Minigolf Blast News

[h3]Minigolf Blast[/h3]

There is a new demo build out that has some of the changes in there. Still very much a work in progress.

I've been going through hole by hole adjusting things. Adding more interactive elements. Doing Next Fest in February and then releasing as Early Access right after that. Could release now as Early Access and the cash flow would be very helpful, but want it to be better.

Here is an example of a hole that I'm currently working on. Started out with just a few blockers. Added more and also game them bouncy surfaces. Then added Treasure Chests and Skulls that can give bonuses or penalties. Partway through making changes to this hole.



[h3]Incredible Puzzle Pack[/h3]

There is a new puzzle pack on the way for Contraption Maker with 161 new puzzles based upon the original puzzles in The Incredible Machine. Wanted to get it out in September - may be out this month - will be out by Christmas at the latest. My son is working on it. I need to go through it very carefully and verify that everything looks good.

[h3]Mighty Knights[/h3]

I've changed the way the knights interact with each other. This almost needs to be interactive where you can make changes as the levels are running.


Finally... I'm off to UCSF (San Francisco) with my son next week. He had a liver transplant at 4 months. His liver lab numbers are up and so they want to do a ultrasound and then a biopsy. Hopefully just a quick stay and then back home. Driving from Oklahoma to California on Sunday. Not looking forward to the 24 hour drive.

[h2]Contraption Maker[/h2]

Been working with my son on a new puzzle pack that is close to done. It'll come out sometime is September.

Work on Mighty Knights is going slow - painfully slow. I've seriously considered just releasing it as part of the full game instead of as a DLC, so everyone that has already bought Contraption Maker would get it for free, And then afterwards bumping up the price on Contraption Maker.

Changed the Steam capsule images for the game. Just as an experiment. May change back - may hire an artist to do one that gives more of the Rube Goldberg feel.


[h2]Minigolf Blast[/h2]

I have delayed the release to October. Have a design idea to make it more unique. Not sure if I want to do it or not. Certainly won't be able to get it complete by October.

So... will either not implement the new idea, implement an early first pass of the idea, or delay (again! - sigh) until February to flesh it out some more. I'm leaning towards just releasing as Early Access in the 2nd half of October.

My focus is on fun gameplay rather than amping up the graphical look.

I solved some NAT punch-through problems and online internet play against other players worked without problems. Need to push it in testing to see if we can really get up 40 people playing at the same time.

If you choose the "staging" branch in the Minigolf Blast Demo the internet play should work much better. Warning haven't test much though. Not even sure how visible the Minigolf Blast Demo page is.


[h2]Sciatica[/h2]

Not recommend. 0 out of 5 stars.

So I ended up spending the first week of July bedbound. First time I've ever had anything happen like this. Today I'm almost 100% back to normal, but for more that a week it was amazingly painful to just take a step or put any weight on my right leg.

We had this extended family get together up in the mountains. It is a cabin that my Grandparents got back in 1928. I get up there and see that our friend Trey Tosh is playing - so I think, "that spot in the dirt there looks like a good place to sit down and watch." (x marks the spot)



Well, it turned out that that spot was NOT a good place to sit down and watch. The chair was dangerously tilted and broken.



My brother-in-law crashed down on me and the pain started soon after.

I found a photo of my Mom when she was little with the same chair in the background. It is on the right and looking much more solid.

I really didn't want to do this and went back and forth about whether to delay the release or not. On one side the income for cash flow would have been really helpful to release sooner, but there are several things that can be farther along like the online multiplayer and special modes for that.

Minigolf Blast will be released in October right after the Steam Next Fest that happens in the fall.

There will be a new demo build out soon.

And at some point this summer and into the fall there will some beta tests to test some new game modes and see how many people can play at the same time in the online mode. You will be able to find out about getting access to beta builds on my Discord channel. The channel is a work-in-progress right now.

Discord channel: https://discord.gg/bQB7xzQube


Anyway, that is the latest. Been making good tech progress. Really want to get this thing out the door and make sure it is fun.

Kevin

Gonna try live streaming playing a Multiplayer Race Mode game. Right now my minigolf game supports 4 players at the same time so there will be room for one other person besides my two kids. So if anyone wants to jump in and play with us, feel free.

I live up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California (Shaver Lake) and my internet upload speed isn't the best so we'll see how it goes. I recently got Starlink which has a much faster upload speed, but the pine trees here cause it to lose signal every so often. Not sure which is better to try, my ISP's slower DSL or Starlink's much much faster one that could disconnect at times.

This will be an experiment. Should be interesting. I'm planning on doing some live streams during the next Next Fest so figure it'd be a good idea to go through the process ahead of time and do all my screw-ups now instead of then.

Kevin

Just a short update about this new Demo build.

It was possible for the previous demo build to attempt to launch a hole and course that wasn't included in this demo. This would have resulted in a crash when the "Play" button was pressed. This build fixes that bug.

This new build version is: 0.9.2

You can see build version in the lower right corner of the main menu. If it isn't that number then Steam hasn't yet downloaded the update to your computer.

Kevin

PS Planning on a new Broadcast in the next couple of days that'll show off the online multiplayer mode. Watch my kids crush me in the race mode game.