Artwork

We can't show you everything just yet, partially because we want to save some stuff for the game, and partially because we're still working on it!  Nevertheless, here is some of the artwork you'll find in Rocket League.

It is designed to be both illustrative and functional (as in being explanatory).  Some of it is original hand drawing and some of it is digital painting.  Other items were created using 3D software, which was then enhanced further in 2D photo software.  The goal with the artwork, as with the game in general, is to recreate the look and feel of 1950s science fiction cinema.  With a few exceptions (such as the illustrations for the "specialties"), this is in contrast to some "retro" games and other works that go for a 1950s comic book style, or which go for an over-exaggerated "super-retro" flare that actually never was. 

Instead, we are trying in most pieces to create imagery that you'd swear you saw in some 1950's film.  In actuality, these are all original works - absolutely none of the images, artwork, or even the designs of ships or creatures depicted in the artwork are from any real 1950s film.  They are, however, intentionally inspired from such films, and incorporate elements of various specific designs meshed together to look like something that "might have been" in an actual 1950s sci-fi or horror flick.

For example, with the cover art, I looked through literally hundreds of 1930-50s movie posters - trying to spot shared traits and common layouts.  I looked at the poses, the facial expressions, the type styles, the composition of elements, the themes, the artistic style, and so on.  Much of the interior art uses  actual models and 3D computer graphics to get a photographic look so as to seem like a still from a film.  However, for the cover, we wanted a painted/drawn look because this is what the movie posters looked like.  Even some of the text was not created with stylized fonts as would normally be done.  Instead, some type was hand drawn because many of the movie posters' text of the period was also painted by hand.

When it came to the design of spaceships, we wanted to provide a wide range of rocket ship and flying saucer types (which are actually more varied than is probably appreciated by many).  The idea is that just about any film from the era we wanted to be something that could have possibly been a Rocket League adventure.  So, we have the RS-1, RS-2, RS-3, RS-4, and the FS-1, and FS-2.  Each of these is similar (but not the same) as a variety of different rockets and saucers depicted in different films.  For example, most rockets in films landed pointing straight up.  But earlier films such as Buck Rogers featured rockets which landed on their sides.  So, the RS-4 lands on it's side.  Even though it is inspired by earlier films than the others, the RS-4 design was rationalized to be more advanced than the upright landing rockets, thanks to the antigravity systems it uses.  This innovation would actually make sense in that you'd have more floor area with less time in transit between levels in a horizontal model than a vertical one.  Again, I looked through hordes of photos of different spaceships, picking out common design elements without replicating any one ship exactly.

The artwork is still in the works and we plan to be putting up more as we go so check back often!  In the actual game, we'll also have layout maps of several different types of ships.  Click the "Next" button below to see some of the artwork...