Category: News

Financial Analysis

Financial Analysis

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

I’ve decided to briefly explain to you guys the usage of the new financial panel before the release of 0.6 for Boss Golf!

The graphical setup is mostly done, now adding the “wires” in the back so that the correct data is being displayed. But basically, breaking down the detailed panels, we have the Income:

incomeGraph

In here, you can at a glance see how much money you’ve received this month, last month, this year, and last year, complete with a graph that breaks it further down based on type. And at the bottom, a nice little table breaking it down by type further. With this, you can see how well your resort is doing in terms of its revenue streams, areas you can potential focus on and whatnot.

Then, we have this panel’s sister panel, the Expenditure:

expenditureGraph

This panel show exactly the same information type as the Income panel, but it does so for the expenditures of your resort. Here you can glance where most your money is going to, be it in salaries, in construction, landscaping and whatnot. Will be handy in deciding which areas need some cutting back, which areas could use some expansions etc.

Next up, we have the Salary:

salaryGraph

Right off the bat at the top, you see one of the new features for 0.6: Salary Budget! Every resort will be headed by a board of directors who will set things such as budgets. You can only hire people as long as there’s some budget left to be spent. Depending on how well the resort is doing, you can always try and get the budget adjusted for some sweet extra cash!

Salary control will be important. You are free to spend up to your budget, but if you can keep under it, the board will be a lot happier with you.

Right below it you have a graph showing the changes to the salary over the months/years. Followed by a pie chart showing the salary expenses by type of employee, together with a table to make this visualization even clearer.

And lastly, a nice little reminder of who is your current highest earner!

Finally, we reach the Prices:

pricesGraph

Here we also have some new features! To start off, you are allowed to choose the prices for the golf play. Golfers will have the options to pay Per Hole fees, or Per Round fees. (You can also choose to enable/disable either of them as you wish). The AI will choose one or the other depending on how much time the AI has for golfing on that “trip”, as well as how good of a deal either one is.

Then you’ll have a graph showing the revenue based on the two types, as well as a nice pie chart giving it more oomph.

And lastly the Membership section, where you can see how many members your resort currently possesses, as well as set the costs for membership. Later you’ll be able to set the membership perks too!

This follows a graph showing the revenue from memberships on a monthly basis, as well as the membership history so that you can see the number of members grow overtime on your resort!

Oh and one more thing!

pickupChar

If you see on the character panel, you’ll notice a new icon: The famous claw! Now you’ll also be able to pick up golfers/employees and drop them wherever you wish around your course! Fun times!

That’s all for now, folks! If you haven’t already, be sure to wishlist Boss Golf on Steam!

You’re Hired!

You’re Hired!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Howdy folks!

Today I’m gonna talk about a major addition for 0.6: Hiring and Firing employees!

Until now, in Boss Golf, you pretty much had your starting landscapers and that was that. From now, however, you’ll have more control over the people who work in your resort!

You’ll be able to hire new employees, fire old ones, and manage the finances of your resort up close! Check out the UI for it!

you_are_hired

Not only that, I’ve also implemented the experience system for employees! They will now come with a specific rank, and this rank will be improved as they do their jobs efficiently.

Of course, higher ranks not only means better job performance: it also means a desire for a larger salary! When an employee is promoted, his salary ambitions will raise to match the new rank. So you better keep an eye out, and increase the salary of the employee, or risk angering him which could disrupt your operations!

Down the line, I’m going to implement a perk systems in the form of “training”. Whenever a worker gains a promotion, he’ll receive a training point. This point can then be spent (together with money) to train the employee, by selecting a perk you wish for him to earn. Things ranging from faster movement, discounts on actions, better morale etc. The employee then will be sent to a training camp, for a specific amount of time (the duration of it means he won’t be able to work at the resort).

He’ll then come back with the perk, and a desire for more money! So pay attention to when you decide to train them!

Not only that, the pool of available employees for hiring is generated at the start of the game. Every month the recruitable pool is updated, and a fraction of the total pool becomes available for hiring!

This pool will be saved throughout your character’s career, meaning that the workers available in the game will improve in skill as you play the game. Any employee you fire will also return to that pool, and will be available for hiring again later down the line.

In this way, the gameworld will continue evolving and improving together with your character. The better you are at managing your employees, the higher the challenge will be at higher levels, since they’ll all be leveling up with you, gaining more skills, increasing their costs and whatnot.

There’ll also be employees who will decide to retire for whatever reason. Age, injury, boredom, whatever it may be. Whenever an employee retires, a new one will be created and added to the pool, ensuring that there’s always a constant “supply” of workers for your resorts.

So get ready for more depth in the management department! 0.6 should be out next week! Perhaps even this weekend if I can get in the flow!

-Gus

Feedback, Insights, and more!

Feedback, Insights, and more!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

Last weekend was great! Demoed Boss Golf at BitSummit and received an awesome reception! It was excellent seeing people playing the game and their enjoyment! More importantly, I was also able to extract several insights by watching the way they play the game, and notice a handful of issues that needs fixing!

So I’ve begun work on getting to 0.6! Which will bring several quality of life improvements as well as a feature for hiring/firing employees! No more will you be stuck with the landscapers you start off with: you’ll be able to bring more!

And also a UI overhaul! Here’s a sneak peek of it!

superUI

Now the price for the tiles you’re laying will be displayed directly on the area you’re laying. And there’ll be no more need for “approving” it: The AI will begin work as soon as it’s laid (providing part of its job is landscaping!)

Clicking on the Tee when you haven’t placed it yet will shift to placement mode so you can go ahead and place it right away. Then the button for “Move” will appear to allow you to move it anywhere else. Oh and if you right click to cancel the move, it’ll snap back to the original position!

Also will be including more visual aids, specially regarding which hole you are currently playing. A brand new Guests panel that allows you to have an overview of who’s on your course at the moment, and what they are doing!

Some fixes in the AI department as well, specially regarding their shooting decisions, and expanding their behavior to have them skip ahead to the next hole if the current one is taking too long! Oh and add the tile angle to the calculations of pathfinding, to avoid the situations where the AI gets stuck at the foot of a massive hill!

And, of course, a panel for management of your staff! There you’ll be able to hire and fire employees, as well as find them in a quicker manner. Too many times people didn’t know where their landscapers were while building stuff around. Now you’ll have your own little big brother system!

So yeah, stay tuned for 0.6!

OH and I’m also super stoked that Destructoid has covered Boss Golf! Woo!

Boss Golf updated to Alpha 0.3!

Boss Golf updated to Alpha 0.3!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello golfers!

It’s finally here! Alpha has now been updated to 0.3, allowing you to do the following:

  • Have a wall surrounding your resort to keep out “undesirables”
  • A Clubhouse has been placed, from where AI golfers will now spawn
  • AI golfers will either roam around or attempt to play any hole that is open
  • They will accordingly queue by the Tee waiting patiently by their turn
  • And so will you! You can also play as the AI is playing the course, taking your turn on the queue!
  • A handful of other under the hood improvements
  • Saving and loading! No more starting from scratch every time you load the game!

That’s it for this version. Now you’ll have a more workable experience and you can see how the AI tackles your golf course. I may release a tweak later on to modify the AI a bit, like a 0.31 or 0.3.1 or 0.3a, not sure yet. But this should give you some ideas about how the AI will react.

A word of warning: If you do attempt to edit the course as the AI is playing, you may make their ball disappear! If that happens, just relaunch the game. Will work on a fix for this later.

Ditto for if the AI falls through the ground. Haven’t improved the dynamic collider yet, so depending on your machine performance, hijinx might ensue.

next_hole
A golfer waiting, another stepping up to the tee, and a third making his way to the other hole!

Now on to 0.4! The details of which I’ll be sharing later this upcoming week! But for a sneak peak, think Time Management!

That’s all for now folks, please enjoy.

If you haven’t signed up for the Alpha, you can do so here!

See you on the green!

Boss Golf Closed Alpha updated!

Boss Golf Closed Alpha updated!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello golfers!

I’ve updated the Boss Golf closed alpha to version 0.2.

This version features golf gameplay, including the player character, basic idling AI that roams around your course, and a number of other small fixes.

Those of you who signed up for the closed alpha should get an email soon with more download information. Otherwise, just hit up itch.io and the build should be there.

Those of you who haven’t signed up for a club membership, you may apply for the closed alpha here!

We’re not at capacity yet for the closed alpha, but the spots will run out soon! So get that sign up going!

That’s all for today folks. For alpha 0.3, I’m aiming at basic play AI, better ground collision, basic pathfinding/avoidance, as well as paths that you can build to link your holes. As a stretch goal, basic save/load capabilities.

That’s all for now folks! It’s a beautiful weather out today. Get to that green!

New Home Page!

New Home Page!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

I’m pleased to announce the release of our new home page: Boss Golf

This page will now strictly become the development blog for the game. Our home page will now contain more information regarding release dates, testing, rewards etc.

In anticipation for the release of the AI demo, I’ve also decided to improve the pipeline for testing the game. Moving to a closed alpha system so that I can keep better track of how things are, and get better feedback from the fans.

If you are interested in alpha testing Boss Golf, please check out the information on our closed alpha page!

That’s all for today, folks!

Linux Demo Added!

Linux Demo Added!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

I’m happy to announce that the Boss Golf demo is now also available for Linux!

There’s version for both x86 and x86_64.

Download information, as always, available on our Demo page.

Any issues you find, don’t be afraid to contact us either using the contact form, or by visiting our subreddit.

Now, back to work!

Demo Updated with Day-Night Cycle

Demo Updated with Day-Night Cycle

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello golfers!

I’ve updated the game to add the day-night cycle feature, as well as fixing an issue where the ball would be shot into oblivion if you shot it uphill/at an incline or something.

The shot curve visualizer thing isn’t perfect; but the shots no longer bug out. Or shouldn’t!

In any case, go ahead and try out the demo! Available here as usual! Both Mac and Windows versions available.

Oh and we’ll be adding Linux support for the demo pretty soon!

Here’s two nice holes I built with the current version of Boss Golf!

Fear of the Dusk

fearOfTheDusk

Morning Glory

morningGlory

Next on the list is a reworking of the play/golf hole panel, giving you better/more interesting information regarding the hole, as well as the possibility to open it up for AI play. Which will be implemented later this month, at least at a basic level!

Anywho, enjoy!

Demo Updated! Play it with sound!

Demo Updated! Play it with sound!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

The demo for Boss Golf has been updated!

Download information and more, as always, are here!

New for this version:

  • Updated user interface for more fluid gameplay
  • Added option for adding rotation to your shots
  • Physics and other tweaks
  • Sound and particle effects

So there you go!

This may or may not be the last demo version of the game before entering alpha, as I plan to spend the rest of this and the next month into getting the AI and the management elements into the game. Still up for planning, though.

Now for some things I’ve built while using this new version!

Hole 3
Hole 2
Hole 1

That’s all for now, folks. Don’t forget to give us your feedback on our forums!

Demo has been updated!

Demo has been updated!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

As detailed in the previous Quickie, I’ve updated the Boss Golf demo to bring it to  version 0.04 of the Terrain and Drive demo!

As below you can download it Here!

The focus of this demo was on quality of life improvements and bug fixing. The ball deceleration/bouncing now works as expected, trails and shadows were improved, and I added some particles to make the game feel more polished! This is what happens when you drive:

Drive_Particle

And this is an awesome chip shot I performed, got painstakingly close to the hole too!

NiceChip

And even some water particles! (Only on the water you’ve placed, though! The system needs to be reworked a bit to sync with the water outside the build area)

Water Hazard

So there you go! Gameplay is getting nicer and nicer. One of these days I wanna sit down and make a video showing how to build a nice hole. And do it Bob Ross style, with trees and hills and rivers! So there’s something to look forward to!

Next week will be focused on more polishing and weeding out some bugs, as well as improving the UI. Perhaps I’ll even add paths and bridges! We’ll see!

For now, enjoy the demo! Don’t forget to drop by our subreddit to give us your feedback, and don’t forget to like our Facebook page!

Have a nice weekend!