Super Video Golf News

It's been a busy month here on the range - I've been working on update 1.14, which is centred on bringing new modes and updated game play - so let's dive right in!

First up I've implemented the following new game modes:

• Stableford
  
• Stableford Pro
  
• Multi-target
  
• Short Round
  

Stableford & Stableford Pro
The Stableford modes are played the same way as traditional Stroke play, however the score is tallied slightly differently. In Stableford obtaining par for the hole is worth 2 points. Extra points are awarded for every stroke under par, for example a Birdie is worth 3 points and an Eagle 4 points. Regular Stableford games clamp the value at zero - that is a Bogey or worse are worth no points, and the hole is ended for any player who has used up all their strokes and can't score. This can be beneficial for more casual games as it both speeds up the game play, and means that lower tier players are less likely to fall a long way behind on the scoreboard as the game progresses.

Stableford Pro is the similar, though negative scores are awarded for Bogey and worse. A Bogey is worth -1 point, Double Bogey -2 and so on. This has the potential for a longer running game - and keeps the contestants on their toes!

Multi-target mode
Multi-target is an all-new game play mode where each player must first hit a mid-point target on each hole, before holing out. Holing out (or even hitting the green) without first hitting the target forfeits that hole for the player with maximum strokes (12 on a regular course, 6 on the putting course).
Multi-target mode can be very challenging - missing a target first time effectively puts all other players one stroke ahead - and the games are often long and pretty intense! However the targets themselves offer a great opportunity for earning up to 70XP per target. The closer to the centre of the target you hit the more XP you earn.



Short Round
A Short Round mode has also been added for more casual game play. The selected course is reduced in length by 33% - so front or back 9 selections become 6 holes, and 18 hole selections become 12 holes. Which holes are available depend on whether the course is being played in forward or reverse, with the final 3 or 6 holes being omitted from the roster. The scoring is that of regular Stroke play - however final scores are not entered into the leaderboards.


As well as these new modes I've also updated skins rounds. If the final hole is drawn the game will enter Sudden Death! which isn't as gory as it sounds - simply put the first player to hole out on the last hole of the course wins the remaining skins pot. Of course, whether or not those skins are enough to win the entire round is another matter! 😁

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Monthly Challenges
Also new to this update are the Monthly Challenges. Starting from the first of each month, as the name suggests, you'll have the remainder of the month to complete a given challenge. The currently active challenge and your personal progress can be found by visiting the Clubhouse. Completing a Monthly Challenge awards a whopping 500XP as well as an award for the personal stats page.





While we're here at the Clubhouse we can find another new feature: the Club League. This is a passive challenge which tracks your progress out on the course, and charts it against a series of virtual CPU players. Imagine it being something a little like fantasy football. The Club League is split into seasons of 24 games - at the end of each season the scores are reset, each of the CPU players are re-evaluated and awards for top 3 placement are given out. CPU players who did well will have their internal stats incremented for a greater challenge, while poorer performers drop down the ranks. As the Club League also ties in with your personal progression stats, resetting your profile from the Profile page will also completely reset the Club League, and generate a new set of CPU players. Stroke play, Stableford games and Short Round matches all contribute to the league.



And, of course, as with all new features there are a series of new achievements to be gained too!

Public Beta
As these features have now all been implemented in-game you can try them out on the public beta branch, by right clicking the game in your library and selecting the Beta tab. This goes with the usual caveat of there may (will!) be bugs here and there - so you do try it out at your own risk. If you do find a bug or have a suggestion for the update, leave a note on the discussions page or drop into the Official Chat - I'm always happy to hear feedback!

While this mostly completes the update there are still a few tweaks, mini-features and quality of life improvements to make before it's ready to be released - so stay tuned for future news!

Thanks as always go to the fervent and enthusiastic testers who have been helping out, including (but not limited to!) yourjaguarlover and Dechrissen.

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Finally...
I mentioned in a previous post that the community are running Super Video Sundays - a place for people to get together each Sunday to match up online. Great fun has been had so far, and it's open for anyone to join - just head over to the Super Video Clubhouse group and say hello! Here's a video replay of one of last Sunday's rounds, featuring the new Multi-target mode:

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Don't forget that, as it's a new month, the Monthly Leaderboards for August have now been archived - congratulations to everyone who placed a top 3! September's leaderboards are now underway and are logging scores for Stroke play games.

Thanks as always to everyone who has been joining in - I appreciate you all! 😁
See you in the next update!

One of my favourite things about making Super Video Golf has been the small community growing up around it. As a great example of this some members have taken it upon themselves to create the Super Video Clubhouse group - a place to meet other players and to play online. This group plans to feature events such as tournaments as well as host Super Video Sundays - where every Sunday players can get together and organise games between themselves and even play in a Sunday league!

If this sounds like your kind of thing, or you simply just want to hang out with other Super Video Golfers, then join the public group here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/supervideoclubhouse - and drop into the chatroom to say Hi!

Special thanks goes to Dechrissen and yourjaguarlover for their hard work. Hope to see you there! 🏌️‍♀️⛳

It's update time again, this time bringing the promised new features based around player stats and leaderboards, as well as the usual collection of quality of life improvements. Last month I covered some of the features which have already been implemented, so if you'd like to check out what they are you can find the details in this post here. Continuing on from that I've added these new options to Super Video Golf:

Driving range leaderboards are now broken down by target as well as try count. This means that for each target you attempt on the Driving Range, final scores are tallied independently from other targets. The consensus was that this gave an overall fairer competition, rather than mixing the results from a single easy target with those, say, of a run of random targets. To reflect this the Driving Range leaderboard viewer has been expanded and updated, so each one can be examined individually.



Alongside this the menus in the Driving Range have been given a lick of paint, to make them look neater and more polished with some new artwork.


Players on the Steam Deck have also made their voices heard, so this update includes some deck-specific updates. Firstly, when playing on Steam Deck (or in Big Picture mode) the power bar has been increased to double the size, so that it is more visible on a smaller screen, or when viewing from a distance.



The options menu, which previously included controller-specific artwork for XBox and Playstation controllers, has now been updated with artwork to reflect the Steam Deck's controls.



And, as a final buff for Steam Deck and game controller users, menu navigation has been completely overhauled when using the DPad or thumbstick. This means that pushing up or down actually moves the selection up or down now! 😅 This was a surprisingly... detailed... amount of work, so there may be an edge case in one or two places where things don't work as intuitively as you might think. If this is the case, please make sure to let me know via the discussions or the Steam Chat, and I'll do my best to fix things.


One of the biggest features in this update is the addition of the Stats browser to the Clubhouse, to accompany the new leaderboard viewer. The stats browser is broken down into 4 main views:

Club Stats:
This page details all of the available golf clubs, so you can see the different ranges offered by different club sets (Novice, Expert, Pro) and at which level the clubs are unlocked, as well as their current unlock status. Each club also includes stats that provide information as to how much adding top or side spin to the shot will actually affect play. For example the wedges are highly affected by top and back spin, while irons are also affected by side spin.



Player Performance:
The performance page charts the scores attained for each hole of each course. This is logged separately for each player profile, including CPU profiles, and is not available publicly via Steam. The stats are tracked locally, and act as a way to view your own personal improvement (or not!) in scores over time.



Score logging was enabled in 1.12.5, so existing players should have some data to view already. New players (welcome!) will have to play a few rounds before anything tangible is visible.

Course History:
The history page displays the total number of times you, as a Steam user, have completed each course, either as a full 18 hole round, or one of the front or back 9 plays. It also displays the total, aggregated, number of rounds completed by all Steam users. At the bottom you can also see the average amount of time spent playing each course. These are all based on your Steam stats, and are the same as those visible from the Stats tab in the Options menu.



Awards:
The final page displays any awards you may have won. Currently this only displays awards for coming in the top 3 of one of the monthly leaderboards - however more awards will be added in future updates.




Some players have also requested that there is music when playing the game, instead of just on the menus. While there are no immediate plans to add any music to the game, I've now updated the music system so that it's possible to add your own custom playlist of music, which will play from your hard drive. The details of which are too lengthy to go into here, however I have added a guide which explains how to create and add your own custom music playlist. You can view the guide here.



These are, of course, the highlights of the update - here's the full change list of everything that's been added or updated since 1.12:

• Added incidental audio for spectators
  
• Updated lobby menu layout
  
• The previous round’s scores are no longer shown on the ticker if the round wasn’t fully completed
  
• Added previous round’s scoreboard to lobby menu
  
• Added leaderboard browser to clubhouse and lobby menu
  
• Increased maximum clients in a network game to 8
  
• Overhauled CPU behaviour (special thanks to yourjaguarlover for the thorough testing/feedback)
  
• Added Auto-skip mode for CPU players
  
• CPU Power bar is hidden for players at level 10 or above
  
• Profiles can now have short biographies
  
• Profile editor can now take mugshots
  
• Players can now choose which range of clubs to use for the next round, once unlocked
  
• Players can now choose which range of clubs to use for the driving range, once unlocked
  
• Driving range leaderboards are now broken down by target as well as try count
  
• Updated driving range menus now show current record holder for the selection
  
• Power bar is double size when playing on Steam Deck to increase visibility
  
• Options menu now has controller artwork for Steam Deck
  
• Overhauled UI navigation when using a controller/Steam Deck
  
• Added option to reset keybinds to their default values
  
• Added overview map (open from menu or key 6) to view the current hole's contours
  
• Added current putter range to the power bar when putting
  
• Ball can now collide with the flag
  
• Game will now play user selected music from any playlists found in the user/music directory
  
• Added stats browser for Club Stats to Clubhouse
  
• Added stats browser for course play time to Clubhouse
  
• Added stats browser for per-profile score history to Clubhouse
  
• Added awards browser for monthly awards to Clubhouse
  
• Added awards for placing top 3 in the monthly leaderboards
  
• Added grid view browser for ball selection to profile editor
  
• Fixed regression which prevented tool tips displaying in Options menu
  
• New Achievement - Nested
  
• New Achievement - Gimme Gimme Gimme
  
• New Achievement - Drive It Home
  
• New Achievement - Gamer
  
• New Achievement - Cause A Racket
  

As always thanks to everyone who has been testing the public beta and offering feedback - you really do help make the game what it is 😁 Don't forget, if you do have any comments/suggestions/bugs, you can always leave a comment in the discussions section, or join in on the Steam Chat here.


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Looking forward to 1.14 I've already started work on monthly personal challenges - these are tasks/challenges for which you have up to a month to complete, earning yourself a healthy dose of XP (and maybe an achievement or two!). Monthly challenges are not reflected on Steam, and are entirely optional. Each month will provide a new challenge, and the active challenge along with your current progress will be viewable from the Clubhouse.

1.14 will also hopefully see the introduction of some new game modes to play, particularly shorter, challenge based modes, ideal for more casual couch play (although they'll also work online). I have a variety or modes in mind - however I won't share any details just yet until something more concrete is formed, so look out for those in a future post!

That pretty much wraps up this update - thank you all for playing (and reading this far!), I'll see you in the next one. Happy Golfing! ⛳

Hello! Once again we've reached the beginning of the month - which means there are all new, fresh leaderboards open for the challenge! 😁 Since version 1.12 of Super Video Golf, every month the existing leaderboards are archived and a brand new set are made available. Coming in 1.13 is the all new leaderboard browser where all of the previous months archives can be viewed. However I thought that this month I would highlight July's results in this post.


Here is the full rundown of the top five players on each course in July:

Course 1: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 51
   
2. Mack 52
   
3. nkriz 54
   
4. Goat? 56
   
5. pop__esp 57
   

Course 1: Front 9

1. yourjaguarlover 25
   
2. pop__esp 28
   
3. oblige 29
   
4. iaa-art 30
   
5. raw829 31
   

Course 1: Back 9

1. pop__esp 27
   
2. yourjaguarlover 29
   
3. NEKOz 29
   
4. oblige 31
   
5. lestfest 32
   

Course 2: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 50
   
2. Mack 52
   
3. Goat? 56
   
4. ラメール(末っ子) 56
   
5. sfelliott11 59
   

Course 2: Front 9

1. yourjaguarlover 25
   
2. Mostly Careless µC 26
   
3. VEKTA 28
   
4. Salvor 30
   
5. NEKOz 30
   

Course 2: Back 9

1. yourjaguarlover 28
   
2. pop__esp 29
   
3. saurora6 29
   
4. xXx_TheMeatyM8_xXx 30
   
5. VEKTA 30
   

Course 3: All 18

1. Mack 37
   
2. yourjaguarlover 38
   
3. pop__esp 41
   
4. sfelliott11 42
   
5. Goat? 43
   

Course 3: Front 9

1. iaa-art 19
   
2. yourjaguarlover 20
   
3. oblige 23
   
4. Mike DezoZi 24
   
5. xXx_TheMeatyM8_xXx 24
   

Course 3: Back 9

1. Mostly Hairless µC 19
   
2. oblige 20
   
3. yourjaguarlover 21
   
4. xXx_TheMeatyM8_xXx 23
   
5. Salvor 23
   

Course 4: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 40
   
2. Mack 40
   
3. Guardian_Misterioso 43
   
4. Goat? 46
   
5. sfelliott11 47
   

Course 4: Front 9

1. VEKTA 22
   
2. ラメール(末っ子) 23
   
3. yourjaguarlover 24
   
4. Mostly Hairless µC 25
   
5. oblige 25
   

Course 4: Back 9

1. yourjaguarlover 22
   
2. iaa-art 23
   
3. oblige 24
   
4. Pie 26
   
5. Mr. Grapejuice 26
   

Course 5: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 52
   
2. Mack 52
   
3. pop__esp 55
   
4. fred 55
   
5. KΛTΛLYST 56
   

Course 5: Front 9

1. yourjaguarlover 27
   
2. VEKTA 27
   
3. saurora6 28
   
4. ラメール(末っ子) 28
   
5. oblige 29
   

Course 5: Back 9

1. yourjaguarlover 27
   
2. Mostly Careless µC 27
   
3. oblige 30
   
4. MAC21500 40
   
5. xXx_TheMeatyM8_xXx 42
   

Course 6: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 34
   
2. Mack 38
   
3. Guardian_Misterioso 39
   
4. Goat? 40
   
5. pop__esp 41
   

Course 6: Front 9

1. yourjaguarlover 22
   
2. ラメール(末っ子) 24
   

Course 6: Back 9

1. yourjaguarlover 22
   
2. Salvor 24
   

Course 7: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 48
   
2. Mack 51
   
3. pop__esp 54
   
4. Guardian_Misterioso 55
   
5. Sim-Ballie 55
   

Course 7: Front 9

1. yourjaguarlover 25
   
2. oblige 28
   
3. ラメール(末っ子) 29
   
4. VEKTA 30
   
5. saurora6 31
   

Course 7: Back 9

1. yourjaguarlover 25
   
2. Mostly Hairless µC 29
   
3. 555-SHOE 35
   

Course 8: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 45
   
2. pop__esp 50
   
3. VEKTA 51
   
4. KΛTΛLYST 51
   
5. Goat? 53
   

Course 8: Front 9

1. yourjaguarlover 26
   
2. oblige 26
   
3. VEKTA 26
   
4. Mostly Hairless µC 27
   
5. Mickolas 28
   

Course 8: Back 9

1. yourjaguarlover 23
   
2. pop__esp 25
   
3. Mostly Hairless µC 26
   
4. ラメール(末っ子) 29
   

Course 9: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 38
   
2. Mack 38
   
3. Sim-Ballie 39
   
4. Goat? 41
   
5. lukewin1 42
   

Course 9: Front 9

1. yourjaguarlover 19
   
2. oblige 21
   
3. xXx_TheMeatyM8_xXx 22
   
4. VEKTA 22
   
5. Pie 24
   

Course 9: Back 9

1. yourjaguarlover 22
   
2. iaa-art 25
   

Course 10: All 18

1. yourjaguarlover 43
   
2. Mack 44
   
3. Goat? 47
   
4. 204863 53
   
5. VEKTA 53
   

Course 10: Front 9

1. yourjaguarlover 23
   
2. VEKTA 24
   
3. pop__esp 28
   
4. ラメール(末っ子) 29
   
5. Hinomura 30
   

Course 10: Back 9

1. yourjaguarlover 21
   
2. Mostly Hairless µC 23
   
3. Mudhopper 26
   
4. Sim-Ballie 27
   
5. Garm Polo 28
   

Congratulations to everyone who placed in a top 5 position - and thank you to everyone who took part! If you can't see your name there, don't worry - you'll be able to see your own placing in the new leaderboard browser when 1.13 is released, as well as having the opportunity to place a new score in the leaderboards for August every time you play.

Speaking of 1.13, normally I use this monthly spot to cover the progression of the upcoming update. I'll not actually be doing that this time around - but rest assured this is because 1.13 is right around the corner! When the update is released (hopefully within the next few days) I'll post a full run down of all the new features. Until then the public beta is still available, and you can check out what's happening first hand by right clicking on Super Video Golf in your library and choosing to opt-in from the beta list.

And of course don't forget to check out the workshop which has had some great submissions throughout July - and do come say hello in the Official Chat 😁

That's it for now - hope to see you on the leaderboards!

Welcome to another update summary! There's no release this month - however I will be taking this opportunity to share what's been going on the last few weeks, and talk about what you can expect to see when the next update is released.

As revealed in last month's post, update 1.13 is focused on stats and progression. As such, much of the work has been oriented around updates to the menu system and the clubhouse.

Firstly the lobby menu has been reorganised. This splits the existing one into 3 sections, for courses, rules and info about the current session. Although this is partly due to a future update which will be increasing the number of game modes, it also provides a place for more information about a given course or round.








From the third page, which contains information about each connected client, it's now also possible to open the new leaderboard browser and the scorecard from the previous round (if there was indeed a previous round).





The leaderboard browser is a significant improvement over having to browse the Steam community pages to see player positions across the courses - as well as giving direct access to other leaderboards such as the most Holes In One, current rank and current streak. Leaderboards for the driving range remain accessible from the Driving Range mode of the game. The leaderboard browser is also now available from the Hall Of Fame in the Clubhouse, which will also eventually feature the Stats pages.

The eagle eyed of you may also notice a couple of new options on the first two pages of the lobby menu. On the second page it's now possible to switch which club set you play with, ranging from Novice through Expert to Pro. Club sets, introduced a few updates ago, are unlocked at player level 15 and 30. Each club set extends the maximum range of clubs, so now (once the sets are unlocked) it's possible to adapt your club set to the course at hand.

On the first page there is a new option to Auto-Skip CPU players. This enhances the existing turn skip function (where the in-flight ball can be skipped ahead to its destination by holding the action button) by automatically skipping CPU shots ahead, thus speeding up the game.

And while we're on the topic of CPU players, the AI behaviour has been updated to give a better range of challenge as players rank up. There's still some work to be done, particularly when playing the putting course, however a special mention should go to yourjaguarlover who has been providing an insane amount of testing and feedback over the last few weeks!

To embellish the profile system a little more I've also updated the profile editor with two new features.



Currently it is possible to add custom avatar images which show up in game using this modding guide. I've simplified this a bit for players who'd like an icon but are happy to base it on their current avatar. When clicking the Update Icon button a snapshot will be taken and automatically applied to the 'mugshot' portion of the profile editor. Profiles now also have a short biography, which can be customised via the modding interface used for custom avatar images. There are a few default profiles included, which are added at random when a new profile is created. Once the 1.13 update is released the guide will be updated to reflect the new biography possibilities.


Finally, the overall number of clients which can connect to a network game has been increased to 8. The total number of players is still limited to 16, however it's now possible to more evenly distribute those players over multiple computers.

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So looking forward to the coming month I'll be concentrating on adding the stats browser to the clubhouse, updating the driving range with some small QoL tweaks, as well as addressing any other improvements and refinements from community feedback. I also have some new content being prepared for the workshop, so keep an eye on that if customisation is your thing 😁

As always the new features are available via the Beta branch of the game which you can find under the Beta tab of the game's properties on Steam. If you're curious, or would like to give some feedback, please do! You can either post on the discussions board, or join the official chat where you're welcome to say Hello, or just lurk in the background 😄

Thanks as always to everyone who has supported the game and taken the time to read this update - see you soon!