Making The Mini Golf Course - Dev Log 57

Hey everyone - welcome to dev log 57!

Last week we released Update 0.9, our birthday patch including 3 community jobs and a whole host of QOL changes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1290000/view/3224025758063263090

Today Artist Laura and Designer Dave give a VIP backstage tour of the Mini Golf Course level's development.



Before we start on this dev log, we are aware of a few issues with 0.9 and are working on a hotfix and will let everyone know when it goes live. There are temporary workarounds to many of the issues including multiplayer desync here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1290000/discussions/0/3389534247558075422/ We are also listening closely to all of the feedback, thanks everyone!




Laura is the artist who worked on making this job a visual fantasy. We asked some questions to show how they got a hole in one:

Where did you start with the level?

Originally posted by Laura

I had a pitch from the design team about a 'fairytale, knight, castle' theme for this minigolf, so I started by thinking about a story. Players will make a little trip, from the forest to a little village, and then they will enter the dragon cave until finally arriving at the big castle! I thought it was important and exciting to bring players into different areas and have this storytelling.

What is the favourite part of the job you worked on?

Originally posted by Laura

I think my favourite part of the job I worked on was all the little animals and particularly the dragon because it was a challenge for me as I'm not used to doing animals/characters in 3D. And I am pretty happy with the final result!

What was challenging working on this level?

Originally posted by Laura

As I said previously, the dragon was challenging, but there are almost 300 objects in this scene, and with Powerwash's workflow, everything needs to be as clean as possible! And it's not easy to find all the issues, but thankfully we have a QA team!

What changed the most during development with the level?

Originally posted by Laura

The composition changed a lot. I had a lot of feedback from the design team during all the development to change this - move this -remove this. And also the materials changed, at first, the castle and rocks were really dark and not very interesting and 'funny' so we needed to find something more colorfull to match the idea of this mini golf level!

Was there something you wanted to have in the level, but it just didn't work?

Originally posted by Laura

I think I have everything I wanted on this level and I'm pretty happy with the result, it was really nice to work on this one because I was free to do what I had in mind!

Any closing thoughts?

Originally posted by Laura

I just hope people enjoy the story, the colors and animals of the minigolf course, I put all my love on it ! haha

Dave is the designer who was in charge of making the level fun to play and clean! Here are their answers to the same questions! :)

Where did you start with the level?

Originally posted by Dave

We had some rough guidelines from the James (Creative Director):
1) We want a Castle on top of a hill that can be seen at all times.
2) We want the course to spiral around the hill to the Castle on top.
3) We want the theme to be Story Book Fantasy (less Dungeons and Dragons, more King Arthur, and Sword in the Stone).

We started with research: Looking at real-world minigolf courses to get an idea for hole and course layouts. While thinking about the layout of our course and where each hole would be positioned, we decided to try and tell a story from Hole 1 to Hole 9. The story is an adventure starting out in a forest, travelling through a village, navigating a dangerous cave, before arriving at the outer walls of a castle. The player goes through training in the courtyard, makes their way through the castle keep corridors, and eventually arrives at the castle itself.

What is the favourite part of the job you worked on?

Originally posted by Dave

My favourite part was trying to figure out the layout of the holes. They needed to fit the space, draw the player along the 'correct path' and I also wanted them to be somewhat viable as real minigolf holes.

What was challenging working on this level?

Originally posted by Dave

Trying to envision how everything would fit together. What was the scale of the objects? What sight lines did the player have? Could we hide and reveal areas to make it feel like the player is exploring and discovering the level as they progress? There were lots of elements I needed to consider as I was designing the level, but it was Laura that really helped pull them all together and make what I had in my head a reality.

What changed the most during development with the level?

Originally posted by Dave

The layout around the back side of the course, after the dragon. We needed to take the player up quite a steep incline, but we also wanted to squeeze in a few holes on the way. Eventually the castle courtyard-to-corridor idea formed and we used steps and stairways between the holes to push the player upwards.

Was there something you wanted to have in the level, but it just didn't work?

Originally posted by Dave

We wanted all the holes to be fully playable. For example, if the player hit the ball in the dragon's mouth, it'd pop out the hole on its back, roll down the tail and into the hole. Hit the ball through the final hole and it'd roll down the gutters in the bucket. The complexity and time needed to get everything working and bug free just made it unfeasible for us unfortunately.

Any closing thoughts?

Originally posted by Dave

I loved working on this level, it was fun to use some more traditional level design techniques to lead the player on the journey through the level and to give a sense of discovery and exploration. I hope players enjoy exploring the minigolf course and returning it to its former, vibrant glory.

We hope everyone has learned more about the level process and has enjoyed some of the in-progress images!



Each week we release a PowerWash version of a popular meme format. This week it is 'Take My Money'. How would you caption it? If you have any recommendations, please also let us know below!





Thank you to everyone for reading. We hope everyone is enjoying the new content and these insights! :)

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