Autumn Park Mini Golf
Game Update
Today's patch addresses a number of issues, the primary of which is that when a game is already underway, if a new game is triggered via menus, sometimes the game does not progress beyond the first hole.
There are also a handful of physics tweaks as I work to improve ball behavior, and some minor adjustments to the pars of the various courses.
I am currently investigating an issue where the score panel reports the incorrect score for a particular hole (i.e. a hole that should be 2 under par lists as a par, a par listing as +1, etc.), which sometimes affects the running score on the same hole.
Thanks for your patience as I clear out this remaining issue.
Hope that you're all having a great New Year.
Night Falls on The Pumpkin Patch
At long last, Autumn Park Mini Golf now has multi-player capability! You can host or join public games, or you can create private, invite-only games for your friends. Your friends will need to accept the invites via the Steam chat system (as is the case with most multi-player games). These features are currently in testing so if you run into any issues, please report them in the appropriate thread in the community group.
The Pumpkin Patch has also gotten a significant face lift, with a new music soundtrack appropriate for the Halloween season as well as some cosmetic changes to the environment.
To take advantage of the new functionality, please ensure that you're subscribed to the TestingBranch2019 beta (found via the properties panel, beta tab).
Drop on by and play a round or two! Hope you enjoy your stay in the park.
Major Update In The Works...
It's been about four years since I published this game. It's kind of hard to wrap my head around that, to be honest.
Since it's release my understanding of game design and programming has expanded quite a bit and the tools available to me have also improved dramatically. That is why I am taking another pass at this game and giving it a much needed update and face lift.
I will not be introducing these changes into the primary depot package for a bit. Instead, I plan to create a new depot-thread, and when I make that live I will be updating in here to ask for feedback from the community.
I realize this is more of a teaser post than anything, but I am working to implement a couple of often-requested features for this game and I wanted to say that although recently my primary focus is on my new VR mini golf game, I haven't forgotten about Autumn Park.
My main reason for putting it off, honestly, was the dramatic amount of redesign work that I knew would have to go into updating the menu system from the Unity version this was initially designed for to the latest version available. But I have a lot more time on my hands now, and this game means a lot to me so I am working to bring it into 2020.
I will be posting additional updates over the next couple of weeks as I work on this. But I thought it'd be nice to wave hello to the people that have already invested in this project and say that yes, I haven't abandoned Autumn Park. Updates are coming, and soon.
Have a great week!
Audio and Menu issues
I have reduced the default volume to 10% of the previous value across all games and title screen, and fixed an issue where the menu within Pumpkin Patch would not modify or perform as expected.
If the music is too soft, you can naturally increase the volume if desired.
Mouse Non-Responsiveness : Screen resolution - resolved
The issue where, when playing in a resolution that was less than the native resolution for the monitor, the ball and menus did not register direct clicks has been resolved. No further work-arounds should be required, it should now work normally regardless of resolution selected.
** previous notes **
I am aware that on some configurations the mouse clicks do not appear to register. This appears to affect all menus and the ability to click-drag on the ball. This issue occurs when you tell the initial screen to play at a full-screen resolution that does not match your system's current resolution... playing at 1024x768 when your resolution is 1920x1080, for example.
** Work Around **
For the time being, the following solutions will work in every environment that I've tested.
1) Play the game in windowed mode. This will work in any resolution and while it breaks immersion, if you really want to play in 1024x768 resolution when your machine is set to 1920x1080 you can do so.
2) Play the game in whatever resolution is native for you. If your screen's resolution is 1024x768, play in that resolution. If it is 1920x1080, play in that resolution.
** Investigation log **
Initial investigation shows the mouse click/drags work if you play on a resolution of 1920x1080. The 'quality' does not appear to play a role. Playing at a resolution less than 1920x1080 will not detect the mouse cursor location with regards to menus or the ball. This can be tested in the initial menu, attempts to hover over mouse buttons do not result in them highlighting.
** follow up **
The issue occurs when playing in a resolution that is not the default resolution for the display. If the default resolution is adjusted to match game resolution, the issue does not occur.
When the resolutions are mismatched, the mouse does actually highlight menus and click 'on' the ball, but does so a small distance to the left of whatever the object it's clicking on is. This offset error appears to be a bug within the Unity software itself for the version that I used to compile Autumn Park Mini Golf. The official recommendation is to upgrade Unity to version such and such, but that version does not support the menu system I use nor will the environment look correct due to versioning of various shaders.
So it's a bit of a pickle. I'm now working with previous versions of Unity to see if an earlier incarnation will do the trick. It should work eventually, because I didn't have this problem when I first started working on this project 2+ years ago. It's time consuming to install older version after older version to find the right one, but I will continue to work until these menus-clicks work correctly. For now, I ask players to use one of the two work arounds I post above.
*** Additional Follow Up ***
I've determined which version of Unity to run off of to ensure that the menu systems will work correctly. I'm now testing the game itself to ensure that by downgrading the compiler, I'm not breaking any existing features.
Bug Fixes and Tutorial Level
Today's patch addresses the following issues:
Achievements should now award correctly, but hole-based Achievements (Tasty, for example) award to your Steam account only after the ball is sunk in the hole. If you Mulligan, this skips the Achievement.
The "Tip" panel now requires the player to click "Ok" before it disappears.
The Main Menu has been completely revamped for simplicity.
I also added the following features:
A blue flag now hovers over the hole of the course that is currently active.
An option to "Confirm Shot" has been added to the menu. If selected, after releasing the mouse, the drag line remains on the screen and the player may move around, getting a better look at the trajectory of their putt. Players may then confirm the shot and watch it play through, or cancel the shot and try again.
A small ramp was added to Hole 14 on the main course to assist in sinking the trick shot.
Finally, a tutorial stage has been created to explain, in better detail, how to play the game.
Sorry that this patch was such a long time coming, but as you all know... real life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Hopefully this addresses the issues that have been reported to date.
The Pumpkin Patch is now Live!
Come play a round or two, let us know what you think.
Coming Soon: The Pumpkin Patch!
The Pumpkin Patch will include, in addition to a brand new course layout, a new mini-challenge to run your golf ball through ghosts placed on several courses. We will also expand (at a later date) some additional challenges for trick shots.
Double the game play, with no change in price! Just in time for Halloween!
Stay tuned!