Last week in the Season 1 Development Roadmap post I said I'd share some development screenshots and talk a bit more about what the in development expansion will include. Today I can show off both the overall Autumn season and two of the levels, there is also a teaser video at the end of this post showing parts of the levels being played. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/ Please note that this is all in development and not due to release till later this month so some things could well change in between now and then. One thing that won't change is that this is a completely FREE 'DLC'. While it will have its own store page for promotion, again, it will be free.

Autumn Season

Okay, so what is the season? Well the season is effectively akin to a theme or a reskin of levels to match the actual seasonal appearence of autumn. This includes not just new textures, but also several new or significantly changed models.

This will work in the same way for the later Winter expansion, and the idea of this is you get at least a visual experience more fitting to the conditions around specific seasonal holidays. I deliberately don't restrict levels as a whole to each theme as I want to continuously add to a global level pool that can be picked each time you play.
From a gameplay perspective you will be able to choose the season when you start a session, this includes both custom and presets. I don't yet have the menu made for it, but you'll have a 3 way selection similar to what you find on the join menu as an extra step. Your choice will not effect the preset category e.g. Casual or Competitive etc. so you won't need to be in a custom match to specifically choose the season. [hr][/hr]

Level 'Downhill From Here'

The first new level is a mid game level featuring pinball-esc obstacles you have to navigate your ball into with a loosely random chance of where you'll exit. This will mean the difference between hole in one, a shortcut or the long route around the vertical windmill.
Once you do reach the final part of the level you have one last challenge to navigate and thats getting around the corner while avoding falling into the pond that has no wall stopping you. [hr][/hr]

Level 'Wild Rail'

A late game level that easily covers the largest area in the game so far with gameplay being taken across three seperate islands. Traversing the islands is done by rails, specifically I had the idea of the ball rolling across the spacing of the third rail.

To start with you have to navigate a windmill obstacle thats blocking your path, this is mixed with reflecting around a couple corners. Your exit from this section will determine which rail you take, whether its the outer rail to the hole-in-one, or the shorter one to the central island where you have to navigate your way to the next rail which will take you to the final island where the hole is. [hr][/hr]

Teaser Trailer

If you've read this far then heres a very quick teaser trailer showing off of the mechanics found in the new levels actually in action. [previewyoutube=HMn7tf9kgt0;full][/previewyoutube] I'll likely do another development update in a weeks time to show more progress being made, but what do you think so far? Please let me know in the coments :)

Discord Server

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

[ 2022-10-05 00:30:16 CET ] [ Original post ]