Tag: unity

Stroke Balancing

Stroke Balancing

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

I’ve finished adjusting the stroke mechanic to take advantage of the new club system. Had to do a bit of trial and error to get the proper values for the different clubs, based on their face head, their type, their maximum distance.

But now it all works! So each club should now feel different from the other club, and the AI will try and use the best one for each situation. (As it deems fit, of course!)

Began prototyping the new golf controls for the player too, should be done sometime this week. Then I’ll release 0.5 for your enjoyment!

In parallel, also began sketching out the necessary improvements for 0.6, which will come with an overhauling again of how you landscape the scenery, making a better distinction between holes and regular landscape, etc. You’ll receive better planning tools for plotting out a hole all at once and having the AI execute it, as opposed to the current system of sketching out zones and whatnot.

Together with that, a revamp of the terrain system, separating regular landscaping from water tools. As well as allowing for different kinds of grass, sand etc. Will need to separate the mesh by type, so that I can have better control over the mapping and overall behavior and whatnot.

That’s all for now, folks!

Smooth Terrain Testing

Smooth Terrain Testing

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

Talking to a player of the game, he gave me the feedback that he didn’t quite enjoy the landscaping because the current terrain system looked a bit too unrealistic. Plus the looks of it looked a bit odd depending on the lighting conditions: the light would reflect too strong in certain areas, not strong enough in others.

So I went ahead an prototyped a simple replacement for it. Basically, I added a Terrain object to the game, and am using the existing systems for processing the information, while setting the height of the terrain based on it.

The results are here:

terraintest

I quite appreciate the smoothness of this terrain. With the proper texturing, it could look pretty sweet and clean. I’m studying how to apply the terrain textures to it (grass, gree, fairway etc), but since this has a decent support for normal maps too, it could add some much welcome depth to the terrain features.

It is, however, a trick. The mesh is still pretty much the same as it was before (at least at this stage), and you can see the difference when I turn on the wireframe mapping and some zones:

smooth_editing

But the smooth shadow makes it look a lot nicer. Playing around with some height limitations, I could make the height tools affect nearby vertices as well, to give a smoother climb. There’s no performance loss either at this stage, which is great.

I’m gonna prototype how to apply the terrain textures to it, but I have a hunch it would allow me to more easily use higher-res tiles. And for the zones, I can just keep the current system as they work decently enough as an overlay.

Considering some changes to the planning aspect of it too, but that’s for later!

That’s all for this microupdate!

-Gus

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!

Billy Golf is back!

Billy Golf is back!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

Billy Golf is now back in action! The character will now once again move to the ball, prepare himself, and take the shot. I’ve added a handful of new states to the state machine, to delegate the golf gameplay to the golfer. Now you will prepare the shot, and the little dude will move to the ball and execute it. Look at him go!

stepOne

step2

step3

Funnily, the first couple of times he approached the ball too close, and the ball ended up colliding with himself on the way to the hole haha. But that’s been fixed. For now. Can easily be unfixed too, perhaps for some easter eggs, such as an extremely clumsy golfer.

And some of the more eagle eyed among you may have noticed a couple of other characters hanging around the golf course. I’ve added a handful of AI golfers to make things seem more lively, and will be hooking them up to the state machine this week. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get alpha 0.2 done, so that you can play the game with better golf gameplay, and see little AI people milling about your course. Hopefully also can get some walls in to separate your owned land from the rest of the land too.

We’ll see!

Stay tuned for more and thanks for reading!

Dev Update #38: Day-Night Cycle Implemented

Dev Update #38: Day-Night Cycle Implemented

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

For a quick detour in plans, on suggestion of a player, I’ve implemented a basic Day-Night time cycle into the game following this very handy guide. This way, as you build up your course, things will feel a lot less static than before.

This system will also be used for determining everything else in the game regarding time; progression, money, AI actions etc. For now, there’s 3 speed settings, with the slowest one taking about 10 minutes for a full day, and the fastest one taking about 2 minutes.

Next level for it will be limiting the times the course will be operational; as there’s no 24-hour golf course. Yet. This will also affect your budget and upkeep and whatnot. So next major update will be management!

For now, here’s a nice GIF timelapse!

Boss Golf - Timelapse

And here you can see the difference between Morning – Noon – Evening:

There’s lots of room for playing with the light color, the fog etc, to add more life to the transitions. But it’s good enough for now!

Will roll this out into the demo tomorrow! So stay tuned!

That’s all for today, folks!

Dev Update #35: Customizable UI!

Dev Update #35: Customizable UI!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

With the new UI overhaul, many things were moved to floating menus. So today’s update is about the system that allows you to move certain UI panels around in order to customize them!

You can see it in action below:

uiMove

Simply click and drag on the UI element you wish, and it will lock into the new place. I’ll also make it so your settings are saved every time you play.

I’ve also gone ahead and fixed a bug where the water tile would disappear if you added a water tile > put a tree decoration on top -> placed a water tile again. Now it works as expected.

Next, I’m working on the new Shot menu. It’ll give you better options when making your shot, as well as allow you to add some spin to it too. There’ll still be the current separation between shot styles (Drive, Approach, Putt, Chip etc), but you’ll be able to set the rotation manually to alter the trajectory. Not sure yet how I’ll add it to the shot visualization (the line that shows you the trajectory of the ball), but I’m sure I’ll figure it out!

Shots will also have a section explaining more or less the usage of each shot, and a distance counter to better let you know how far you are shooting.

That’s it for today folks!

 

Boss Golf SubReddit!

Boss Golf SubReddit!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

To make it easier to create discussions about the game, as well as share things with the overall public, I went ahead and created a subreddit for the game. I’ll keep it updated as much as I can, together with this website and our Facebook page!

(This devblog is still the number one spot for your Boss Golf info!)

Anywho, you can find it here!

Hope to see you guys there!

-Gus

Dev Update #25: Well, that was easier than anticipated!

Dev Update #25: Well, that was easier than anticipated!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hey folks!

Implementing the procedural collider was actually more effortless than I had anticipated! Prototyped it off the bat, integrated it with the current terrain, threw the ball at it, and well, check it out!

bossgolf_testshot

And here you can see the procedural collider in action, recreating the collider as the ball moves through different tiles:

bossgolf_collider

So this is excellent progress. There’s still an issue with some cases where the procedural mesh will be generated slightly above the actual tile, so that’s something I’ll investigate as I develop it. But that worked pretty well, and Boss Golf is looking more like a game!

Next will be to add colliders to other objects (like the trees), and tweaking the physics of the ball. Afterwards, implement the controls to make it more playable (IE: click the hole you wanna play, ball is spawned there, give it some taps and try to complete the hole.), and add more shot options.

Dev Update #23: Upgraded Terrain Done!

Dev Update #23: Upgraded Terrain Done!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

Today I wanted to release a new demo with the newly improved terrain and water system, but I had a change of heart.

The upgraded terrain is done and implemented, connected to the hole system and all. Also added a sketch of the boundary system that will generate the “out of bounds” area around the buildable area. This will be expanded upon later, during polish, as I want it to be done well.

So for next steps, there’s two main tasks on the current list: Scenario Editor and Golf Gameplay

Scenario Editor

This feature will allow me (and others) to design the rules and basic outline of a scenario for the game. I’ll be using this tool to make the main missions in the game, as well as allow others to use it to make custom stuff. You’ll be able to select goals, starting conditions, limitations, sizes etc.

Golf Gameplay

This is the actual gameplay of playing a round of golf around the course. It allows you to select types of shots, and select where you’d like to try and hit it. Depending on your golfer skill, you’ll be more or less accurate with your shot. Depending on the terrain, your shot may also bounce, roll etc. I want to make the act of playing golf more about the strategy of it rather than pressing a button at the correct time and whatnot.

So, with these two main tasks at hand, I had to make a decision. And I did:

We’re going with Golf Gameplay! This way you’ll be able to build your holes, and attempt playing them and see how well you do! So a basic playable version of this will be the target for next weekend!

And I’ll leave you with a course I built:

coldwaterclub

Stay tuned for updates!

Dev Update #22: More Flat Shading

Dev Update #22: More Flat Shading

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

Integration of the new terrain is almost done. All that’s left is the decoration system, which is getting an overhaul, and the water, which is also getting an overhaul.

I’ve also took another step at more flat shading by separating the two triangles from the quad! Now we won’t have a terrain of quads that look flat at points, and then oddly shaded in others.

So I give you a test course, that also showcases the new possibilities of the new terrain:

lonelyisland_hole

The mound surrounded by bunker is the hole. The mound can be nicely sculpted with the vertex tools, making it as flat or as smooth as the player wishes. Below you can see the wireframe:

lonelyisland_mesh

8 directions, righteous! Now the terrain shaping tools are even more useful, specially the vertex tool. Gonna have some fun adding water to this and seeing how it turns out!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update and new demo!

-Gus