GL Golf 1.1 Released

[Vlade]

Hi, I just wanted to let you guys know that I finished my new game GL Golf. It has been in the works for 6 months, and I think you all will really like it if you like golf games (or even if you don't care for them you will still have fun).

Here is the product page with a screenshot, download link, and registration page

http://nuclearnova.com/glgolf.htm

Tell me what you think, I have poured a few hundred hours into programming this (it is my first game programmed in a C language and in Open GL). It is only 15 bucks to get all 18 holes, and you will be supporting me, a 17 year old macintosh developer.

[phonemonkey]

Hi, I just wanted to let you guys know that I finished my new game GL Golf. It has been in the works for 6 months, and I think you all will really like it if you like golf games (or even if you don't care for them you will still have fun).

Here is the product page with a screenshot, download link, and registration page

http://nuclearnova.com/glgolf.htm

Tell me what you think, I have poured a few hundred hours into programming this (it is my first game programmed in a C language and in Open GL). It is only 15 bucks to get all 18 holes, and you will be supporting me, a 17 year old macintosh developer.

As a non programmer I am very impressed. I couldn't do it.

[jeremy.king]

I can say I appreciate your work, however, I have some feedback.

The physics on your golf ball are a little messed up. A small chip shot for me bounced like 20 times...also I would introduce a little more friction in the thicker grass such as the rough.

Also, is there anything other than pine trees?

Well, its a good program but you probably won't get my $15. I think you should keep it in your portfolio when you start applying for jobs at gaming companies.

[Vlade]

The physics on your golf ball are a little messed up. A small chip shot for me bounced like 20 times...also I would introduce a little more friction in the thicker grass such as the rough.

Also, is there anything other than pine trees?



Thanks for the feedback, I will probably keep tweaking the physics to the game, I agree the ball bounces around too much.

right now there are only pine trees, I plan on adding some other ones eventually, if sales go well there will definitely be a 1.2 update with ALOT of new features.

[crazytom]

I'm not going to sugarcoat my opinion, though I wish I could do what you've done.

First, let me say that asking $15 is WAY too much for what you get. For an extra $10, I could get Links Championship Edition and be playing 12 more courses, have a graphic of someone swinging a club, and could design my own courses. I could go on and on about the differences between your game and Links, but those you can look at that for yourself.

I think you have a good start on something. Unless you're going to spend many hundreds of thousands of hours on this to make a good golf simulation, you'll need to add something to it to separate it from the rest, something to make it unique.

For example, the first thing that came to my mind was when I fired it up was: It looks like Warcraft characters should be golfing! So, to expand that: Make a monster-type character swing the club; develop trees that, if a ball comes close to it, it'll pick it up and throw it in some random direction, put landmines in the fairway that explode if the ball hits it....you get the idea: make it different, fun, entertaining. Only then would I consider it worth $15.

Here's some little critiques:

The sound of a putt: is that the sound of a tennis ball being hit?

Only one type of tree?

You need more drastic contours (elevation) of the fairways. Something to show more ball physics.

Put in a ball shadow...I know the scene is foggy, but still.

Anyway, that's my $.10.

[Vlade]

Thanks crazytom for your honest opinion, those are the ones that help the most!

For the price of 15 dollars, I am considering lowering it to 10 bucks, I need to do so thinking of whether lowering it to 10 bucks will give me an extra 50% sales, and if I think it will I will lower it to 10 bucks. Otherwise I will wait maybe 3 months or so and try it at 10 bucks and see how it goes.

As for the suggestions, those are great, BUT most of those are out of my reach. This is my first 3D game programmed in a C language, so I am still learning. I don't think it will be worth the hours I need to put into it to add all of those features, I have probably put 200 or so into it already, and those extra ones probably will not return enough money to warrant it.

As for the critiques, I will consider better elevation differences for the second course I make, and I will probably add 2 or so more tree models, and a shadow will be in the works soon.


Also, for anyone else reading this, can you give me your opinion on the price, if you having fun playing the game and are thinking about buying it, will a price difference of 10 to 15 dollars decide whether or not you buy it?

[crazytom]

As for the suggestions, those are great, BUT most of those are out of my reach. This is my first 3D game programmed in a C language, so I am still learning. I don't think it will be worth the hours I need to put into it to add all of those features, I have probably put 200 or so into it already, and those extra ones probably will not return enough money to warrant it.


You're looking at the small picture. You really can't put a price on what you'd learn attempting things beyond your reach. The experience in itself is invaluable. The trully successful people always are reaching beyond their abilities. It's only when they quit and stagnate that others will pass them by.

I've taken jobs at a loss just to gain experience....I can demand a higher price at a later time. You may want to consider that.

[Vlade]

You're looking at the small picture. You really can't put a price on what you'd learn attempting things beyond your reach. The experience in itself is invaluable. The trully successful people always are reaching beyond their abilities. It's only when they quit and stagnate that others will pass them by.

I agree with you 100%, and I guess I should have stated that more clearly. When I started GL Golf, I had no idea how to use openGL (other than making a few triangles), and nothing about objective C and cocoa (I had to teach myself how to use Interface Builder with GL Golfs main menu). I learned SO much on GL Golf, and that is going to be way more valuable than the money I make off of it. What I really meant to say was that my effort will be put into new things, started from scratch, like a FPS maybe. Some of the basecode of GL Golf is written poorly because I was still learning, and I want to take a break and learn some more about OpenGL and then have a fresh start where I can undertake those advanced features that you mentioned. Expect to hear about a new game november this year during the annual uDevGames contest.

[howard]

thats frickin amazing man

especially teaching it to yourself...i thought it was great... i could mention some of the above complaints but only the bouncing is the main one. also the monster idea is actually kinda cool

anyway, fantastic job,
btw: how did you learn that stuff? by books? online? i've been interested in learning cocoa and objective c (i know nothing and don't want to spend $ on a class)

[Vlade]

btw: how did you learn that stuff? by books? online? i've been interested in learning cocoa and objective c (i know nothing and don't want to spend $ on a class)

I basically taught myself METAL Basic (you can rummage around the forums at idevgames.com to find more about it), and then I used the book "Building Cocoa Applications" to learn cocoa, and http://nehe.gamedev.net for OpenGL. You don't need to spend much money, if any, but just alot of time teaching yourself with trial and error, and start small and work your way up.