Hi,

Today brings a small patch, the main change is that Up to Par is now using Windows Gaming Input. If you've had trouble connecting unofficial controllers, this should help. More importantly, it means you'll be able to connect more than 4 inputs at a time! If you fancy a 16 player local co-op game, now you can.

It also fixes an issue where the ball would sometimes sit on top of the hole without going in. (A slight problem for a mini golf game).

In addition, achievements on Steam are now correctly localized into Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and German.

I'll be back with a bigger updates later, but for now, happy golfing!
Philip

Hi all,

It's been a busy launch for Up to Par! Thank you to everyone who's played, and thank you to everyone who's given me feedback.

In the last 24 hours I've been working on a balance update that'll make for smoother progression through the early and mid game. Up to Par can be a challenging game, but getting stuck with an item just out of reach is no fun.

I've also implemented some suggestions based on your feedback around aiming. The aiming bar is now as wide as the ball, so you can see exactly what's going to be a hit, and what's going to be a miss. If you prefer the old bar, you can turn it back on in the settings menu.

In addition, if you're playing with the keyboard or a joystick, the aim now automatically points (roughly) along the course towards the hole.

I've fixed some other minor issues, notably:

• Framerate limiting now works on MacOS
  
• Fixed some edge cases for target framerate on PC - notably when drivers or Windows override vSync.
  
• Foresight no longer causes an error when you unlock it.

I'm going to continue working on Up to Par, improving the game, adding features, and fixing any issues you run into. To let you know what I'm working on, I've put together a roadmap with my future plans:


I hope you enjoy playing with these new updates, and that they make Up to Par more satisfying and more fun. It's almost midnight here, so I'm off to take a break and look forward to reading your comments in the morning.

- Philip

After two years of mostly-solo development, over fifty weekly challenges, and many thousands and thousands of playtest rounds, I'm proud to announce that my roguelite mini golf game is now out.

So don't wait, click here! It's 10% off during launch.


If you like Up to Par, the best thing you can do to help me make it a success is to tell others about it! Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your dog (as long as she has a steam account).

Most importantly, tell the rest of the world by leaving a review here on Steam. Your voice can have a big impact because Steam uses reviews to recommend Up to Par to other players.


Every Wednesday at 5pm Pacific (8pm Eastern) you're invited to come and join me and the team to play some Up to Par together online. We play some co-operative games, some competitive games, and generally have a great time.

Drop by the discord[discord.gg] to participate, or you can sit back and watch the fun as we stream it live on Twitch[www.twitch.tv].

In the days and weeks following launch, I'll be working hard on Up to Par. I'll be ironing out the inevitable wrinkles, and if I find the time I'll be adding new features and content. If you've got ideas or suggestions for what you'd like to see, come and join us on Discord. And don't forget -

If you get Up to Par now on Steam, it's 10% off!

I hope you're as excited about the launch as I am, and if you are, leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi Golfers,

This week we have a patch that includes a number of balance tweaks, and updates a number of effects in the game to be better than ever!

Major Changes

• The game no longer freezes on startup on MacOS!
  
• Many items in the shop now cost 1 or 2 less to unlock.
  
• All course unlocks are now 3 holes easier to obtain.
  
• Hex courses are now 20% easier and shorter!
  
• Chip shot is 10% more powerful.
  
• Skip is now more expensive to equip.
  
• Added more environment models for the Woods courses.
  
• Added particle effects when the courses and objects are created and destroyed.

Bug Fixes

• Shop model is slightly smaller to better fit space beside menus.
  
• Game over view can now be skipped so you can get back in the game faster.
  
• Fixed bug where mouse would require an extra click to focus the game after opening the Steam overlay.
  
• Newsletter signup form shows native UI prompt on Steam Deck.
  
• Value selector correctly focuses when one of the arrow buttons disappears.
  
• Newsletter signup view can be navigated by keyboard and joystick now.
  
• Fixed bug that broke the game if you pressed continue too fast.
  
• Music now plays correctly when repeating a course of the same type.
  
• Fixed the pond socket obstacle collider that had some strange behaviours.
  
• Player name scales in the UI, instead of overflowing.
  
• Added feedback button in game settings view.
  
• Updated the aim preview visualisation to be at floor level, this is the same as the normal aim, and feels more intuitive.
  
• Icons are no longer fuzzy in low quality mode.
  
• Free shot zone no longer generates on the start tile or the hole tile.
  
• Your attire resets if you leave a team and no longer have access to it.
  
• History is cleared on progress reset.
  
• Escape key can be used from the player setup menu, even if you're playing with the mouse.

Known Bugs

• There are some issues around the teleport in multiplayer, where it sometimes doesn't trigger or triggers too often.

As always, I hope this update makes your game better! If you run into any bugs at all, please use the F1 report screen to let me know so that I can get them fixed in the next patch release.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hello,

I'm excited to announce that Up to Par will launch on the 14th of October.

I've been working hard on it since I announced it two years ago, adding features to make it the best roguelike minigolf possible. It's got courses with wildly different layouts; obstacles including windmills, weather vanes and jumps; dozens of weird outfits for your golf balls; a weekly challenge with online leaderboards; and most importantly, online multiplayer with up to 16 friends!

It'll cost $19.99 with a 10% launch discount, making it only $17.99 on launch week.


If you want to brush up your mini golf skills to make sure you'll start out at the top of the leaderboards, win against your friends, or be the first to unlock items on launch day, a free demo is available on Steam.

If you've played the demo before, it's now better and more polished than ever, and if you've never played it, now's a great time to try!

Click here for the demo.


Every Wednesday at 5pm Pacific (8pm Eastern) you're invited to come and join me and the team to play some Up to Par together online. We play some co-operative games, some competitive games, and generally have a great time. Download the demo and drop by the discord[discord.gg] to participate, or you can sit back and watch the fun as we stream it live on Twitch[twitch.tv].


If you haven't already, please wishlist Up to Par. The more people who are following the game, the more Steam will promote it during launch - so it's one of the easiest and best things you can do to help the launch go well!

I hope you're as excited about this new as I am, and as always, I'd love to hear from you. Join us on the discord[discord.gg], or reply in the comments below.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi Golfers,

This week we have a patch fixing a mass of issues across the entire game! There's smoother networking, better aim previews, improved collisions, and most importantly - support for 4000 emoji in the highscores table.

Major Changes

• You can now ready your player at the end of the game when using the keyboard or a controller.
  
• Support for roughly 4000 new character glyphs and emoji in highscore names.
  
• The aiming bar is now dark on light backgrounds for better visibility.
  
• Major updates to networked interpolation, to make for smoother games on worse connections.
  
• Updated collisions at high speeds, so 7-iron can no longer hit through walls, and some odd bounce behaviours where the ball lost energy should be fixed.
  
• New pond obstacle!
  
• GPU optimization so that the game should be less resource intensive when playing.
  
• Short and long previews are now less jittery and don't randomly appear to jump into the air.
  
• Dynamic obstacles in courses are no longer all synchronized in timing.

Bug Fixes

• Weekly challenge timing should be synchronized correctly across the week changeover.
  
• Butterfly flapping is now synchronized between players in multiplayer.
  
• Ocean ground is now solid, even outside of the borders.
  
• Added collision to all environment objects.
  
• Contour lines on dark backgrounds are slightly brighter now, not grey.
  
• Butterflies now interact with all environment objects.
  
• All configuration entries now reset correctly from the settings menu.
  
• Bug fixed where resolutions would appear twice in the list.
  
• Planter obstacles now slightly smaller for the farm levels.
  
• Butterfly movement is now smoother in multiplayer games.
  
• Contour lines are now hidden when courses are being shown/hidden so they don't appear on preceeding or following courses.
  
• All menus in the game have default selections, for easier controller navigation.
  
• Fixed a countdown error in the shop.
  
• Game now correctly handles the case where you leave during the shop score counting.
  
• Support for PlayStation Joystick glyps in menus.
  
• Butterfly now correctly spawns on the first hole of every course.
  
• Game UI will fade out when the game isn't selected.
  
• When rejoining a game setup after playing a previous game, the ground no longer flickers.
  
• Fixed some game-breaking errors around connection establishment.
  
• No longer a purple flash when moving from game back to main menu.
  
• Trails and bounce effects now display correctly at high lags.
  
• Support for joystick-as-a-button including UI glyphs.
  
• Foresight item now on left of shop for visibility in 3p, shows next course in shop for 4p.
  
• Fixed UI glitches in settings when switching rapidly.
  
• Tweaked shop UI position for 1-3 players.
  
• Camera follows butterfly if no other balls are remaining in local teams.
  
• Metal ball is shinier.
  
• Transferred host now sees game setup button in menu.
  
• Can join multiplayer lobby from anywhere in the game when accepting invitation.
  
• Camera no longer snaps to first hole.
  
• Team selection information no longer runs off the top of the screen in 4 player setup.
  
• Fixed text overflow in game end screen.
  
• Easter egg ball colours synchronized between players.

Known Bugs

• There are some issues around the teleport in multiplayer, where it sometimes doesn't trigger or triggers too often.

As always, I hope this update makes your game better! If you run into any bugs at all, please use the F1 report screen to let me know so that I can get them fixed in the next patch release.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Patch Notes for Version 0.26.6

Hi Golfers,

This week's patch focuses on multiplayer, and includes big fixes for game establishment and connections. If you've been playing multiplayer with larger groups, there should be a noticeable improvement in stability. Alongside this there are some minor rendering fixes, and fixes for edge cases where the game would freeze.

Major Changes

• Major changes have been made around game creation and connection. There should be fewer issues due to joining, hosting, restarting matches, and when machines drop out of matches unexpectedly.
  
• Players now correctly regain control of a ball in new multiplayer matches that are started after the player has controlled a butterfly.
  
• The pond 'socket' obstacle now generates correctly once unlocked, previously it didn't appear at all. Keep your eyes out for this new piece!

Bug Fixes

• Butterfly now correctly hides at the end of a hole.
  
• Updated player icons on the end game screen so that they don't show the upgrade icons and instead show the correct ball.
  
• Fixed rendering issues on some machines with the upgrade icon on the end game screen.
  
• Swapped the name of skip and teleport to make it clearer - skip will skip every second shot, teleport activates every 3rd shot.
  
• Gimmie hint only appears for machines where a local player is in a team with a gimmie available.
  
• Fixed tip of jump so that ball should roll off as expected and not be diverted in odd directions.
  
• Game no longer crashes if teams are established faster than the first level generates behind the scenes.
  
• Fixed bug where if the teleport activated on your last shot, and the ball ended up in the hole, it would incorrectly mark your team as out.

Known Bugs

• Keyboard & Controller players can't Ready-up to restart after a match, they need to go back to game settings and ready from there.

As always, I hope this update makes your game better! If you run into any bugs at all, please use the F1 report screen to let me know so that I can get them fixed in the next patch release.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi Golfers,

This week's patch is a smaller one, fixing primarily issues with the interface and speeding up game loading. There are some minor gameplay tweaks as well.

Major Changes

• Refactored how game data is stored on disk, which should make loading faster.
  
• Fixed bug where clicking on an item in the game menu would waste a shot.
  
• Chip shot is 20% more powerful.

Bug Fixes

• Game end buttons now work in singleplayer modes.
  
• Fixed bug where the game end buttons could be clicked too early in multiplayer games.
  
• Setup no longer shows the unlock prompt when everything is actually unlocked.
  
• Countdown doesn't go below 0
  
• Course list numbering is now correct when setting custom courses in game setup.
  
• Item in shop wiggles as a deny animation if you can't buy it (keyboard & joysticks).
  
• Fixed bug where model normals were being imported wrong and making objects look strange.
  
• "Done" button is now selectable in the shop after you alt+tab.
  
• Fixed bug where contour style reset even when set in settings.
  
• Audio sliders now correctly reset to defaults when you revert settings.
  
• Fixed bug where boardwalks could generate so close to other tiles balls would get stuck in the gap and make the game unplayable.
  
• Resolutions in the game settings fade out when not selectable.
  
• Refactored countdown code so that it's consistent throughout the game.

Known Bugs

• Players can still control their butterfly after selecting 'New Round', making the game unplayable.
  
• Keyboard & Controller players can't Ready-up to restart after a match, they need to go back to game settings and ready from there.

As always, I hope this update makes your game better! If you run into any bugs at all, please use the F1 report screen to let me know so that I can get them fixed in the next patch release.

Happy Golfing,
Philip

Hi Golfers,

Today's patch brings some small improvements for multiplayer games, and some subtle graphics upgrades across the entire game. The biggest features are a cheaper bank to purchase shots, and something to keep you entertained when you're knocked out in a multiplayer game.

Major Changes

• Purchasing shots for upcoming rounds in the bank now costs 2 instead of 3.
  
• When you're knocked out of 3+ team game, you turn into a butterfly that you can control for the rest of the match. Useful for pointing out the hole to your friends, getting in the way of your friends, landing on top of your friends, and other butterfly-related fun.
  
• We're now sharing the winners of the weekly challenge on It's Anecdotal's social media! Reach the podium, become famous!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug in 3-team games where a team further away from the hole could be declared winner.
  
• Added glyph support for RU, KO, JA, TC and SC characters. This will fix the squares in names in the leaderboards.
  
• Fixed occasional crash when exiting the game due to a multithread error in the music system.
  
• Game now returns to the main menu correctly when you have items equipped in-game, rather than freezing.
  
• Fixed bug where settings menu would display multiple options if you switched between sections too quickly.
  
• Metal ball and golden ball now have fragments that match their colours.
  
• Updated 2-stroke teleport name to "Skip" to make it clear it's a separate item and doesn't stack/refill.
  
• Enviornments (except farm) should now generate deterministically, especially important in the weekly challenge.
  
• Fixed issue where submitting online data didn't use HTTPS.
  
• Framerate setting now works as expected and doesn't reset.
  
• Unlimited framerate works as expected.
  
• Big update to the game's interface. UI panels look different depending on whether they're interactable or not.
  
• In multiplayer games, you can now see who's ready and who's waiting for that.
  
• Fixed chip shot (again).
  
• Fixed crash for clients in online games when using Gimmie.
  
• Game settings option now only shows for server.
  
• Game setup closes when you use the back button.
  
• Ceiling item now shows it being used as soon as it happens.
  
• Free shot position is now always centered in the course, and won't spawn on awkwardly sloped pieces.
  
• Contour lines are now shown for all non-flat pieces. You can change the visibility in settings.
  
• Fixed some minor missing geometry in the pond levels. Now all gaps have correct walls and there are no odd sharp pieces sticking out of causeways.
  
• Can no longer buy both short and long aim (there's no point). Buying long aim after short gives you a discount, and upgrades the existing item.

Known Bugs

• Sometimes client balls spawn out of bounds.
  
• Clients can't score their final shot if it's via teleport.
  
• Butterflies don't animate for clients in online games.

As always, I hope this update makes your game better! If you run into any bugs at all, please use the F1 report screen to let me know so that I can get them fixed in the next patch release.

Happy Golfing,
Philip