Howdy golfers! With 1.18 out the door, its time to look ahead to see whats coming up in Super Video Golf, so lets get started! Foremost Ive been working on a new mini-game for the clubhouse arcade (assuming youve figured out how to unlock it ), called Scrub! Scrub! is a QWOP-like (or a stick-waggler, if you prefer ) where the aim is to wash, or scrub, as many golf balls as you can. If youre familiar with almost any golf course in real life then youll probably have come across a ball-washing machine, where you place the ball in the handle and pump it up and down, and itll clean the ball. Scrub! is based around one of these ball-washers , generously modeled and donated by Hello Games and Valve veteran (and good buddy!) Josh. In Scrub! you use two keys (or controller buttons) to insert and remove a golf ball from the washer, and another two to move the washer handle up and down. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so heres (approximately) a thousand pictures [previewyoutube=HGLJEKUmm90;full][/previewyoutube] The cleaner your balls are when the time runs out, and the more balls you scrub lead to a better final score. Scrub! has full integration with Steam leaderboards too, so you can compare your freshly scrubbed balls with your friends and strangers alike. [hr][/hr] Beyond the minigame Ive been planning out some new features for 1.19, as well as curating a long list of QoL updates and rule tweaks based on player feedback. Nothing is set in stone yet, however, Ive yet to experiment with my ideas, so Ill not outline any new features here, at least not until I know if theyll make it to the next update. My main goals though are at least one new game mode for freeplay, as well as a new single player mode (on top of the QoL changes and rule tweaks). I have updated the beta branch, however, so if youre keen to give Scrub! a go you can do so by switching to the 1.19 beta in Steam, by right clicking on the game in your library and selecting the betas tab. There youll find a drop-down which will let you select the beta version of the game. As always Im open to feedback so make sure to jump into the discussions, the group chat or Discord if you have something to share and Ill do my best to take it all on board. Thats it for this post - hopefully next month Ill be able to share some more concrete details. Thanks again to everyone following along with Super Video Golf, and especially the wonderful community who make it such a joy to develop for. Do go say Hello over at the Super Video Clubhouse Steam group if you havent already, especially if you want to join in on the multiplayer action. For now though, happy Scrubbing!

Fixes selecting audio output device from the Options menu on Steam Deck.

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. Now that you've completed last month's challenge (you did complete it, didn't you? ) it's time to hit the back 9! Score at least 1 Eagle on the back 9 of each of the courses. You can play solo, online and against CPU. Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! Happy golfing!

This is a small update just to polish a few rough edges based on feedback:

• Fixed rare bug which could cause config files to corrupt and prevent game from loading
• Fixed shadows flickering when idling on Driving Range
• Fixed resetting pot display when a player wins the hole in skins mode
• Fixed misleading League Browser text in clubhouse menu
• Fixed texture alignment of options tabs for stats and achievements
• Added fast scroll to stats and achievements windows when holding controller button
• Added save progression message when quitting Career games mid-round
• Added navigation icons to options menu
• Added achievement: Off the wall
• Updated re-centering of minimap when zoomed in
• Updated libsdl to latest version

Greetings golf fans! This update is mostly a post-release patch to version 1.18, which includes small fixes and QoL improvements, based on your feedback. Mostly. However, as per the laboured pun in the sub-title, I'm happy to say that the biggest change in this update is the introduction of multiple par 5 holes across all the full size courses! For a long time a popular request has been to add par 5 holes to the game - which were, up until now, technically unviable. When I first started this project a little over 3 years ago the initial game design only scaled to smaller holes, and the engine itself was unable to render anything bigger, for no reason other than that I had no idea just how big this project would eventually become! Over the last few updates I've been working behind the scenes on updating the engine to allow for bigger holes and, most recently, I've been creating the holes themselves:

You may be perhaps wondering about the scoring on the updated courses (specifically courses 1, 2, 5, 7, 10 and 12) as the modified par will of course affect the overall possible score. I've decided that the best way to handle this is to archive the existing all-time leaderboards, for these courses, and create a new set.

You'll still be able to browse the old scores via the Steam client, however from the beginning of October 2024 the 6 (or 18 if you count the front 9/back 9 combos) leaderboards are effectively reset. Monthly boards are unaffected as they automatically reset at the beginning of the month anyway. I look forward to seeing all those new scores battle it out for top position! [hr][/hr] Here's the full change list:

• Fixed - Prevent switching to freecam when current player is CPU
• Fixed - Occasional texture streaking on minimap
• Fixed - Ball not updating distance on UI when rolling on the driving range
• Fixed - Cropping drawables to bounds of minimap
• Fixed - Reassigning controller indices when using multiple controllers and one is disconnected
• Updated - Mulligans are now only awarded once per 9 holes
• Updated - Eliminated players are now marked on the scoreboard after elimination
• Updated - Freeplay CPU skill level is based on current club set, and base level is lower for entry level players
• Updated - Career CPU stat generation to reduce the maximum possible skill
• Updated - Workshop tools now use ImGui file browser for avatar masks instead of native dialogues
• Updated - Increased overall render distance
• Updated - Full size courses now contain a selection of par 5 holes
• Added - Controllers are now listed in player order on Options menu when multiple controllers are connected
• Added - Menu hint when loading the player roster for the first time
• Added - Mouse wheel scroll now adjusts headwear transforms (hold shift for bigger increments)
• Added - Ball travel distance to minimap
• Added - Current Skins pot is displayed on the scoreboard in Skins games
• Removed - Incorrect markings on range indicator when using decimated power bar

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. This time around you're challenged to play the front 9 of each course and score at least 4 birdies in a round. Play on any game mode, either solo, online or with CPU players. Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! Happy golfing!

Hello Golfers! Welcome once again to another update announcement for Super Video Golf. Last month I touched on the new features included in this update, particularly the new Flop and Punch mechanics as well as the integrations with Steam's Timeline feature for video recording. Since then I've been working mostly on quality of life updates to the UI and menus, as well as a lot of technical groundwork for future updates. The biggest change to the menu is the updated character editor, which now allows you to add two items of headwear at once to your avatar (usually a hair cut and a hat, but what you choose is up to you!) as well as the ability to fine tune the position, rotation and scale of items, for a truly unique look:
The new menu can be found by clicking on the hat icon in the Player Customisation menu. And, as before, your fancy new headwear combos are sync'd across network games (including Workshop items!) so other players can all enjoy your style and flare Thanks to player feedback I've also reworked the Options menu so that it's less cramped, and added a selection of new options to enable you to further customise your Super Video Golf experience:
The new options include:

• Exclusive Full Screen Mode: when this is enabled Super Video Golf will take full control of your monitor and set it to match the current active resolution in Full Screen. When it's disabled the game runs in Borderless Full Screen at your current desktop resolution.
• Toggle Larger Power Bar: Previously when playing on Steam Deck the power bar was automatically increased in size to help compensate for the smaller screen. This can now be toggled on any platform, including setting it to small on the Steam Deck if you so desire!
• Decimate Power Bar: This splits the power bar into 10 sections of 10% gradations, which some players are more accustomed to, as opposed to the quarters and eighths used by the Range Indicator.
• Decimalise Distances: This will display all distances as a decimalised metre/yardage instead of switching to centimetres or inches when at close proximity to the current target.
• Audio Device Selection: If multiple audio devices exist on your system it's now possible to select one explicitly from the Options menu

• Added new hair models courtesy of Vincent Page
• Added new avatar voice set courtesy of Paul Bell
• Added option to have 2 different hair/hat models at the same time
• Added option for shiny materials on hair models
• Added support for Steam Timeline events
• Added option to enable exclusive full screen mode
• Added option to toggle size of the swing meter
• Added option to display swing meter with 10% divisions
• Added option to display distances as decimal values instead of smaller denominations
• Added option to select audio device for playback
• Added Nemesis display to Career scoreboard
• Added remote clients can now see avatar rotation in network games
• Added ability to take punch or flop shots
• Added ability to take one mulligan per hole in career mode
• Added XP reward for fairway and green in regulation
• Added multi-threaded render pre-processing
• Added displaying total daily streak on Unlock Screen
• Added Screenshots taken with F5 now copy the image to clipboard
• Fix balls no longer stop on steep slopes when rolling
• Fix mouse click no longer overrides CPU input
• Fix Match, Skins and Elimination games automatically end when all players but the host quit
• Fix making new unlocks available without restarting the game
• Updated workshop tools to import headwear models with shiny materials on the second channel
• Updated freecam so that fast move is now togglable
• New Achievement: Punch It Chewie
• New Achievement: Top of the Flops
• New Achievement: Fringe Benefit
• New Achievement: Try, Try Again

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. The challenge this month is to make 250 shots on the course with Great Accuracy - as indicated by the black accuracy bar at the bottom centre of the UI. 250 may seem daunting, but don't forget that the challenge runs for 30 days, and can be played in any game mode either in solo play, online, or against CPU players. Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! Happy golfing!

Howdy Golfers! I hope this post finds you well. Another month has rolled around again, so here we are with fresh look at what's coming in the next update to Super Video Golf. Cosmetics First up some cosmetic changes are in order - currently only balls feature shiny materials, but soon no longer so! I've added a second material slot to headwear items which will apply a shiny material in the same way as ball models do right now. This one is for all you Workshop modders beavering away on custom content - hopefully this will provide new opportunities for inspiration for your creations! The workshop tools have also been updated to reflect (groan) this new feature. Menus The update brings some changes to the UI - thanks to a suggestion on the discussions I've added the option to toggle the larger size power meter if you prefer. Hitherto it has only been enabled by default in Big Picture mode or on the Steam Deck. Once 1.18 arrives you'll be able to toggle it as you please, including being able to set it to small when playing on the Deck. In Career Mode I've added a Nemesis icon to the score board. This appears if one of your CPU rivals is tied with you or one point away from you in the League at your current standing. That way you can see who you biggest competition is mid-round
With the new Timeline feature of Steam now available in beta, I've taken the opportunity to update the Steam SDK version used by Super Video Golf so that the next release will be fully integrated with the Timeline. By which I mean important events such as holing out, scoring a hole in one or moving to the next hole are all indicated on the Timeline with custom event icons. This makes it quick and easy to see where that super-shot was last game so you can clip it and share it with your friends.
Game Play Features There are a couple of new game play features coming in the next update too. In Career Mode you'll be able to take one Mulligan (a do-over) per hole - just in case you don't get that all import shot right first time! I've also refined the performance of the clubs. Foremost they no longer loft a ridiculous height when driving, preferring a lower, more realistic arc. The range indicator on the minimap has now also been tightened up so at shorter ranges it's much more accurate when paired with the range marks on the power bar. For anyone used to the game's existing controls these changes might feel a little odd at first - but it only takes a couple of rounds to get to grips with and you'll soon be finding yourself hitting the ball with pinpoint accuracy I've also added the ability to take punch shots with irons, which are much lower and shorter than regular shots, but dramatically increases the overall range of types of shot which can be made, especially when you're still using the lower-spec clubsets. You can also make flop shots with wedges, which loft the ball very high for a much shorter overall distance, but will reduce the bounce and spin when the ball lands. Much fun has been had in testing by trying to lob the ball from the fringe into the hole
(Edit: I've just noticed this looks like a scary clown face... this may change ) Performance Updates Under the hood I've worked on the game engine itself to improve overall performance. Specifically I've multi-threaded systems where possible to improve the pre-render queues, by processing particle systems, frustum culling and depth sorting in parallel. Skeletal animation systems are also now multi-threaded for better performance on holes with a lot of spectators. These performance gains are particularly welcome on the Steam Deck. Speaking of the Deck, after much confusion about just what needed setting in the depths of the Steam back-end (and some conversation which some friendly Valve devs) the Steam Deck now uses the native build of the game instead of Proton. You may have to disable any 'force compatibility' settings you have, however this should just update automatically, and is already live on the 1.17 version of Super Video Golf. [hr][/hr] There are a couple more features in the works although they're not quite baked yet, however, so I'll post about them as soon as there's something to share. If you're curious, or want to offer some feedback on the upcoming update, please do! The beta is currently public and can be switched to via the game's properties in Steam, under the Beta tab. Please note that there will very likely be bugs, and features such as the leaderboards are disabled while in beta. If you do have any comments, please share them over on the discussions, or hop into the group chat (or just drop by to say hello! We're a friendly bunch ). Thanks as always go to my lovely community who are so good at not just helping me but also helping each other, as well as providing creative content via the Workshop, Screenshots or Discussions - the game wouldn't be what it is without you! That's it for this update though, I hope to see you out on the fairway! Happy Golfing!

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. This month it's time once again to take to the course - and make sure to enable those gimmies! With gimmies set to either Under The Putter or Under The Leather score a hole with a near miss - pass the cup within 10cm or so, and let the gimme take over! The challenge is available in solo mode, online and with CPU players. Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! Happy golfing!

Welcome once again Golfers, to another update announcement! I'm pleased to say version 1.17 is now live, so let's dive in to what's new New Views First up I've been refining the in-game camera system when playing on the course. Previously it was possible to switch your view to the drone camera when lining up a shot (although this may not have been entirely obvious, see below...) and I've enhanced this feature with the option to also switch to a freecam view.
Now pressing Up on the D-Pad (previously right stick button) or 1 on the keyboard will switch to and from the drone view, and pressing Down on the D-Pad or 2 on the keyboard toggles freecam. Freecam works like an enhanced drone view - where, while in drone view, you can rotate the camera, in freecam you have complete first-person style control over the camera. The freecam view can be completely controlled by either the keyboard and mouse or the active game controller.
Not only is it useful for assessing the terrain when lining up your shot, the freecam can be used as a rudimentary photo mode too. A simple Depth of Field effect is available, which can be combined with the existing Post Process effects (available in the Options menu), and pressing the A/X button on the gamepad (or F5 on the keyboard) will take a screenshot of the view. Steam will also even tag the screenshot with the current course and hole number, so if you decide to share your pictures on Steam everyone can see where you were when the screenshot was taken The above screenshots were both taken using the photo mode on a Steam Deck. Refined Layout I mentioned above that the drone camera switch was previously the right controller stick, though it may have not been all that obvious due to lack of documentation. To that end the control layout has, along with a few other bindings, been refined slightly, to try and make it a little more intuitive. Options such as zooming the minimap are now bound to the right stick button, and the camera rotate keys on the keyboard have been moved to 3&4. I apologise to anyone who finds this a little jarring at first, particularly if you were used to the old layout, however it's all part of a bigger change, which includes fully documenting all the keyboard and controller inputs in the Options menu, as well as a much better key-rebinding layout that's easier to read.
You may also notice that the controller images (based on the currently active controller) are more succinct and hopefully less cluttered. It shouldn't take too long to use the new Options layout to familiarise yourself with the updated controls. The update also adds a much asked-for feature in being able to switch manually to the putter once you reach the fringe of the green. If your ball is with 11m (approx 36yds) of the pin you'll be able to switch to the putter by cycling through your clubset. In testing we've found that this can add an interesting (albeit risky) alternative to trying to make the chip-in.
On the Steam Deck I've fixed the controller type detection so that it correctly displays PS controller icons should you be using a PS3, PS4 or PS5 controller, in line with the desktop version of the game. I've also updated the PS5 controller support on the desktop version to support the haptic triggers - a variety of effects are now enabled in game, so if you have a DualSense controller, give it a try! [hr][/hr] New Game Modes The update also brings not one but three new game modes to freeplay. These game modes are all intended as new ways to have fun with your friends, either in local play or online, however they're fully compatible with CPU players too. First up we have Elimination mode. Each player is assigned between 2 and 4 lives (depending on how many players are in the round - more players mean fewer lives) and scoring par or worse on a hole is penalised by losing a life. On the other hand scoring an eagle will award you one new life. Scoring is as regular Stroke Play, however a round is usually much shorter as players are eliminated and the game ends when only one player remains. This means Elimination is a great casual mode to play with a few friends, and you can expect the game to not last much more than 6 or 7 holes. The second mode, Clubset Shuffle, mixes things up, particularly with CPU players, by randomly rearranging your clubset each hole. Every player has a putter, and then one wedge, iron and wood is selected at random and added to your bag. This can be a real leveler of the field for novice and experienced players alike, as you need to adapt your shot to whichever clubs are available rather than picking whichever you think is best. Hopefully this mode won't be the cause of too many arguments between friends! Scoring is also done as Stroke Play. Finally we have Nearest The Pin. In this mode scores are based on whoever gets their ball closest to the pin as possible without actually holing out. Every player gets only two strokes to get their ball on the green, so don't lose your second stroke by going out of bounds! If you do happen to get your ball in the cup the hole is forfeit, and you get a 10 metre penalty added to your score. Otherwise the final distance between your ball and the pin is added to your score each hole, and the player with the lowest total distance wins. [hr][/hr] Career Updates Since 1.16 was released many of you have offered welcome feedback on the new Career mode via the discussions and Steam Chat and I've been working to act on it. Most notably the in-game scoreboard, when playing a Career round, now shows all of the other league players, along with their current score. Not only does this offer much more interactive feedback as you play the round, it actually revealed a few, uh, wrinkles in the CPU score generation, which have since been ironed out. It's now also possible to rename the players in the league, including your own profile name, by clicking on the player's name in the league browser. Thanks to everyone who suggested this
Along with the ironing of wrinkles I took the opportunity to rebalance the Career slightly. CPU players now alter their behaviour based on your selected clubset, so that entry level players have less resistance when starting out, and more advanced players can increase the challenge as they level up their clubs. The barrier for unlocking the next league has also been lowered to placing in the top 5 of the previous league. You'll still need to place top 3 to gain access to those cosmetics though! Oh, and resetting your Career no longer removes any unlocked items from your inventory - these are now persistent between resets! [hr][/hr] Updated Online Interaction For those of you who play Super Video Golf online I've taken the opportunity to update the text chat interface. Previously the text chat floated in a window on desktop versions, and used the overlay input on Steam Deck. Now the chat window is docked to the bottom of the screen and can be toggled with F4 or the L4 paddle on the Steam Deck. On the Deck text input is still done with the overlay, however the chat window now acts a conversation history which wasn't previously available.
Quality Improvements As always there are a variety of improvements which can be made here and there, just to sand off the rough edges. I've updated the Workshop tools for users on Linux/SteamOS - particularly for users with no or custom DEs, where the native dialogue boxes wouldn't work correctly. There's probably still room for improvement here, so if Linux is your thing and you have any feedback do let me know!
On the Steam Deck I've managed to find a colour emoji font with both a compatible format for rendering as well a publishable license - the upshot being Deck users now have colour emojis! And, on the desktop, if you bought the soundtrack on Steam (thank you!) the game will automatically play that version of the music, as it's higher quality and has extended mixes, during game instead of the default music. Here's the full change list since 1.16:

• Fix disconnecting an audio device (eg bluetooth headphones) now reconnects to any available audio output
• Fix ball thumbnails being invisible when vertex snap is enabled
• Fix possible crash when resetting your career progress
• Fix colour emojis on SteamOS/Steam Deck
• Fix depth sorting of text items in Course Editor
• Fix selecting correct wave/depth map when resuming a career game mid-course
• Fix flat stone surfaces are no longer out of bounds
• Fix low ball velocity cancelling any top or back spin
• Fix using thumbsticks on secondary controllers in single player
• Fix playing hot-seat on Steam Deck when using an external controller
• Fix Match Play scoring now only allows 2 players
• Fix Skins Play now requires minimum 2 players
• Fix chat box scaling on high DPI displays
• Added automatic frame limiting when disabling v-sync
• Added scrolling active monthly challenge to news page
• Added option to use left click as Action button
• Added option to change the name of the Career profile player
• Added option to edit career player names from the league browser
• Added on screen notification when taking screenshots
• Added ability to switch to putter when on the fringe of the green
• Added ability to speed up hole transition by holding the Action button
• Added freecam mode by pressing Down on the directional pad
• Moved Drone cam to Up on the directional pad
• Moved minimap zoom to R3/Right stick on controller
• Updated Chat window to scale with game resolution
• Updated Options menu with refined keybinds
• Updated Career reset preserves any existing item unlocks
• Updated Career mode now displays CPU league players on the scoreboard mid-round
• Updated Career mode with difficulty balances for entry-level players
• Updated workshop tools with UI improvements, particularly on SteamOS/Linux
• Game now plays the Steam soundtrack if it is installed, instead of the default one
• New Game Mode: Elimination
• New Game Mode: Clubset Shuffle
• New Game Mode: Nearest the Pin
• New Achievement: Top Of The Pile
• New Achievement: Survivor
• New Achievement: Like, Totally Random
• New Achievement: Pin King
• New Achievement: Short Distance Clara
• New Achievement: Snug As A Bug
• New Achievement: Happy Snapper
• New Achievement: Starting Out
• New Achievement: Getting The Hang Of It
• New Achievement: Pro Show

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. This month takes a break from the course, and sees us on the driving range! For each available target you need to score 99% accuracy or better. Targets can be met in any order, and at any time - the challenge does not need to be completed in a single session. Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! Happy golfing!

Greetings once again golfers! It's a little off-schedule (but in a good way!) as the next update is imminent, but I thought I'd share with you what else will be arriving in the upcoming 1.17 update.
If you missed the last post, check it out here to see what I've been working on previously, including new camera modes, new game modes and updated control layouts coming to 1.17. Since then I've been wrangling further control changes as well as refining the Career mode which was added in 1.16. Control Updates With the controls I've tightened up compatibility with the Steam Deck, particularly when using an external controller. Previously, while it was possible to play single player or online multiplayer with the Deck docked and an external controller, playing hot-seat where multiple players shared a controller was unfortunately awry.
The problem lay in the fact that the Deck itself is also a controller, so the game would attempt to fall back to the Deck for any player other than player one - which is inconvenient to say the least! This has now been fixed and it is possible to use any external controller with the Steam Deck to play in hot-seat mode, as well as play with multiple external controllers at once. On top of this I've also fixed the controller type detection on the Steam Deck so that it correctly displays PS controller icons should you be using a PS3, PS4 or PS5 controller, in line with the desktop version of the game. Along side this I've also updated the PS5 controller support on the desktop version to support the haptic triggers - a variety of effects are now enabled in game, so if you have a DualSense controller, give it a try! [hr][/hr] Career Updates Since 1.16 was released many of you have offered welcome feedback on the new Career mode via the discussions and Steam Chat and I've been working to act on it. Most notably the in-game scoreboard, when playing a Career round, now shows all of the other league players, along with their current score. Not only does this offer much more interactive feedback as you play the round, it actually revealed a few, uh, wrinkles in the CPU score generation, which have since been ironed out. It's now also possible to rename the players in the league, including your own profile name, by clicking on the player's name in the league browser. Thanks to everyone who suggested this, it has been well received so far by the brave beta testers
Along with the ironing of wrinkles I took the opportunity to rebalance the Career slightly. CPU players now alter their behaviour based on your selected clubset, so that entry level players have less resistance when starting out, and more advanced players can increase the challenge as they level up their clubs. The barrier for unlocking the next league has also been lowered to placing in the top 5 of the previous league. You'll still need to place top 3 to gain access to those cosmetics though! Yourjaguarlover should get an honourable mention as he tirelessly played, reset and replayed the Career multiple times to make sure it's a great experience. I'm pretty sure by now he must mutter about it in his sleep... Oh, and resetting your Career no longer removes any unlocked items from your inventory - these are now persistent between resets! [hr][/hr] Quality Improvements As always there are a variety of improvements which can be made here and there, just to sand off the rough edges. I've updated the Workshop tools for users on Linux/SteamOS - particularly for users with no or custom DEs, where the native dialogue boxes wouldn't work correctly. There's probably still room for improvement here, so if Linux is your thing and you have any feedback do let me know!
On the Steam Deck I've managed to find a colour emoji font with both a compatible format for rendering as well a publishable license - the upshot being Deck users now have colour emojis! Also on the Steam Deck it seems that Valve have corrected the bug introduced by the May SteamOS update which was causing the game to crash when launching the Career. However if this is still not fixed for you, please check out this work-around for details on how to get the game up and running. And, on the desktop, if you bought the soundtrack on Steam (thank you!) the game will automatically play that version of the music, as it's higher quality and has extended mixes, during game instead of the default music. That's it for this update - it's not an exhaustive list (I haven't even begun to cover all the new achievements!) - however the full change list will be published once the update is released. As always thank you to everyone who plays the game, supports the development effort, and those of you who play on Super Video Sundays! (do join in if you haven't already ) For now though, Happy Golfing!

Welcome all once again to another progress update! You'd be forgiven for thinking that after the previous month's flurry of updates including Trading Cards and the official Soundtrack that I'd be taking a break... however this is not the case! These last few weeks I've been beavering away at a selection of new features for Super Video Golf and, as it's that time of the month, I'm going to share what's been going on right here. New Views First up I've been refining the in-game camera system when playing on the course. Previously it was possible to switch your view to the drone camera when lining up a shot (although this may not have been entirely obvious, see below...) and I've enhanced this feature with the option to also switch to a freecam view.
Now pressing Up on the D-Pad (previously right stick button) or 1 on the keyboard will switch to and from the drone view, and pressing Down on the D-Pad or 2 on the keyboard toggles freecam. Freecam works like an enhanced drone view - where, while in drone view, you can rotate the camera, in freecam you have complete first-person style control over the camera. The freecam view can be completely controlled by either the keyboard and mouse or the active game controller.
Not only is it useful for assessing the terrain when lining up your shot, the freecam can be used as a rudimentary photo mode too. A simple Depth of Field effect is available, which can be combined with the existing Post Process effects (available in the Options menu), and pressing the A/X button on the gamepad (or F5 on the keyboard) will take a screenshot of the view. Steam will also even tag the screenshot with the current course and hole number, so if you decide to share your pictures on Steam everyone can see where you were when the screenshot was taken
These 3 screenshots were all taken using the photo mode on a Steam Deck. Refined Layout I mentioned above that the drone camera switch was previously the right controller stick, though it may have not been all that obvious due to lack of documentation. To that end the control layout has, along with a few other bindings, been refined slightly, to try and make it a little more intuitive. Options such as zooming the minimap are now bound to the right stick button, and the camera rotate keys on the keyboard have been moved to 3&4. I apologise to anyone who finds this a little jarring at first, particularly if you were used to the old layout, however it's all part of a bigger change, which includes fully documenting all the keyboard and controller inputs in the Options menu, as well as a much better key-rebinding layout that's easier to read.
You'll also notice that the controller images (based on the currently active controller) are more succinct and hopefully less cluttered. It shouldn't take too long to use the new Options layout to familiarise yourself with the updated controls. [hr][/hr] New Game Modes On top of all this I've been working on adding not one but three new game modes to freeplay. These game modes are all intended as new ways to have fun with your friends, either in local play or online, however they're fully compatible with CPU players too. First up we have Elimination mode. Each player is assigned between 2 and 4 lives (depending on how many players are in the round - more players mean fewer lives) and scoring par or worse on a hole is penalised by losing a life. On the other hand scoring an eagle will award you one new life. Scoring is as regular Stroke Play, however a round is usually much shorter as players are eliminated and the game ends when only one player remains. This means Elimination is a great casual mode to play with a few friends, and you can expect the game to not last much more than 6 or 7 holes. The second mode, Clubset Shuffle, mixes things up, particularly with CPU players, by randomly rearranging your clubset each turn. Every player has a putter, and then one wedge, iron and wood is selected at random and added to your bag. This can be a real leveler of the field for novice and experienced players alike, as you need to adapt your shot to whichever clubs are available rather than picking whichever you think is best. Hopefully this mode won't be the cause of too many arguments between friends! Scoring is also done as Stroke Play. Finally we also have Nearest The Pin. In this mode scores are based on whoever gets their ball closest to the pin as possible without actually holing out. Every player gets only two strokes to get their ball on the green, so don't lose your second stroke by going out of bounds! If you do happen to get your ball in the cup the hole is forfeit, and you get the entire distance from the tee to the pin added to your score. Otherwise the final distance between your ball and the pin is added to your score each hole, and the player with the lowest total distance wins. [hr][/hr] Updated Controls And, as if all that wasn't enough, I've added a much asked-for feature in being able to switch manually to the putter once you reach the fringe of the green. If your ball is with 11m (approx 36yds) of the pin you'll be able to switch to the putter by cycling through your clubset. In testing we've found that this can add an interesting (albeit risky) alternative to trying to make the chip-in.
On the subject of testing - all of the above features are currently in *public beta* - you can try all these out for yourself by going to the game's properties in Steam and opting into the beta from the Betas tab. Please do give them a go and share any feedback you may have, either on the discussions, the Steam chat or even on Discord. Thanks, as always, to all the folks old and new who have been coming up with suggestions or hunting down bugs and letting me know about them. The game wouldn't be what it is without you! That's all for now though, so until next time, Happy Golfing!

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. This month's challenge is to get the equivalent of 10 'Boomerang' achievements. What's a boomerang? Put simply you need to make a come back and score par or better after having had at least one foul - hence the term boomerang! The first time you do this you're awarded the 'Boomerang' achievement from Steam. Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and Boomerangs are awarded in Stroke play mode. Completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! Happy golfing!

Another mid-week update? It must be a doozy... and it is! Trading Cards are finally here for Super Video Golf For those who don't know, games on Steam must meet a certain engagement metric before Trading Cards become available - which means all you lovely people have been playing and sharing Super Video Golf so much that it has finally been deemed worthy of these collectibles. So Thank You everyone for your continued support! Here's a quick look at the full set:
As well as the cards there is also a collection of emoticons, backgrounds and badges to receive as rewards - although I'll leave you to discover those for yourselves! Cards should automatically start dropping based on your current play time, and if you're really luck you may get a foil one! That's all for now though - thanks again to everyone who made this possible Happy Collecting!

Whew! It's been a busy week here, what with the start of the new Monthly Challenge, and the release of the Super Video Golf Soundtrack - so this one nearly slipped through the cracks! A small update which finally rounds off version 1.16, this patch contains:

• Fix typo in tutorial
• Fix missing highlight bar in Career menu
• Fix possible crash when tied first place with a league CPU player
• Improved putting grid visibility
• Added Safe Mode

Greetings once again golfers! Thank you all so much for the positive feedback on the in-game soundtrack, released last week! This makes me very happy to announce that the full soundtrack, including the menu music, is now available to purchase on Steam. As a special bonus for anyone purchasing it, it also includes a complete set of 'Live Definition' remixes - that is the same chip-tunes, only performed on a range of live instruments The soundtrack contains 24 high quality mp3 files, plus the same tracks in lossless FLAC format. While the soundtrack will play in Steam's built-in soundtrack player by default, the files are all fully DRM free, so you can copy them to any other music player, phone, tablet or device of your choice to play anywhere you like. To get the soundtrack visit the store page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2955530/ Thank you all once again for your support and feedback - I do hope you enjoy the music! Until next time, happy golfing!

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. This month's challenge is to play a 9 hole round on each course, with at least 3 human or CPU players. You can play online, locally or a combination of both, with a mix of both human and CPU players. Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! Happy golfing!

Surprise! Turns out, I have one more update for you To be honest this wasn't originally planned as a point update, rather it was meant to be included in the 1.16 release, however things didn't quite line up in time. So out with it! What's the deal? Due to popular request Super Video Golf now has a soundtrack! Over the last few months or so I've been working in the background to collate and compile a series of tracks which I hope compliment the main theme tune as well as the gameplay of Super Video Golf. Of course not everyone will agree, but it's no problem! If the chirp of chiptune is not your thing, and you'd rather listen to the chirp of nature, you can simply turn the volume down of the 'Game Music' using the slider in the options menu. By default hit the 'left' button once to switch the slider from 'Menu Music' to 'Game Music', then slide the volume all the way to the left.
I know some of you also use the existing custom music option in Super Video Golf - and if you do this will continue to take precedence and you'll hear your playlist as usual. If you'd like to hear the new tracks too you can add the files from the game install directory under assets/golf/sound/music/ to your playlist. They are regular *.ogg files supported by most media players. Oh, and while I'm here, I'll also note I've added the v-sync option to the in game options menu now, so that it's easier to find. That's all though (for now!) so happy golfing - and enjoy the music!

Another week, and another rough edge to round off! Hot on the tail of last week's patch, 1.16.2 aims to buff up and sparkle the current release of Super Video Golf! No crash fixes this time (there weren't any crashes ) just usability improvements. Most notably player merf has been offering valuable feedback on the league tables which accompany the new career mode, so I've been hard at work making them more meaningful at the end of a round. Foremost the mostly irrelevant gold and silver shield icons are gone, replaced now with a new series of icons which show you who moved in the league, and in which direction.
It has also been pointed out that the end of round trophy on the scoreboard was somewhat superfluous in Career games, as you as the player weren't competing directly with another player on the green. This, then, has been replaced with a more useful message stating how well you played that round, and any effect which it had on the current league. It also adds more fireworks
A few other players have also pointed out a couple of faux pas on my behalf - I accidentally disabled mouse input with the new Swingput system introduced in the last patch, and CPU players just couldn't cope with the Press & Hold power input mechanic when it was active. Both of these issues have now been addressed! Here's the full change list:

• Restored mouse input when Swingput is active
• Fixed CPU players getting confused when input mode is set to Press & Hold
• Added minimap zoom with L3/F6 on Driving Range
• Added scrolling mouse wheel now pages through ball/hair selection in profile editor
• Added scrolling mouse wheel now scrolls through league browser pages
• Added league browser now indicates any change in player position
• Added Career rounds now summarise the active league instead of displaying a trophy (thanks to merf for all the feedback)

Hello folks! As is traditional with the larger updates I like to follow up with any feedback from the community and just buff off any rough edges that make have eeked their through - and with 1.16 scarcely out of the rear view mirror, this update aims to do just that. There were, fortunately, only a couple of small crash bugs, related to randomising player profiles. These have now been fixed, as well as a few new quality of life improvements having been thrown into the mix. Updated Controls Firstly I've revived and revamped the analogue swing controls (the "Swingput") so for those who prefer it over the traditional 3-click method you can now enable it from the Options menu. Briefly; once Swingput is enabled, during the game press and hold either one of the controller triggers, so that the swing meter appears in the bottom right hand corner of the UI. With it held (letting go will cancel the shot) pull back on one of the thumbsticks and hold it as the power bar charges at the bottom of the screen. When you have enough power push forward on the stick to take your shot! Timing of the the stroke is all important, as is direction, both of which will affect the accuracy of the outcome. If this sounds like your thing then make sure to head on over to the Driving Range to practice!
UI Improvements While we're on the course, I've added the option to be able to zoom into to the mini map which is displayed in the top right corner of the screen. Press F6 or press and hold L3 (left thumbstick button) to toggle the zoom. Hopefully this helps when playing on smaller screens or laptops.
Some users were reporting that the main menus were confusing, and that not all the buttons were obvious, or for which reason they were there. I've attempted to rectify this a bit by colouring all the buttons a consistent blue colour so that it's more obvious that they do something. In the Profile Editor buttons now also offer an explanation as to what they do at the bottom right of the menu.
Here's the full list of changes:

• Updated Free Play lobby to make it more obvious that its possible to change courses
• Updated Swingput method
• Added option to allow toggling Swingput from control options
• Added reading input from secondary controllers when one local player exists
• Added switching profiles in Free Play mode with keybinds for previous and next club
• Added switching courses in Free Play lobby with keybinds for previous and next club
• Added hints for buttons in Profile Editor
• Added zooming minimap by press-hold left stick/F6
• Fixed possible crash when randomising player avatars
• Fixed possible crash when creating new profiles

Hello golf fans! I'm happy to say that the new Super Video Golf update is available - bringing with it the anticipated Career Mode! That's not all it brings however and, while I've outlined some of the other new features in a previous post, I'll be covering those in detail further down. But first: Career Mode
So how does it work? Career mode builds on the existing league system, introduced in 1.14. Currently the 'Club League', as it is known, takes your scores from a free play round, converts them using the Stableford scoring system and uses the results to calculate your league standing. Other players in the league are purely 'hypothetical' - that is they are created from a set of pseudo random stats, generated at the beginning of the season, which are then used to generate a fantasy football style league. A league lasts one season, the length of which depends on which league you are currently playing. The Club League, for example, lasts 24 rounds. The goal is to finish as high as possible in the league after completing the final round. Career mode, then, builds on this league system, creating a progression across 6 leagues, each of which have a season lasting for 6 rounds. These rounds are split across all 12 courses available in Super Video Golf - with two rounds on the front 9, two rounds on the back 9 and two rounds of 18 holes, played over two different courses per league. If that's a bit wordy, here's a full breakdown of all 6 leagues:

• The Country Club Tour - Front 9 Sunny Cove - Front 9 Westington Links - Back 9 Sunny Cove - Back 9 Westington Links - All 18 Sunny Cove - All 18 Westington Links
• The Badlands Cup - Front 9 Fairland Rock - Front 9 Terdiman Cliffs - Back 9 Fairland Rock - Back 9 Terdiman Cliffs - All 18 Fairland Rock - All 18 Terdiman Cliffs
• Links Challenge - Front 9 Moulin Plage - Front 9 Roving Sands - Back 9 Moulin Plage - Back 9 Roving Sands - All 18 Moulin Plage - All 18 Roving Sands
• Hill and Hole Valley Run - Front 9 Nguyen Valley - Front 9 Grove Bank - Back 9 Nguyen Valley - Back 9 Grove Bank - All 18 Nguyen Valley - All 18 Grove Bank
• Chippers Pitch 'n' Putt - Front 9 Old Stemmer's Lane - Front 9 Purcitop Pitch 'n' Putt - Back 9 Old Stemmer's Lane - Back 9 Purcitop Pitch 'n' Putt - All 18 Old Stemmer's Lane - All 18 Purcitop Pitch 'n' Putt
• The Woodland League - Front 9 Dackel's Run - Front 9 Hertog Regis - Back 9 Dackel's Run - Back 9 Hertog Regis - All 18 Dackel's Run - All 18 Hertog Regis

• Updated non-system preferences are now stored per Steam user and cloud syncd
• Updated avatar materials now have reflection and self illumination properties
• Updated workshop tools can now author new avatar materials
• Updated workshop tools now allow adding item labels
• Updated workshop tools now allow setting preview rotation for balls
• Updated leaderboards are now sub-sorted by date so newer scores rank higher
• Updated league browser now includes new league tables
• Updated camera drone position is now dictated by host in multiplayer games
• Updated player profile editor with new browsers for ball and hair models
• Moved Profile Reset button to Stats page of Options menu
• Added Career Reset button to Stats page of Options menu
• Added option to adjust crowd density
• Added a global league based on monthly course scores
• Added option to set custom ball colours in profile editor
• Added ability to choose active club set from roster menu
• Added ability to open stats menu from roster menu
• Added Career Mode
• Added new set of unlockable balls
• Added new set of unlockable headwear
• Added new set of unlockable avatars
• XP Rewards have been buffed
• Fixed hair colour when playing in night mode
• Fixed rotation of ball models in preview window
• Fixed deleted profiles are properly removed from cloud sync
• Fixed Greens in Regulation being triggered if the player forfeits all holes in a round
• Fixed progression related stats in offline mode (steam deck now progresses when theres no internet connection)
• Fixed avg monthly rank not including new courses from 1.15
• New Achievement: Semi-retired
• New Achievement: All Time Champion
• New Achievement: Vandal

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. This month's challenge is to play a full 18 (or 12 in Short Round) holes in each game mode in Free Play. You can play solo, online or against CPU - are you up for it? Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 500XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards are now live too! Happy golfing!

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC. You may have noticed random bull's-eye targets, normally reserved for Multi-Target mode, popping up on your course recently, and not known why! These targets are this months challenge During Stroke play, either solo, online or against CPU opponents, up to 2 targets will appear on the course in a single round. Hit the target with your ball and scratch one off for this month's challenge! You'll need to hit 25 targets to complete it.
Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 500XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen. And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards are now live too! Happy golfing!

Howdy golfers! It's a new month so, in what's become a tradition around here, it's time to look at what's coming soon to Super Video Golf - let's jump right in! Firstly I've been working on a selection of cosmetic changes. Thanks to a suggestion over on the discussions I've updated the profile editor to allow changing the colour of balls. This means that, for those who prefer, the 'vanilla' balls now have a greater range of possibilities. Simply go to the profile editor and click on the palette flyout to choose a new colour for your ball.
Colours are also synchronised in network games, so other players will also be able to see your customisations. Version 1.15 brought with it night mode and a new lighting system - so in 1.16 I've updated avatar materials to take advantage of that. Once the update is available you'll be able to supply illumination and reflection maps to avatar models via the Workshop tools. As an example, allow our friendly neighbourhood cyborg to demonstrate his new neon trim :
Another suggestion from the community was the option to have bigger crowds. While still in the early stages (the model placement needs to be fine-tuned) I have implemented this in the Options menu. It's now possible to select from anywhere between a group of casual observers all the way up to a tournament crowd:
[hr][/hr] The biggest new feature coming soon, however, is the new Career mode. I mentioned it briefly at the end of last month's retrospective post, and now that things are a little more baked I can go into more detail. Career mode builds on the concept of the Club League added in update 1.14. The Club League is an offline competition between the default player profile and 15 computer generated profiles, whose scores are calculated based on a series of fantasy-football style stats (you can read more about it here). Currently regular 'free play' games in either Stroke or Stableford scoring mode contribute their scores to the Club League. In Career mode there are 6 new unique leagues, each of which are composed of 6 rounds of Stroke play across 2 courses. Complete all 6 rounds (which persist between sessions, so no need to complete them all at once!) and finish in the top 3 of the league to unlock the next one. Each league gets progressively more difficult, so you'll need to make sure to rank up your profile and unlock those fancy long range clubs!
If, upon completing a league, you're not happy with your final position then fear not! You can replay any unlocked league at any time in an attempt to beat your previous placement, and unlock something new. Oh yes - completing the leagues, as well as dishing out plentiful XP, also unlocks new cosmetics - I haven't actually made these yet, so I can't share anything specific, however there will be 6 new balls for each 3rd place achieved, 6 new hair styles/hats for each of the 2nd place rankings and coming top of the league will unlock one of 6 new player avatars. Once unlocked all of these cosmetics will be available in free play, and sync across network games too. [hr][/hr] Finally, to further expand on the league system, there is also a new Global League. This league is based on the existing monthly Steam leaderboards - it takes the sum total of a player's monthly best scores and inserts it into an online leaderboard so you can see how you're doing compared to your fellow golfers.
The league lasts one calendar month, along with the monthly leaderboards, starting and finishing at midnight UTC. There are 36 rounds, or total scores, for the league - one for each front, back and 18 hole round on each course. Scores can be contributed at any time throughout the month, and if you improve on an existing score the league is updated to reflect that. To help track which rounds you've already played there's a new message in the lobby:
[hr][/hr] That's it for this month! There's more going on behind the scenes, but I'll talk about what those things are in the next post. If you have any comments or questions about the Career mode, or anything in general, please feel free to post in the discussions, or join the Chat Room. Also, don't forget that every Sunday is host to Super Video Sunday where we get together to play Super Video Golf online, very often with the public beta, so you can always join in and try out new features as they are available! More information on how to join can be found at the Steam group here. Thanks as always to everyone who plays the game, leaves comments and makes suggestions for new features - I couldn't do it without you! Until next time, happy golfing!

Hello folks! Can you believe Super Video Golf has been on Steam for a year already? A lot has happened in that time, so I thought I'd mark this milestone with a look back over the game's progress in the last year. First and foremost I have met some wonderful people thanks to the game - the community is small, but warm, welcoming and competitive! Thank you to everyone who has given feedback, offered suggestions or just made kind comments about the game A particular shout out should go to yourjaguarlover for his persistent enthusiasm, ideas and support within the community. Along with yourjaguarlover a special thanks should also go to Dechrissen who, between them, have been running the 'Super Video Clubhouse' which, each Sunday, plays host to community games online under the guise of Super Video Sunday. The clubhouse is open to everyone, so if you want to meet new people and play a few rounds each week, then do drop on by! You can find the Steam group here. It's thanks to all of you I am enthused and delighted to continue working on the game, and to try and shape it in to something everyone can enjoy - and will attempt to do so for the foreseeable future. [hr][/hr] When Super Video Golf was first released on Steam it had existed for a little over a year on itch.io, first as a fun little side project, and then as something more serious as interest in it grew.
Eventually I was buoyed by support enough that I could bring Super Video Golf to Steam. At that point, then, the first release on Steam was version 1.10. Version 1.10 (February 2023) When version 1.10 released its most prominent feature was the new course at Fairland Rock, along with Purcitop Pitch'n'Putt, which had previously not been included in the game. It also featured all new networking thanks to Steam, with the built in community-driven features providing quick and easy matchmaking. However it was not exactly perfect... can you believe that the balls didn't actually roll across the green??
Version 1.11 Next came update 1.11 in March 2023. This update brought new features with it such as the Stroke Play and Driving Range leaderboards, the first to really start taking advantage of what Steam has to offer. Significantly, in 1.11, Steam Workshop support was added. Putting was refined (balls were made to roll!), trees were prettified and new club sets were added, which can be unlocked as the player progresses. This included both new clubs in the bag, as well as an increase in range as the player ranks up. Clouds were also overhauled with full 3D rendering, as well as the controversial aim clamp being removed. And it was at this point Super Video Golf was Steam Deck verified!
Version 1.12 In April 2023 version 1.12 landed, which was a smaller update centred on player customisation. It also brought the option to fast-foward the current shot, both for human and CPU players, as well as added a clutch of new achievements, particularly for taking advantage of the new ball spin mechanics.
1.12 saw 5 patches, which were mostly fixes, though they significantly improved the unicode support allowing the game to embrace more international players Version 1.13 A few months later, in August 2023, version 1.13 arrived. This update focused particularly on the experience on Steam Deck (everyone's favourite handheld PC!). Users with a Steam Deck would now see better defined power bars and stroke indicators to compliment the small screen, as well as the options menu now displaying Steam Deck specific glyphs for the controls.
1.13 also made specific club sets selectable, so players could choose which bag to take with them to the course. In the clubhouse much work was done to display stats and information about the player profile, including charts for scores on each course over time, leaderboard browsers, and a new view of awards and achievements gained for playing.
Yourjaguarlover spent many, many hours playing and training the CPU (more than I could probably bear!) to ensure that matches against CPU players are a great experience. It was also around this time Dechrissen and yourjaguarlover started the Super Video Clubhouse. Oh, and the option to add custom music was added Version 1.14 All about the game modes, version 1.14 was released in September 2023. These new game modes, for both single and multiplayer were:

• Stableford
• Stableford Pro
• Multi-target
• Shortround

Addresses the following:

• Fix maintaining players preferred clubset independently from any multi-player game rule override
• Fix possible crash when playing games with a lot of players
• Fix edge case that could lead to mis-identifying remote clients as CPU players

1.15.2 addresses the following:

• Enabled High DPI awareness on Windows to correctly scale the window when using display scaling of anything other than 100%
• Increased size of icons on emote shortcut buttons in chat window
• Added emoji selection pop-out to chat window
• Rebalanced audio volume in tutorial
• Cleaned up parsing list item html tags in the news window
• Fixed regression which prevented Hot Stuff achievement triggering
• Fixed regression which prevented Sub-scriber achievement triggering
• Fixed setting friends only status of lobby based on previous round when returning
• Shooed geese.

This update addresses the following issues:

• Fixed thumbstick threshold preventing some controllers from zooming the map overview
• Fixed hole numbering on map overview when playing course in reverse
• Fixed potential crash related to offline mode in Steam
• Added option to set weather to random
• Added emote shortcuts to chat window

Hello again golf fans from around the world! I'm happy to say that we're back with a new update - version 1.15 of Super Video Golf is out now I've previously outlined new features as they were work in progress, which you can read here and here, and now I'd like to summarise all the new things included in the update: Courses There are two new full sized courses! Nguyen Valley:
and Hertog Regis:
These courses are focused on more varied terrain, and carry far more hills and contours than existing courses. If you've been yearning for something a little different then these are for you! Time of Day There is now a choice between playing during the day or the night - when creating a game just select the Night Time option from the lobby menu. Night time mode includes an all-new lighting system, for added ambience.
Weather Selectable weather! From the lobby menu it is now possible to select the weather conditions for the round:
And, to accompany the above new features, the Steam rich presence will mark in your friends list the time of day and weather conditions, using the appropriate emojis (that's a moon, not a banana, I promise!):
Other Features Text rendering in the game has been overhauled to better support non-latin alphabets, as well as adding emoji rendering. With that there is also a new in-game chat feature available in multiplayer. In both the lobby and main game it is possible to open a chat window with Shift+F8 on the keyboard or the 'North' button (Y on Xbox controllers, Triangle on PS controllers), and via the emote wheel in game with West/X/Square on the controller.
Along with the new chat feature, multiplayer games have been enhanced with a Host menu - the host of the game can now poke idle players, forfeit their turn if they misbehave, or even kick them. Fortunately I've never had to use any of these yet
The stroke indicator has been updated too. When lying in the rough or a bunker it will slowly move, indicating the increased difficulty of the shot.
One of the first things you'll likely notice in this update is the news page, presented when the game starts. From here you can follow links to the latest news posts, as well as to guides to playing or modding the game. Note, however, that this isn't displayed in big picture mode or the on Steam Deck.
Speaking of the Steam Deck, I'm also happy to announce that the game is now available as a native build for SteamOS . The game should automatically update on your Deck, however if it does not then reinstalling it should trigger the update. A special thanks goes out to Kat for helping with the porting the game to SteamOS! Finally there is also a clutch of fixes and graphical enhancements - rather than detail them all, here is the full change list:

• Implemented particle emission interpolation
• Updated VATs crowd models with high-definition animations
• Increased fidelity of putting grid
• Tree quality can now be changed mid-game
• Improved quality of on screen keyboard when entering text with a controller
• Fixed D-Pad events occasionally being skipped in menus
• Fixed showing HIO effects on remote clients
• Fixed selection order of options tabs
• Fixed workshop tools inverting normals of imported avatars
• Fixed player profiles are now updated instead of duplicated when changing Steam username
• Fixed player profiles are now stored per Steam user to prevent multiple user profiles being merged
• Fixed subscribing to too many workshop items would crash the game
• Added displaying an AFK timeout in multiplayer games
• Added basic support for non-latin alphabets
• Added support for emojis in player profile names
• Added pasting text into player names in the profile editor with ctrl+V
• Added cancelling player name edit with Escape
• Added playing courses at night
• Added selectable weather conditions
• Added advanced option to try to always use a specific audio device
• Added option to allow alternative power-bar input
• Added news/community page to startup
• Added player management menu for hosts to poke, forfeit or kick misbehaving players
• Added text chat in lobby/game mode (Shift+F8 or Y button)
• Added SteamOS support
• New course - Nguyen Valley, Greyshale Province
• New Course - Hertog Regis, Kaalsmeer
• New Achievement - Night owl
• New Achievement - Come rain or shine
• New Achievement - Complete Course 11
• New Achievement - Complete Course 12
• New Achievement - Master Course 11
• New Achievement - Master Course 12

Hello golf fans! It's time for the monthly delve into what's been happening - so let's jump straight in! Last month I covered the progress I've been making on the 1.15 update, which you can read here, but to recap:

• Text support has been updated with non-Latin alphabets and emojis
• Weather has been implemented, so you can now play rain, showers, mist or shine!
• Night time mode has been added and the new lighting system has been polished

First of all thank you to all the players who have supported this game over the last 2 years - both before and after its Steam release, new players and seasoned veterans alike! The game is what it is because of your support, and all the suggestions and feedback you've given me during that time. And, thanks to you, you can now nominate Super Video Golf in the Sit Back And Relax category of the yearly Steam Awards. Nominations will be running throughout the Autumn Sale, so if you're a fan make sure to have your say, and make sure to spread the word! As this is also a special event (it may or may not be my birthday soon...) Super Video Golf will be running at 50% off for the entire duration - the biggest discount it has ever had. So if you've been sitting on the fence the Autumn Sale is a great chance to grab a copy and Sit Back And Relax - or even join in with the community on Super Video Sundays - just head over to the Clubhouse to find out how.
Thanks again, and I hope to see you at the tee!

Greetings golf fans! Welcome to another monthly update on Super Video Golf's development progress. Previously I hinted at new content coming in the next update - and I've been busy working on not one but TWO new courses! However these are still very early development so I won't be showing anything of those just yet. This isn't the only progress I've made, however, so let's take a look at what else is coming in 1.15. Firstly I've added a night time mode - it's now possible to play golf in the dark! Perhaps not the most realistic mode, however I do find it adds a new and interesting atmosphere to the game.
The above gif was taken from Spooky Video Sunday - a special Halloween event held on Super Video Sunday which, if you didn't know, is an event every Sunday where anyone is welcome to join in and play Super Video Golf online. If you want to join in then check out the Steam group here. Another visual effect I've been working on is the previously mentioned weather system - I talked briefly about it a few months ago, although it hasn't made it into the game yet as it's not quite ready. Rain, fog and even rainbows are implemented and will hopefully be polished enough to make it into the beta soon.

These effects will be controlled by the host of the game, and synchronised across clients, so all players will get to experience the same weather [hr][/hr] On a more technical note I've also been working on improving the UI and menus. Usability has been improved in places like the options menu where the sub menu tabs will now auto-select sequentially, and the player profile menu where pressing escape while updating the profile name will now cancel the edit and restore the existing name. I've also enabled pasting text into the player name box while editing, using the keyboard shortcut ctrl+V. On the topic of profile management, the default player profile is now associated directly with your Steam ID - this fixes an issue with Steam cloud where profiles could get duplicated or overwritten, depending on the quality of the available connection to Steam. Text rendering has also been updated with the aim of supporting more non-latin alphabets, such as Greek, Cyrillic and Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters. And, as a side effect of this, there is now also rudimentary emoji support (Apologies for the poor Google translation )
Other Operating Systems Work on the SteamOS native build is ongoing, where I've fixed issues with Steam workshop items not installing correctly, as well as some text input problems. The SteamOS version is still available in public beta, for instructions on how to access it, see this post. I've also coaxed the game into working on macOS - however due to Apple's seemingly unending list of rules, conditions and paywalls the beta is not yet publicly available.
As always you can find the current public beta on the 'beta' branch in Steam if you'd like to try out the new features - just right click on the game in your library, go to properties, and select the 'beta' tab. Do please leave any comments or suggestions you may have, or join in on the official chat where you can hang out with myself and other players and talk about all things Super Video Golf. Thank you all for your ongoing support - you make the game what it is! See you next time

Greetings! I am very happy to say that there is now a native SteamOS build of Super Video Golf available in beta. The SteamOS version is targeted particularly at the Steam Deck, but should work on all linux distros which support Steam and the Sniper runtime.
The most notable difference in the SteamOS version is the improved performance over compatibility mode, as well as the removal of z-fighting artifacts which can appear when using proton. To access the beta go to the game's properties in your library and select the beta tab. From there select the 'other_os' beta.
Refresh Steam and the game should update with the new game files. When you run the game make sure the version number identifies the game as being the SteamOS version, in the bottom left of the main menu:
I've found that some versions of the client, particularly if you've already used the proton version, will prefer downloading the Windows version of the game. This appears to be a Steam client specific problem, but going to the game's properties page and then selecting the Compatibility tab can correct the problem.
Check then *immediately* uncheck the box for 'Force a specific version of Steam play compatibility' and Steam will then reload the correct game files. A special thanks goes out to Kat for figuring out the Steam runtime build environment and creation of the build script for this one - as well as to all the other linux and Steam Deck users who have helped test this build. If you find any issues with the beta drop a note over on the discussions, or join us in the Steam chat room. Thanks!

A small update to 1.14.1, which addresses the following:

• Only play Honour announcement if honour taker is on the current client
• Fix resizing menu banners in the clubhouse when window is resized
• Fix awarding skins pot to player winning sudden death round
• Fix correct club unlocks when host applies club set limit
• Move Steam notification back to top right corner

Hello! I'm happy to say that the latest version, 1.14, is out now! In last month's round-up I detailed some of the new features, which you can read about here - but, to summarise, the following has been added:

• New game modes:
• - Stableford
• - Stableford Pro
• - Short Round
• - Multi-target

• New single player league
• New monthly challenges

• Added Monthly Challenges - A new challenge every month for 500xp and an award for the trophy cabinet
• Added awards for completing the active monthly challenge
• Added awards for every 10th level unlock which also unlocks a new ball
• Added awards for top 3 placement in Club League
• Added club league-table to compete against virtual players
• Added Stableford and Stableford Pro game modes
• Added multi-target game mode
• Added Short Round game mode
• Added the lie of the ball in bunkers now affects available clubs
• Added the lie of the ball in bunkers now affects accuracy
• Added the lie of the ball in bunkers now affects maximum distance
• Added host option to limit all players to the lowest ranked players club set
• Added in-flight ball camera
• Added console variable to enable shuffling custom music playlists

• Fixed cropping minimap icons to minimap bounds
• Fixed skins games now continue to sudden death until all skins are won
• Fixed post-game scorecard par values when playing in reverse
• Fixed current honour is carried over in event of a tie
• Fixed controller navigation in lobby menu if having previously quit the lobby with any menu but course selection active
• Fixed origin of scaled billboards
• Fixed frame rate drop on lower spec systems when switching screen resolution mid-game

• Increased XP reward for hitting the drone to 250xp
• Reduced volume of seagulls on beach courses
• Updated emote wheel with applause
• Updated emote wheel with controller buttons
• Extended range of clubs when teeing off par 3s

• New Achievement: Big Bird
• New Achievement: Barn Stormer
• New Achievement: Hit The Spot
• New Achievement: Behold the Impossible
• New Achievement: League Champion
• New Achievement: League Participant
• New Achievement: ???

It's been a busy month here on the range - I've been working on update 1.14, which is centred on bringing new modes and updated game play - so let's dive right in! First up I've implemented the following new game modes:

• Stableford
• Stableford Pro
• Multi-target
• Short Round

One of my favourite things about making Super Video Golf has been the small community growing up around it. As a great example of this some members have taken it upon themselves to create the Super Video Clubhouse group - a place to meet other players and to play online. This group plans to feature events such as tournaments as well as host Super Video Sundays - where every Sunday players can get together and organise games between themselves and even play in a Sunday league! If this sounds like your kind of thing, or you simply just want to hang out with other Super Video Golfers, then join the public group here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/supervideoclubhouse - and drop into the chatroom to say Hi! Special thanks goes to Dechrissen and yourjaguarlover for their hard work. Hope to see you there!

It's update time again, this time bringing the promised new features based around player stats and leaderboards, as well as the usual collection of quality of life improvements. Last month I covered some of the features which have already been implemented, so if you'd like to check out what they are you can find the details in this post here. Continuing on from that I've added these new options to Super Video Golf: Driving range leaderboards are now broken down by target as well as try count. This means that for each target you attempt on the Driving Range, final scores are tallied independently from other targets. The consensus was that this gave an overall fairer competition, rather than mixing the results from a single easy target with those, say, of a run of random targets. To reflect this the Driving Range leaderboard viewer has been expanded and updated, so each one can be examined individually.
Alongside this the menus in the Driving Range have been given a lick of paint, to make them look neater and more polished with some new artwork. Players on the Steam Deck have also made their voices heard, so this update includes some deck-specific updates. Firstly, when playing on Steam Deck (or in Big Picture mode) the power bar has been increased to double the size, so that it is more visible on a smaller screen, or when viewing from a distance.
The options menu, which previously included controller-specific artwork for XBox and Playstation controllers, has now been updated with artwork to reflect the Steam Deck's controls.
And, as a final buff for Steam Deck and game controller users, menu navigation has been completely overhauled when using the DPad or thumbstick. This means that pushing up or down actually moves the selection up or down now! This was a surprisingly... detailed... amount of work, so there may be an edge case in one or two places where things don't work as intuitively as you might think. If this is the case, please make sure to let me know via the discussions or the Steam Chat, and I'll do my best to fix things. One of the biggest features in this update is the addition of the Stats browser to the Clubhouse, to accompany the new leaderboard viewer. The stats browser is broken down into 4 main views: Club Stats: This page details all of the available golf clubs, so you can see the different ranges offered by different club sets (Novice, Expert, Pro) and at which level the clubs are unlocked, as well as their current unlock status. Each club also includes stats that provide information as to how much adding top or side spin to the shot will actually affect play. For example the wedges are highly affected by top and back spin, while irons are also affected by side spin.
Player Performance: The performance page charts the scores attained for each hole of each course. This is logged separately for each player profile, including CPU profiles, and is not available publicly via Steam. The stats are tracked locally, and act as a way to view your own personal improvement (or not!) in scores over time.
Score logging was enabled in 1.12.5, so existing players should have some data to view already. New players (welcome!) will have to play a few rounds before anything tangible is visible. Course History: The history page displays the total number of times you, as a Steam user, have completed each course, either as a full 18 hole round, or one of the front or back 9 plays. It also displays the total, aggregated, number of rounds completed by all Steam users. At the bottom you can also see the average amount of time spent playing each course. These are all based on your Steam stats, and are the same as those visible from the Stats tab in the Options menu.
Awards: The final page displays any awards you may have won. Currently this only displays awards for coming in the top 3 of one of the monthly leaderboards - however more awards will be added in future updates.
Some players have also requested that there is music when playing the game, instead of just on the menus. While there are no immediate plans to add any music to the game, I've now updated the music system so that it's possible to add your own custom playlist of music, which will play from your hard drive. The details of which are too lengthy to go into here, however I have added a guide which explains how to create and add your own custom music playlist. You can view the guide here. These are, of course, the highlights of the update - here's the full change list of everything that's been added or updated since 1.12:

• Added incidental audio for spectators
• Updated lobby menu layout
• The previous rounds scores are no longer shown on the ticker if the round wasnt fully completed
• Added previous rounds scoreboard to lobby menu
• Added leaderboard browser to clubhouse and lobby menu
• Increased maximum clients in a network game to 8
• Overhauled CPU behaviour (special thanks to yourjaguarlover for the thorough testing/feedback)
• Added Auto-skip mode for CPU players
• CPU Power bar is hidden for players at level 10 or above
• Profiles can now have short biographies
• Profile editor can now take mugshots
• Players can now choose which range of clubs to use for the next round, once unlocked
• Players can now choose which range of clubs to use for the driving range, once unlocked
• Driving range leaderboards are now broken down by target as well as try count
• Updated driving range menus now show current record holder for the selection
• Power bar is double size when playing on Steam Deck to increase visibility
• Options menu now has controller artwork for Steam Deck
• Overhauled UI navigation when using a controller/Steam Deck
• Added option to reset keybinds to their default values
• Added overview map (open from menu or key 6) to view the current hole's contours
• Added current putter range to the power bar when putting
• Ball can now collide with the flag
• Game will now play user selected music from any playlists found in the user/music directory
• Added stats browser for Club Stats to Clubhouse
• Added stats browser for course play time to Clubhouse
• Added stats browser for per-profile score history to Clubhouse
• Added awards browser for monthly awards to Clubhouse
• Added awards for placing top 3 in the monthly leaderboards
• Added grid view browser for ball selection to profile editor
• Fixed regression which prevented tool tips displaying in Options menu
• New Achievement - Nested
• New Achievement - Gimme Gimme Gimme
• New Achievement - Drive It Home
• New Achievement - Gamer
• New Achievement - Cause A Racket

Hello! Once again we've reached the beginning of the month - which means there are all new, fresh leaderboards open for the challenge! Since version 1.12 of Super Video Golf, every month the existing leaderboards are archived and a brand new set are made available. Coming in 1.13 is the all new leaderboard browser where all of the previous months archives can be viewed. However I thought that this month I would highlight July's results in this post. Here is the full rundown of the top five players on each course in July: Course 1: All 18 [olist]

Welcome to another update summary! There's no release this month - however I will be taking this opportunity to share what's been going on the last few weeks, and talk about what you can expect to see when the next update is released. As revealed in last month's post, update 1.13 is focused on stats and progression. As such, much of the work has been oriented around updates to the menu system and the clubhouse. Firstly the lobby menu has been reorganised. This splits the existing one into 3 sections, for courses, rules and info about the current session. Although this is partly due to a future update which will be increasing the number of game modes, it also provides a place for more information about a given course or round.


From the third page, which contains information about each connected client, it's now also possible to open the new leaderboard browser and the scorecard from the previous round (if there was indeed a previous round).

The leaderboard browser is a significant improvement over having to browse the Steam community pages to see player positions across the courses - as well as giving direct access to other leaderboards such as the most Holes In One, current rank and current streak. Leaderboards for the driving range remain accessible from the Driving Range mode of the game. The leaderboard browser is also now available from the Hall Of Fame in the Clubhouse, which will also eventually feature the Stats pages. The eagle eyed of you may also notice a couple of new options on the first two pages of the lobby menu. On the second page it's now possible to switch which club set you play with, ranging from Novice through Expert to Pro. Club sets, introduced a few updates ago, are unlocked at player level 15 and 30. Each club set extends the maximum range of clubs, so now (once the sets are unlocked) it's possible to adapt your club set to the course at hand. On the first page there is a new option to Auto-Skip CPU players. This enhances the existing turn skip function (where the in-flight ball can be skipped ahead to its destination by holding the action button) by automatically skipping CPU shots ahead, thus speeding up the game. And while we're on the topic of CPU players, the AI behaviour has been updated to give a better range of challenge as players rank up. There's still some work to be done, particularly when playing the putting course, however a special mention should go to yourjaguarlover who has been providing an insane amount of testing and feedback over the last few weeks! To embellish the profile system a little more I've also updated the profile editor with two new features.
Currently it is possible to add custom avatar images which show up in game using this modding guide. I've simplified this a bit for players who'd like an icon but are happy to base it on their current avatar. When clicking the Update Icon button a snapshot will be taken and automatically applied to the 'mugshot' portion of the profile editor. Profiles now also have a short biography, which can be customised via the modding interface used for custom avatar images. There are a few default profiles included, which are added at random when a new profile is created. Once the 1.13 update is released the guide will be updated to reflect the new biography possibilities. Finally, the overall number of clients which can connect to a network game has been increased to 8. The total number of players is still limited to 16, however it's now possible to more evenly distribute those players over multiple computers. [hr][/hr] So looking forward to the coming month I'll be concentrating on adding the stats browser to the clubhouse, updating the driving range with some small QoL tweaks, as well as addressing any other improvements and refinements from community feedback. I also have some new content being prepared for the workshop, so keep an eye on that if customisation is your thing As always the new features are available via the Beta branch of the game which you can find under the Beta tab of the game's properties on Steam. If you're curious, or would like to give some feedback, please do! You can either post on the discussions board, or join the official chat where you're welcome to say Hello, or just lurk in the background Thanks as always to everyone who has supported the game and taken the time to read this update - see you soon!

Fixed resizing UI in the options menu

Greetings Golfers! Welcome to another monthly update. Firstly I'm happy to say version 1.12.5 is now available, which fixes a few specific bugs:

• Fixed reading user directories with unicode characters
• Fixed showing stroke indicator when switching back from drone camera
• Fixed bug in driving range menu which could get stuck in a restart loop
• Fixed CPU players from being able to block achievements being awarded on rare occasions

Another small update driven by player feedback (thanks Relkin!) this patch includes a few bug fixes and some quality of life updates:

• Refined tolerance of putting distance rescaling
• Fix driving range holes being shuffled when restarting mid-round
• Fix driving range getting stuck if ball lands too close to the pin
• Fix green displaying as black when grid transparency was zero
• Fix refreshing checkboxes when toggling in the options menu
• Prevent hidden mouse cursor taking control of UI inputs
• Increased precision in putting display when using imperial measurements
• Environment sounds (birds etc) now have their own volume control
• Reduced the frequency of idle notifications
• Stroke is reset instead of fluffed if the power bar isnt accepted
• Wind indicator is now hidden when putting

Just a small update this time which applies a couple of fixes to the menu. The most notable addition is the new monthly leaderboards for the official courses. The existing 'champions' leaderboards remain but, thanks to a suggestion from yourjaguarlover, new monthly leaderboards record each month's best scores, before resetting at the beginning of the next month. Old leaderboards are archived and, in a future update, will be browsable in the clubhouse 'hall of fame' Here's the change list:

• Fixed crash in profile editor when clicking off of name edit without first applying it
• Fixed remote player avatars occasionally appearing black
• Added monthly leaderboards to official courses

It's the first of the month, so let's see what's going on in the world of Super Video Golf! First and foremost, if you hadn't guess by the title, update 1.12.2 is now live! The update corrects a couple of bugs, but the biggest feature is the updated workshop tools. It is now possible to create your own player models to import into the game and optionally upload to the workshop. There's a full guide here - however, briefly, the tools allow importing rigged player models, and will automatically bake textures, apply animations and allow tweaking of attachment points used for headwear and club models.
And to round out the avatar theme of the 1.12 update I've also updated the in-game UI to display the new avatar images, both on the scoreboard, and on the bottom of the UI.
Here's the full (albeit short) list of changes:

• Fixed scores not always entering on the leaderboard when playing online games
• Fixed crash caused by network players leaving mid-game on the green
• Increased time before AFK timeout
• Updated readability of keybinds menu
• Prevent drone from rendering on mini-map
• Avatar icon is displayed next to current players name
• Avatar icon is displayed on scoreboard
• Added avatar support to workshop tools

Fixes occasional crash when creating new profiles with the profile editor.

Greetings golfers! Welcome to another update. As mentioned in the progress update at the beginning of the month this update is centred on player profiles and avatar customisation. Avatar customisation has now been reorganised, so that it is possible to create up to 64 unique profiles, from which up to 8 can be added to the game's roster. Each profile allows for its own model, head wear, ball and set of colours (from an increased colour palette) and can even have a custom mugshot image added to it.
Mugshot images are client-side only (they are not replicated in network games) which allow you to choose a custom image to display above your ball when putting or on the round summary screen. Typically this would be an image representing your avatar, however you can add any image you like. There is a modding guide available here, which explains how to add your own custom images.
However this is not all the update brings, as many quality of life improvements have been added. Graphical enhancements include updated ball trail rendering, and a coarse terrain grid on the green on approach.
The stroke indicator on the mini-map has been refined, and now reflects changes in distance caused by the current spin settings and terrain. For example it will display a shortened distance when playing from a sand trap or the rough. Putting Assist has been re-balanced so that playing without it is a greater challenge and awards more XP, however with it enabled there is now also a stroke indicator on the mini-green map.
The menus and UI have been given some attention too. Under the hood improvements have been made to increase performance of the menus, as well as new information such as course stats and leaderboards are visible, both in the lobby and on the driving range.
And, when playing golf, it is now possible to skip the current turn to the end, if you are a local player to the client. The full change list:

• Vertex snapping is applied to 3D clouds
• Vertex snapping is applied to flag model
• Reverted minimap background to transparent
• Minimap stroke indicator now adjusts distance for current terrain and spin setting
• Minimap now rescales to fit the active club on approach
• Putting mini-view now has its own stroke indicator when putt assist is enabled
• Mini-flag when putting is now only shown when putt assist is enabled.
• Green topology is highlighted on approach
• XP message now includes reason for award
• Updated ball trail rendering
• Side spin now reduces distance
• Added option for local player to skip forward when ball is in flight
• Added workshop template files to assets directory
• Added audio to on-screen keyboard
• Added streak logging for playing multiple days in a row, with XP rewards
• Player roster is shuffled when round starts
• Player roster now allows up to 8 local players
• Overhauled player avatar customisation with improved menus and increased colour palette
• Player profiles can have custom avatar images
• Player avatar images are shown above name labels when putting
• Added two new player avatar models
• Fixed full house achievement not being awarded
• Fixed billiards games not launching
• Fixed edge case where skins/match play scores could display trophies in the incorrect order
• Fixed returning to lobby menu if quitting to main menu with rules tab open
• Selected course stats are displayed on lobby window if they are available
• Improved state caching for more responsive user interface
• Driving range top five players are now displayed on the menu.
• Console window can now be closed with back or B button on controller
• New Achievement - Dedicated
• New Achievement - Resident Golfer
• New Achievement - Month of Sundays
• New Achievement - Spin Class
• New Achievement - The Road To Success Is Always Under Construction
• New Achievement - Make No Mistake
• New Achievement - Never Gonna Give You Up
• New Achievement - Greens In Regulation
• New Achievement - Threes A Crowd
• New Achievement - Consistency Is Key
• New Achievement for completing each course
• New Achievement for completing each course with par or better

Greetings golfers, it's another month and another progress update! What's New Update 1.12 is all about player profiles, including avatar customisation, stats and progress tracking. To that end I've done a lot of under-the-hood work to facilitate much more customisable player profiles, and to enable a richer experience for players. Instead of the current system of creating four avatars, it is now possible to create up to 64 individual player profiles, comprised of an avatar with user definable names, assigned headwear and chosen ball. Avatar clothing is now more customisable too, with an increased colour palette, and individual colour selections, instead of light/dark pairs of colours. With the new format it has been necessary to rework a significant amount of the game's menu, so whilst doing so I've taken the opportunity to add some more useful information when creating the player roster.
You'll notice now that there is increased detail regarding your current progress, with stats indicating which golf clubs have been unlocked, and a new multi-day streak feature. This feature rewards the player with XP for playing the game on consecutive days, with increasing XP bonuses given up to a seven day streak. Streaks are also logged in the leaderboards - so you'll also be able to see just how much stamina other players have Progress will also be resettable from this menu, meaning you'll be able to reset any progress you've made, returning your XP and Level to zero! Any unlocks such as balls and golf clubs will also become locked again - so use this option carefully. Also the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that the player roster now has 8 slots - with this update you'll now be able to have up to 8 local players. Online games are still limited to 16 players total, but it will now be possible to hold small tournaments on a single computer when playing hot seat.
On the lobby menu, I've added more stats relevant to the currently selected course - when choosing what to play you'll be able to see the names of the top 5 players scrolling across the bottom of the menu, if they are available. [hr][/hr] Aside from the new customisation options, a few user-reported bugs have reared their heads, so these will be fixed in the next update. Specifically these are the billiards games not being able to launch, and two achievements, 'Full House' and 'Skin of Your Teeth', not being awarded in certain edge cases. I've also worked to rebalance putting slightly. When putting assist is enabled the power distance icon was broken by the last update after the putter was modified to rescale dynamically with distance. The power flag does a good job indicating stroke distance, however, although some players complained it made putting too easy. To kill two birds with one stone I've made the power flag only available when putting assist is enabled, replacing the old power indicator, and making it slightly more difficult to judge range for an increase in challenge when putting assist is disabled. Based on user feedback I've added a stroke indicator to the mini-putt view, which appears in the top left when putting, to aid in aiming. However, as this makes it very easy to get a hole in one on the putting course, it's also only available when putting assist is activated. As before, activating the putting assist reduces the amount of XP awarded from putting, to make more challenging plays more valuable by disabling the putting assist.
Finally, other smaller improvements include adding the 'vertex snap' mode to the 3D clouds introduced in the previous update, and it is now possible to skip the ball flight animation when taking a shot - useful when playing with CPU opponents, or a lot of other players, to speed up the game. [hr][/hr] Public Beta Because user feedback is invaluable to development, this update now has a public beta available. Anyone who wishes to try the work-in-progress features, or test if bugs have been fixed may now do so. The beta is opt-in and can be selected from Steam by right clicking Super Video Golf in the library, going to properties, and selecting the 'Betas' tab.
Note, this is an unfinished update! There will be new bugs, and not every feature is complete. For example the new avatar customisation menu is far from fully functional. There are also new stats and achievements available, although there may be cases where they don't trigger properly. The beta will also attempt to load and convert any existing avatar profiles to the new format. However these are maintained separately, so if you decide to return to the last release (1.11) your old profiles will be restored. Any new profiles you create will not appear in 1.11. Please do leave any feedback in the discussions forums! [hr][/hr] That wraps up this progress update - there is still a significant amount of work to do, particularly on the customisation menu, which means that the update's release is still a few weeks away but hopefully it will be worth the wait! As always thank you to everyone reaching out to discuss the game and offer feedback. Until the next time, happy golfing!