Playing games

Rally Games are multiplayer 2D and 3D games made by people on Rally with Rally Studio. They run in your browser, with no downloads, on servers that Rally hosts.

Find a game

Select Games (the game controller) in the community rail. The Games page has these sections:

Discover games: public games anyone can play. Switch between Most played and Newest. Newest puts recently published or updated games first.
Your games: games you’ve made, if any.
Shared with you: games you’ve been invited to help build, if any.

Each game card shows the game’s name, who made it, whether it’s 2D or 3D, and how many times it’s been played. Select a card to open the game’s page, where you’ll find its description and how many players fit on each server (Up to 10 per server, for example).

Play a game

On the game’s page, select Play.
Rally finds a server for you. You’ll see “Finding a server…”, then the game loads.
Play. Three buttons sit in the top-left corner of the game: the back arrow, the Rally logo (the Rally menu) and the speech bubble (the chat).

If Play is grayed out and the page says “Not published yet”, the game’s creator hasn’t released a playable version yet.

The game opens on its own page, outside the main Rally app. If you’re in a voice call, opening a game in the same tab ends the call. To keep talking while you play, open the game in a new tab. See Voice.

Keep playing while you look around Rally

Select the back arrow in the top-left corner of the game (or Minimize (keep playing) in the Rally menu) to go back to where you were on Rally. The game keeps running in a small window in the bottom-right corner, the mini player: you stay in the game and on your server while you chat, browse or check another game. Your browser’s back button does the same when it goes back to a Rally page.

Select Expand (the arrows) at the top of the mini player to play full screen again, right where you left off.
Drag the mini player by its top bar to move it to another corner. Rally remembers the corner on this device.
Select Close (the X) to leave the game.
Opening another game replaces the one in the mini player, and signing out closes it.

The mini player lasts while Rally stays open in that tab: reloading the page or closing the tab leaves the game.

Leave a game

Open the Rally menu and select Leave the game, or select Close on the mini player. Leave the game takes you to the game’s page (as a guest, to Rally’s home page).

Controls

Most games use Rally’s standard controls. Some games set up their own, so check the game’s description.

	3D games	2D games
Move	`W` `A` `S` `D` or the arrow keys	`A` and `D`, or the left and right arrow keys
Jump	`Space`	`Space`, `W` or the up arrow
Look around	Click the game to steer the camera with your mouse (press `Esc` to get your pointer back), or hold the right mouse button and drag	The camera follows you
Zoom	Mouse wheel	Mouse wheel

On a touchscreen, use the on-screen joystick to move and the Jump button to jump. In 3D games, drag on the screen to look around.

The list in the top-right corner shows everyone on your server (Players), along with any scores the game keeps.

Play full screen

Open the Rally menu (the Rally logo in the top-left corner of the game, or Tab) and select Full screen. Press Esc to leave full screen. iPhones don’t have it: there, the game already fills the page.

Play with friends

When you select Play, Rally puts you on the busiest server for that game that still has room. So if you and your friends open the same game around the same time, you’ll usually end up on the same server.

To get friends into a game, send them the link to the game’s page. A few things can split you up:

The server is full. When a server reaches its player limit, the next person who joins goes to a different server.
The game was just updated. People who join after an update play the new version on a new server, while people who joined earlier stay on the old one until they leave.

When servers are full

When every server for a game is full, Rally starts a new one for you automatically. This can take a few seconds.

If Rally can’t start any more servers right now, you’ll see Servers are full with “All game servers are full right now. Try again in a minute.” Wait a moment and select Try again.

“This game isn’t responding”

If a game stops responding for a few seconds, Rally covers it with This game isn’t responding: “It may be stuck in a loop. You can leave it, or wait a little longer.”

Select Leave to go back to the game’s page.
Select Keep waiting to give it more time.

This usually means there’s a problem with the game itself, not with your connection. If it keeps happening, let the game’s creator know.

Fix other problems

What you see	What it means and what to do
Game servers are down	Rally couldn’t start or reach a server. Wait a minute and select Try again.
This game has no version yet	The game hasn’t been published. Check back later.
Game not found	The game was deleted, or it’s private. Check the link with whoever sent it.
Slow down	You started games too many times in a short time. Wait a minute and try again.
Disconnected: “The connection to the game server was lost.”	Refresh the page, or go back and select Play again.
You were removed from the game	The game or server ended your session. If it says “This server is full”, go back and select Play again to get another server. If it says you joined from somewhere else, you opened the same game in another tab or device.
A badge like “2 errors · press ` to view”	The game’s scripts reported errors. Press the backtick key to open the developer console, which shows the messages and your ping to the server. This is handy to share with the game’s creator. Press backtick again to close it.

Make your own game

Anyone can build a game with Rally Studio, right in the browser. Start with the Rally Studio overview or the games quickstart.