Golfing In Aether Update Released [Alpha 1.3.0]

Alpha 1.3 will address one of the most requested/suggested things from feedback of playing the Next Fest demo, and that’s the addition of ambient sounds. There will be features still absent given the alpha state of the game, but given the number of requests for this I decided to bump this up in priorities. Also included in this update is two new levels to complete as well as a new ball customization which I will be showing off in screenshots below.


Sounds included target a range of elements such as wind, birds in trees, and the creaks of old waterwheels turning – there’s quite a few things introduced. There are also more impact sounds for different surfaces, such as for when in a pipe.


Varying applause sounds depending on how many strokes you take to get into the hole have been added. Also, for the XP Screen there are now ui sounds for the XP being counted and rank awarded. The XP screen itself has been tweaked with more distinctive icons for the rank you've been awarded.


"Goofy Golf" (shown above) and "See You On The Other Side" (Shown at the top of this article). These are an early, and a late game level, with the later featuring a handful of ways of completing plus room for many more creative routes.

A pass on lighting and general graphical quality has also been done. This includes improving exposure for darker areas and terrain blending for rocks.


A new ball customization has been added, featuring a whole set of colors to choose from. This is loosely based on a monarch caterpillar in similar styling to the ladybug and bee already in the game.

Let me know of any feedback you have about the additions in this update and if you are enjoying the game please don't forget to add it to your wishlist.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added “See You On The Other Side” Level. Late game level featuring a handful of ways of completing plus room for many more creative routes.
  
• Added “Goofy Golf” Level. An early game course featuring a multi-hole ramp, can you find the hole in one?
  
• Added tighter camera angle for when entering the cup (scoreboard screen etc.) so background parts of the level don’t overlap with the camera.
  
• Added applause when entering the hole, this features several different samples and will vary in intensity depending how well you score (as well as extra for randomness).
  
• Added XP screen sound effects with additional effect when you earn an S Rank.
  
• Added an additional fallback camera reset system to catch any balls that slip through when leaving a hole they just entered and not returning the camera.
  
• Fixed a micro-delay in text handling for initial countdown message in the scoreboard.
  
• Added changes to rank thresholds following XP changes over last few updates. C rank and S rank increased by 50XP to be 300 and 800 XP. This is to give more meaning to ranks in general, S Rank should take some effort to obtain and C Rank shouldn’t be just handed to you. Remember you can see how other players achieve these scores via watching ghosts from the top leaderboard players (or your friends) in practice mode.
  
• Fixed where you can change your power while already launching the ball which wasn’t intended. I may balance time XP more in future, but I think with this loophole closed it’s a start and does close the gap between inputs. Will watch this change and see how things go.
  
• Added a few improvements to Async disk read for initial loading of the game.
  

[h2]Customization[/h2]

• Added ‘Monarch’ (caterpillar) ball customization in various custom colors.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Added a tweak so the default brightness increasing the visibility in shaded areas of levels. You can tweak the brightness under Graphics Settings if you need further adjustments.
  
• Added a form of terrain blending with rocks so they appear more seamless with terrain.
  
• Fixed logs not working with terrain blending.
  
• Added ambient sounds to all levels for wind, birds, waterwheels, windmills, water flowing, flag and more. These vary in placement with several samples in use.
  
• Added entering and impact sounds for pipes.
  
• Fixed some floating petals on Mid-hole Madness.
  
• Fixed a tree placement and a few on Getting Tee-ed Off.
  
• Fixed minor ground flicker in Mind The Gap where a piece of track was overlapping.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed some padding issues with the scoreboard header so everything is aligned correctly.
  

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.