Golfing In Aether News

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.

Todays update is a continuation of yesterdays with more back-end fixes and general tidy-ups. I’ve also made further revisions to how XP is handled for leaderboards, so please give feedback on that :)

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 “Pathfinder” XP award worth 25XP that is achievable on holes where you would normally have to take a pipe and you’ve been creative and figured out your own path. This is equal XP to the “Shortcut” XP on these levels.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Added a small bend in the pipe in “Gentle Swing” to cause a slight reduction to the ball’s travel speed.
  
• Fixed an unfinished wall bit near the fence on “Gentle Swing”.
  
• Fixed an unfinished wall section on the hole-in-one down ramp in “Go For It”.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added improved caching and handling of the primary profile which will decrease disk read during menu creation, further increasing the responsiveness of menu appearances that perform checks what accessibility settings are active.
  
• Fixed the “Press A to Join” text on choose profiles menu not having correct coloring under dark theme.
  
• Fixed appearance of borders on some new elements not having suitable color for dark theme.
  
• Fixed an issue where if you switch menu theme and quickly returned to menu at the start of the game the setting wouldn’t remain saved.
  
• Added additional scoreboard row entry at no reduction of size to other elements, this is mostly fixing some spacing issues from a recent update.
  

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

I've decided to extend the availability of the demo for week or so more and put out updates to the demo as form of early test for those interested in keeping playing. Please let me know if you encounter any problems and feel free to give feedback as will certainly be listening to what you all have to say.

This update is essentialy all the back-end stuff I put off doing when so close Next-Fest, there are some significant changes in here such as a rework to the user interface from a performance/responsiveness standpoint, additon of more sounds for the ball (hitting walls and entering hole), and tweaks to the xp and leaderboards. I'll run through the note-worthy changes but its quite a long list of small stuff so please check out the full notes below.


I've tweaked a few levels based on watching how these play out. "Tee Time" has recieved triangular bumpers so rebounding ball can bound rather than get trapped; the placement and size of the bumpers from a forward direction is unchanged. This shouldn't make much difference to leaderboards as getting stopped there usually meant a Birdie or Par at least.

Another level I tweaked a bit thats noteworthy is "Mind the Gap", besides various wall placement fixes, I also reworked the fallback path if you happen to go down that sloped hole at the start. It should now flow a little easier as it was quite common to get trapped in a corner when this is supposed to be the easier of the routes. The rest of the level remains unchanged and this wont make any difference to leaderboards.


After listening to feedback I've tweaked how some XP is awarded to give more creativity when it comes to making your own route to the goal, I've also reworked how the time bonus is awarded.

So for starters the "Style" score has been tweaked, the "Shortcut" element is now only worth 25XP rather than 50 XP. This is to balance out the time it would take down a shortcut route vs maybe finding your own route.

Time has been changed to reward 1XP for every 1/4 second under 1 minute as well as a flat 50 XP award on top. Previously this was under 2 minutes and 2XP per second. The time itself is also handled to greater precision for all calculations. My intent with these changes is opening up more variation in the scores themselves you don't see the top handful of people having scores essentially sat at same XP due to way it was being calculated, now that split second actually counts. below is some comparison values:

• 21 seconds 196 vs 206
  
• 21.5 seconds 194 vs 204
  
• 22 seconds 194 vs 202
  
• 22.25 seconds 192 vs 201
  
• 22.5 seconds 192 vs 200

As a fun way to encourage a bit of extra testing on one of the levels I’ve tweaked, and to xp tweaks; I’ve gone and set a leaderboard ghost on “Tee Time” 'Normal' if anyone wants to try beat it ;) If you have any feedback to these changes then please let me know :)


Every single menu in the game has had the back-end overhauled for greater responsiveness, with menus such as the Select Profiles and Leaderboards being especially noticable.

You'll also note that widget elements you can mouse click interact with have been given a border/3D-like appearence. This should especially help when its not clear what buttons you can and can't press. These are contexual, so will disapear when you can't interact with the button at a given moment due to some other action requiring your attention.

The Select Profiles menu will also handle the select button in the bottom right when comes to selecting skin / color as a fall back for when users don't understand to click the middle element to select. The back button will now move back to the previous section first before returning to the previous page.

Leaderboards will now display double the number of entries as previous. I'll likely look into a filter or way to move between pages here in the future.


One element I notably tweaked was how movement on the tee is handled. Now if you proceed to hold down the power button it will charge up immediately when able, this means no more button mashing to activate it promptly. I've also done various responsiveness optimizations and the whole process can be performed a tenth of a second faster than previous.


If you like the game and haven't already done so then please add the game to your wishlist. Not only will you be alerted as to when the game will release, but it also helps with the way Steam handles certain metrics and help raise the game in terms of popularity.

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added sounds for the ball colliding with walls.
  
• Added sounds for the ball entering hole.
  
• Added various improvements to hit collision responses.
  
• Fixed the flag raise detection on “Mind the Gap” being a little strict, the bounds now cover the end area better including as you pass over the water wheel.
  
• Added change to time bonus for leaderboards by reducing from 2 minutes to 1 minute.
  
• Added change to round time by handling internally to higher precision.
  
• Added change to Max XP for time bonus increased from 240 to 290 xp.
  
• Added change to how time bonus is calculated. Now 1xp per every ¼ second plus a flat rate of 50xp. This is so if you land a time of 58 seconds, you’d get 58xp not 8xp. A time of 36 seconds would net you 146xp. A time of 21 seconds would mean 206xp. The goal is to increase the score variation range.
  
• Added a change to the shortcut xp bonus, reducing from 50 to 25xp. My thinking is on typical levels like “Tee Time” and so on, you will take perhaps 5-8 seconds to take the shortcut – i.e. you’d lose 20-32xp from time bonus, so depending how creative you are with your alternate path, you don’t always require this bonus to get the best score – but it’s a safe bet to do so.
  
• Added improvements to the way moving on the tee is handled. If you hold down the launch while moving on the tee, if it remains held as soon as the tee movement as finished launch will initiate. This avoids the frantic clicking to launch as soon as tee movement has finished.
  
• Fixed the player spectator camera not returning to follow view after they pass through a hole.
  

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Added a minor layout change to “Tee Time” where the later wall bumpers are now triangular shaped to rebound from both directions. This would make no difference to any leaderboard scores, as this more about bouncing off balls that have long-sailed past the hole already in the loop.
  
• Fixed the fallback path on “Mind the Gap” to have an easier flow.
  
• Fixed wall placement on “Mind the Gap” Level (this is just side/detail, nothing to do with level layout).
  
• Fixed an incorrectly physical wall on “Pick a Hole”.
  

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added improvements to choose player screen to make it easier to distinguish what is a button when using mouse controls.
  
• Added various back-end improvement to optimize performance, notably when comes to menu item times (menus were already opening in indistinguishable milliseconds but a couple such as the choose player menu and leaderboards are now more responsive).
  
• Added improvements to on-screen keyboard in the choose player menu. Buttons now have a 3d-look and will respond to mouse interactions.
  
• Added improvements to all buttons when interacting with the gamepad, the button will now visibly press and release when you select with a button (this is more noticeable on elements like on screen keyboard where the button doesn’t take you to another menu).
  
• Fixed the “Select” button not being functionally consistent.
  
• Fixed shadow appearance on the ball icons when picking customization.
  
• Added consistency improvements to the scoreboard so players will use same widget style as what you find with leaderboards. This will also let more players stats visible on screen at once.
  
• Added on screen buttons to cycle left or right with the stat pages.
  
• Added improvements to the main menu load up time.
  
• Added improvements to the style of the Next and Previous buttons on various elements. These are now visibility 3D, press and depress and have animation based on gamepad interaction.
  
• Fixed the public and invite only choose player menu’s not returning to the new game menu.
  
• Fixed pressing back in the choose player menu after clicking on a session not taking you back to the session list.
  
• Fixed a rogue element in the choose ball customization menu.
  
• Fixed ball icons on choose player menu having an incorrect shadow.
  
• Fixed an issue relating to text wrapping under some resolutions on the Practice menu.
  
• Fixed an issue relating to the color of mouse button text on the Keyboard and Mouse menu.
  
• Added improved descriptions to key remapping.
  
• Added change to xp menu to have it be represented by hover color.
  
• Added additional visible leaderboard entries in the practice menu (50, up from 25).
  
• Fixed an issue where friends leaderboard entries were not appearing in the practice menu.
  
• Added change to default highlight color when creating new profile.
  
• Added improvements to the Choose Player menu where interactable buttons are distinguished between non interactable better. The on-screen accept button will also work for the first player as a secondary means of interacting with this menu. Back button will only go back to the previous page when in the select profile state, an extra confirmation prompt will get added in the future if you have other players joined.
  
• Added improved behaviour for gamepad remapping menu where you can press any non-gamepad key to abort the remapping easier.
  
• Fixed various hit test and selectable behaviour issues in the remapping menus.
  
• Added performance optimizations to the player hud elements.
  

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

Tune in to see more gameplay from Golfing In Aether's demo part of the Steam Next Fest June 2022.

You can also play along by grabbing the demo from the store-page. If you like the game then please add to your wishlist :)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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

For day three of the Steam Next Fest I've brought out a new level to play. This will appear randomly during the mid-game and features a handful of different routes to complete including a route via a functioning water wheel. If you want to play this level right away then you can look for "Mind The Gap" under the practice menu as-well.



If you haven't already seen; there were small updates each of the previous days which you can read about below:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1914980/announcements/detail/3368143418787464384
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1914980/view/3368144052907878184
Please leave any feedback you have and report any issues encounted. Also if you like the game and haven't already done so then please add the game to your wishlist :)

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added new level "Mind The Gap".
  
• Fixed an issue with the reset system when recording leaderboard ghost in practice mode.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed small details on various wall meshes.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added further improvements to detailed scoreboard mode. Total strokes number will also receive color coding similar to each stage so you have an extra visual indicator whether it is at par, or above or below.
  

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