It was your suggestion, I was just trying to be nice, helpful, agreeable, encouraging, sarcastic.Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorfanStovy
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It was your suggestion, I was just trying to be nice, helpful, agreeable, encouraging, sarcastic.Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorfanStovy
:popcorn:
:D
Polygon: How EA's loss could be golf fans' gain in The Golf Club
The Golf Club will be the first original title in three years from Lunenberg, Canada-based HB Studios, which primarily performs contract work on sports games for publishers such as Electronic Arts. HB and EA have had a fruitful relationship for more than a decade, but The Golf Club only exists because of a recent hiccup in that partnership that had nothing to do with HB.
The most recent entry in EA's long-running golf franchise was Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14, which was released last March on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. That series was known as Tiger Woods PGA Tour until October, when EA and the legendary golfer parted ways. But shortly after the launch of PGA Tour 14 last spring, a report indicated that EA had decided to cancel the game that would likely have been released this spring as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 15, even though the company had reportedly been planning to outsource the development of that title.
"We last year had built up a golf team in anticipation of potentially working with EA," said Peter Garcin, executive producer on The Golf Club, in an interview with Polygon this week. "We were potentially going to work with them on doing a port — making some of the Gen 3 versions, the 360/PS3 versions — but then that [...] work, that bidding process, didn't come through.
"It wasn't till later that we learned it was because they were canceling, or delaying — putting the whole series on hold," Garcin added. EA, alongside last fall's announcement of its breakup with Woods, said it had begun working on a new PGA Tour title for "mobile [devices] and next-generation consoles."
When HB's arrangement with EA fell through, the studio decided that it still wanted to make a golf game, so it began development last spring with initial plans to release the title on PS4 and Xbox One. Once the studio started building The Golf Club, it realized that the game had "a lot of cross-platform potential," and the title is now being made on Windows PC as well. In particular, many of the team's ideas for The Golf Club are features that you don't usually see in mainstream sports games: a major focus on the social sharing of user-generated content, with a basis in a robust course creation tool.
"We had a number of really [...] what we felt were innovative ideas that we wanted to explore that we probably would not — that are harder, maybe, to explore under the confines of a yearly franchise," Garcin explained.
For more, visit Polygon.
Well I am rooting for them and hope they can garner enough sales to keep the project moving. EA does not want to offer a course creator, ever. Not because it is some impossible dream on a console but because a course creator cost development time and money with little return. New licensed courses = more money for DLC in upcoming years.
Therefore everyone should buy The Golf Club. That way we golf fans can have a sweet customizable game with tons of courses and one with a license heavy game for a PGA experience in 2015.
P.S. Please license your tech to Activision so we can have a Cabela game with unlimited lakes and forests. Walmart is hurting right now and a really cool Cabela game, alongside discounted moon pies could be the solution.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bdoughty
This x like a million !!!! Been waiting for something good solid out door game.
Cabela Hunting, Redman Chew, Bud Light, DVR'ing some Nascar and your cousin heating up Moon Pie in the microwave for supper. Now that's living.Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorfanStovy
Any game where you have to regularly have to put in and spit out a dip should be an award winner.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
Even if the average troglodyte does not......I see what you did there :DQuote:
Originally Posted by bdoughty
if you play on Simulation settings with the crutches turned off it gives you a challenge (I.e, no swing meter, hard swing, no zoom, green beads, grid, etc)Quote:
Originally Posted by CLW
Challenges me that's for sure
;)Quote:
Originally Posted by SCClassof93
Adding bunkers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=YAp9l5CdsgM
That looks sexy.
I'd make a bitch of a course :D
JB's golfer is "in the game" :D
http://thegolfclubgame.com/wp-conten...01/links03.jpg
Fixed to satisfy snoop's fantasy.Quote:
Originally Posted by JBHuskers
:sick:
StealthyBox interviews Executive Producer Pete Garcin.
Some excerpts:
SBX: How would you describe the gameplay mechanics? Is The Golf Club intended to be a true simulation, more of an arcade experience, or both?
PG: It’s definitely a true simulation. Like I alluded to earlier, we spent a lot of time working on the “feel” of the game. And as a result of that, we’ve done away with the traditional power meter in golf games. We’ve tried to move the focus away from lining up pins and accuracy zones and whatnot and focus on performance of the shot. So what this means in practice is that there is a lot of subtlety built into the controls, but in a way that feels natural. Especially in the short game, we’ve found that what you instinctively want to do on the stick and the result you’d expect is what happens in The Golf Club. It’s not a situation where you set your targets and then just always ream on the stick to hit that target –- there’s an element of performance that will make competition really exciting between players. Additionally, we have level stats for all the avatars, so you can’t grind your way to excellence here –- your success lies entirely in your hands. That level playing field for all users was a crucial piece of the puzzle for us.
SBX: What has it been like developing on next-gen consoles for the first time? What have they allowed you to do that hadn’t yet been feasible?
PG: It’s definitely been exciting, and I think there’s been a lot that’s been possible that previously wasn’t feasible, at least for a developer of our size. So course creation is the one thing that jumps out because it’s not just an editor; we’ve got a pretty sophisticated algorithm that auto-generates courses as well and “assists” you when building a course so that you don’t have to do a lot of manual sculpting to integrate a new bunker or whatever. And this stuff all happens really fast – so that’s one. Zero loading times is another – we knew from the beginning that we wanted a game where you weren’t waiting a minute between holes for the game to load – and so now with the entire environment in memory we’ve realized that and there is literally zero loading between holes. And then there are lots of the online features that are now way more accessible and straightforward to develop on these new consoles because the console ecosystems themselves are more welcoming of that kind of stuff. And then the platform holders themselves are really supportive of independent devs so that’s another huge benefit to us.
SBX: Is there anything else interesting going on at HB Studios that you’d like to share? Other games fans should be watching out for?
PG: Well, we’ve always got lots of exciting stuff going on here and now more than ever. One of the things we’ve been talking about a lot of the past couple of years is how we as a smaller developer who has a deep history in sports across the board can re-imagine and re-invent the sports genre in a way that’s feasible at our scale. So we are definitely looking at how we can apply that concept to other sports and that’s something I think you’re going to see more of from us in the coming years. And we’ve also recently received some funding to explore a really exciting idea we’ve had floating around here for awhile that is outside the realm of sports but leverages the really deep simulation experience that we have inside the studio. But that’s all I can say about that for now!
:nod:Quote:
Originally Posted by JBHuskers
Moving tees and greens vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6M_6naryvg
Good night my psn message box keeps getting hammered from guys I have golfed with about this game. Momentum is gaining :nod:
Damn. It won't let me put a tee box with a tree in front of it :D
New blog on Creating Realistic Sky and Clouds
Also:
If you are not on Twitter but have a question you would like to ask, post it here and we will tweet it to them.
Latest Blog on TGC Audio & Commentary: http://thegolfclubgame.com/2014/02/1...-of-golf-club/
DEVELOPMENT DIARY: JOHN MCCARTHY, SENIOR AUDIO DESIGNER
Golf can be a relaxing game…if you let it. I’d like to let you relax while playing The Golf Club. The ambiences are lush, the music is chill and the commentary keeps things casual. I hope the cumulative effect of this is a soundscape that helps to ease people into an escape from their noisy lives for a while.
Golf-Recording-Diptic
http://thegolfclubgame.com/wp-conten...ing-Diptic.png
Recording SFX for The Golf Club
SFX
We’ve sourced as much original content as we could for the sound effects in the game. I’m a strong believer in making your own library of sounds to pull from when making a game like this. We went out to the local golf club here in Lunenburg to capture all of the club-hitting-ball sounds. The great guys at the pro shop even let us on to the driving range before it was open to the membership! I can’t say enough about the folks up at the Lunenburg Golf Club. Above are some photos of me capturing some of the sounds for The Golf Club.
The other big part of the soundscape in TGC is the ambiance. I have recorded some great stuff in various places in Nova Scotia to use in our game. Each course theme will have its own flavour of ambiance as a bed with other ambient elements on top. One cool part of the ambiance system is some fancy code that our Technical Audio Designer cooked up that will find the closest batch of trees to the golfer and place an audio emitter in those trees with some sounds that we recorded in the forest like birds, chipmunks, etc. The other ambient element that really puts you in the environment is the wind system. I’ve tuned the wind to only be present when it has a chance to affect your shot. So it doesn’t start to peak out of the mix until the global wind speed get to around 10-12km/h. I also tie the wind volume to the height of the camera so when it follows the ball through the air – or gives you a flyby of the current hole – the wind gets a bit of a boost. When the ambient elements start combining with the ambiance bed, you get some really neat immersion happening. So when you aim your shot and the camera flies to the predicted landing area, you actually hear the perspective shift with the camera.
MUSIC
The musical element of the soundscape is also very chill and relaxing. I wanted to present my own take on ‘golf music’ for a next-fen video game. I was listening to a lot of Emanciptor, Susanne Sundfør and the soundtrack to Oblivion when I came up with the tracks in TGC and this really helped to focus in on where I wanted the music to go. Here is a taste of our main menu music:
COMMENTARY
http://thegolfclubgame.com/wp-conten...n-Diagrams.png
TGC-Venn-Diagrams
Speech Target for The Golf Club
The speech system in The Golf Club was built during the development of Rugby World Cup 2011 with traditional play-by-play commentary in mind. This means it is quite complex BUT that doesn’t mean it HAS to be used in a traditional context. In keeping with my theme for the soundscape of The Golf Club, I wanted the commentary to have a casual vibe. There are still elements of TV commentary like our semi-official sounding intros/outros and inter-hole score updates to keep you in the loop as your round progresses. There are also little comments that get triggered pre-shot with info like distance to the hole, info about your lie, etc – sort of like a caddy. You may get a little light-hearted ribbing when you mess up but it gets balanced by much praise when things go well. My hope is that when it all comes together, you will have a nice balance of relevant information and entertainment.
The cool part for me with regard to commentary is that I’m not only the designer but I am also the voice. I recorded a lot of placeholder speech early on so that I could communicate the tone I wanted to go for with the speech in TGC and I think it started to grow on people. Then after hearing good feedback from various neutral third-parties the decision was made to stick with my voice which gives me a lot of advantages over the traditional means of implementing commentary in a game. The traditional flow for recording commentary for a sports game goes like this:
Design –> Schedule voice talent –> Record –> Edit and implement samples –> Maybe book pick-up sessions
The thing that makes this workflow so inflexible is that you are dependent on the availability of the talent. We’ve taken that hindrance out of the loop and so since I’m implementing the speech and am also the source of the speech, the turnaround time is minuscule compared to the traditional way of doing things. I can just sit at my desk and play the game and if I get an idea, I pull the mic over, hit record, and after a half-hour I have brand new speech in the game. Needless to say, I am super excited to see how we can evolve the commentary post-release.
The commentary is always on my mind and will be constantly evolving after release. We will be pushing out updates in the months to come and the commentary will evolve with each update. I really want to tap into the community to get feedback and suggestions of how our commentary can progress. I’ve even set up a twitter account to try and keep in touch with everyone. I’m also using it to take a deep dive into golf and sports gaming on twitter by following all my favourite golf personalities and sports game journalists. Thanks to those of you who tweeted me questions for me to answer in this Dev Diary! If you still have audio questions, just hit me up at @NewVoiceOfGolf on Twitter.
A lot of interesting stuff there. I like what he is trying to do, especially the ideas about ambient sound.
More editing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwyjEfFjKvM
Creating holes from scratch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp-pY0Njn9w#t=53
Club distance charts and info
http://thegolfclubgame.com/2014/02/2...istance-chart/
From dev thread
A clarification to the "Normal" / "Drive" terminology. Drive does not mean you are hitting the ball off a tee. We allow for full stance contol. So, you can add loft or deloft your club as much as you want. The Normal yardage comes from a situation where you have added 0 degrees of loft. So, at impact you are striking the ball with the exact loft printed on the club. Those are the arcs you are seeing in the Shot Arcs pic. The Drive yardage numbers come from a sitiuation where you have either added loft or delofted the club to gain maximum distance. The loft at impact here would be different than the stamped loft on the club. This is called the dynamic loft for those Trackman junkies out there. With an 8.5 dgree driver for example, the ball is played closer to the front foot, adding say 3 or 4 degrees of loft, making the dynamic loft at impact about 11.5 degrees. This generates more back spin for the Driver causing the magnus effect to carry the ball further thna it would normally. Now for the short irons, the magnus effect works against you for max distance shots. You generate a TON of back spin which causes the ball to climb very quickly and it follow a higher, shorter arc. Now, if you were to deloft the short iron you would gain more distance but significantly less backspin. The ball will travel further but won't check up. Not really what you'd usualy use a short iron for. It's like the oppsoite of a flop shot. That being said, we don't stop you from doing it. One thing to note is that in our game, the more you mess with the dynamic loft the more difficult the shot becomes to execute. For instance, hitting the lob wedge 138 yards needs a significant change to the dynamic loft to achieve. Unless you are perfect, you are hooking, slicing, skulling, or whatever other horrible thing you can imagine will happen to your ball.
Info on tournaments and tours
http://thegolfclubgame.com/2014/02/2...s-tournaments/
More on terrain design
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOFugpp3agY
Some coverage of the pc beta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljWaW98HB9k
While I like the option of playing from other fairways I do hope we have an O.B. option if wanted on some holes. Also, from what I have seen the difficulty scoring will be on the greens......long game looks very easy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNzo4scB484
Adding objects
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm_81Sinxhk
Very excited to know my courses will have places for "doing my business" :D
Dang! I talk to myself a lot in this thread :fp:
Thanks for the coverage SC I'm definitely intrigued by this one but my biggest problem with golf games is how easy it is tee to green and its just glorified darts.
More beta coverage. This guy has several vids for those interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAWfZ7oPNMg&feature=youtu.be
In game wildlife, sorry J.B. no sheep, yet...................:D
http://thegolfclubgame.com/wp-conten...wildlife23.jpg
I'm pretty sure there is more sheep banging in Montana than Nebraska, so are you trying to mask your own fetishes? :dunno:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ5ZQa-joGI
Beta play through on a bay hill replica, part 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8J5GSyksEY&feature=youtu.be
Quote:
Originally Posted by JBHuskers
:glare: