Last week the first Vertiginous Golf Community Vote came to a close, with 55% of you suggesting that we continue creating the Median course. Paul and Christian have been hard at work whipping up another new hole, and we've come up with a schedule that should fit nicely over the next few weeks. First of all, check out the flyover:
This new hole is particularly tricky thanks to some meddling fan placement, and the free stroke hole needs to be timed to perfection to avoid hitting the spinning disc on the carpets. Once you make it to the green room there are a number of hills to contend with, not to mention a trickling waterfall that has the potential to stop you in your tracks.
As always the changelog is below. The leaderboards have been reset due to some genreal course rejigging, so go ahead and post some new high scores. We're aiming to release two new holes next week, but no promises!
Changelog - 0.47 - 06/06/2014
Community Vote #1 is over - Median wins!
After a week of discussion and votes, the first Vertiginous Golf Community Vote has come to a close, with the Median course winning with a staggering 57% of all votes!
Christian and Paul will be implementing an entire Median course over the next month or so, with new updates arriving every Friday. Once all 9 holes are in place (there are already 2 playable right now), we will hold a weekend-long community challenge to post your best scores. The top three community members will score themselves some awesome swag to celebrate!
Thank you to all of those who voted! Now that the foundation of the game is in place, we hope to involve you guys more frequently as we continue to add content.
Speaking of adding content, Christian has been busy creating player avatars for the game. Now that he has the shell of Frolich's Emporium up and running, he thought we should start moving towards adding player and club customisation into the game. So he created a base player avatar, which is still in early stages and we wanted to share it with you. Let us know what you think! He is currently working on the base female avatar, and then he plans to do numerous tweaks to the design.
Well folks, you can expect to hear from us again at the end of the week. Until then, see you on the leaderboards, or maybe over at the Clubhouse.
Update 0.46 - Meditation in the sky
This week has been pretty exciting for all things Vertiginous Golf. With a solid foundation behind our different course types, we were very excited to open our first community vote, which will decide which course we will complete next over the next month or so. The response on the community hub, and our loyal Steam posters has been great, but we still want more of you to have a say. Voting ends on Monday, June 2nd, so make sure you go to the voting thread to have your say.
It's Friday, which means its time for another update. This week Paul and Christian have added the second hole in the Median course type. Meditation is less than relaxing, with a number of conveyer belts, two very sneaky free stroke holes, and a lovely green room that is filled with lush, rolling hills. Check out the hole flyover below to get an idea of how it all plays out.
New leaderboards are waiting for you in the shop, and as always, there is a discussion thread to talk about the new hole, strategies you develop, and even those pesky bugs you may come across.
Change log is below as always, and stay tuned next week for a bumper community update with results from the vote, and some footage from the PAX East show floor!
Changelog - v0.46 - 30/05/2014
Our First Community Vote Is Now Open!
Over the past few months, Paul and Christian have been insanely busy tweaking, fixing, adding to the foundations of Vertiginous Golf. With some amazing feedback from you guys, our amazing community, we are really proud of what we already have on display.
You may have noticed that we introudced a number of new holes over the past few weeks. Last week it was the Race type, the week before that it was the Median type. Then a few months before that, we added the Mini-Putt course, which was entirely based on your requests. That worked out marvellously, and it has quickly become a favourite challenge course here in the office.
So now it's your turn to vote on the next complete course we implement into the game!
For the next week we've opened a vote to decide which of the four hole types; Classic, Race, Median or Mini-Putt will recieve an entire 9 hole course next into the game. The winning type will recive an extra 8 holes over the next 6-8 weeks, which will then conclude with a friendly community tournament on the brand new 9 hole course.
So what are you waiting for? Go place your vote and stay tuned for another update at the end of the week.
If you can't create an account on our community hub, or you simply prefer to keep your communication on Steam, put a comment below and we'll try to include it in the results!
Update 0.45 Out Now - Off To The Races!
Another week is coming to an end, which means it is time for another Vertiginous Golf update. Last week we showed you the Median hole type, and today we are introducing the Race hole type.
Built for fierce online competition, the Race hole is a winding track that tasks you with reaching the end point as quickly as possible. All players will tee off at the same time as they putt and chip their way along the course. Along the way you will be able to pick up some golden eggs to fill up your rewind meter, which is crucial as you will want to use the Influenza Bug A LOT to keep your shot rolling for as long as possible.
Obviously, we haven't implemented online multiplayer just yet, so this Race course is more of a prototype to show you guys the idea. We've implemented leaderboards, so you will be able to race each other asynchronously. I'm fairly certain that Unanimousmaneki will be sure to post a competitive lap time, as will the ever elusive Hobbes!
Patch notes for the update are below, but in the meantime we wanted to share a sneak peek at one of the new stores that has been under construction.
Frohlich's Emporium will house only the finest clubs and other gear to grace the Vertigousphere. Think of it as your virtual pro shop before teeing off in the sky! Just like the Vertiginous Golf shop, you will be able to walk through and peruse the items on display, and while these early screenshots are by no means complete, we wanted to give you a look at what you can inspect inside this fine establishment! Want to see more? Head over to the Frolich's discussion.
Next week we're going to be launching our first community vote, so stay tuned and keep posting those awesome scores on the leaderboards!
Changelog - v0.45 - 23/05/2014
Update 0.44 Out Now - Introducing The Median Hole Type
One of the most exciting things about being the community manager of Vertiginous Golf is that I never know what to expect from Paul and Christian when it comes to updates. They mentioned that they had a new hole type that they wanted to road test, but I didn't know what it was going to entail. It arrived in the office yesterday, and now it's one of my new favourite features!
The whole idea behind the Median course type is that it will be easier to navigate then the Classic courses, but you lose access to your Chipping club. As someone who likes to hit long shots into the air, that really messed up my strategies.
Also, look at that beautiful rolling green awaiting you at the end of the course. It's really quite stunning! As usual, we look forward to seeing you all posting scores on the leaderboards. A new board for the new hole will be coming soon after we're sure we don't need to tweak the course. So start practising!
You will find the changelog below for this update. Give us some feedback on the new hole type in the official discussion. You can expect another new course type to arrive next week, and then we'll open up a vote to see which holes we should fast track over the next month or so. - Heller
Changelog - v0.44 0 16/05/2014
Dawn Till Dusk Update Available Now!
Paul and Christian have been very busy lads over the last couple of week. Christian gave us his report from PAX East, and Paul just returned from the Sony offices where he learned a little more about Project Morpheus. Despite all this, the guys have still manage to churn out an update which is available now via Steam.
The Dawn Till Dusk Update introduces a brand new lighting system that simulates different times of the day. Currently the Initiation and Continuation courses have the first pass of the lighting system implemented. The first three holes will take place during the early hours of the morning, the middle three will be during midday, and the final three will be at dusk.
We would love to hear your feedback on the new look, but keep mind that this is the first iteration. It's also important to note that there is a chance some people may experience problems that will cause beams of light to spill out everywhere. If you are one of those effected, change your Special Effects settings to Medium and it should be fine. This is a minor bug that we will be providing a hotfix for in a few days.
Along with the fancy new lighting, we've included the Driving Range challenge we showed off at PAX East, along with a leaderboard you can compete on. There's also some slight new additions to the street and shop front area, let us know if you notice them.
Change log is below, and we'll be hosting out first community vote in the next week or so. Stay tuned and see you on the green! - Heller
Mini Putt Update Now Live! 9 New Holes To Check Out
Now that PAX East is over and done, it's time to deliver you guys another update for the game.
V0.42, now dubbed The Mini Putt Update, adds 9 brand new holes to explore. Several community members expressed an interest in shorter, more traditional mini golf holes without the use of the Influenza Bug, the chipper or the rewind power. So that's what we've delivered here!
We've added a new leaderboard for the course, and we've gone ahead and reset the other boards completely. This is something we will be doing with every major update, as we often make tweaks to the gameplay or the courses themselves.
These courses are a lot of fun, but they are certainly a simplified version of our core vision. So we want to stress that these courses will not be included in our target 45 holes for the major release. These are just some extra fun bits we've added in because our awesome community wanted them.
A few other minor changes have been made, including the pesky hummingbird bug that would send our little friend outside obstacles, especially in the greenhouse. We've also added that the shoulder buttons must be held down when using the right stick to power your shot on a gamepad to avoid accidental flicks.
Changelog is below, and if you restart Steam you should receive the update immediately. See you on the leaderboards!
Added "Mini Putt 1" - a new 9 hole mini-putt type course with simple holes and new game mode with no chipper, rewind or after-touch
Added Steam leaderboard for Mini Putt 1 course
Shoulder buttons must now be held down to power-up and shoot with right thumb stick
Added a Restart Course option to in-game menu
Changed white transition screens to black
Updated hummingbird mode so it starts in exact camera position to prevent view going outside obstacles
Increased collsion detection level to help prevent collision failure at high speeds
Minor updates to various main course holes
Oculus Rift demo build now available - Read to download!
Those who follow the blog will know that while Christian has been off enjoying the craziness of PAX East, Paul was at home tinkering with a Oculus Rift prototype of Vertiginous Golf. We debuted that version at PAX East, and after a few tweaks by Paul during the show, it's your turn to check it out at home.
WARNING: THIS IS AN EXTREMELY EARLY PROTOTYPE OF OCULUS RIFT INTEGRATION. What does that mean exactly? You should expect crashes. You should expect the visuals to be a little wonky as we haven't had time to polish them up. You should expect things to go wrong, sometimes with hilarious results. You should also prepare a bucket for the first time you look over the edge to an endless fall through the sky, I was nearly sick!
In all seriousness, this is an extremely early iteration of what we hope the Oculus Rift will bring. We will appreciate feedback, but please keep in mind this is no way representative of the final version. Part of our open development policy is showing you guys these early builds so you can see the process.
If you have a Rift and you want to check it out, you can dowload the EXE from here. This will install a new version of the game that includes the single hole we are using for this demo.
If you don't have a Rift at home, here's a flyover of the driving range level.
Christian will be back later this week to give you all an update from his time at PAX East, but to keep you in suspense until then, here's a photo of him with a Sasquatch.
Finally, here are the build notes:
Oculus Rift – Prototype 0.1
For use with Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1
Street and shop with non-interactive TV screens... just sit down when you’re done exploring and want to play.
Single “Driving Range” course... hit 3 shots from the tee and get as near to the hole, preferably in it, to score points.
Collect golden eggs en-route to improve your score and top-up your boost power.
Use the Influenza bug to guide your shot (right stick)... but watch out - there’s no rewind!
Fly the hummingbird like never before (Y button)
No mouse control – you must use a controller to rotate and move.
Use the X button to re-orientate your view if you go wonky!
On Game Over... Start/Return plays again. Back/Backspace returns to the shop.
There are also various Oculus related options you can setup for optimum viewing on your system:
f1 – turns vSync on and off.
f2 – Anti-aliasing... between 2 and 8
f3 – Prediction time... between 0.2 and 0.4.
f4 – Toggle shadows on or off.
f5 – Lock the Y rotation on the left stick when aiming and following the ball.
Tinkering with the Oculus Rift
A few days before launched Vertiginous Golf on Steam Early Access, a package I had eagerly been awaiting arrived on my doormat. It was the Oculus Rift Development Kit, and here I was burning the midnight oil to get the game ready for launch. I had no time to play with it.... okay I may have checked out a few cool demos, but essentially it sat in the corner of my office taunting me. But finally, after a spending a week getting a Steam update sorted, and with over at GDC, I could now plug the Rift into the game and walk, fly, and play around in the Vertiginousphere!
We've been keeping an eye on the Oculus Rift for a while. It's an interesting piece of kit, and we felt Vertiginous Golf would be a great game for VR. In fact, the Vertiginousphere is a Victorian VR world, brought to you by Edwards' levitation remote connection device. That means it's a VR world inside of a VR world. Perfect!
So I read through the SDK guides, checked out the Unity demo project, and then got to work implementing the Rift into the game. It wasn't all smooth sailing to begin with - for those who aren't familiar with the Oculus Rift, there are essentially two monitors, one for each eye. I tried to attach these viewpoints to the existing game cameras, which resulted in a single image being shown, which works great if you close one eye, but otherwise the result is useless. I quickly sorted that out so I could see with both eyes, but rotating my head didn't rotate the camera view. I won't bore you all with the details, but I finally got everything working and was beyond impressed. Walking around the Vertiginous Golf shop was a surreal experience, it was so awesome to really feel a part of the environment that we've created and played with for the past year in a totally immersive way.
Intergrating the Rift into the main game proved much easier after I got the shopfront running smoothly. I was a bit apprehensive about how it would feel to rotate around the ball to aim your shot, not to mention having the camera fly off and follow the ball at high speed. I'm not going to lie, my body did some strange things when using the headset at first. My stomach lurched when looking over the huge drops off the edge of the courses, but after a while I can honestly say it feels pretty amazing to be flying around the Vertiginousphere. I haven't thrown up onto my PC once yet!
The current developer kit does have some caveats. The limited graphic quality of the unit means the visuals don't look anywhere near as crisp as we'd like, but the experience of playing the game in this way takes it to a whole new level. The gameplay feels more natural, I actually find the Influenza Bug easier to use for instance, and once Oculus improve the visual quality with their HD unit, then the sky's the limit.
Now that we're allowed to mention the awesome news that we're [url=http://community.surpriseattackgames.com/vertigolf/blog/were-part-of-the-in… of the prestigious Indie Megabooth, we]PAX East. We've got a new driving range course to test your skills on, and there will be a few chances to win some goodies.
Now if you will excuse me, I'm going back into the Vertigousphere! - Paul
