MiniGolf Endless MMO by jimmypaulin

[raw]
made by jimmypaulin for LD33 (JAM)
An endless golf course for iPhone and iPad that you play against hundreds of other players! Who will top the leaderboard? You have billions of holes to play to find out!

* Endless holes of retro golfing glory
* Drive, chip and putt your way to victory
* Online "mingle player" - compete against the ghosts of dozens of others
* Share your highlights to social networks without leaving the app
* Glorious 8-bit pixel art
* Majestic soundtrack by Mr Shiver

It's golf on a global scale, who will emerge victorious?!

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Updates
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1. The concept was you play as 80's golfing legend Don "The Monster" Monaghan, but there just wasn't time to add the characterisation, so please don't judge for Theme!

2. Ads have been disabled until after the LD judging ends! Enjoy some ad-free golfing all ;)

3. Due to a critical bug with the IAP, the app is having an expedited review so a few more bug fixes will be released along with this. It's impossible to maintain a post-compo/compo separation but I've not made any significant changes!

Ratings

Coolness 32% 1897
Overall(Jam) 3.65 191
Audio(Jam) 3.33 287
Fun(Jam) 3.42 272
Graphics(Jam) 3.79 327
Humor(Jam) 2.35 744
Innovation(Jam) 3.32 288
Mood(Jam) 3.00 599

Feedback

nic
06. Sep 2015 路 23:12 UTC
This feels incredibly polished and is very impressive for the timespan. Simple, responsive, fun. Doesn't fit the theme but is great nonetheless.
馃帳 jimmypaulin
07. Sep 2015 路 03:05 UTC
@nic thanks so much! I am way behind on playing and rating, the App Review process took half the judging period haha! Amazing comments cheers!
Mach60KAS
07. Sep 2015 路 13:09 UTC
Very interesting idea - it's like Trackmania Golf! Some of the art is a bit iffy (the signposts after each level and the tiled fairway texture) but the environmental art is mostly lovely. I love the effort you've put into the game's sound design - the soft thud of the ball on the grass and subtle clink of the ball into the hole feel oddly natural. I think I like the soundtrack most of all though. Great work, keep it up!

(Also, avoid developing for iOS if you can. You want to put your games on a platform where most people can play them and where you're not stuck waiting 2 weeks for Apple to approve. You'll get way more ratings early on in the LD voting period, so it's always crucial to get out there sooner!)
Dejvo
07. Sep 2015 路 14:12 UTC
really nice and fun entry. good job!
Flaid
07. Sep 2015 路 15:16 UTC
Having messed around with iOS stuff a bit, I am very impressed that you got this done in a weekend! The music and sound effects were by far my favorite part, but the graphics fit nicely.

It took me a little bit to realize that all the other transparent squares were the "ghosts" of other players (not sure what they were at first), but once I realized it, I thought it was a really cool idea.

Otherwise, the blur effect on the top and bottom kinda messed with my eyes after awhile, and I didn't really like Kate Upton ruining my winning streak to tell me about Game of War (I was at the top of the leaderboard for a brief moment)... but, such is the life of a free-to-play iOS game :)
PokeyOne
07. Sep 2015 路 17:47 UTC
great game, love that it is on ipad/iphone! I played the ipad edition and it was great. I was just wondering if you are going to post the source code at all because I have been developing iPhone apps but want to get into making games?
PokeyOne
07. Sep 2015 路 17:48 UTC
I am also not sure how this fits the theme.
DDRKirby(ISQ)
07. Sep 2015 路 20:29 UTC
Clean execution and pretty polished! I'm assuming ad integration came after the 72hr deadline? lol
radmars
07. Sep 2015 路 23:40 UTC
Very lovely art style and sound design! One thing to fix is ending the "turn" sooner after the ball is basically done moving. It got stuck a few times and I had to wait before playing again.
spotco
08. Sep 2015 路 01:53 UTC
iphone only was an interesting platform choice, I imagine it makes a lot of people unable to play.
interesting game though, wish there were more mechanics (either in the super-over-the-top golf or realistic golf side) but lots of polish. you feel guilty at all about putting ads and IAP in a ludum dare game? :P

ps hooray sports games
馃帳 jimmypaulin
08. Sep 2015 路 04:07 UTC
Wow thank you all for the fantastic comments! To answer a couple of specific points:

@Mach60KAS @spotco re direct to iPhone - yes I knew this would limit the LD audience which is a shame. In all previous LD I've done Web then ported to iOS so this time I thought I'd cut out the intermediate step! I also relished the challenge of seeing if I could get something past Apple approval process in a single weekend :D

@Flaid @spotco The game has server side components to rent so I have to monetise somehow- I hate ads too so I'm sorry but many people host their LD games on newgrpunds or gamejolt or kongregate so I've often encountered ads in LD?!

@Flaid @radmars @PokeyOne heh yes there are a couple of technical issues for sure, thanks for pointing those out. Doing my own custom physics engine is the cause of the "sticks to trees" bug gah! I removed the lower blur for the next version which I have submitted for review and will release as soon as LD judging period ends :D I'm not planning to release all the code but if there's a particular aspect you're interested in I'd happily give more details / snippets?
馃帳 jimmypaulin
08. Sep 2015 路 10:06 UTC
@radmars I shortened this by 20% for the next update, to be released after judging ends ;) Also removed some blur and various other tweaks :D
Keehan12
10. Sep 2015 路 13:49 UTC
looks really interesting. will give it a try once I fix my iphone's wifi :)
Keehan12
10. Sep 2015 路 13:50 UTC
absolutely love the retro and indie style
馃帳 jimmypaulin
11. Sep 2015 路 21:06 UTC
Hey all! Thanks again for the fantastic comments. Had to share this - the game just got reviewed on TouchArcade :D http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/11/minigolf-endless-mmo-review/