Desert Golfing

Last updated
Desert Golfing
Desert Golfing cover.jpg
Developer(s) Blinkbat Games
Publisher(s) Blinkbat Games
Designer(s) Justin Smith
Platform(s) Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
ReleaseiOS, Android
August 6, 2014
Windows, macOS
December 19, 2017
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single-player

Desert Golfing is a minimalist golf video game developed and published by Canadian indie studio Blinkbat Games and released on August 6, 2014, for iOS and Android, [1] and on December 19, 2017, for Windows and macOS. [2] It received a positive reception from critics for its addictive gameplay and simplicity. In July 2020, Smith, now operating under the studio name Captain Games, released a follow-up titled Golf on Mars, featuring new control options and course generation variety. [3]

Contents

Gameplay

The game takes place in an endless side-scrolling desert, where the player can shoot a golf ball using a one finger swipe to determine direction and power. [4] The entirety of the "golf course" is made of sand, making the physics of the golf ball more difficult to predict and control, as if from a bunker. [4] The goal is to make the golf ball reach each hole in the fewest shots, but when this happens the game continues with a new, pseudorandomly generated course. [4] Therefore, the game seemingly never ends, and the score is ultimately solely dependent on how long the player plays the game. [4]

Development

The setting of Desert Golfing was inspired by the mention of Journey in a Gamasutra article about art games and their penchant for making walking simulators. [5] The game's creator, Justin Smith, said that while those types of games bored him, he thought it would be interesting to make such a game with a more immediate challenge. [5] He also compared it to the game Desert Bus . [5] Smith stated that he did not realize people would be so invested in the game and would have put more thought into making the later holes more different if he had known, [6] or adding a true ending. [5]

Each hole in the game is procedurally generated, [5] but with human orchestrated constraints that slowly introduce new gameplay aspects, [7] as well as environmental features and color palette changes, possibly representing a day-night cycle, as the game goes on. [7] The holes after 2000+ become harder [5] and used to be impossible at some point, giving the game an unintentional ending. [8] The game has since been updated to prevent the random generation of impossible holes, and to eventually have an ending [9] on hole 10,001.

Reception

Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer rated the game 9/10 and gave it the "Recommended" award, calling it "wonderfully sparse" and "an art game take on [...] mobile sports rubbish". [6] He called the control and physics "superb", and said that it succeeded equally well as an art game and as a fun video game. [6]

Alessandro Zampini of IGN Italia also rated the game 90/100, saying that it is "magnetic, minimalist and ruthless". [10]

Kyle Orland of Ars Technica called the game "addictive" and said that it achieves "transcendent beauty". [11] Brendan Keogh called the game "majestic", "restrained and confident". [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour</i> 2003 video game

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, known in Japan as Mario Golf: Family Tour, is a 2003 sports game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the sequel to the 1999 Nintendo 64 title Mario Golf, and is the third game in the Mario Golf series. It was released in North America on July 28, 2003, in Japan on September 5, 2003, and in PAL regions in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music video game</span> Video game genre

A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a variety of forms and are often grouped with puzzle games due to their common use of "rhythmically generated puzzles".

<i>Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire</i> 2003 video game

Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire is a 2003 pinball game developed by Jupiter and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console. It was first revealed at E3 2003. The North American release was done to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the North American release of Pokémon Red and Blue. It is based on Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, and is a sequel to Pokémon Pinball for the Game Boy Color. In some ways, it plays like a traditional pinball game, where the objective is to get a high score by keeping the ball in play as long as possible and hitting bumpers. In keeping with the theme of Pokémon, it features Pokémon collection, where while the players play pinball, they must also capture the eponymous creatures.

<i>Super Monkey Ball 2</i> 2002 video game

Super Monkey Ball 2 is a platform party video game developed by Amusement Vision and published by Sega in 2002 for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the Super Monkey Ball series, and the first installment to have a storyline and to be exclusively released on a home console.

<i>Mario Pinball Land</i> 2004 video game

Mario Pinball Land, known in Europe and Japan as Super Mario Ball, is a pinball video game developed by Fuse Games and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance, released in 2004. It is the ninth Mario game for the Game Boy Advance and is considered a spin-off into the Super Mario series of games. The game was later re-released for the Wii U Virtual Console.

<i>Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis</i> 2006 table tennis simulation video game

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis is a 2006 table tennis simulation video game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. The game is a realistic simulation of the sport table tennis, with the main objective to make the opponent fail to hit the ball.

<i>Swingerz Golf</i> 2002 video game

Swingerz Golf is a sports video game released by Telenet Japan in 2002. It is a golf simulation game that allows the player to choose from 14 different characters, each with different strengths and weaknesses, to play on any of the game's 6 courses, varying greatly in difficulty and atmosphere. Along with normal match and stroke modes of play, the game offers a tour mode, which simulates the career of a chosen character, a mission mode, consisting of a series of challenges that gradually increase in difficulty, and minigames, including a sudden death style of gameplay and a near-pin style of gameplay.

<i>Cake Mania</i> 2006 video game

Cake Mania is a cooking time management video game developed and published by Sandlot Games in 2006. Some ports of Cake Mania have different titles; the Wii version is known as Cake Mania: In the Mix!, and the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable versions are titled Cake Mania: Bakers Challenge. Cake Mania received mixed reviews from critics, with some reviewers praising the game's 'addictive' and 'simple' casual gameplay, while others criticized this as being 'repetitive' and 'shallow'.

<i>GioGios Bizarre Adventure</i> 2002 video game

GioGio's Bizarre Adventure, known in Japan as JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken: Ōgon no Kaze, is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2 on July 25, 2002 in Japan. It is based on Golden Wind, the fifth part of Hirohiko Araki's manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The player controls characters from the manga, and fight enemies in 3D environments using both physical attacks, and special combination moves performed by spirit-like "Stand" characters released from the player character's body.

Shrek n' Roll is a video game developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by Activision on November 14, 2007. The puzzle game was released on the Xbox 360.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open world</span> Type of video game design

In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include The Legend of Zelda (1986), Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Minecraft (2011).

<i>Rotohex</i> 2006 video game

Rotohex is a Nintendo video game for the Wii's WiiWare service. It is a remake of the Japan-only bit Generations title Dialhex. It was released as WiiWare in North America on October 27, 2008.

<i>Bit.Trip Beat</i> 2009 video game

Bit.Trip Beat, marketed as BIT.TRIP BEAT, is an arcade-style music video game developed by Gaijin Games and published by Aksys Games for the Wii's WiiWare download service. It was released in 2009 in North America, and released in Japan and PAL regions in the same year. It was later released for the Windows and Mac OS X through the download service Steam in 2010, while Namco Bandai published it for iOS on iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad in both Bit.Trip Beat and Bit.Trip Beat HD versions. Android and Linux versions debuted in the Humble Android Bundle 3.

<i>Go! Go! Beckham! Adventure on Soccer Island</i> 2002 video game

Go! Go! Beckham! Adventure on Soccer Island is a platform video game developed by Denki and published by Rage Software for the Game Boy Advance. It was released in Europe in 2002 and was not released in other regions.

<i>Mario Golf: World Tour</i> 2014 video game

Mario Golf: World Tour is a 2014 golf video game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was first announced on February 14, 2013, in a Nintendo Direct presentation. It is the fifth game in the series, and is the first one in a decade, since 2004's Mario Golf: Advance Tour for the Game Boy Advance. The game was initially scheduled for the second half of 2013, but was eventually delayed to May 2014.

<i>Threes</i> 2014 video game

Threes is a puzzle video game by Sirvo, an independent development team consisting of game designer Asher Vollmer, illustrator Greg Wohlwend, and composer Jimmy Hinson. The game was released on February 6, 2014, for iOS devices and later ported to Android, Xbox One, Windows Phone, and Windows. In Threes, the player slides numbered tiles on a grid to combine addends and multiples of three. The game ends when there are no moves left on the grid and the tiles are counted for a final score.

<i>Kameo</i> 2005 action-adventure video game for Xbox 360

Kameo: Elements of Power is a 2005 action-adventure video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The player controls Kameo, a 16-year-old elf, who must travel across the land, rescuing her family while collecting Elemental Sprites and Warriors in a beat 'em up style combat against the trolls that stand in her way. Kameo's ten elemental powers let her transform into creatures and use their varied abilities to solve combat-oriented puzzles and progress through the game's levels.

<i>Celeste</i> (video game) 2018 platform game

Celeste is a 2018 platform game developed and published by indie studio Maddy Makes Games. The player controls Madeline, a young woman with anxiety and depression who aims to climb Celeste Mountain. During her climb, she encounters several characters, including Part of You, a personification of her self-doubt who attempts to stop her from climbing the mountain.

Three Fields Entertainment Limited is a British video game development studio. It was founded in February 2014 by Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry, who had previously worked at Criterion Games, along with developer Paul Ross who had worked with them under Criterion Games.

<i>Cruisn Blast</i> 2021 video game

Cruis'n Blast is a racing video game developed and published by Raw Thrills. Originally released for the arcades in 2017, it is the sixth installment in the Cruis'n series. A version for the Nintendo Switch which includes additional modes, cars, and tracks, was released on September 14, 2021.

References

  1. ↑ "Desert Golfing". Metacritic. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  2. ↑ "Desert Golfing out now on PC". pcgamer. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  3. ↑ Clayton, Natalie (4 July 2020). "At long last, there is Golf On Mars". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Plunkett, Luke. "F**k You, Desert Golfing, aka The Worst Best Game In The World". Kotaku. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Graft, Kris. "7 questions for Desert Golfing creator Justin Smith" . Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  6. 1 2 3 Bramwell, Tom (2014-10-01). "Desert Golfing review". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  7. 1 2 3 "Exploring the Desert". Reverse Shot. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  8. ↑ "'Desert Golfing' and Video Gaming's Gradual March to the Other Side". Vice. 19 December 2014. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  9. ↑ Klepek, Patrick (Jan 8 2018) One Player's 21,000 Hole Quest to Beat the Seemingly Endless 'Desert Golf' Vice.com. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  10. ↑ "Touch Me #90: i giochi per smartphone e tablet della settimana". IGN Italia (in Italian). 2015-01-19. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  11. ↑ "Sublime simplicity: The transcendent beauty of Desert Golfing". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.