Binary Golf News

Hey golfers! It’s time for another monthly update on Binary Golf. This month, we’ve been hard at work digging deeper into Episode 3, and we’re excited to give you a peek at what’s coming!

[h2]⛏️ Episode 3: Nanoseed Mines[/h2]



Batal returns in an underground adventure filled with twists, turns, and tech-powered traps. The mines are packed with old machinery, mine carts, and pipes – a perfect recipe for chaos and fun, then he meet Zeinab, a nerdy inventor and friend of Khaled, who helps Batal navigate the depths. Expect puzzles, hazards, and new ways to play golf like never before!

[h2]💨 New Ability: Tornado Shot[/h2]

Take full control! The Tornado Ability lets you steer your ball directly while it’s spinning in a whirlwind, until the tornado ends. It’s perfect for weaving through hazards or lining up wild angles mid-flight.

[h2]⚡ New Ability: Shock Shot[/h2]

Blink and you're gone! The Shock Ability lets you teleport (flash) quickly in one of six directions – left, right, up, down, forward, or backward – and you can do this three times in a row. Use it to escape danger, cross gaps, or nail clever shortcuts.

[h2]🌀 Pipes: The Mines’ Hidden Highways[/h2]

The mines are full of old nanotech piping systems. These pipes can suck your ball in and spit it out somewhere else on the course, some even split into multiple paths — it’s up to you to choose the best one!

[h2]🛒Mine Carts: Ride the Rails![/h2]

Introducing mine carts, a new way to traverse the course — fast and furious.

• Once your ball enters a mine cart, it stays on the mine cart.
  
• You can still jump and use abilities while riding, but timing is everything!
  
• Carts can launch you to new sections or carry you right past key targets if you’re not careful.
  

I'm really proud of how Episode 3 is shaping up. With new mechanics, creative levels, and fresh characters, it's one of the most dynamic parts of Binary Golf so far.

Thanks again for your support — more updates coming next month!

[h2]Hey everyone![/h2]

It's been a super packed month, with a ton of new environmental stuff getting completed as well as a bunch of new concepts, bosses, and powerful abilities -- so let's get into it!

[h3]🚀 Join the Official Binary Golf Discord![/h3]
First things first: There is now an official Discord server!

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and now it’s finally happening. If you love Binary Golf and want to chat with other players, discuss strategies, share trick shots, or just hang out, this is the place to be.

I’ll also be posting exclusive sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes updates, and taking feedback directly from the community. Want to help shape the future of Binary Golf?

Join the server here: https://discord.gg/GCtX5uJf

[h2]Episode 02's Plans[/h2]

Right after I uploaded the demo, which has Episode 01, I immediately began working on Episode 02. This next episode picks up right where the first left off, Batal is going to the forest with his mom and sister to find out something the mom has hidden, but something feels off, the trees have spiraling rings around them, and the rings look so high-tech. This is where I plan to introduce the mysterious machine-learning robot Telix, crank up the lore, bring in the abilities you know and love (plus some new ones!), and introduce more gameplay mechanics that I'm VERY excited about!

Episode 02 will feature several key new elements, which we'll go over below, alongside showcasing some new concept art and fresh environments.

Episode 02 [the Sahara Forest]



Here we have a lot of new hazards, tricky layouts, and environmental puzzles that take full advantage of 2 new abilities and some Binary Golf mechanics. This course is not as easy as the first course, but still, it's easy.

[h2]New Ability [Teleporter][/h2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxnJkl9TjWI

This ability lets you put down a Teledot, then, by pressing (C) again, teleport to the Teledot and destroy it, but that's not all, you can also move the Teledot with the arrow keys (but moves horizontally only).

This ability is hard to master, but once you get the hang of it, it's a stroke saver and allows for some weird trick shots, kind of like Zed's W and R combo from League of Legends.

[h2]New Ability [Fire][/h2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKfd2q-q2bs

This is basically a dash, that's pretty easy to understand if I do say so myself, but as you can see, it doesn't look easy to recover from if you misuse it. You'll launch yourself out of bounds if you do so.

I'm gonna be honest, I took this ability from Flamer from Kirby's Dream Course, I don't like this ability and I can't find much use for it, I added that you can steer for 0.5 seconds when you're dashing, and that you can burn through trees and light poles (same as Sparky).

[h2]New Boss [Ancient Baobab Guardian][/h2]
https://youtu.be/HKuNbMuLDjY

We have a new boss fight, but this time it's stationary, sometimes it can teleport to 3 set positions, but that's it, all the boss does is throw fireballs and spikeballs at you, as well as attack from below the ground, there are also 3 support poles, which also throw either fireballs or spring spikes.

This fight Is fun, ngl, I'd love to play a harder version of it because it's too easy for me, and speaking of harder versions.

[h2]Extra Courses[/h2]


Now, this is what you'd call the "B-Side" of the game, this is the same layout of the original courses but much harder, I haven't done what completing this mode would do, so let's keep an eye out for that.
No, there won't be C-Sides, although there are Episode 13 holes, which are the most difficult, very-specific challenges in the game, and beating them gives you clues on beating the boss of Episode 13 which is the mysterious powerful machine-learning robot: Telix.

[h2]Closing[/h2]

Thank you for reading this – it has been incredible to watch this game and community come alive, and I am so excited to take everything to the next level in future episodes! You can expect more exciting trailers and other content updates in the coming months, so be sure to follow along!

Join the Discord here, I'd love to see more fans: https://discord.gg/GCtX5uJf

SEE YOU ALL IN THE NEXT UPDATE!

As a solo developer, I'm excited to announce that Binary Golf has officially partnered with indie.io! 🎉
This marks a major milestone for Binary Golf, allowing me to take the game to new heights and reach a wider audience.



For those who may not know, working with a game publishing platform like indie.io helps indie developers like me focus on crafting the best gameplay experience while they handle all the behind-the-scenes magic. From managing store pages to creating marketing campaigns and making our game shine at events, indie.io has been a huge support!

Binary Golf was born from my love of Kirby’s Dream Course but I made it more fast-paced, competitive, and with better boss fights.

[h2]Why indie.io?[/h2]
Choosing indie.io as my publisher was an easy decision. They have a great track record of helping indie games reach new players and gain visibility, and their support means I can focus on delivering more content and polish to Binary Golf.


[h2]Join the Community![/h2]
Don’t forget to wishlist and follow Binary Golf on Steam to stay updated on all the latest news and announcements.

🔗 Check out more great indie titles on the indie.io Steam Publisher Page

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1908380/Binary_Golf

Thank you for being part of this amazing journey! I can’t wait to share more with you all soon!

Hello, everyone!
This month has been very busy, and I’m excited to show you what I’ve been working on for Binary Golf:


[h3]Episode 2: Sahara Forest[/h3]
Episode 2 takes you on an adventure with Batal, and his sister Hana, and their mom as they explore a mysterious forest, featuring 2 new Super Targets:

The Teleporter:

Summon a Tele Dot at the ball’s position then press (C) again to teleport back into said Tele Dot, destroying it in the process, you can also move the Tele Dot with arrow keys (horizontally only).
This ability is a bit complex tbh, but the holes make it a bit simpler.

The Fire:

Move very fast for 0.5 seconds and float in mid-air then slow down and drop, this ability is difficult for sure, but still the holes in Episode 2 don’t require hard execution.


[h3]New look for the Secret Warp[/h3]
Here is a comparison, for both warps:


So, what do you think?


[h3]Color Mode, Static Background Options[/h3]
To enhance the experience for some people who find the game too bright, I’ve added an option for Color Mode, there are 3 choices:
Vibrant Mode (default):

Eyestrain Mode:

Night Mode:


I also added Static Background, which from the name, makes ALL backgrounds hold still, even the main menu.


[h3]Reworked Options Layout[/h3]
The Options Menu has been re-organized for easier navigation, splitting them into 6 categories:

1. Sound
   
2. Graphics
   
3. Controller Remap
   
4. Keyboard Remap
   
5. Game Settings
   
6. Accessibility
   

[h3]How to Play section[/h3]
For those who forgot some basic mechanics about the game, this would be a refresher, it also tells what ALL abilities do and some pro tips that you would need for the later courses.


That’s NOT the main way to learn the game, btw, there is an interactive tutorial when you start the game.
Anyway that’s all for this month, see you soon.

LAN Multiplayer Party

Hey everyone! In this update, I wanted to add a multiplayer feature that allows friends to play but not on the same device, so I created a LAN (Local Area Network) connection. Here’s how things went.



How it works
To get started, I needed to set up a local client-server model. The plan was to have one device act as the “host” (server) and others as clients joining the game, the server also has a client on the same device so that he/she can play, so I had to:
• Set up a server to broadcast a local IP.
• Allow client devices to detect and connect to this IP.
• Sync game data (like ball positions and actions) to ensure all players see the same thing.



Challenge: Syncing Real-Time Data
This has been a tricky part but not so much! But I had to synchronise ALL STATS from the players so that every connected player sees the same thing on their screen, and so I had to setup, and by all stats I mean: “Position, Vector, Curving shots, Abilities, HP, Strokes, and many more small details”, the server has no authority on the clients’ balls, so each ball is only sent from the client to the server.



Notice how after the white ball collides, it got hit but due to lag, the red ball didn’t receive the hit, maybe I can signal to the other ball that it got hit from the white ball’s perspective but it would be difficult because what if there was no lag and the 2 balls collided from both perspectives but then the signal came and now both balls get hit twice? I’ll leave it as it is right now and come back to it later.
Challenge: Boss Fight
The first boss has many attacks, and I need to keep the boss behaving the same for all clients and I have to take latency into consideration, what do I do?
1. Make the boss move and attack just like normal, BUT once the attack is done, wait for the server until it signals new attacks.
2. Reposition the boss from the server to the clients.



What’s Next?
The next big goal is to expand this functionality to Steam’s multiplayer platform! This will allow players to connect and play with friends and randoms from anywhere, making Binary Golf even more accessible.
I’ll be using the same server-client model just like the LAN, but maybe I can find something better hopefully, I won’t change much of the functionalities of the game.
My ONLY problem comes from the fact that (ANYONE can cheat), that means the server and the client can cheat, I don’t mind much if it’s in a LAN server, but with random people, this would be griefing other players, making players not wanting to go online multiplayer, for co-op mode, it’s going to suck but not that big of a deal, for PVP? No-one would like that you can teleport to all targets and then teleport to the hole in like 10 frames as soon as the match starts.
I’ll have to look into anti-cheating measures but that’s a topic for another devlog.

Or I could just move on to the next episode.

Anyway, thanks for following along! And stay tuned for more on the Steam multiplayer journey!