Legal warning: This game is still in development, so expect things to change greatly.

Edit: Within 24 hours, a new and improved trailer was released! I will leave this post unedited as advice for future indie game developers creating their own trailers, and will do a follow up of Boss Golf when future updates come out.

Store Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/869060/Boss_Golf/

Boss Golf claims to be the new SimGolf, but we will have to wait and see! Coming out within the next year, it looks to be a nice, relaxing game about building your own golf courses.

This post will first look at the trailer itself, talking about the video quality. Then, it will move onto the game itself.

To clarify: this does not look like a bad game! It’s just the way the trailer comes across makes it seem less professional and less interesting than the game has the potential to be.

The trailer’s camera is very unsmooth. Whether it is due to Steam video compression, or more likely, a lack of pre-programmed cinematic cameras, it looks very jerky and makes it harder to focus on details. Always make the camera go slower than it will in game, unless your trailer matches the in-game fps. At a lower fps, it is very hard to follow.

The music is very bland and somewhat sleep-inducing, though possibly appropriate for a golf game. It makes the game seem less interesting, unfortunately.

There is no on-screen text or areas to focus on (which could be achieved with blurs or arrows). I was very confused about the trees popping randomly when the people passed through them, only to find on a repeat viewing that they were gardeners!

There was no section focussing on construction (by the player). The only construction shown was by the gardeners and builders; to those unfamiliar with these types of games, it might not have been clear what they were doing. The story of the trailer should be: blank map -> begin constructing the basics (show the cursor and build tools for this section) -> show the park developing -> show people using it -> show the player editing it again! Perhaps even show one or two statistics screens to give a hint of the management (but not for too long).

The title design is confusing. Why is BOSS fiery orange, and why is the whole title in capital letters. I would have gone for a much more casual looking logo, considering the game’s aesthetic. Boss Golf (only the first letters of each word are capitalized) is much more calming to read, and with a much more rounded font with a pastel colour (or white text on a pastel background) would further make it feel calm.

The trailer should have information about: Estimated release date The developer/studio A website or blog link Social media Most importantly, what the game is about! It is actually hard to tell if this is about building golf courses or just watching them- it is only because I have read the previous announcements that I know what this is!



Another thing to consider is the price- I do not know what the price is yet, so the complaints will be dependant on that. If it’s $60, I will obviously complain it looks like a little indie game, but if it’s $5 I think we can let that pass!

At a cost of $5-$10:

This game looks good! In its (mostly) current state, this would be a fair price.

What I would like to see is the developer really taking ownership of one of two sides:

Make it a relaxing, custom designer game. Make it an in-depth tycoon game.

Let’s be honest, for a game like this the first option is better. But, an optional challenge mode would make the game worth a higher sale price.

I have not seen a huge variety of trees yet in the trailer, nor have I seen golf course decorations or customization over the buildings. For a relaxing golf course game, I do think plenty of customization is key to the success of the game.

Also, a question raises if there are golf courses that are harder to design than others, such as unique mini-objectives or different categories of courses that require certain features.

At a cost of $10-$20:

In its current state, this price would be too high considering my above comments about the lack of customization. My lack of knowledge on the depth of management and the building tools also makes me cautious about spending a high price on it, but this can be rectified with future trailers.

This game looks bland. Even if the developer made their own assets instead of using royalty free ones, they might as well as saved the time and used available assets- they don’t look interesting at all. For a double-digit costing game, this would be disappointing, so unless they plan to restart on the graphics I would not expect to pay higher than $10. Obviously, if it starts out at a high price but there is a sale later on, I may consider it then.

Overall…

It’s not a bad looking game. But it’s definitely early in development; one to keep an eye out for.