I know its been quiet around here so I thought it was probably time we posted an update on what we have all been up to....
From the few recent releases we have continued to fix a few bugs in the existing version of JNPG and also continue to push changes to the Simulator Version and supported devices.
The beginning of the year for us is always taken up with improvements and upgrades to our Broadcast Suite Products in preparation for the new Golf Season.
However, since we returned from our TV work in Georgia we have been hard at work on a lot of base improvements to the underlying engine. Without getting into too many details we realized that without a significant improvement to both our networking and our internal event system we had reached the limit of the performance improvements and functionality adds we could continue with. So we decided now was the perfect time to revisit both of these tasks. These efforts will result in a much simpler set of game play code which will make fixing certain bugs much easier without impacting other areas of the code as well as vastly reduce the amount of data being sent back and forth between the players in a game. This will in turn lead to a much smoother game play. This redesign will also allow us to open up much more freedom within the game to allow for players to play independent of the other players thus allowing Fast Play, Turn based individual play where you are always in control of your player and not being moved by the camera system in a turn based style. It will also open up things like other players on the course and spectators.
We realize that it feels like we are not doing much with the game at this time but this is far from the case. This rather boring work is necessary to move the game to the next level. The improved network performance will buy us some much needed CPU performance which can be used to further the visuals in the game. We are working hard with the new Unity 5.5 lighting system to develop a much more immersive and depth based lighting that will make the game feel more alive. Sometimes you just have to take a step back to take a leap forward.
We have finished 90% of the Turf Effects integration for the initial pass at its inclusion in Perfect Golf.
I am sure many of you are interested in some of the other items we have talked about including Career Mode and as we have more details we can divulge we will of course discuss them but rest assured Career Mode is most definitely part of the new development cycle. As of course are new characters with some customization capabilities as well as new animations.
We will be pushing 1.4.2.4 this weekend. Mostly a bug fix release plus a work around for the fact that Steam has broken the invite system. Also includes many simulator improvements
Please feel free to ask any questions in this thread and I will attempt to answer them to the best of my ability. We are working hard on a lot of improvements to the game but many of them are very fundamental to the engine and do not produce much to talk about.
