Up to Par News

[h3]Up to Par is out now on Steam! [/h3]

After two years of mostly-solo development, over fifty weekly challenges, and many thousands and thousands of playtest rounds, I'm proud to announce that my roguelite mini golf game is now out.

So don't wait, click here! It's 10% off during launch.



[h3]Please help me spread the word![/h3]

If you like Up to Par, the best thing you can do to help me make it a success is to tell others about it! Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your dog (as long as she has a steam account).

Most importantly, tell the rest of the world by leaving a review here on Steam. Your voice can have a big impact because Steam uses reviews to recommend Up to Par to other players.



[h3]Join the team for some multiplayer fun[/h3]

Every Wednesday at 5pm Pacific (8pm Eastern) you're invited to come and join me and the team to play some Up to Par together online. We play some co-operative games, some competitive games, and generally have a great time.

Drop by the discord to participate, or you can sit back and watch the fun as we stream it live on Twitch.



[h3]What's Next?[/h3]
In the days and weeks following launch, I'll be working hard on Up to Par. I'll be ironing out the inevitable wrinkles, and if I find the time I'll be adding new features and content. If you've got ideas or suggestions for what you'd like to see, come and join us on Discord. And don't forget -

If you get Up to Par now on Steam, it's 10% off!

I hope you're as excited about the launch as I am, and if you are, leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi Golfers,

This week we have a patch that includes a number of balance tweaks, and updates a number of effects in the game to be better than ever!

Major Changes

• The game no longer freezes on startup on MacOS!
  
• Many items in the shop now cost 1 or 2 less to unlock.
  
• All course unlocks are now 3 holes easier to obtain.
  
• Hex courses are now 20% easier and shorter!
  
• Chip shot is 10% more powerful.
  
• Skip is now more expensive to equip.
  
• Added more environment models for the Woods courses.
  
• Added particle effects when the courses and objects are created and destroyed.
  

Bug Fixes

• Shop model is slightly smaller to better fit space beside menus.
  
• Game over view can now be skipped so you can get back in the game faster.
  
• Fixed bug where mouse would require an extra click to focus the game after opening the Steam overlay.
  
• Newsletter signup form shows native UI prompt on Steam Deck.
  
• Value selector correctly focuses when one of the arrow buttons disappears.
  
• Newsletter signup view can be navigated by keyboard and joystick now.
  
• Fixed bug that broke the game if you pressed continue too fast.
  
• Music now plays correctly when repeating a course of the same type.
  
• Fixed the pond socket obstacle collider that had some strange behaviours.
  
• Player name scales in the UI, instead of overflowing.
  
• Added feedback button in game settings view.
  
• Updated the aim preview visualisation to be at floor level, this is the same as the normal aim, and feels more intuitive.
  
• Icons are no longer fuzzy in low quality mode.
  
• Free shot zone no longer generates on the start tile or the hole tile.
  
• Your attire resets if you leave a team and no longer have access to it.
  
• History is cleared on progress reset.
  
• Escape key can be used from the player setup menu, even if you're playing with the mouse.
  
  

Known Bugs

• There are some issues around the teleport in multiplayer, where it sometimes doesn't trigger or triggers too often.
  

As always, I hope this update makes your game better! If you run into any bugs at all, please use the F1 report screen to let me know so that I can get them fixed in the next patch release.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hello,

I'm excited to announce that Up to Par will launch on the 14th of October.

I've been working hard on it since I announced it two years ago, adding features to make it the best roguelike minigolf possible. It's got courses with wildly different layouts; obstacles including windmills, weather vanes and jumps; dozens of weird outfits for your golf balls; a weekly challenge with online leaderboards; and most importantly, online multiplayer with up to 16 friends!

It'll cost $19.99 with a 10% launch discount, making it only $17.99 on launch week.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Brush up your skills in the demo[/h2]

If you want to brush up your mini golf skills to make sure you'll start out at the top of the leaderboards, win against your friends, or be the first to unlock items on launch day, a free demo is available on Steam.

If you've played the demo before, it's now better and more polished than ever, and if you've never played it, now's a great time to try!

Click here for the demo.



[h2]Join the team for some multiplayer fun[/h2]

Every Wednesday at 5pm Pacific (8pm Eastern) you're invited to come and join me and the team to play some Up to Par together online. We play some co-operative games, some competitive games, and generally have a great time. Download the demo and drop by the discord to participate, or you can sit back and watch the fun as we stream it live on Twitch.



[h2]Wishlist it now[/h2]

If you haven't already, please wishlist Up to Par. The more people who are following the game, the more Steam will promote it during launch - so it's one of the easiest and best things you can do to help the launch go well!

I hope you're as excited about this new as I am, and as always, I'd love to hear from you. Join us on the discord, or reply in the comments below.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi Golfers,

This week we have a patch fixing a mass of issues across the entire game! There's smoother networking, better aim previews, improved collisions, and most importantly - support for 4000 emoji in the highscores table.

Major Changes

• You can now ready your player at the end of the game when using the keyboard or a controller.
  
• Support for roughly 4000 new character glyphs and emoji in highscore names.
  
• The aiming bar is now dark on light backgrounds for better visibility.
  
• Major updates to networked interpolation, to make for smoother games on worse connections.
  
• Updated collisions at high speeds, so 7-iron can no longer hit through walls, and some odd bounce behaviours where the ball lost energy should be fixed.
  
• New pond obstacle!
  
• GPU optimization so that the game should be less resource intensive when playing.
  
• Short and long previews are now less jittery and don't randomly appear to jump into the air.
  
• Dynamic obstacles in courses are no longer all synchronized in timing.
  

Bug Fixes

• Weekly challenge timing should be synchronized correctly across the week changeover.
  
• Butterfly flapping is now synchronized between players in multiplayer.
  
• Ocean ground is now solid, even outside of the borders.
  
• Added collision to all environment objects.
  
• Contour lines on dark backgrounds are slightly brighter now, not grey.
  
• Butterflies now interact with all environment objects.
  
• All configuration entries now reset correctly from the settings menu.
  
• Bug fixed where resolutions would appear twice in the list.
  
• Planter obstacles now slightly smaller for the farm levels.
  
• Butterfly movement is now smoother in multiplayer games.
  
• Contour lines are now hidden when courses are being shown/hidden so they don't appear on preceeding or following courses.
  
• All menus in the game have default selections, for easier controller navigation.
  
• Fixed a countdown error in the shop.
  
• Game now correctly handles the case where you leave during the shop score counting.
  
• Support for PlayStation Joystick glyps in menus.
  
• Butterfly now correctly spawns on the first hole of every course.
  
• Game UI will fade out when the game isn't selected.
  
• When rejoining a game setup after playing a previous game, the ground no longer flickers.
  
• Fixed some game-breaking errors around connection establishment.
  
• No longer a purple flash when moving from game back to main menu.
  
• Trails and bounce effects now display correctly at high lags.
  
• Support for joystick-as-a-button including UI glyphs.
  
• Foresight item now on left of shop for visibility in 3p, shows next course in shop for 4p.
  
• Fixed UI glitches in settings when switching rapidly.
  
• Tweaked shop UI position for 1-3 players.
  
• Camera follows butterfly if no other balls are remaining in local teams.
  
• Metal ball is shinier.
  
• Transferred host now sees game setup button in menu.
  
• Can join multiplayer lobby from anywhere in the game when accepting invitation.
  
• Camera no longer snaps to first hole.
  
• Team selection information no longer runs off the top of the screen in 4 player setup.
  
• Fixed text overflow in game end screen.
  
• Easter egg ball colours synchronized between players.
  

Known Bugs

• There are some issues around the teleport in multiplayer, where it sometimes doesn't trigger or triggers too often.
  

As always, I hope this update makes your game better! If you run into any bugs at all, please use the F1 report screen to let me know so that I can get them fixed in the next patch release.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Patch Notes for Version 0.26.6

Hi Golfers,

This week's patch focuses on multiplayer, and includes big fixes for game establishment and connections. If you've been playing multiplayer with larger groups, there should be a noticeable improvement in stability. Alongside this there are some minor rendering fixes, and fixes for edge cases where the game would freeze.

Major Changes

• Major changes have been made around game creation and connection. There should be fewer issues due to joining, hosting, restarting matches, and when machines drop out of matches unexpectedly.
  
• Players now correctly regain control of a ball in new multiplayer matches that are started after the player has controlled a butterfly.
  
• The pond 'socket' obstacle now generates correctly once unlocked, previously it didn't appear at all. Keep your eyes out for this new piece!
  

Bug Fixes

• Butterfly now correctly hides at the end of a hole.
  
• Updated player icons on the end game screen so that they don't show the upgrade icons and instead show the correct ball.
  
• Fixed rendering issues on some machines with the upgrade icon on the end game screen.
  
• Swapped the name of skip and teleport to make it clearer - skip will skip every second shot, teleport activates every 3rd shot.
  
• Gimmie hint only appears for machines where a local player is in a team with a gimmie available.
  
• Fixed tip of jump so that ball should roll off as expected and not be diverted in odd directions.
  
• Game no longer crashes if teams are established faster than the first level generates behind the scenes.
  
• Fixed bug where if the teleport activated on your last shot, and the ball ended up in the hole, it would incorrectly mark your team as out.
  

Known Bugs

• Keyboard & Controller players can't Ready-up to restart after a match, they need to go back to game settings and ready from there.
  

As always, I hope this update makes your game better! If you run into any bugs at all, please use the F1 report screen to let me know so that I can get them fixed in the next patch release.

Happy Golfing,
Philip