Howdy golfers! It’s time once more for a progress update, where we take a look at what I’ve been working on in preparation for the next release of Super Video Golf.
First of all let me just say a big Hello to all the newcomers - Steam’s Sports Fest has been a great success for Super Video Golf and it’s been wonderful to see all the new names climbing the leaderboard. Hello and Welcome! It’s great to have you here. 😁
In the last post I took an in-depth look at the optimisation I’ve been doing to the game engine - so this time we’ll change gear a little and take a look at some of the new game features coming up instead. Let’s dive in!
The first new feature coming in the next update is the ability to create custom tournaments in Career mode. This will allow you to add a 3rd tournament tree where you can create a custom tournament by selecting any of the available courses you wish, and give it your own tournament name. You can also create multiple tournaments and switch between them as you please. Not only does this add a little longevity to the Career mode it also means you can use the new (and any future!) DLC course as part of the tournament and play it in Career mode, which is something people have asked for.
Aside from this I’ve been working on the user interface in several places. In game there’s now an option to choose a more ‘accurate’ range indicator for the minimap. This version of the range indicator accounts for any terrain elevation and wind in real-time so you get a much clearer idea of where your ball will land (assuming you hit it straight 😅) - hopefully this will provide another option to tweak the gameplay to suit your own personal style. Along these lines there’s also a new ‘Minimal UI’ option which removes many of the UI elements, such as the minimap, completely, for a more sim-like feel. Both of these features can be toggled in the Options menu.
Oh yes, and there’s a new Options menu (finally!). I’ve actually had to take a run at this a couple of times, which is part of the reason the next update is taking so long, relatively speaking, but if I create a new Options menu I want it to actually be an improvement - and, if you’ve played the game for any length of time, you’ll have noticed user interface design is not my forté 😅. I hope the result is worth the wait.
The intent is that the menu is more easily navigable, particularly with a controller, but also, from my point of view, easier to update with new features in the future. Redrawing the old artwork by hand each time I added an option was a chore, and the updated version more easily lets me insert new options, organised in the correct place, than the old one. It also dynamically resizes to the current video resolution, to make the most of any screen real estate available.
In fact I’ve already added several new options, including the ones outlined above, such as an option to hide the hole transition behind a loading screen to reduce motion sensitivity, and the ability to adjust the speed of the measure widget used to measure the distance when putting. I have a couple more features planned which will be added too… I just need to figure out how I’m going to implement them in game first 😁
Given enough positive feedback on the Options menu I’d like to start rolling out the design to other parts of the interface, such as the Player Customisation menu, which too could use an overhaul.
While we’re on the menus, I’ve added a button to the Loadout menu which opens the Equipment Counter directly. I have no idea why I didn’t put it there before… 🤦
Elsewhere in the game I’ve taken Course 3 (Old Stemmer’s Lane) and given it a fresh lick of paint. Originally it was designed to have a more tropical feel to it, but somehow got stuck with the placeholder trees I used when I was first creating the course. Those are now gone and have been replaced with tropical plants, butterflies, crabs… even a rowing boat, all hemmed in with a new sandy beach. The course itself is still the same, so global leaderboards are unaffected.
Finally, I’ve been tackling a few QoL features though the todo list is still a little longer than I’d like. Notably, I’ve updated the game to mute the audio when the window loses focus - thanks to Skummeh for suggesting that! More will be done before the next update releases.
Everything above is currently available in the public beta - which can be found in the game’s properties in Steam under the beta tab. From there you can opt in (or out!) if you’d like to give any of it a try. I’d love to hear your feedback! If you do have any suggestions (or find a dreaded bug 😬) please do reach out via the Steam Group Chat the Discussions on Steam or Discord, and let me know, thanks!
That’s all for now though - as always a big thanks goes out to the community who make the game what it is and a joy to work on, Thank You! - until the next time,
Happy Golfing! ⛳🏌️