The text introduction shown at the start of the game.
The third hole, GOLF, which used the keys G, O, L and F as the controls.
The sixth hole, GUIDE, which required shooting a central ball onto pressure plates to control the scoring ball.
Golfn't is a 2D singleplayer comedy/sports game made in Godot, that mixes in elements of physics and rage games. The player is challenged to complete a series of golf holes, where each hole requires the use of a completely different control scheme, which ramp in absurdity and challenge.
The game was made in 48 hours for the 2020 GMTK Game Jam, for which the theme was OUT OF CONTROL. We interpreted the phrasing literally: the player's control schemes are constantly changing, and become harder and harder to control. I handled all the coding, in-engine work and level design for the game, while my collaborator worked on the art. In the days after the Jam, we watched a large number of streamers play the game, and received a lot of feedback, and were very satisfied that we'd made a game that was fun, unexpected and made people laugh, even if it was a little rough around the edges.
The week after the jam allowed players and developers to rate all the entries in 3 categories and overall. Out of 5294 entries (the largest ever jam on Itch.io at the time), we were very happy with the final rankings we recieved, which you can see below.
This page features plenty of gameplay gifs, all of which are 150% speed.
The game's final rankings in the jam, all results out of 5294.
The process of coding the game meant isolating the control scheme code and the gameplay code, so that different control schemes could be swapped in at a moment's notice. Most levels required recoding the player input from the ground up, but we nonetheless managed to produce 14 different levels in that time (even though we really wanted 18 holes). We also planned a large number of gimmicks that didn't make it into the final game due to time constraints, like tying a pong paddle to the mouse that bounced a golf ball that wouldn't slow down, and placing fans in the level to direct the ball's movement.
We utilised very large amounts of playtesting throughout the jam, sending test builds to anyone willing to try, and recieved a large amount of feedback during development which shaped the direction of the game and ensured every level felt great and made sense, which was a fundamental hurdle to get right in a game that intentionally avoided having any tutorial: players have to figure out the mechanics themselves. Some level concepts were implemented then later completely scrapped, but it was worth it for a game with much more consistent quality.
The twelth hole, ROADRAGE, where the golf ball becomes an unstoppable car controlled by the keys G, O, L and F.
The eighth hole, WHACK, the first to feature physics objects, including a driver fish and putter apple core.
The eleventh hole, MONKEY, inspired by Super Monkey Ball.
Available on Itch.io.
