Pirate Island Mini Golf – My Creative, In-Development Life

The Project:

Pirate Island Mini Golf – VR is now available on Steam as an Early Access title! I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I’m really excited that the game is now available for purchase to those wanting to try it out and give feedback.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1256870/Pirate_Island_Mini_Golf_VR/

Pirate Island Mini Golf is a fully immersive, virtual reality environment for use with the HTC Vive and other VR equipment supported by Valve. The game environment is huge (easily quadruple the size of the Autumn Park game world) and I designed this for full freedom of movement throughout the island.

I wanted to provide a solid experience and, using the lessons learned from Autumn Park Mini Golf, I realized that the world is two thirds of the game, while the various courses keep the player entertained. To that end, I developed four, 18-hole courses and have set up special enhancements for each course to increase variety and replay-value. I redid the code from the ground up, fixing issues with the peculiar, not-quite-right physics and general game controls.

I’m also giving the player the option to pick their music style to match their mood. Want to listen to some meditation music while watching the sun set over the horizon? Just use the little portable radio and tune it to the right station, then sit down in one of the beach chairs and enjoy the scenery.

Oh yeah, there’s a day-night cycle. Fireflies will pop up after sunset and the birds chirping will give way to crickets and frogs during twilight hours.

Hidden on the island there are a number of unique sea shells the player can pick up and, if they turn them into the collection bin at course one, hole one, they can get a specially-colored golf ball that, when carried to the courses, will activate special obstacles or challenges based on the golf ball.

Yes, at its heart, this is a mini-golf game. But I wanted to give players a full experience while on the island.

Status Update:

So it’s been several months since I first created this blog and this page in particular, and I’ve made a significant number of improvements in my game and feel as though I’ve accomplished enough to put Pirate Island VR into an Early Access state on Steam.

I’ve got a solid road map of new features and components I plan to add to the project post-release, and I’m confident this is going to continue to grow and evolve over the next six months to year.

A healthy portion of this WordPress blog will focus on my efforts to develop and enhance this game. Keep an eye out for new updates as I move forward!

Some recent screenshots from The Island. The only post-production work on these are adding the logos and text, of course. Everything else is drawn directly from the game. I should add that these images are still Alpha state, and one of my first goals is to improve picture quality beyond what’s already here and optimize memory usage.

One of the most recent additions to the game that I’m especially happy with is the addition of treasure chests. At the end of any given course, the player will have the choice of either picking up a small treasure chest or they will have the choice to pick up a map and try to get to the location pictured on that map to get a larger treasure! There is now a treasury attached to the player’s residence, allowing the accumulation of wealth to show off or to potentially trade (an idea I’m kicking around for later development in the game).

There’s a lot left to do, but so much has already been done. I’m excited to see where the project leads. Come join in on the fun and buy my game!