maneuvers or braking. At supersonic speed, your blows are much stronger.

Dodging - double jump in one of the sides. The so-called "Kuvoke". Allows your machine to dial the speed without using the boost, also dodging is a good way to hit the ball strongly, however, for this you need to calculate the jump, so that the ball touch came to the bumper.

Only after the development of all the above-mentioned instruments of the mechanics of the game Rocket League, you can go to the eryials training (Aerials). Improving the control of the machine in the air, the main criterion of progress when performing air strikes. First, try to jump into Eryal without speed, i.e. Standing on the spot, it will allow you to increase control over the machine during takeoff, although in this case you donate the dynamics. However, the dynamics at the initial stages (Avenue 1-3) of the game is not as important as accuracy. Do not take off to the balls that fly close to the walls or are in the corners of the field, because With such impacts, you lose the position and, most often give to your rivals.

Land on the wheels, so you save time.

Follow the boost if your tank is full of the game all the time, you will faster your rivals. Try to avoid short accelerations, in which case the boost is consumed faster than acceleration.

If the ball flies too high, use when you take a double jump, so you get an advantage in the air. There are 2 more councils in the performance of Erials.

1. The player closer to the ball and occupies a more profitable position - there will always be the first on the ball in the air, do not try to fly to Erial for the sake of the block.
2. An exception may be an opponent's error when you take off first. However, most often, in such cases there will be 50/50 (equal to winning or playing the ball).

So, the main message:

"Kuvoke" (dodging) and a double jump is limited in time between the first press of the button and the second, about 1.5 seconds. Thus, in the air, you can use the second press of the jump in the air for 1.5 seconds.

"Kuvoke" depends on the direction of your chosen and does not depend on the orientation of the machine in space. Those. Regardless of whether the car is down by wheels or down the roof by pressing the double jump to the left - your machine will make a knife to the left - everything is simple.

The combination of back always slows down the speed, regardless of the location of the car on Earth either in the air. The remaining directions allow your machine to move in a given direction adjusting the trajectory.

When a game timer freezes at 0:00 - the game continues until the moment does the ball will affect the earth.

You can turn off the sound and messages from any players in the match by using the game menu by clicking on a pause, there is a button "Complain". Also, you can globally change the game chat settings in the game settings.

The player icon with the inscription PSYNet means that this user is on the other from you playing platform.

Game ranks, depending on the scored XP points, rarely talk about the level of the game, rather they indicate the duration of the game in Rocket League.

Rookie amateur (1-9), semi-pro semi-pro (10-19), Pro Pro Pro (20-29), Veteran Veteran (30-39), Expert Expert (40-49), Master Master (50-59), Legend Legend (60-73), Rocketer Rocketeer (74-75).

Are you tired of FIFA, in which only the figure changes with each part? Are you tired of a mad number of racing simulators that are so similar to your predecessors? Then I bring to your attention the product of 2015 from PSYONIX: Rocket League (in Russian: Rosty League). In this article, I will tell you about it, about what you can do in it and why it is worth paying attention to it, throwing my prejudices to some genres. Bring ...

To telegraph

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Somewhere in the PSYONIX office:
-I, Dave! What do you have a kind, all night watched the championship of "football"?
- Not only, also celebrated the victory of the national team. And how did you kotal?
- pack of chips, television and with nothing comparable "rally".
At this point, Dave issued a deaf cough, similar to chambling.
- Something? Repeat the last words?
-Put chips ...
- No, no, later.
- rally?
- Not a word more, convene the committee. And grab my "sombrero".

What is the game?

Otherwise, a mixture of two genres: football and races wrapped in colorful packaging. It's time to deploy it and try this creation to taste. First of all, it is not necessary to consider this mix separately, but you need to perceive as a completely new direction.

Dan countdown. 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Signal to start a start. Your opponents in all weapons, your team is ready. The fans in the stands are bite, the stadium is covered by the light of the spotlights, the lawn is briefly triggered, and the ball languishes in the center of the field.

The goal of the game is simple: Bay on the sword, enjoy and help the team get out of the leaders. On the battlefield, each team has its own zone and gate. The more goals scored, the you are closer to success. You say that it is so understandable, because in football the same thing. But ... there is no rules here. Crush, hit in the side of the enemy, knocking the remnants of Duri from him, fly on turbo source and do various tricks.

Own experience

If I did not play about 50 hours in this game, I would not write an article.

At first, in truth, it was not so colorfully. I slept at the stadium, where I was expected serious opponents and my "dear colm." I will not bother you in detail about losing. Initially, I came up with a new name of the game: "Failure Simulator on the Ball." But after the top ten I was adherent and became, in the first time, not the most faded player. I enjoyed the game that allowed you to reveal yourself in each mode: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, a snowy day, basketball, drops (breaking the floor of the enemy) and much more.

First of all, I was struck that there was a level in the game, that is, I could fill the experience and thereby earn a certain title, which could be boasting before the enemy.
Later, I realized that these "titles" were not apogee.

Please love and respect: competitive regime.Here it was possible to show yourself as with the best side, and not with very ... at first it was "not with very". The rank system made it possible to select opponents of your preparation level: from calibration to champion.

Talk about the chips of the game

One of the features of the game is the presence of a car customization, well, or tuning, who is more likely. But you will not just give the car a new look, but turn it into Sergey Zverev. For example: to join the roof of the car Horn of the unicorn or a pink cap (I'm afraid to remember something else), replace the usual antenna on the head of the aliel. Rainbow instead of Nitro, Flowers on the case, all this and not only expects you and your perverted fantasy.

Another important feature is mobile inventory. You can change with a player subject (Trade), exchange 5 items of the same quality to better in the garage and open case cases (well, we know who is a spiritual heir in this part), which can be discovered for the keys, while the revenue money goes to the prize fund Games, which allows it to become one of the cybersport disciplines in the future.

A detailed guide on Rocket League is suitable for both beginners and advanced users - "How to beat the ball and not be an idiot." All in detail and with pictures.

Basics of the game Rocket League:

Each new player passes through several stages. It looks like this:

1) A player goes behind the ball and rejoices when he touches it. When such players are six, it looks like a pack of pins, which rushing behind the ball and touches his noses.

2) The player finds the boost button and goes around the ball quickly, and actively picks up the boards. So it turns out more often to touch the ball, but you do not always fall. Think at this stage is not necessary. Myaaaahach! 11 ヽ (◉◡◔) ノ

3) The player begins to fall on the ball with a high probability. Sometimes the second point falls out of the sequence and it turns out that the ball was touched, and he flies very slowly (AKA "sluggish pool"). It's not very good.

4) Suddenly, it turns out that it is just not the most effective occupation on the ball, since it is unexpected to spoil everything, and you have to think where you beat. Here the super-diagram is coming to the rescue about how the directions beat the ball normally, and what - bad.

And here she is:

It looks confusing, but briefly - you are a player of the right team, if you beat the ball from any digit on the elder next to it, then you are an idiot if this arrogant is red.

If you summarize, the basics \u003d the player quickly and actively moves, always has a boost, and hits the ball in the direction of the enemy gate so that the ball flew quickly, and comes well on the ball (and sometimes on the goal). Usually this is enough for you to trust the teams and did not rush to take away the ball from you because of your uselessness.

Timple (team game in Rocket League)

After mastering the basic skills, it usually suddenly finds out that the game is commanded and in 3x3 everything is very difficult, everyone is confused and interfered.

In fact, the formula TIMPLEY for the game without communication is very simple.

Playing from defense in Rocket League

As soon as it becomes clear that the attack chokes, the enemies intercepted the ball and you will not be able to select it, we turn it out and go on the boost / knuckles to your gate, collecting the boost along the way.

The enemies bring the ball into the area of \u200b\u200bthe wall / corner / gate and all begin to shy and flounder.

And then the magic scheme - if you are standing at the gate and see on the screen next to the ball (or with you) your ally or two, you stay at the gate. The allies in turn will hit the ball from the corner. If, after this iteration, the ball is still in the corner (that is, the allies were applied and did not knocked out), you drive to knock out, and immediately after failure returns to the gate and the cycle is repeated.

If you cut the wording, then something like: "Who is close to the ball - knocks who the second - covers / helps the first one who is the last goalkeeper and is waiting for his turn, and who could not knock, returns to the gate."

If everyone follows such a scheme, then there is a circulation of machines, where one player always makes Clear, the second is preparing to beat in the case of missed the first, and the third covers the worst outcome (ball in the gate). It sounds difficult at first, but gradually even with randomas in the matchmaking everything works by itself in this way.

Attack in Rocket League

The enemies were applied with the attack, we took the ball and lead to an enemy half.

Immediately the magic scheme - if you see that you are on the screen two ally, you are not going to rush together with them, but stay behind in Midfield, and wean only when one of the allies came back.

If you are first to the ball and there is no allies on the screen, your task is to prophete the ball until it either flies, or does not center, or until it is out of position.

If you drove the first and apparent, returning to the Midfield Boast (on the way you can lose the enemy goalkeeper, if you fit in the area of \u200b\u200bthe corner, and the team scores), recalibrate and see which of the schemes to use further (did you take the ball and migrate to Goal, or the attack continues there).

Again, briefly: "The first to the ball - spoke and in every possible way, the second is a little behind / in the center in case of pass, the loss of a ball or centering, the third is far behind in case of a strong knocking into your gate, and who fell back."

If it is still incomprehensible, I have some more of these wonderful arrows. And here they are:

Here the left side is attacking, and the right deaf. The numbering of players and their behavior are described in the schemes above.

Again, you should not be afraid and try to manually establish such interaction with your team, it itself begins to work at an intuitive level sooner or later. In 2x2 the same, but without a player with a number 2.

Correct camera settings and buttons in Rocket League

Most people travel with default buttons settings. With the settings of the camera, each experiment itself, or looks at what professional players use.

Two options used by veterans:

Kronovi Settings - default settings with a slightly stretched fava and a slightly remote camera, it turns out a little more tactical review and potentially more convenient to twist erylia.

Lachinio Settings - more "arcade" settings, with a maximum fob, low and close camera, because of this, speed is more felt. It is more convenient to ride with them without Ball Cam and focus strictly on the ball.

The Camera Stiffness parameter is responsible for the stiffness of the gum on which the camera hangs behind the machine - on Stiffness at 10 when accelerating and turning the camera will not be removed / shifted at all (fraught with loss of speed sensation).

Usually they play with the constantly enabled Ball Cam, turning it off when collecting beads, when running the ball in front of yourself and sometimes on the walls.

Regarding the choice of machines - all hits are rectangular boxes, but they slightly differ height. In the visual plan, flat cars are slightly more convenient when flying, convex - with ground stroke (dribble). At the official forum, Comrade compares any, but the overall consensus of pro-players - use what you like.

Ball control technicians and games in Rocket League

Beginner players are usually quite a lot of questions about how they still fly like a superman and make all sorts of steep things, but, no matter how much it sounds like, the most effective way here is to do all in-game training several times a week, restarting attempts If you fail, until you want to feel confidently with the ball.

Basic non-attactive moments:

All reversals must be made with a drift button
When flying on the ball, it is not necessary to keep the boost all the time, sometimes it is more useful to let go and redirect the car while it moves on inertia.
The easiest way to sink the ball from the wall is to go behind him along the wall, holding the car parallel to the ground. In this case, the squirrel from the wall will send the ball into the center of the field (or in the gate).
When purple sparks are flying from under your wheels, you have reached the maximum speed - the boom can be released and not waste. The maximum speed can be developed without a busta, kwarping ahead twice.
After flying to the ball, use the drift button to align the machine with respect to your inertia so as not to lose speed when landing.
The fastest way to get out of enemy gates, if you drove directly in them - go ahead and then align the car in the air to the drift button. You can kwork forward when you start going upside down, to speed up the process.
The goalkeeper can reach the crossbar of the gate without a busta, if you make a double jump, crushing the car in the process (the main thing here is not kwarned by randomly).

Minimum requirements Intel Pentium 4 1.8 GHz / AMD ATHLON XP 1700+ 1.4 GHz, 1 GB RAM, video card with DIRECTX 9 and 128 MB of memory, such as NVIDIA GeForce 210 / ATI Radeon X600 XT, 2 GB on hard disk, Internet - Connection and Account in Steam Recommended requirements Intel Core 2 DUO E4400 2.0 GHz / AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4200+ 2.2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Video Card with DIRECTX 9 and 256 MB of Memory, such as NVIDIA GeForce GT 340 / ATI Radeon X1900 GT, 2 GB Hard disk release date July 7, 2015 Age centers from 10 years Platform PC, PlayStation 4 Official site

The game is tested on PlayStation 4

With a brief description of the difference between Rocket League and ordinary football will be minimal. Two teams on the sports field - sometimes not without aggressive behavior - try to intercept the ball. Players work hard and try to score goal into the opponent's goal. During the dangerous moments of the stands literally explode shouts, the fans are playing the hymn together, someone swears loudly and raises their air ball. To compare the arcade from PSYONIX with FIFA 15, only two essential details are lacking: commentators and actually athletes themselves - colorful cars dissect on the lawn.

⇡ score a bumper goal

The San Diego team makes the project in its own genre - earlier the guys have already released similar SuperSonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars for PlayStation 3. Before starting the match, we offer to choose one of the cars available in the garage and decorate it to your liking. You can change the color and schedule, put other wheels, attach the flag and adjust the type of acceleration. For example, instead of ordinary nitro from the exhaust pipe, dollars or soap bubbles will be departed. Alas, all this "customization" in Rocket League is very weak. The available cars are no different from each other, it is impossible to improve them, and the choice of stickers is very meager. Competition modes are also a bit - only four, and the difference between them is only in the number of players. One on one is a busy match with the only opponent. There are also "two two" modes, "three three" and "four four" - in the latter case, natural chaos occurs on the field.

However, less than fun from the weak filling of Arcade does not become. The local five-minute contests give no less emotion than big football. Rules as such are not - the main thing, for the allotted time to score more goals than the enemy team. If you came to the end of the match with the same score, then overtime is turned on to the first ball in the gate. That's all. The present madness is happening on the screen, and there is such a difficult passion for the passions into responsible moments. Cars can jump, perform various flips, ride on the walls and - with proper acceleration - even fly. To replenish the reserve Nitro enough to drive on one of the points located on the field. At the same time learn how to ride in Rocket League very easily - the machines are instantly responding to the teams, go to the managed skid, and there is no difficulty change dramatically.

Any action on the field is emphasized by juicy effects from the collisions of the participants with each other and with the ball. The scored goal is accompanied by such a powerful explosion that all those near the gate are flying out in different directions. But in terms of graphics, this is a low-budget indie game that is difficult to call beautiful.

⇡ dry in a tank

PSYONIX implemented a cross-platform multiplayer between users of PlayStation 4 and PC, so there is no lack of players. But even if there is no one in online, you can always go through the main campaign. The championship offers the standard scheme for this genre: we go on the field with one team, we defeat, grow in the rank - we go through the career ladder on. Muchly boring network fights, but for training will be born.

The disadvantages of Rocket League are not at all out of the process - it is excellent here. Just a few hours later, the available cards are bored, I want fresh cars and b aboutencouraged differences in behavior between existing. Six stickers are infinitely decorated, and new flags and wheels issued with raising levels are quickly ceased to delight. However, for several evenings, fun is provided, and if you remember that with PS Plus subscribers this month, no penny will be asked for the game, then it is not great. It remains to hope that the developers will restrain the promise and support Rocket League with new content.

Advantages:

• cheerful gameplay;
• cross-platform multiplayer between PC and PS4;
• pleasant music.

Disadvantages:

• you need more content.

Graphics	Rocket League looks nice only at the expense of special effects. Bright explosions, thick smoke exhaust and good weather effects make their job. However, it is better not to look out.	7
Sound	A good sound and a clockwork soundtrack in the main menu - from such a game, in general, nothing else is needed.	8
Single player game	Boring single races will fit only for training and during the clutter online.	6
Collective game	The collective game is sharply lacking a distinct lobby, voting for the next card and some championships. However, for the entertainment for a couple of evenings there is enough and this - compete onner is very funny and tense.	8
Overall impression	Rocket League The very place among the arcade in PSN and Steam is bright, fast, interesting and, most importantly, a simple game. She would have more cars, fields and opportunities for customization - and it would be quite wonderful.	8