Down Golf by chuckeles
Down Golf 🏌️♂️⛳
A unique 2D platforming and golfing game created for Ludum Dare 57 game jam with the theme "depths".
Update 1.1
I pushed a small update to the game with a few small fixes and quality of life improvements:
- The camera better tracks the player, the ball, and the current level. It no longer always chases the ball when it is far away from the player. It also zooms in and out to better show each level.
- Fixed the finish pole's z-index so it is behind the player and not in front.
- Enabled the thread support for the web export, possibly leading to better performance and audio quality.
I also played a ton with the physics variables and how the ball shooting works. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to make it more precise and consistent. I think this could be Godot's problems, I don't know what else I could try. 🤷
About the Game
Down Golf combines platforming mechanics with golf gameplay. You must navigate through 2D platforming levels while also getting your golf ball to the hole. The twist? Each new level takes you deeper below the previous one, creating an ever-descending challenge.
Controls
- Move: Left/Right arrow keys or A/D
- Jump: Up arrow key or W
- Shoot the ball: Space
- Menu: Escape
The menu shows your total score in each level. 💯
Screenshots
Tools
Links
- Play online here or at Itch.io
- Source code and downloads on Github
- See the in-progress videos on my YouTube channel and Instagram
Known Issues
- Sometimes the ball can get stuck inside a wall, especially when it bounces on a trampoline. I tried fixing this but failed. I don't understand why it is happening, the ball is just Godot's RigidBody2D and I also enabled continuous collision detection, as you can see here.
Improvement Ideas
I have listed a few in my GitHub repo, check it out. If you have any more ideas, let me know in the comments. 🙏
| Link | https://martindzejky.itch.io/down-golf |
| Link | https://github.com/martindzejky/down-golf |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/down-golf |
Ratings
| Overall | 71th | 3.73⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 20th | 3.959⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 65th | 3.757⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 120th | 3.703⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 253th | 2.865⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 103th | 3.444⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 26th | 3.75⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 133th | 3.472⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 22🗳️ | 19🗨️ |
I think it would be nice if camera follows the ball when you hit it. Good sound effects and nice celebration when you sink the ball.
@manabreak @javasaurus yes, the quality of my drawing skills was going down steadily as the deadline was approaching, haha. :laughing:
@lazycoffeepanda not impossible but it is a bad situation that I was not able to fix. What you can do is to position yourself right next to the trampoline and try to hit the ball just before it lands on the trampoline.
@sharploaded yeah, the physics are sometimes super weird. And this is normal rigid body in Godot! I don't really understand. 🤷 The camera is actually trying to keep the player, the ball, and the current pole in the view. All 3 at the same time, while the player gets the priority of course.
@av-shustov thanks! ☺️
I think it would be cool if you could see your stats at the end. All in all it was a slow and relaxed game - I liked it :smiley:
Also if you knock the ball over the tree in the first level I think you have to restart, but honestly it's kinda funny since it's just the first level. Restarting also seems to stop score logging rather than resetting the scores
Pretty polished gameplay and so funny sound effects.
Nice job! :heart:
Also, best end screen I have seen this jam! I want a YAY FLAG!
@oeuegha yes, unfortunately I did not have much time to polish the trampolines. :laughing:
Some nice puzzles, really liked the concept and the sound effects.
I had a very enjoyable moment, when I thought I was soft locked, the ball seemingly forever bouncing vertically on a jump pad, but I managed to bat it out of the air and continue the hole. I don't know if you set it up like that intentionally, but it's a testament to your "engine" regardless.
Oh, and I can imagine it's reassuring to know -since you put the dev effort into the animation- that yes, I did hit the tree on the first level :)
@ditam haha amazing you noticed the tree! Yeah it's one of the first little things I made in the game, I thought it would add a lot of character.
Also regarding the aiming - I wrote about it somewhere in a comment, but I just was not able to fix this. Maybe I'm using Godot's physics incorrectly somewhere or maybe the physics are unreliable and undeterministic somehow. I don't know. I debugged this a lot and I'm sure I am applying the same impulse to the ball when you hit it, but sometimes it seems like Godot does not fully register it. :shrug:
The double-boing hole (last hole) almost had me stuck, because the ball was bouncing up and down perfectly on the pad. But I went up top, hit it while it was in the air, and eventually got the perfect hit.
I would love if it showed your final score at the end, and even had a leaderboard. Despite the art being relatively minimal (i.e. not much background scenery, particles, shaders, etc.), I've made enough games to recognize fun and solid mechanics. You could take what you have here, polish it with no gameplay changes, add some replay value, and it would already be solid enough to sell on app stores IMO.
Keep us posted if you build it out further into a full game. I'd buy it!
Fun concept, the sound effects are amazing
And about the aiming, actually the way I implemented it, it should not matter at all where you are standing in relation to the ball. Only how you aim and the strength of the shot. But I think there's a bug in the Godot physics OR I configured something incorrectly. I don't know. I'll experiment with the physics a little. :blush:
The aim was a little bit confusing, because the ball did not went where the arrow pointed at.
It's cool that you put in jumping pads and used them for the level design. Cool detail, that the tree lost some leaves when you hit it. :)
