Up to Par News

Hi,

In this update I talk more about the upcoming course modifiers, as well as introduce some new elements for the pond course.



I've been spending most of my time on the new course modifiers feature, and it will be ready for alpha testing in the next couple of weeks! If you'd like to get a sneak peek and test it out I'm looking for people who would be interested in playing with it and giving me feedback.

If that sounds like you, join the discord here and then send me a message or post in the Up to Par channel.



The course modifiers are a whole new set of items that you can apply at the start of a game. They change the gameplay for everybody in the same way, and are all designed to give you a small boost as you play. You earn them by beating score targets in each game, and you can either spend them immediately or save them up and apply a whole bunch of them at the same time for a truly ridiculous round!

My goal with these is to add more interest and fun to the general gameplay, so you have achievable goals each round instead of the current system where you only make progress by reaching your all-time high score (something that becomes increasingly difficult and frustrating).

This feature is still in development and pretty rough around the edges, but I'd love to hear some first thoughts about it - if you're interested in being an alpha tester, sign up on the discord.



I'm continuing to add new course pieces to make replaying the game less repetitive and hopefully more fun. This update brings three new pieces to the pond course. The new course pieces all replace existing ones when the courses are generated, so they shouldn't make the levels any harder, hopefully just more interesting!

These are the new elements you'll see while playing:
The Causeway Hole. This is a much wider causeway piece, but there's a gap in the middle. If you're at the edge of a course it will give you a straight shot - it's designed to be the inverse of the standard causeway.



The Bent Causeway. Another variation on the causeway, this gives you a straight shot over half the width.


The Leaf Platform. This is a variation on the socket platform, and has both advantages (the curving side when raised is perfect for bouncing off) and disadvantages (when raised, there's no rail on the back!)


As always, here's the roadmap of bugs and features that I'll be addressing, and I'm always open to new ideas. Let me know what you'd like to see!

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi,

This update brings new obstacles, as well as some behind-the-scenes progress on course modifiers.


This is the first of several updates where I'm planning to add new pieces to the game. I'm excited by this, because even a couple of new pieces can result in a wide variety of generated courses. I know that some of the early courses can feel repetitive after several runs, and so I'm hoping to increase the variation and make each course feel more unique and more fun!

In this update, I've started by creating variants of existing obstacles in the woods course. These are the new ones you'll see when playing:

A Lopsided Bump

A Circular Bump

Ramps Up and Down

There's also a moving obstacle which is a bridge that has two sides - each side opens separately so there's always a path through but it changes position:





Alongside the new obstacles, I've been making steady progress on the course modifiers feature. These are consumable items that you can use to modify courses before you play them. You'll earn these over the course of play, and my goal with these is to let you tweak the game in fun and interesting ways that will also help you get towards your next unlocks.

This week I primarily worked on the UI - creating icons and starting to implement them within the game flow. Once you earn modifiers, you'll be able to apply them at the very start of a game. There's currently no way to change how you play the first course in a run, so this should add some fun opportunities and make the first few holes more interesting.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the icons I was working on:



As always, here's the roadmap of bugs and features that I'll be addressing, and I'm always open to new ideas. Let me know what you'd like to see!

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi,

For this update I continued working on multiplayer, focusing on a feature that has been requested several times: a shot timer.



This is a new game settings option that you unlock from the store. When turned on, it's designed to keep things moving along and stop people from being able to stall or outright stop the game. You can find in the permanent unlocks section, and it costs 2 shots.



Once unlocked, you can chose how long each player has to take a shot. A small circular timer will show when you get close to the end of your time, and if you still haven't moved by the time it's up, you forfeit a shot!



I hope this will make for quicker and smoother games with large numbers of players. Let me know what you think!



I've also continued working on the large course modifier update. These are consumable items that you can use to modify courses before you play them. You'll earn these over the course of play, and my goal with these is to let you tweak the game in fun and interesting ways that will also help you get towards your next unlocks.

This week I worked primarily on the interface and game flow (When do you chose them? Where do you see your goals? How about the rewards?). I also designed some icons for them - I'll share these in a future update!

As always, here's the roadmap of bugs and features that I'll be addressing, and I'm always open to new ideas. Let me know what you'd like to see!

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi,

I'm back with the first update of 2025! For the next few months I'll be aiming for fortnightly updates as usual, each with a small feature as I work on a big new system behind the scenes.

[h3]Aiming Indicator for Online Multiplayer[/h3]

When anyone on a different computer is aiming, you'll now see this small arrow indicating where they're pointing.



I'm hoping this feature will make online games more fun, because it shows you where your friends are aiming and gives you a much better opportunity to criticize their skills before they even hit the ball! In co-op, this is invaluable information to let you coordinate and work better with your co-op partners.

[h3]More Balance Tweaks[/h3]

I'm still listening to your feedback and looking at the data behind the scenes to improve the balance of Up to Par. The course modifiers I'm working on (see below) will be the biggest change, but in the meantime I've decreased the unlock cost of around 1/3 of the shop items, and decreased the unlock scores for all of the course items, some by as much as 3 holes.

[h3]Course Modifiers[/h3]

I'm working on a new set of unlockable, consumable items that you can use to modify courses before you play them. You'll earn these over the course of play, and my goal with these is to let you tweak the game in fun and interesting ways that will also help you get towards your next unlocks.

This is a big feature that's still early in development, so I don't have much else to share at the moment. However I'll post a small update each fortnight as I get it closer to public testing.

Here's the roadmap of bugs and features that I'll be addressing next year, and I'm always open to new ideas. Let me know what you'd like to see!

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi,

This is the last update before the holidays, and I've focused on fixing some outstanding bugs as well as further tweaking the balance of the game.

The biggest improvement in this update is a more stable online multiplayer lobby. If the host leaves during the countdown, it should now correctly transfer control to another player to continue setting up the game. I've fixed some minor issues with the Join button not showing or hiding correctly, and the option to select how many holes per course no longer lets you accidentally select numbers that are out of bounds.

A small but important quality of life improvement is that the Free Shot Zone now appears offset from the socket obstacle. Previously this overlapped exactly and was difficult to read, but now it's both clear and also makes for more interesting options for shots!



Finally, I'm continuing to make changes to the balance of the game. This update sees two thirds of the course unlocks become easier to achieve, and half the items in the shop cheaper to unlock. I'll be keeping an eye on how this affects progression (let me know in the comments what you think!) and it's likely I'll continue making changes in the future. I'll also be introducing a new meta-game feature next year which is aiming to improve the feeling of restarting courses and reaching high score goals.

Other minor issues that have been fixed are:

• The bounce achievement now only shows once per time you improve, and only after 5 bounces.
  
• The progress screen shows seasonal balls separately from other categories.
  
• Added background UI for the progress screens so it's more readable in low contrast courses.
  
• Added some missing localisation, including the name for Latin American Spanish in the settings.
  
• Started work on supporting the D-Pad for menu navigation. This should work for Xbox Controllers, but not PS Controllers yet.
  
• Added a missing 3D icon for the woods course.
  
• The mouse now shows the correct icon when you're using simultaneous aiming.
  
• I've added a note when you try to switch on movement cancelling and simultaneous aiming in the settings at the same time, because they're not compatible.
  

I'll be taking a break over the holiday period, and will be back to continue fortnightly updates in February. Here's the roadmap of bugs and features that I'll be addressing next year, and I'm always open to new ideas. Let me know what you'd like to see!

Happy Golfing,
Philip