Sloclap, creators of Absolver and Sifu, reimagines football with Rematch, an immersive third-person game. Discover how they leveraged Unreal Engine 5’s features like Virtual Shadow Maps and Temporal Super Resolution to craft a unique, fast-paced experience.
For a studio renowned for its critically acclaimed action titles like Absolver and Sifu, pivoting to a football game might seem like an unexpected move. However, Paris-based indie studio Sloclap saw a natural connection in the core elements of motion, physicality, and precise control that define both martial arts and the beautiful game. The result is Rematch, a unique take on football that immerses players in fast-paced matches from a third-person perspective, allowing them to control a single player at a time.
To understand the journey behind this innovative title, we look to an insightful interview with Sloclap’s Creative Director, Pierre Tarno, and Technical Director, Benoit Jacquier. These visionaries shed light on how their extensive experience with Unreal Engine, particularly its advanced Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) features such as Virtual Shadow Maps and Temporal Super Resolution, helped them redefine what a football game could be. Their philosophy centers on the idea of “bodies in motion,” a thread that connects all of their projects and allows them the creative freedom to take bold risks as an indie team.
Building on a Strong Foundation with Unreal Engine
Sloclap has been a long-time user of Unreal Engine, developing a deep expertise in areas like animation systems, online replication, and gameplay responsiveness. Their previous projects taught them crucial lessons, with Absolver refining network fairness and input replication, and Sifu pushing the boundaries of combat feel, timing, and fluidity. These lessons directly translated into Rematch, providing a robust technical and design foundation. However, the new project also presented unique challenges, such as managing ball physics and synchronizing complex interactions between ten online players, which expanded their technical toolbox.
The Balance Between Credibility and Arcade Action
One of the key design challenges for the team was striking a balance between delivering a believable football experience and offering fast-paced, arcade-like action. Tarno and Jacquier explained that their goal wasn’t to create a hyper-realistic simulation of football by the rulebook, but rather to capture its spirit. They focused on actions grounded in what great athletes can achieve, making the game feel fast, reactive, and intense. Players experience the thrill of quick decisions, alternating between strategic positioning and bursts of athletic prowess, truly feeling like they are on the pitch.
Immersive Perspectives and Stylized Visuals
The choice of a third-person perspective was fundamental to Rematch, bringing players closer to the action and enhancing immersion. The developers utilized Unreal’s camera tools to maintain readability during intense moments, allowing players to aim shots like in a third-person shooter while still conveying the weight and movement of their athlete. This perspective ensures players embody their character rather than just observing from afar.
UE5’s lighting, material, and environment tools were instrumental in achieving the game’s distinctive stylized and vibrant visual art style. Sloclap adapted the engine’s rendering pipeline to align with their artistic vision, enabling their artists to fully leverage UE5’s native capabilities to create a visually compelling world.
Fluid Animations and Performance Optimization
Animations are central to Sloclap’s DNA. Drawing from their action game background, they prioritized fluid, hand-crafted animations that communicate weight, momentum, and physicality. UE5 facilitated the synchronization of these animations across network conditions and allowed for dynamic blending based on in-game context, whether a player is sliding, volleying, or colliding. This level of reactivity is crucial to the game’s satisfying feel.
Two UE5 features that particularly stood out to the Sloclap team during development were Virtual Shadow Maps and Temporal Super Resolution. These technologies delivered impressive visual results that seamlessly matched their needs while also enabling the game to ship at a smooth 60 frames per second across a wide array of hardware. This optimization was vital for ensuring a broad player base could enjoy the fast-paced action.
The Future of Rematch: Crossplay and Community
Crossplay is a cornerstone of Rematch’s future. The developers firmly believe that the game is a social experience meant to be shared with friends, regardless of their platform. The introduction of crossplay on September 5, 2025, was a significant milestone, expanding the community, strengthening matchmaking, and setting the stage for the game’s long-term growth. It’s more than just a feature; it ensures Rematch continues to thrive as a connected world where everyone can play together.
Unreal Engine 5 also significantly accelerated development time. The engine’s inherent design for multiplayer games was a substantial advantage. Furthermore, integrating their production pipeline with Epic’s Horde infrastructure, which works seamlessly with UE’s build tools, allowed the team to quickly build the game across multiple configurations and platforms, leading to much faster iteration cycles.
Sloclap actively involves its passionate community in the game’s evolution. From early Betas, player feedback has been central to their process. They monitor player behavior, observe tournament strategies, and identify areas for improvement, constantly tweaking balance and testing changes on public servers before implementing them. This collaborative approach ensures that the community is actively shaping Rematch into a living, evolving game.
For those eager to dive deeper, the best resources are the official Rematch website and its social channels, including Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and Discord. Ultimately, the most impactful way to understand Rematch is to jump in, play with friends, and experience the unique blend of physicality and fast-paced action for yourself.
To explore more about game development with Epic Games’ powerful tool, delve into our comprehensive Unreal Engine section. You can also discover advanced visual techniques in our articles on Unreal Engine Lighting & Rendering, or learn more about building interactive experiences in our Blueprints & Game Dev category.
Sources:
Rematch | Game Profile | Unreal Engine
Rematchn reinvents football using Unreal Engine 5
