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Game // Original // Game Dev Lab

Project Backyard: Rockets

An open-world model rocket simulator.

Build model rockets, launch them and find out what happens. It starts at Camp Firebrand, a lakeside rocketry camp, and grows into a whole island of rocketry, shops, people and stuff to do that has nothing to do with rockets at all.

Apply to test the betaWatch itJoin the Discord
Status
Beta testing
Platform
Windows 10 / 11
Current beta
v18, rev236 (Camp Firebrand)
Developer
Malfunction Labs

Camp Firebrand

IN_THE_BETA //

The beta is the first camp: where every player starts, learns the hobby and launches for the first time. This is what testers are playing right now.

Launch

The pad

Pick a rocket and fly it. The free-play cabinet lets you try any rocket in the game without earning it first.

Welcome

Sgt. Tony and the night show

Sgt. Tony meets you at the campfire, gives his welcome and walks you to the show. Fireworks go up over the lake while the camera tours the camp.

Create

My Camper

Build your camper: body, face, hair, hats, glasses, backpacks. Or hit Surprise Me and take what you get, now and then with one silly feature.

Play

The arcade

Cabinets on a black-light carpet and a working claw machine. Steer the claw, drop it, and a kit box that makes it down the chute is yours.

Range

Archery

Straw targets, hay-bale stacks and earth berms, with archery animations made on our own camper.

Explore

Around camp

The Rocket Lobby shop, the LaunchBOX tent and its upper deck, a zip line over the camp, bikes, the lot and its granite rocket monument.

Screenshots

IN_ENGINE //

In-engine shots of Camp Firebrand. Click one for full size.

Camp Firebrand from the air, the lake and the Zenith Needle, with three launches going up
Camp Firebrand
A two-stage rocket climbing
In flight
A launch climbing past the Zenith Needle above the lake
The Zenith Needle
Chase camera on a rocket over the forest
Over the forest
Fireworks over the Needle and the lake on launch night
Launch night
The arcade: air hockey, cabinets and the prize corner
The arcade
The LaunchBOX tent's launch deck from above
LaunchBOX deck
The archery range
The range

Video

SIGNAL_OUTPUT //
Full showcase
Launch
Camp Firebrand
Halloween short

Where it’s going

IN_DEVELOPMENT //

Camp is the start. These are planned and in development, not in the beta yet, and they will change as testing teaches us things.

World

Stratum Island

The main world: about 42 square miles of launch sites, stores, wilderness, businesses, people, and ordinary things to do that have nothing to do with progress.

Planned
Build

Markus the Maker

An upgradeable rocket builder. It starts by assembling your exact design in one click and grows into a factory that turns your prototype into a kit with your name and number on it, sold on store shelves.

Planned
Record

RocketTV

Nose, tube, fin and engine cameras. Record flights and builds and publish them in-game.

Planned
Fly

Rockets through the eras

Rocket classes drawn from real hobby history, from the 1960s through the 2000s, plus Builder Class: the rockets you design yourself.

Planned

Test the beta

APPLY //
  1. Apply. Tell us about your PC, when you can play and what you bring to a playtest. Applicants must be 18 or older.
  2. Get accepted. We review every application by hand. Tester slots are limited.
  3. Sign in to the tester portal. Read and accept the tester NDA and rules.
  4. Download and play. New builds land in the portal. Report what breaks with the build code and your log.
Apply nowTester portalJoin the Discord

Follow along

SOCIALS //