Super Video Golf News

Hello golf fans! 🏌️‍♀️

It's time for the monthly delve into what's been happening - so let's jump straight in!

Last month I covered the progress I've been making on the 1.15 update, which you can read here, but to recap:

• Text support has been updated with non-Latin alphabets and emojis
  
• Weather has been implemented, so you can now play rain, showers, mist or shine!
  
• Night time mode has been added and the new lighting system has been polished
  

Throughout the last month I've been tidying up and refining these features including, but not limited to, creating new lights and dusk effects for the existing courses, and updating the lobby menu to allow selection of the new weather types. As a little bonus I've also added weather indication to the rich presence in Steam's friends list 😁



Based on feedback I've also been refining the behaviour of the stroke indicator when the ball lies in the rough or a bunker. It'll now move very slowly, increasing the amount of skill required to make a perfect shot.



AND I've even fixed the news page (which has been ever-present on itch.io, but missing from Steam) after finally figuring out the Steam RSS feed.




The bulk of the work, however, has been on the previously hinted-at new courses. There will be two in the final update when it's released, however the first is now mostly complete and available in the public beta. They say a picture is worth a thousand words - so here's a short essay on which to cogitate 😁:




If you want to try the new course and offer any feedback you can, as always, find the beta in your Steam library by right clicking on the game and selecting Betas. I should take this opportunity to point out that any XP/Achievements/Leaderboard scores are currently disabled for the new course while it's in beta, and this will remain the case until the 1.15 update is complete and released. All the existing courses remain unaffected and can be used to earn XP and achievements as normal, even when playing on the beta.

As always if you have any feedback please post in the discussions, or hop into the Steam chatroom where you can also hang out with the friendly community and maybe even get the occasional sneak-peek at what I'm working on!

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In other news, I'd like to thank everyone who nominated the game for a Steam award: Thank You! 😁 I know it's highly unlikely to win anything, but hey you gotta be in it to win it! Besides, your continued support of the game is far more valuable than any award. For now there's not much else to add - you (and I!) will have to wait until the Winter Sale to see what happens next...

A big thanks also goes out to everyone who has been taking part in Super Video Sunday. We've seen an influx of new faces in the last few weeks, and I've met some wonderful people - many of whom have taken home first place on their very first go! Yourjaguarlover has been arranging a new Player Of The Week event - so make sure to head on over to the clubhouse to give YJL a firm handshake and a pat on the back, and to find out how to take part in upcoming events.

That's all for this month - keep your eyes peeled for news on the Steam Winter Sale and Steam awards, and I'll see you all in the new year. 🎉 🎊 Happy Golfing! 🏌️‍♀️⛳

First of all thank you to all the players who have supported this game over the last 2 years - both before and after its Steam release, new players and seasoned veterans alike! The game is what it is because of your support, and all the suggestions and feedback you've given me during that time.

And, thanks to you, you can now nominate Super Video Golf in the Sit Back And Relax category of the yearly Steam Awards. Nominations will be running throughout the Autumn Sale, so if you're a fan make sure to have your say, and make sure to spread the word! As this is also a special event (it may or may not be my birthday soon...) Super Video Golf will be running at 50% off for the entire duration - the biggest discount it has ever had.

So if you've been sitting on the fence the Autumn Sale is a great chance to grab a copy and Sit Back And Relax - or even join in with the community on Super Video Sundays - just head over to the Clubhouse to find out how.



Thanks again, and I hope to see you at the tee!

Greetings golf fans! Welcome to another monthly update on Super Video Golf's development progress.

Previously I hinted at new content coming in the next update - and I've been busy working on not one but TWO new courses! However these are still very early development so I won't be showing anything of those just yet.

This isn't the only progress I've made, however, so let's take a look at what else is coming in 1.15.

Firstly I've added a night time mode - it's now possible to play golf in the dark! Perhaps not the most realistic mode, however I do find it adds a new and interesting atmosphere to the game.



The above gif was taken from Spooky Video Sunday - a special Halloween event held on Super Video Sunday which, if you didn't know, is an event every Sunday where anyone is welcome to join in and play Super Video Golf online. If you want to join in then check out the Steam group here.

Another visual effect I've been working on is the previously mentioned weather system - I talked briefly about it a few months ago, although it hasn't made it into the game yet as it's not quite ready. Rain, fog and even rainbows are implemented and will hopefully be polished enough to make it into the beta soon.





These effects will be controlled by the host of the game, and synchronised across clients, so all players will get to experience the same weather ☔


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On a more technical note I've also been working on improving the UI and menus. Usability has been improved in places like the options menu where the sub menu tabs will now auto-select sequentially, and the player profile menu where pressing escape while updating the profile name will now cancel the edit and restore the existing name. I've also enabled pasting text into the player name box while editing, using the keyboard shortcut ctrl+V.
On the topic of profile management, the default player profile is now associated directly with your Steam ID - this fixes an issue with Steam cloud where profiles could get duplicated or overwritten, depending on the quality of the available connection to Steam.

Text rendering has also been updated with the aim of supporting more non-latin alphabets, such as Greek, Cyrillic and Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters. And, as a side effect of this, there is now also rudimentary emoji support 😁 (Apologies for the poor Google translation 😅)





Other Operating Systems
Work on the SteamOS native build is ongoing, where I've fixed issues with Steam workshop items not installing correctly, as well as some text input problems. The SteamOS version is still available in public beta, for instructions on how to access it, see this post. I've also coaxed the game into working on macOS - however due to Apple's seemingly unending list of rules, conditions and paywalls the beta is not yet publicly available.



As always you can find the current public beta on the 'beta' branch in Steam if you'd like to try out the new features - just right click on the game in your library, go to properties, and select the 'beta' tab. Do please leave any comments or suggestions you may have, or join in on the official chat where you can hang out with myself and other players and talk about all things Super Video Golf.

Thank you all for your ongoing support - you make the game what it is!
See you next time 🏌️‍♀️⛳

Greetings!

I am very happy to say that there is now a native SteamOS build of Super Video Golf available in beta. The SteamOS version is targeted particularly at the Steam Deck, but should work on all linux distros which support Steam and the Sniper runtime.



The most notable difference in the SteamOS version is the improved performance over compatibility mode, as well as the removal of z-fighting artifacts which can appear when using proton.

To access the beta go to the game's properties in your library and select the beta tab. From there select the 'other_os' beta.



Refresh Steam and the game should update with the new game files. When you run the game make sure the version number identifies the game as being the SteamOS version, in the bottom left of the main menu:



I've found that some versions of the client, particularly if you've already used the proton version, will prefer downloading the Windows version of the game. This appears to be a Steam client specific problem, but going to the game's properties page and then selecting the Compatibility tab can correct the problem.



Check then *immediately* uncheck the box for 'Force a specific version of Steam play compatibility' and Steam will then reload the correct game files.


A special thanks goes out to Kat for figuring out the Steam runtime build environment and creation of the build script for this one - as well as to all the other linux and Steam Deck users who have helped test this build.

If you find any issues with the beta drop a note over on the discussions, or join us in the Steam chat room.

Thanks!

A small update to 1.14.1, which addresses the following:

• Only play Honour announcement if honour taker is on the current client
  
• Fix resizing menu banners in the clubhouse when window is resized
  
• Fix awarding skins pot to player winning sudden death round
  
• Fix correct club unlocks when host applies club set limit
  
• Move Steam notification back to top right corner
  

Happy golfing!