Menus and Frogs

Oh, it be getting done… The part I don’t love. The menus and UI… But, it’s working.

Been spending a lot of time on bug hunting and the save system. So, when you’re done playing a round of golf, the code checks to see if you have won any challenges, high scores, secret stuff…etc. Then it gives the player money so they can buy balls and putters and clubs and covers and stuff.

And we have music !!! And Frog’s that jump in the water to avoid the ball. The music is fantastic and it makes me happy. (It better because I hear it so much 🙂 Looks like I am about 6 months away from Launch. Holly POOP!

Optimize – And make it work better too.

All is good, but it is taking a little longer than expected. So much has been done. There is a lobby, a menu, music, wind, shot selections, scoring graphics and sounds, etc. And a made a new chipping meter – so when you are 40 yds or less from the green, you have great shot control. And divots, and chunks of grass, and lots of coding to make things smoother. I also rewrote caddie’s movement because he was falling thru the map too much – oops… And he says lots of things now.

This is the lobby that the player will see. It’s a grid into blackness… for now. I was thinking of adding star constellations of golf things…

A little buddy

Made a robot caddy and got a little carried away. He follows you around the course and makes generally fantastic commentary. He also flies over water and other hazards. I used some parts and sounds from Smokebreak. Then I thought…he needs a mouth and needs to blink and …oh. So I hand drew 16 or so mouth positions and they change when speaking. Then I hired a guy to do the voice-over and made him sound robotty… There is a short vid of him moving and talking below.

And I made a hitting range to practice swinging AND an indoor putting green. I have a plan, it will make sense. And it all looks really good! Almost ready to go back to coding the menus, testing the courses, and RELEASE. T minus 3 months!

It’s C4DE … caddy. He’s nice (for now)

And I made some make-believe logos and fictitious golf brands. Now I must resist making more robots (for now).

The Wild Blue Yonder

Almost finished another course named “Yonder”. It’s a secret military airport located in a valley complete with bunkers and a mountain entrance. Planes circle overhead, take off, and land. Satellite dishes and antennae dot the landscape. I have to make little tweaks to the greens but will do it this week. I am going back to programming next week and then it’s ALPHA time. Gotta test out the courses in VR.

Yonder – Valley Air – WIP

A horsey farm

Added Jasper Flats to the course line-up. It’s a horse farm. Complete with moving horses and a train…. because uh. And gigantic wind turbines for the green peoples.

A horse stable in the background – Jasper Flats

I was going to make a farm, but with the brewery course that I made, now called “Bearboon” – I decided to make a horse farm stable thing instead. It looks great and it’s fully optimized. I’m getting 300+ fps on the computer. Now I am off to re-do the first prototype course. A Japanese theme with a dragon lake. This version will be a little more realistic and have a better scale. You live/program…you learn. Almost ready for play tweaking. Hoping to be in Alpha / Beta by August. WOW!

Bay Side

Just finished up the Millers Bay course. Now, I will make one more course and then onto working on the gameplay. I need to work on the GUI too. But, all is going well.

Secret – I don’t really enjoy real golf…the bugs, the sun, the outdoors, the long play time, the price, … But golf in VR is good stuff.

Foggy day at Millers Bay

Swamp … But

Working on a new course. Just got back from Florida and the everglades… rode on an airboat, saw some gators, ate a frog leg. Ready to make a swamp course.

Swamp Grass at Goat Creek

Tee Up

OK- I am 1/2 way through making courses. The release goal is 8. I have 4. I am really honing my techniques. Maybe someday I’ll be a pro-golf course designer…lol. Using some cool LOD techniques now and post-processing to give a more vivid look. The wind is working on trees and plants. And, I have birds and butterflies to start the wildlife.

DRB Course – So nice.

I’ve done so much since my last post. I even have a multiplayer mode that works. Need to tweak it, but multiplayer will be offered. THIS IS HUGE. Took me almost two months of coding because I didn’t have a clue about multiplayer. But it WORKS!

New Dynamic Map and ScoreCard

Yuck – the color pallette without post-processing. OMG – that mini-map was such a pain, but, I figured it out. There is a lot of shader-magic going on here. And the above shot is from a play-test where I finally got it all working,

Check out that map ball – nice trail to show your ball path

I find myself hitting the ball and then just watching the action on the camera and mini-map. So fun.

Gotta have hats, glasses, and staches…

Then above is just a little taste of the hats that can be won and worn by your player. And yes you can show off your swag in multiplayer mode. Also- a little screenshot of my new Japanese maples in full wind and leaf glory. Sweet. Had to learn some 3-D max for the trees, but hey… what’re another 2 weeks?

Jasper Flats Course… An early version for testing.
The Jasper Flats Mesh

And last, I just wanted to show what my course meshes look like, and above you can see the mesh in the game. OK… Gotta grind.