Psyonix on pivoting to mobile with Rocket League Sideswipe
Danielle Partis
News Editor
Tuesday 25th January 2022
Psyonix
In 2016, Psyonix's Rocket League took the world by storm. Its infectious combination of rocket-fuelled driving and straightforward football rules created a fusion that has since entertained millions.
But despite its prowess across every other platform, one market remained untapped. Enter Rocket League Sideswipe -- a mobile recreation of the Psyonix's hit, fine-tuned to be played on smaller devices.
The idea for a mobile version stemmed from Psyonix founder Dave Hagewood, who, after playing through a number of phone-based football games, wondered if Rocket League could be transferred in the same way.
Despite living under the Epic Games umbrella, the conception and development of Sideswipe's early prototypes were handled by a modest team of between three and four people, some of which were splitting their time between the main game and this new idea.
"The early premise we explored was 'can we take the foundation of other 2D soccer games and merge in Rocket League mechanics to make something fun, unique and playable on touchscreen, but still feel like Rocket League,'" Sideswipe designer Robert Garza explains.
"We all wore multiple hats and made a couple of prototypes to try and find a version of this concept that was fun."
Once the concept was officially greenlit by Psyonix, the group was allocated more resources to build out a stable development team. Garza says that the game ended up launching with a core team of about eight developers, with "hard to quantify support" from additional people in marketing, community development, QA and customer support, among others.
Rocket League Sideswipe swaps 3D for 2D to accommodate mobile controls
While Sideswipe was in its initial
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