Celestial Golf News

[p]If you have been following the development of the game, now is your chance to play it! I've set this up as a "playtest" (rather than a demo) to reflect that it is still in development and not polished. But it is now in a presentable state and I wanted to let as many people as possible play the game and give feedback.[/p][p]Here is a brand new trailer:[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]To play the game, go to the store page and click "Join the Playtest", and you will immediately be granted access. Then install it as you would a normal Steam game.[/p][p]This is a demo version with nine levels which are arranged as a tutorial to slowly teach you the mechanics. It is intended that you start at the beginning and play through in order, however, in this build, all levels are unlocked from the main menu, should you wish to jump around.[/p][p]The playtest gathers data and feedback which I can use to improve the game, in two ways:[/p]

• [p]By passively collecting anonymous and aggregated metrics about various per-level stats, such as how many strokes and how much time is taken. (You can opt out of this from the welcome screen or Settings.)[/p]
• [p]Through a short survey which you can fill out from the "Take The Survey" button on the main menu. If you could fill this out after you finish (whether you complete the demo or not) that would be super cool.[/p]

[p]If you experience any issues, or require help, you can get in touch either using the "Send Feedback" button in the game, or over on the Steam forums.[/p][p]I really hope you enjoy Celestial Golf Playtest and can't wait to bring you more in 2026.[/p][p]Happy holidays, and enjoy![/p][p][/p][p]Matt[/p]

[p]In today's Celestial Golf developer update, I show how I created the realistic planet surfaces in the game using Blender.[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]The game is 2D, so we aren't importing the full 3D mesh into the game, but rendering it into a colour and normal map, so we can get realistic dynamic lighting provided by Godot's 2D renderer. I show how I go from getting the NASA terrain data, through construction and rendering in Blender, and importing into Godot.[/p]

[p]I just published a new video devlog about how I make the planets appear to rotate in Godot:[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]I'm trying a bit of a shorter format (6 minutes) so hopefully it's a bit tighter than the previous ones.[/p][p]My early experiments with the ball bouncing on spinning planets didn't go so well, so instead, I make the planets stationary and pretend they are rotating, by applying the centrifugal and coriolis forces to the ball. I have a lot of fun playing with the loopy trajectories in this video. Enjoy![/p]

[p]I just posted the first in-depth gameplay video showing me playing the current build of Celestial Golf:[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]A detailed playthrough of a couple of missions, going from the Moon to Earth, and then from Earth to Mars.[/p][p]Check it out, and subscribe to the YouTube channel for more devlogs.[/p]

[p]I just posted a devlog going into how I designed the trajectory UI and the physics of orbits.[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]It shows some old prototypes and the changes that have been made to trajectories over time.[/p][p]Check it out, and subscribe to the YouTube channel for more devlogs.[/p]