After a year of development and collaboration with the beta-access community, we’ve decided it’s finally time...

ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS is officially launching on May 1st, 2015!

MODULE 6: A NEW HOPE

Happy new year!

It might not seem like it, but Module 6 is officially our biggest change yet -- our patch file is huge, our git commits are ten pages long, and our back-end supports and core technologies have all been shaken up. Most of that is under-the-hood, but we should see better support for all platforms, faster performance, less glitches, and much more fun!

THE BIG STUFF

POWER-UPS! In Module 6 we are putting a new feature out for testing. We've hid little presents around the map that, when collected, will trigger slow-motion (and to mix things up, sometimes fast-motion)! This adds a lot of interesting dynamics to the gameplay and we like it a lot, but we're undecided on whether it should stay with the main game. Early access is all about testing and community feedback, so have at it and let us know what you think!

Brand new controller handling! There's been some updates to the controller library we're using, and we're pretty excited about it. In addition to (finally!) being able to bind your connected controllers however you want, you can now do it all in-game without having to restart! In a future update we'll be able to use this to allow binding of odd or unknown controller brands, too.

A ton of elbow-grease in the UI department! We've been polishing, cleaning, tweaking, and fidgeting with all of the knobs that make up the menus of the game. Adding glows, sound effects, new assets, and even little things like dynamically swapping in keyboard/controller prompts depending on what you're currently using. Module 6 represents a preliminary style-pass of our final product, but we are still working on a big flow overhaul that will restructure how the game is presented. We hope you like what you see, but prepare yourself for something even bigger!

A brand new Lindsay! Though Lindsay Jorgensen has been with Radial Games for a while now (working on top-secret things), he's only recently been let loose on ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS! He likes long walks on the beach with shaders, has an orbital low-level optimization beam, and makes arts with his hands.

Other changes

We've put a short-form patch-notes box on the main menu

The game now features a perspective-based camera, which allows us to add some depth to the game area.

Added some new easter eggs

We've exposed "timeScale" as a new moddable property for workshop entries. Want an edge to your game? Crank your speed at home up to 120% and practice! When you play at your friend's house, it'll feel like slow-motion and your reflexes will be super fast! Is the game too-fast as it is? You can slow things down a notch!

New art updates for particle effects and rockets

Improved performance (and allowed for UI-glow-times) by collapsing our three cameras into a single one.

Bug Fixes

New splash image for the external resolution-selection config tool. This one is smaller in size and should fix a game-breaking bug on Linux platforms.

Removing configuration hooks for the Steam controller. This was causing issues on some Linux machines; we'll re-add them once the Steam controllers launch.

Fixing a weapon-explosion glitch that was causing rockets to teleport long distances over a single frame.

Fixed the "bombDropLowSide" moddable property accidentally dropping on the high side.

The countdown clock music (in tug-of-war mode) now respects your volume settings.

Though we at Radial Games have always fully respected and supported your decision to use a 5:4 ratio display, ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS was not so kind... until now.

We've got some big exciting things coming for the next few updates, but we're also officially announcing...

We're aiming to leave Early Access soon!!

Thanks to everyone that was part of our active community development in the experimental branch, Module 4 is now out and our ROCKETS are better than ever!

Don't have ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS yet? It's available on Steam in Early Access! Get in on the development!

Here are our changes since Module 3:

BIG THINGS TO NOTE:

BALLOONS One of the biggest complaints we've been getting from the fans (especially when showcasing the game at conventions) is that the scoring system is confusing to new players. Our old Tug-of-War mechanic wasn't working quite as well as we had expected, so for Module 4 were doing something a bit crazy: Changing up the core scoring mechanic. Module 4 is introducing per-rocket "health" as represented by balloons. Can you really call a ROCKET without balloons a rocket? We didn't think so either! (Also maybe we like MarioKart's Battle Mode a little bit.) Here's how it works:

Each ROCKET begins with 3 balloons that orbit it.

Shooting another ROCKET will steal one of their balloons and add it to your own collection.

You cannot have more balloons than you started with; if you have 3 balloons and you steal a fourth, it gets popped permanently.

Once a player is out of balloons, they are out of the running -- they lose the ability to shoot, and the camera stops tracking them (But they can still fly around and run interference, sorta like a ghost).

For those of you that loved the tug-of-war-mode: It's not gone forever! It is still an active option for the ROCKET WORKSHOP.

ZEN MODE We uploaded a new "Zen" workshop item that allows you to play by yourself (or with others), that enforces no game-over state and allows you to play to your heart's content. I'll be tweaking this workshop item over time until it reflects the actual zen mode that we want to ship with -- it'll allow you to play with colours and remove the firing abilities, so what you see right now isn't really representative, but we wanted to give you a window into our development there. RIBBONS Taking inspiration from Goldeneye, Super Smash Brothers, and Towerfall, we have added the ability to win ribbons at the end of the match! We currently have a dozen or two different things you can win, and we report back on things such as Accuracy statistics. We'll be adding more and more ribbons over time, we hope you have fun figuring them all out! BALANCE CHANGES We also made some changes to overall gameplay that might alter your strategies:

We lowered the burstfire timer from 1.8 seconds to 1.0 seconds. We found that the burstfire was almost never being used, as it was superior to simply button-mash. This change makes burstfire fire more projectiles-per-second than button-mashing can, but you still lose the ability to use shields for a second during the burst so there is a tradeoff in strategies there.

You are now allowed to have up to 4 different teams per match.

You are now allowed to have up to 4 AI players per match.

OTHER CHANGES:

We tweaked the default camera speeds, which should make spectating a little less sickness inducing now.

10 new achivements to collect!

Some modding fixes and changes.

Fixed progression achievements.

New default map starting placements

Fixed a bug with keyboard controls not responding properly in the customization menu

Added a "reset achievements" button to the settings menu

Changed how the camera zooms in on the victor during game over.

Added versioning numbers to Workshop items. This has the unfortunate side effect of breaking all existing mods (many just have to be re-uploaded by the authors to work), but the advantage of you no longer having to play game modes that were designed with Module 1 variables that no longer exist.

Added the ability to select between Zen / TugOfWar / Bubble modes in modding files.

Where applicable, you can now view high score tables from the Workshop menu.

Lots of performance tweaks. Our development benchmark machine went from 55FPS to 80FPS!

New shielding graphics that match your ship colours.

Wow, that was a few busy months! Now, finally, we are proud to unveil Module 3, the latest update for ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS!

Module 3 left just about nothing untouched, and every part of the game is at least a little bit different. I'll cover the bigger details here, but we really encourage you to head over to Steam and let the auto-updater do its magic!

NEW INTERFACE. ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS may be the first game on Steam to use Unity's latest 4.6 beta (v20)! By switching up our core engine like this, we were able to rip out a lot of our old interface code and use Unity's new UI, making awesome new menus and HUD components that are much more responsive, better animated, more flexible, and it will really cut down future development time and allow for cool new features.

A PROPER SETTINGS MENU. Want to adjust various volume settings? Want the ability to toggle bigger game features? Want to redefine your keyboard, or map your crazy off-brand controller without diving into configuration files? Well this update is for you! In addition to all that stuff being available right now, we have also paved the way for opening up many more configurable options in the future. We'll keep you posted on what we add here!

A TEAM SELECT SCREEN THAT MAKES SENSE. In addition to having super cute team names randomly generated each game, the team setups are now much more intuitive with clear on-screen instructions.

NEW VISUAL EFFECTS PIPELINE. If you are anything like us here at Mission Control, you yawn at standard gamma colour spaces and normal-range lighting present in most modern games. They look so... Normal!... So we decided to take things to the next level. ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS is now completely presented with high-dynamic-range (HDR) cameras and a linear colour space. This allows us to quite literally turn the brightness of something... to 11. Prepare your sun-tan lotion, because our bloom and lighting effects are now brighter and more colourful than ever before. It's a veritable colour-soup in there.

ACHIEVEMENTS. There's this one guy that keeps posting in our forums demanding Steam Achievements. We are pleased to announce that we have finally caved, and over twenty achievements are now available! And this is just the start -- every update we'll release more.. and more!! AND MOORE!!

A SPOOKY MISSION MAP. Get your costumes on and check out the Steam Workshop! We've got a spooky custom map just for you!

AND MUCH MUCH MORE! We've got months of code and art changes queued up in this update, and you'll find a ton of little things might have changed - visual blips here and there, new visual effects, slightly modified rocket handling, even more exposed modding tools, better score tolerances, and even a new techno track from our fantastic musician Ben Lam.

Of course, the game is still far from perfect in Early Access and we'll be continuing to polish things up in the coming months and taking off the sharp corners.

We've also been busy here at Mission Control, bringing ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS to various events around North America and even winning some awards!

We were selected to be part of the MIX Showcase at SIGGRAPH 2014 in Vancouver!

We won the "BEST OF VANCOUVER" award from the Georgia Straight!

We were invited to be part of the INDIE MEGABOOTH at PAX Prime in Seattle!

BigSushi.fm awarded us the "GOLDEN SUSHI OF SOPHISTICATION" at PAX Prime 2014!

Destructoid honored us with the "EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD" at PAX Prime 2014!

We were an "OFFICIAL SELECTION" at IndieCade 2014 in Los Angeles!

We had the honour of having our in-game-music mixed live on stage by Richard Lemarchand, while the game was played by fans on a gigantic screen behind him on stage for IndieCade's NIGHT GAMES!

It's that time again! Here's a video for the next installment of the Steam-Early-Access version of ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS:

What are the highlights of this release?

MODDING. Our rocket scientists have been working hard to bring you this update that can unleash your creative potential!  Remember back in Module One when we hinted at some new modding features? Those features are now entirely integrated with the Steam Workshop, right inside the game interface! Upload and download mods, rate and rank your favourites, and subscribe to the best to automatically download the latest updates as they happen.

NEW TRACK. Strap on your thrust-vectoring nozzles; you are really going to feel the Gs with the fresh new track from Ben Lam!

BURST FIRE. Each rocket has an experimental new firing mode -- holding down the fire button results in a firehose of artillery, but also exposes the ROCKETS to a vulnerable shield-free period.

Back at launch we let everyone know that the price of the game would increase over time to match the feature set. We are happy to announce that pricing for Module Two will remain at only $4.99! We'll definitely be ramping the price up soon though, so tell your friends to join now!

Here's the complete change list:

AUDIO

A new track by Ben Lam: METEORSTORM.

New sound effects and announcer lines.

Fixed bug where lowered audio settings wouldn't affect certain in-game objects (rocket engines and star-noises in particular).

Fixed the short burst of audio on startup if you had previously muted the game.

VISUAL

Fixed some bugs with the countdown timer display.

Changed the way glow/bloom was handled in-game; should perform better now.

New method for handling generated art in memory, most users should see performance improvements.

Adjusted the way rocket trails are displayed.

Adjusted glow values on the scorch marks (they were a bit overwhelming!).

New level objects to fit with the art style.

Revised handling of health indicators on challenge-mode rockets.

Fixed a glitch where shadows would sometimes appear above other elements (particularly terrain).

GAMEPLAY

Fixed a rounding error that allowed for super-high-scores in the leaderboards.

Updated the physics properties (bounciness, friction) of many world assets.

Fixed bug where the timescale would be too fast during game-over and too slow in the menus.

Explosions now exert a force on hit rockets (instead of just the mass of the impact doing all the work). That means that Mines now fling rockets around that are caught up in the blast radius.

Limited rocket rotation speed to prevent spinouts at near infinite speed.

There is now a limit to how fast you can mash buttons.

Burst-fire mode: you can hold down a fire button to charge up and release an onslaught of rockets! You cannot use shields while charging or firing in this fashion. (this feature is experimental and may not survive!)

MODDING

Steam Workshop integration - you can now upload and download mods directly within the game!

The game now stores files in your application data folder (accessible from an in-game menu)

Mods are now encapsulated in their own game modes and can be loaded individually in-game.

Many more variables exposed for modification.

Fixed a variety of bugs with the data-parsing of mods.

Added a bunch of new prefabricated shapes to assist in map creation.

Added a new editable "color" property to map components.

Removed rotation and scaling properties from map components (well, technically they are still there, but they make things look ugly right now so we removed the documentation and discourage use).

A new modding guide to outline all the changes.

MISC

Fixed a game-launch bug that affected some Linux platforms

Fixed some rare errors that caused audio drops and other strange glitches (typically found around/near the game-over state)

The Escape key on the keyboard should now function in most settings (in case your controllers die or get unplugged)

All sorts of minor fixes here and there that didn't make the "interesting enough to type out" list.

NEW CONTROLLER SUPPORT

Updated controller handling, fixes some outstanding problems with PS4, XBoxOne, and F310/510/710 joysticks.

Rock Candy PS3 (Win)

Run 'N' Drive Wireless PS3 (Win)

XUSB Gamepad PS3 (Win)

Cyborg V.3 Rumble Pad XBox360 (Win)

Airflo XBox360 (Win)

Airflo PS3 (Win)

XEOX Gamepad (Win)

MadCatz Gamepad (Win)

Generic USB Joystick (Win)

Logitech RumblePad 2 (Win)

Logitech F310 (Win)

Thrustmaster dual analog 3.2 (Win)

ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS launched just over a month ago on Steam's Early Access, and we promised you big monthly updates. This is the first official update: MODULE ONE.

So what's new?

THE SOUNDTRACK. The game now features three full-length high-energy tracks by Ben Lam!

CHALLENGE MODE. Ready to hone your skills and see how your mad piloting skills hold up on the leaderboards? We've opened up challenge mode and added our very first challenge: Time Battle. See how quickly you can defeat Stanley. The catch? You have only one hit point!

MODDING. Ever want to customize the controls? Make your own map? Alter the game physics? Make your own challenge? No problem. Just about everything in the game is now modifiable with just a text editor (and we'll be introducing graphical editors and scripting in the future).

A BETTER EXPERIENCE. Of course, we've also made a ton of performance enhancements, bug fixes, and experience enhancements for you.  We've tweaked cameras, added effects, adjusted physics, and made the game even more solid.

Back at launch we let everyone know that the price of the game would increase over time to match the feature set. We are happy to announce that the pricing will NOT be increasing for Module One!

Here's the entire changelog:

AUDIO

Dozens of new announcer clips to spice up the whole game.

Dozens of new sound effects.

In dogfight mode, new musical call-out for last-chance timer.

New end-of-match music.

Music is now randomly selected on match start.

Two new full-length music tracks! "Solar Blaster" and "Meteor Storm".

All music is now compressed, bringing our update sizes down in size by half.

MODDING

You can now modify all sorts of settings that govern how the game is played, and you can even create your own challenges, maps, and game modes. You can also customize your keyboard controls. Check out the ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS Modding Guide.

LEADERBOARDS

For challenge modes, there is now a leaderboard on the match-end menu! The leaderboards are dynamically generated depending on your modded content, so popular mods or user-made challenges will have their own high score tables! There currently aren't any leaderboards for dogfight mode, but that will change in the future.

LINUX

Fixed Steamworks SDK support (effects leaderboards, controllers, overlay, etc)

INTERFACE

Keyboard support! You can now play with Arrow Keys and ZXC, or WASD/JKL. You can customize these in the modding area.

You can now use X/Square, A/Circle, or Start/Options to advance through menus (C/X/Enter on keyboard).

New pause window (Start/Options on controller or Enter on keyboard).

Fixed the Steam Machine controller on Mac and Linux.

New controller help screen (this will become a customization screen soon).

New settings screen with volume, resolution, and fullscreen options. In fullscreen mode, the resolutions available are those reported by your video device. In windowed mode, the game window is resizeable.

Fixed a bug preventing the game from opening on certain multi-monitor setups.

Game controllers now smartly opt-in to controlling the game instead of stealing input from the keyboard. This should prevent unused joysticks from preventing play.

New team selection screen!

New match-end menu.

Fixing the looping ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS text on the main menu.

EFFECTS

Added particle effects to every explosion.

Bloom is now generated using a different pipeline that should increase performance across the board on all platforms.

Fixed a bug where bloom is inverted on Windows machines. Note this may still come up in rare circumstances; until we can track this down you can manually invert it in the modding files.

Smoothed out camera motion over a few frames to prevent fast motion that was causing a small percentage of people to get sick.

Improved performance in games where there are a lot of particle effects and projectiles.

Stanley gets a specialty coat of paint! They'll appear with grey bodies to help set them apart from humans.

On victory, the camera now follows the entire winning team

GAMEPLAY

Missiles now retain their velocity when they reflect off of shields or other projectiles.

New challenge mode: Try to land three hits on Stanley... but look out, you'll die with just one hit!

AI now pauses for a moment at match start.

New match start countdown timer

Disabling support for more than one AI in any given match. This will come back soon; we just need to make Stanley a bit smarter about killing friendlies.

New default arena design.

Disabled support for >4 players at this time. This feature may make a return in the future (and is override-able via modding).

NEW CONTROLLER SUPPORT:

Making XBox360 the "default" if we can't otherwise identify your controller

XBox One (Win)

Gasia Playstation (OSX)

GPX (Win)

F510 Rumble (Win)

Steam Controller (all platforms) (NOTE: emulates keyboard for now Will do joysticks soon)

GPX Gamepad (Win)

SL-6566 (Win)

Pro Ex (Win)

Afterglow (Win)

Mad Catz Call of Duty (Mac)

XEQX Gamepad (Win)

SZMY-Power Co. Gamepad 3 Turbo (Mac)

PS3 (Win)

Generic XBox pad (Linux)

Mega World Thrustmaster dual analog (Linux)

Razer Sabertooth Elite (Win)

XEOX Gamepad (Win)

F310 Gamepad (Win)

MadCatz Generic (Win)