Now that any significant launch fixes are out of the way I wanted to share the development roadmap for the coming season. This will focus on the major stuff I've got pre-planned. If you have suggestions for other stuff by all means share them as I'm sure there will room for other quality-of-life updates beyond whats discussed here :)
This will be a free DLC that will be more than just a map pack. The notable addition will be the game will be able to played in an autumn theme with likely some seasonal specific decorations added as well. This will be another session setting you get to pick when starting the game. Along with this seasonal theme will be the addition of lots of new levels playable in all seasonal themes. I have no screenshots to show off yet as I only started work on it this week. I will maybe do a development post in a week or so to show how its progressing :)
I just want to reiterate that this will be free, and not a paid addon. I fully intend to make it a DLC in the steam store as this helps with promotion, but it will be free. I know some of you like to look at packages added to steam in advance of release, so want to be extra clear on that. I actually have no plans for any paid addons for the remainder of this season. If you wish to support the game then please consider writing a review, and/or just let your friends know about the game.
Native Linux Support
This is something I’m actively working on but will be second to the expansion development. The game was built around native Linux support in mind with its choice of engine and any plugins used. There is a handful of things I need to tidy up and fix at this stage, but overall it is working and progressing along nicely.
Why not proton?
While proton works for lots of games, I found it not to work flawlessly with Golfing in Aether, identifying a few issues. I also like to be in control of my own support rather than rely on others. If proton does end up working then great, that'll be two ways you play the game on Linux.
Steamdeck?
Once Linux support is added then the game should play just fine on Steamdeck. There is full controller support and is quite suited for it. I did do a compatibility post on the forums here, but until I put out this Linux build (or proton improvements happen) the game isn't playable yet.
Shared Controller Mode
This hasn’t yet been actively requested but it is something I want to look into as other games have it. Initially as you know, I focused on Split Screen play where everyone uses their own controller. There is a 'hotseat' mode, which also works during online play, but this is more of game mode than a means of sharing controllers.
This shared controller mode will just mean when playing hotseat if you only have one controller you can optionally pass the pad instead. I will be looking at extending the number of local player numbers in this mode, perhaps to 8 or even more.
I have nothing to show off at this time and no set release date. However I wish this to be in the game for upcoming holidays.
Winter Expansion – Coming December
This will be similar in feature to the autumn expansion except will feature a winter theme. I have nothing really to say about this as I likely won’t begin work on this till sometime in November. But in short, expect a new winter theme and more levels.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether Update Released [1.0.4]
This update contains a mix of fixes, various quality of life additions, and some tidy ups in the direction of supporting post launch content coming this season. There are also a bunch of items from my quality-of-life list that I hadn't got done prior to launch ticked off.
The size of the update is mostly due to a one-time moving of files around and clearing up some references. Normally updates wont be anywhere near this big.
If any of you have feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the game I’m always happy to hear them :)
Fixed a delay timer potentially interfering with camera reset in practice mode.
Fixed ability to fight the yaw while focusing flag and an instance where it may become stuck if you mashed buttons and reset camera.
Added tweaks to scoring of levels. I’ve adjusted the timing value to have a 2.5 second offset, which will mean net 10XP difference. This is to bring some later game levels into a more ideal difficulty for achieving S Ranks. The early levels I’ve so far not experienced any issues with. Always open to feedback on the levels however.
Added change to waiting for players menu by showing the preset image and icon rather than a picture of the first level. This helps players joining see easier what kind of session they are in and is consistent with the join menu behavior, plus that first level picture was often incorrect as it only shows the base version and isn’t correct for hard etc.
Added independent graphics quality settings to the system save game when running in ES3.1. This means that while stuff like display and frame rate settings will be shared, the quality and some of advanced settings will be only to that specific mode.
Environment
Fixed a couple minor wall gaps on ‘See you on the other side’
Added a tidy up by reducing number of materials for track pieces. This won’t affect performance in a meaningful way but will help with error prevention.
Added internal changes to future support additional ground types. No new ground types are currently included.
Fixed a wall gap on spin city.
Fixed a wall on ‘Getting Tee’d off’ out of alignment.
Added improved round corner and round end cap wall meshes. These were earlier made meshes and compared to other wall meshes I simply felt quality could be better. A positive side effect of this rework will see triangle count of these meshes be reduced by around 25%.
Interface
Fixed an issue with displaying XP level after reaching level 5 in the scoreboard.
Fixed an element pressable that shouldn’t be (and has no effect) on the stat menu. The container for holeouts had visual pressable feedback when it shouldn’t, it also has no reason to have this.
Added to stats menu a stat that specifically shows how many levels excluding difficulty variations you’ve played. This is same progress as the ‘Around the World’ achievement.
Added time to be displayed as part of the holeout animation when in a race session.
Added dedicated graphics settings menu for when running in the ES3.1 performance mode. Given most graphical features don’t work or are simply disabled in this mode you will find less options here compared to normal. However, if your goal is to tweak to get more performance then only showing actually valid options is a huge help. Essentially this mode is low/med in terms of regular DX12 features. Shadows are supported, if you disable these via the settings you will get further performance improvements.
Fixed some container text strings being incorrect on the graphics menu.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether Update Released [1.0.3]
Small update with a mixture of fixes and some tweaking of the scoring values based on feedback. I’d already made some animations for ‘Eagle’ and ‘Double Bogey’ and so on but just forgotten about them. But after it was brought to my attention I got those fixed up and implemented fully. I would like to make additional animations so theres more variation for all existing categories at some point, it’s on the list of things to get done just not top of the priority list.
If any of you have feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the game I’m always happy to hear them :) Updates for Golfing in Aether should slow down in a day or so to hopefully something more weekly, being launch day I didn’t want to sit on fixes or easy to implement feedback.
Added tweaked XP values for Eagle. Normally XP values are 200 for Par, 350 for Birdie and 500 for Hole In One. For Par 4 courses, Birdie is now worth 300 and Eagle 400. Any number of bogeys are still worth 100 XP.
Interface
Added animations for Eagle, Double and Tripple bogey. The double and triple reuse the same animation just with text changed.
Added improvements to the back-end of how animations are selected. In order to implement this I figured I’d mays well do some tidying up in the process. This will help with error prevention.
Fixed an issue where the score was always described as ‘birdie’ in small text on the XP screen.
Fixed XP screen showing incorrect item unlocks. This was a visual issue only.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether Update Released [1.0.2]
Small update containing fixes to a couple minor issues found or reported. If you have encountered any other problems, then please let me know :)
Fixed an issue where searching for quickchat messages could cause problems for the regular message picking.
Fixed Eclectic achievement progress popping up when no progress had actually been made. This is supposed to pop up on the last round only usually. The achievement does refresh every end-of-round as a ‘just-in-case’ way of making sure everything is kept up to date.
Interface
Fixed some quick-chat messages getting cut-off due to a long player name.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether Update Released [1.0.1]
Small update containing hotfixes to a couple minor issues found. If you have encountered any other problems, then please let me know :)
Fixed a hole exit not re-enabling top camera correctly on ‘You Feeling Lucky”.
Fixed system that detects bouncing out of a hole you’ve just entered not clearing a state on the hole leading to incorrect camera being played on re-entry.
Fixed an issue with handling of permissions for sessions as there was a state where private sessions were partially indicated as visible for a time when they haven’t entered a playing state.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether is released!
Golfing in Aether is now available for purchase. There is also a deluxe edition which contains a few extra ball customizations.
Unique overall course layout for each session. Golfing In Aether accomplishes this through having each of the holes being its own independent floating island. The game will choose these at random from a pool at the start of a session and procedurally create the overall course layout.
Get-together with friends in sessions supporting up to 16 players online and 4 players locally. You can take any additional local players into online sessions with you. Online sessions also support joining as a spectator.
Freedom to choose different modes such as playing together in real time (local players use split screen) or taking it in turns via hotseat.
Compete against ghosts in practice mode for the top spot in an individual level with both global and friends only leaderboards.
Replay your previous sessions via the session replays feature. This allows you to spectate previous sessions you've played with options such as being able to see from another players perspective, use free camera, and the ability manipulate playback rate.
Customize through a range of color-pickable designs for your golf ball. Five designs are available from the start with others being unlocked as you earn XP through playing and level up.
Accessible with full gamepad support through the inclusion of an on-screen keyboard and ability to create local player profiles for saving any customizations, player names or gamepad settings.
Below is a slightly extended trailer showing a few more of the levels in the game.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether Update Released [Beta 1.0.8]
This update is fixes to various small issues found. At this point the game is playing really well I think so not far off a release candidate. If you are aware of anything I've missed at this point then do let me know.
As release is just over a day away now I have disabled access to join the Beta, but those of you already in can continue playing up till launch. Please don't forget to add the game to your wishlist :)
Fixed an instance of other player names and ball being visible on the tee.
Customization
Fixed an issue with the Burger Faceplate appearance.
Interface
Fixed closing a quick chat message interfering with back on waiting for players menu. Quick chat will take priority and when closed you will next be able to press back in this menu.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether Update Released [Beta 1.0.7]
For this update I focused on the ES 3.1 mode which did appear to develop a few issues after very recent updates. I’ve changed how this mode is handled to avoid a repeat of it developing issues in this way as well as tidied up any issues I could see.
Running in ES 3.1 from the launch options essentially puts the game in a form of DirectX mobile emulation meaning the performance cost of specifically graphics is much much lower, even against the lowest settings in DirectX12. It of course doesn't look as good visually as the regular DirectX12 version, but it does allow the game to run on very low end hardware with pretty decent performance.
I've attached a couple comparison screenshots below if you are curious as to how 'bad' running Golfing in Aether in this mode actually looks.
Can you guess which is which? Upper image is ES 3.1 and lower image is DirectX12, a give-away kinda is theres some lower quality assets like flag in play but overall its certainly not a bad experience. It should be said that the game will comfortably run at well over 60 fps on something like a Vega 3 Ryzen APU in DirectX12 mode on medium, but I wanted to ensure as many people could play the game as possible.
If you are enjoying playing the beta then please don't forget to add the game to your wishlist :)
Fixed a crash running in ES 3.1 mode as a result of recent power meter changes.
Fixed ball being overlapped by power meter in ES 3.1 mode.
Added improvement to the way ES 3.1 is detected and handled within the game. Its now detected and defined in a singular spot to improve error prevention.
Environment
Added improved flag quality for ES 3.1 mode.
Fixed appearance of water in ES 3.1 mode.
Fixed appearance of bamboo looking very dark in ES 3.1 mode.
Fixed appearance of flag having various artifacts in ES 3.1 mode. I’ve moved the flag to a static version but will look at adding a custom wind effect when the engine better supports it. This only effects ES 3.1 not the regular appearance.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether Update Released [Beta 1.0.6]
Today’s update is a follow-on from some extended testing of local profiles, in regard to the creating, editing, and all the various connected settings. I’ve managed to isolate a couple of small issues and fixed them.
If you are enjoying playing the beta then please don't forget to add the game to your wishlist :)
Fixed a state where the local player settings wouldn’t be saved if you quit the game immediately following on from changing settings and saving. This was due to a deferred saving, that has instead been moved up and done immediately as an asynchronous.
Interface
Fixed pressing back while editing a local profile in the choose players menu and then editing local profile immediately again would default some settings. This appeared to be a visual only bug in the UI as no setting data was lost unless you went ahead and saved with those changes.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
Golfing In Aether Update Released [Beta 1.0.5]
This is a small update that contains various fixes as well as makes a couple changes to the level 'Bogeytown' after playtesting it a bit more. I've changed the camera sequence as I felt it was a bit erratic in the later half and I've also changed one of the mover obstacles to make the hole-in-one a slightly bit easier to pull off outside of practice mode.
If you are enjoying playing the beta then please don't forget to add the game to your wishlist :)
Added improvement to the camera sequence on ‘Bogeytown’. I’ve merged the second two cameras in sequence as it was a bit erratic compared to other cameras in the game.
Fixed an issue where camera would appear stuck when resetting due to a previous active flag lock return being in progress.
Environment
Fixed a small wall gap on ‘Curve It!’.
Added a change to Bogeytown so that one of the movers is now a vertical mover. This gives a fraction of extra time more to move with which I think makes the hole in one less frustrating and easier to pull off outside practice mode.
Interface
Fixed an unnecessary scrollbar on the progression unlocks menu.
Added tidy ups to various string table references.
Fixed the gamepad movement widget under accessibility not getting updated in color after changing the menu theme highlight color.
Fixed points on stat menu graphs not making use of highlight color.
Fixed Level 5 unlocks not appearing unlocked on the progression unlocks menu.
Discord Server
Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.
