Rooftop Hoops

Rooftop Hoops is arcade basketball on a chain-link court on top of a city block, drawn like a risograph street zine: cream paper, warm black ink, hot pink and electric blue, printed a little off register. The whole game is one shot, taken over and over. You stand behind the shooter, the hoop is up ahead against the skyline, and a power meter swings beside you. Hold anywhere — mouse, finger or the space bar — to start the swing, and let go while the marker is inside the pink band. Land it there and the ball leaves your hands on the exact arc that drops through the middle of the net. Miss the band and the shot goes long or short by the same margin you were off: front rim, back iron, off the glass.

After every shot, made or missed, the shooter moves. There are five painted spots on the court — close, mid, the three, the corner and deep from way out — and each one needs a different release, so the pink band sits higher on the meter the further out you stand. On the spots where a defender is contesting, a hand sweeps across your line; a lazy, flat shot gets swatted out of the air, while a high arc sails over it. Three makes in a row and the ball catches fire, the rooftop starts making noise and everything counts double. In a sixty-second run the final ten seconds are money ball, worth double again — so a hot hand that lasts into the last ten seconds is where the big numbers come from.

Two ways to play. The sixty-second Shootout is a race for points: swishes are worth an extra point over shots that rattle in, so clean releases pay. Around the World asks for one make on every spot in a row, and a single miss sends you back to the start. Either way the round finishes on a results card with your points, your best, your longest streak and your accuracy, stamped SWISH or BRICK. The sun sinks behind the water towers as the clock runs down, the windows of the city come on one by one, and a lo-fi beat keeps time under the dribble.