17 replies to this topic

[Acrilix]

For anyone who plays both PG and TGC, I have just released my latest course, Chudleigh Golf Club. You can check out a few screen shots here:

http://www.hb-studios.com/forum/index.php?topic=11785.0

 

[IanK]

Looks very nice. Great work. I'll give it a try when I get home from holiday.

[RobV]

I checked out the screenshots Lez, looks really nice.  Congrats!    I guess you have the course editor nailed down as the details look wonderful.  I have not played TGC in quite some time, but may have to reinstall just to give this a go.     Nice job. 

 

Looking at your sig, looks like you have a bunch of courses already made!  

[Kimmer1947]

I've never played at TGC, but those screen shots look fantastic. Hopefully this course will come to PG sometime in the future. For me, these screenshots have that "wow" factor.

I certainly admire/envy your creative talent as well as all of the course designers.

[Dazmaniac]

Looking good Lez, nice job.

 

The 'Tree Clone' brigade at LinksCorner would have a field day with some of those pics though, lol.

 

[MERACE]

As I posted on the TGC forums, I really like how your courses are relaxing but challenging enough to keep me engaged with my round.

 

Your courses are also very realistic no matter what theme they are created in.  I especially like this newest course created in the Boreal theme as it resembles some of the courses that I have played in northern Michigan.

 

I'm looking forward to more of your courses in TGC and hopefully in PG. 

 

 

-MERACE

[Acrilix]

I like to create realistic courses that can be played with a little thought, but don't demand it to be an enjoyable experience. IMO, far too many courses created for video golf games are too contrived in their construction, with split fairways, multiple choice paths to the green, blocking trees, bunkers positioned in every landing zone etc. etc. I like my golf to be relaxing. I also play without aids, so these style courses are particularly difficult for me to navigate around. If I wanted to spend hours working out every move then I would play chess, not golf. That's not to say that there is no place for strategy, but I believe you can still incorporate it subtly into a standard style golf course without the need to resort to excessive 'video golf' novelty. This approach does make it really hard to make courses that stand out among the many tens of thousands though.

Of course, after saying all this I'll probably surprise myself on my next design by venturing into pure fantasy!! I get bored if I don't keep evolving.

[Dazmaniac]

As I posted on the TGC forums, I really like how your courses are relaxing but challenging enough to keep me engaged with my round.

 

Your courses are also very realistic no matter what theme they are created in.  I especially like this newest course created in the Boreal theme as it resembles some of the courses that I have played in northern Michigan.

 

I'm looking forward to more of your courses in TGC and hopefully in PG. 

 

-MERACE

 

Lez had a knack of creating some cracking courses for Links 2003 and it seems he has carried his skills in to TGC, which can only be good for their community. Sadly it is a game I no longer play.

 

[karma4u]

This is such a truly realistic looking and playing course, i love it....again, well done...absolute beauty  

[Acrilix]

Lez had a knack of creating some cracking courses for Links 2003 and it seems he has carried his skills in to TGC, which can only be good for their community. Sadly it is a game I no longer play.

 

With Links 2003 I was fortunate in joining the party very late - it had become a small community and so it was relatively easy to be noticed as a designer. With TGC it is a totally different story, and I am just an 'also ran' among a vast army of talented designers. My courses are overlooked by the majority of TGC players, although a couple of top designers have commented on the quality of my work, and the main tour site have also used two of the four courses I submitted to them as tour venues, so my work is appreciated by a few people in the know! 

In general though, the average TGC player does not view me as a top designer and that is unlikely to change in the future. Fortunately, these days I'm not so bothered as I would have been a few years ago. I enjoy designing as much as I enjoy playing, so I guess I will just carry on enjoying the process, even if the feedback and plays I get are very limited. In fact, none of the ex-Links designers seems to have made much of an impression in TGC, maybe because the audience is generally more arcade based and less routed in realism. At least I have had the advantage of my Links history to convince a few TGC players to try my courses - many new designers are likely to go completely unnoticed and may well give up before reaching their potential as designers. This is perhaps the biggest failing of having such a fantastically easy course designer to use - it is over saturating the market with more courses than anyone could hope to play, and this forces many players to just stick to a few established, and HB recommended designers while ignoring the rest.

I think PG course designers will have a much easier time of it - especially at the beginning, than most of the TGC designers are having now!! 

[MERACE]

This is perhaps the biggest failing of having such a fantastically easy course designer to use - it is over saturating the market with more courses than anyone could hope to play, and this forces many players to just stick to a few established, and HB recommended designers while ignoring the rest.
I think PG course designers will have a much easier time of it - especially at the beginning, than most of the TGC designers are having now!! [/quote]



Among the preferred TGC designers there are probably also some newbies that may not have ever attempted to publish a course if not for the ease of use.

I'm hoping that when CF is released to the public it will also be relatively easy to use (without a course generator).


-MERACE

[Kelson64]

I agree with Merace. TGC has more courses than anyone could ever hope to play. I generally only play the courses that my trusted friends have completed a round on. I figure if they've completed a round, it must be decent enough to play.

 

However, I must be honest when I say this . . the quality of courses have severely dipped in the last couple of months.  It's not that these courses are thrown together. Actually, you can tell that the designers spent considerable time on the design. But in order to challenge people who have mastered the game, they have completely thrown any kind of realism out the window. Far too many of TGC's new courses border on the ridiculous, in my opinion.

[IanK]

I still occasionally play TGC but much prefer using their course creator which is fun to use and gives nice results.
I used to post quite frequently on the HB forum asking for a more difficult/simulator mode but it seemed that the majority of players were more than happy to score in the mid to low 50s. A certain member on the HB forum, who had a small band of loyal followers, (including the devs) always put down any attempt to change the difficulty of the game so I stopped posting. I believe that this particular individual no longer uses the forum so there is hope that the game might change.

[MERACE]

A certain member on the HB forum, who had a small band of loyal followers, (including the devs) always put down any attempt to change the difficulty of the game so I stopped posting. I believe that this particular individual no longer uses the forum so there is hope that the game might change.

He's back.

I'll continue to beat the drum on the TGC forums for multiple swing difficulty options.


-MERACE

[IanK]

He's back.

Well I'll be jiggered!

[RobV]

Lez is one of my favorite course designers for Links 2003!    At one point, my friends and family did a "Lez Course Tour" and played his courses exclusively... one right after another.  

 

We continued this trend with Jones, Seaman, Miller, McCoist and a few others I can't think of right now.   Some really good stuff by all of these guys STILL has people playing Links 2003..  including me!  

[FixAmer1st]

I agree, and he is sorely missed at Links 2003 sites.

Jerry

[pingzing]

Played it Lez and left reply there

 

Thank you very much mate,