Heated Hoops
Five on five, one athlete, a season to earn your place.
You're hot
Free. On a phone, a tablet or a computer. Nothing to download. Install it and it opens full screen from your home screen.
Basketball on a full court, as one player
Five on five, four quarters (of 2, 3 or 4 minutes, your pick), the real lines and clocks: inside the arc is two, outside it three, 8 seconds to get over half court and 24 on the shot clock. You are one of the ten.
Hold Shoot and let go at the top of your jump, in the meter's green band. Drive and it's a layup, or a dunk with room to go up. Pass where the stick points, shake your man with a crossover or a step back, call for a screen. On their ball: Jump, Steal, set your feet for the charge, and Switch when their man gets past yours.
The camera sits behind the play, so you always attack up the screen, on a phone held upright or sideways.
Make your athlete. See who calls.
Pick a position, a look, a height and a build. Six ratings start modest: Shooting, Finishing, Handles, Passing, Defence and Boards.
Then the showcase: one short game in an empty gym, scouts from the league watching. Your grade comes from your whole line, not the score, and it decides which of the league's eight squads call. The better squads offer less: a place on the bench at the best, the starting five at a squad that's struggling. Pick one, and it's yours.
Or skip ahead: Quick game on the title puts you straight into one game, counted nowhere, with your athlete or a ready-made one.
Earn your minutes
A season of fourteen weeks, every squad twice. The rest of the league's games are real games, played by the game itself while you play yours.
- The coach's trust moves with every game's grade. Earn it and you go from the bench to the rotation to starting.
- Off the bench, you come on at the start of the 2nd or 3rd quarter. Make your minutes count.
- Training: one rating a little better, every week. The offseason: points to spend by your season's grade, and every season raises how far a rating can go.
- The table and the leaders after every week.
- The deadline: halfway through, other squads may call. Stay, or move for the rest of the season.
Get hot
Two in a row and you're heating up. Three, and you're hot.
Your ring turns orange, your green band on the shot meter gets wider, and your teammates look for you. A miss, a turnover or too long without a make cools you off.
Your green band, and hot: 1.3x wider.
Hot, a three from deep is the heat check: make it and you stay hot twice as long. And watch their side: anyone can get hot, and a hot man there has an orange ring too.
The playoffs, the awards, next year
The top four play on: the first to two wins, then the final.
Then the awards: the best player, the scoring title, and three only you can win (Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man and Most Improved). Then next year's offers: your squad wants you back in the role you've earned, and others call. Start all season and your squad offers you the captain's band. Records keeps your seasons, and your hottest streak.
Good to know
Touch or keys
On a phone or tablet, the stick bottom left and the buttons bottom right say what they do as the play changes. On a computer: WASD or the arrows, J or Space, K, L and I for the buttons, T for a timeout, H for How to play.
Your season is kept
In the browser you play in, on this device. Clearing the site's data starts it again, so Save a copy now and then. One player: your teammates and the other side are the computer's.
As an app
Add it to your home screen and it opens full screen: The app keeps a season of its own: Save a copy in your browser and Open a copy in the app (Settings, between games) to carry yours across.
What's new
Build 23. Halfway through a season, at the deadline, other squads may call: stay with yours, or move for the rest of the season. Your line comes with you, your new coach's trust starts fresh, and Records notes where you came from.
Build 22. Passes now find their man: a pass in the air follows its target, so it reaches you when you cut a new way instead of flying past. The music has a hip hop beat on the court and the title, with an 808 under the kick, the snare and clap together, and rolling hats.
Build 21. Your athlete now grows season to season. Every season you finish raises each rating's ceiling, and the offseason gives you points to spend by your season's grade, from 6 for a season of As down to 3. On slower phones the crowd now switches to a lighter look to keep the game smooth.
Build 20. A Quick game button on the title puts you straight into a game, with your own athlete or a ready-made one, and counts toward nothing. Settings now picks the quarters: 2, 3 or 4 minutes. Getting hot lifts the crowd and warms the arena's lights, and a made heat check brings the camera in on the play. Leaving the page after the showcase no longer loses your offers.
Build 19. Heated Hoops went up: five on five on a full court, played as one athlete you make. A showcase game in an empty gym brings offers from a league of eight squads, and your role is earned game by game through a 14 week season, the playoffs, and end of year awards. Make three shots in a row and you're hot: your ring turns orange and your green shooting band widens.
Every build's notes are on Launchway's build log.