Inventive Multiplayer VR Studio Reveals New Game Fusing ‘Rocket League’ with Bows & Arrows

7

The studio behind the inventive multiplayer VR title Half + Half today announced a new multiplayer VR game called NOCK. Due to launch “soon” on Oculus Quest, Nock looks like Rocket League played with bows & arrows instead of cars.

‘Normal’ is the studio behind Half + Half, a collection of multiplayer mini-games on Quest and Rift that have some truly creative mechanics. The studio also builds Normcore, a multiplayer SDK for Unity.

Today the studio announced their next VR project called Nock—as in ‘nocking an arrow‘—and it’s “coming soon” to Oculus Quest.

Anyone familiar with Rocket League (2015) will pretty quickly see what’s going on here. Rocket League is the highly popular multiplayer game that turned a zany idea into a smash hit. It’s basically soccer, but played with physics-defying cars strapped with rockets. So while it might seem crazy to play soccer with bows & arrows, this is relatively well trodden ground… outside of VR at least.

From the teaser it looks like Nock could easily fit alongside the other mini-games in the Half + Half collection, but as of now it appears that it will launch as a standalone title. That makes us think that the studio sees this as a fully fledged title that will have more depth and staying power than its prior work.

One big question on our mind is how comfortable Nock will be. We can clearly see players flying through the air at fairly high speeds, which isn’t something we’d typically expect to be comfortable for most players. But considering the studio’s previous work with Half + Half, which is by all means very aware of VR’s unique affordances and comfort considerations, there might be more here than meets the eye.

SEE ALSO
Quest Now Natively Supports Spatial Video Originally Meant for Vision Pro

Indeed, there’s reason to be intrigued by Nock beyond the mere concept of ‘Rocket League in VR’. Normal’s prior title is well regarded for its inventive approach to multiplayer VR.

As fellow VR developer Darshan Shankar said of the studio’s announcement today, “The Normal team’s first game Half + Half is a masterclass in social VR game design. Their latest game NOCK looks to be another smash hit.”

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. See here for more information.


Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • JB1968

    Looks like some demo example from Unity engine. This can be possibly sold only on Quest platform.

    • brandon9271

      it looks fun. Don’t be a snob

    • benz145

      The team’s prior work speaks for itself, making this project worth keeping an eye on.

  • Looks an original concept… I’m curious to hear the first reviews about it!

    • Amelia Davis

      I’ve even earned $20110 in a calendar month simply working a few easy tasks from my PC.~0gy47~Immediately when I lost my last career, I was distressed and eventually I have got this top job carrying this out I can figure out how to earn thousands from my home.~0gy47~All of you is able to avail this easy job & may gain more dollars on-line heading following site.
      >>>> https://­f­w­.­a­x­/4g98k

  • Richard R Garabedian

    hmmm…it sounded stupid. but looks really fun and nice art

  • Arturs Gerskovics