itch.io

Hi! Thank you, I'm glad you like it.

Thanks for the detailed feedback, this is the kind of information I thrive on. You're not the first to raise a few of these points, so I'd like to reassure you that many of them have already been addressed and updated for the next release. You do bring up some new points however, so I'll make sure to look into them. Just to clarify:

I agree about the animations - however as a solo dev I'm limited to whichever stock animations I can obtain. I agree entirely about the slightly jarring impact of hitting a ball apparently full pelt and having it drop only a few yards. Unfortunately it's not something I can foreseeably do anything about, although if I find a way I will 😁

The scoreboard can be viewed at any time by holding Tab or Back on the controller. It's missing from the Options graphic, but I'll make sure to add it.

Increased avatar customisation will come later. I'm hoping to add it as a Steam workshop item, so people will be able to add their own, increasing the variety available.

The current release here on itch has slightly broken power values for shots. It also doesn't select a good default club. This has been completely re-done for the next update so that the power bar more intuitively represents a percentage of the club's power. The terrain does affect the shot, I've uploaded a guide to the Steam page which explains how it works - although it's more applicable to the upcoming release rather than the current one. You can read it here.

The restriction on left/right aiming is apparently a much debated topic! There are those who say, justifiably, that in real golf you could hit the ball anywhere you like - however others say that in real golf you wouldn't say 'well the hole is over those trees so I'll just hit it that way' because you don't (or maybe you do?) have a mini map which tells you where the hole lies... so it's a difficult topic to balance. In the upcoming version the direction is still limited, however the angle is much wider. It's also possible to deliberately hook or slice the ball for a further increase in angle if that's a tactic you'd like to employ. It probably sounds a bit weird, I know, but as I get more feedback I'll certainly try to refine it.

The club range is designed to try and best fit the game, rather than reflect an actual set of golf clubs. Similarly to the par values - for instance there are no par 5s simply because the game engine isn't capable of making holes that big. The included range of clubs are enough to play the game tactically enough that it's competitive, without overwhelming players who aren't well experienced with golf. The auto selection is fixed for the next release, and I have vague notions of a 'shop' which allow you to buy different clubs based on experience, although there's no solid plan for that yet. Perhaps based on your and other player's feedback I can refine that idea in the future.

I agree the greens could use some work, if at least visually. It already irks me that many of them have stripes which don't go in the same direction as the fairway 😅. I've worked to refine them for the next update (and the update after that which is already being worked on!) so I'll take this under consideration, particularly the transition from fairway to green.

Tournaments and other gameplay modes have been on my list for a long time, but have not been implemented for weird technical reasons involving the layout of the lobby menu 🙄 This will first be addressed as I redesign it to allow for custom courses and course thumbnails to preview the selected course, at which point I hope to add extended gameplay modes as part of the game rule selection that currently covers matchplay/skins/gimme rules etc.

I could possibly make the scoreboard show a little longer, although as I mentioned you can view it at any time with tab / back button. The problem is that in multiplayer games online if someone refuses to acknowledge the scores it holds up the entire game. I'll spend some time trying to find a better solution to this. I'll definitely remove the zeros from unplayed holes - it won't be in the initial Steam release, but certainly in the first update afterwards.

Showing your own score at all time would be nice. I'll try to add this.

Imperial measurements are not what I'm used to, so I have to apologise for any inconsistencies. I'll make sure the putter values and the green values at least match up, and stick with yards rather than feet.

Again, as mentioned, the overall power/aim/distance of clubs have been overhauled, hopefully for the better 😄. It's one of the things I've worked hardest on improving.

The sound effects are, as a solo developer, what I can get my hands on 😁. The voices do vary between avatars, although you can always turn down the voice effects from the options menu (scroll through the selection at the top of the first page, it lets you set the volume for different groups of sounds) - or failing that just delete the sound file from the assets directory. It won' t break the game 😁

Computer opponents are completely rewritten for the next update. Without getting technical you'll just have to take my word that they're a lot better - although there is a brief overview here.

Thanks for taking the time to provide the feedback! I'm glad you're enjoying what you've played so far. The Steam release / next update is by no means the last, and I try to take in everyone's opinion and balance them as best I can. I hope you enjoy it once it's released!