Alexander Westwater
Game & Level Designer
Autemn Embers
Autumn Embers is as the name suggest is a seasonal themed course filled with dense vegetation and warm colour pallet. I decided to create par 3 course to dip my toes in different par courses and understand what make different par courses fun and challenging to play. I found par 3 courses quick to sketch, prototype and play test, the part I challenge I found when making this course was how to make it challenging without placing bunkers everywhere to or having small fairways to cheaply make it difficult. I wanted to make it small without making it a clear and obvious shot to the green for the player.
This was made using Unreal engine 4 as I wanted to see which engine worked best for me to create Golf Clash courses. I think the design of the course turned out great however the art style doesn't fit in with Golf Clashes more stylized atheistic. It doesn't matter too much as this task is focused on designing the course itself and not the art style.
Autumn Embers
Hole 7 - Par 3 (3)
Yellow Path
With a tailwind you will have a chance to go directly onto the next fairway. It's risky though, since missing the bounce will lead to the bunker. Avoid this way unless you have straight tailwind.
Red Path
With side or tail wind this is the preferred way to play. Max topspin and a wide fairway should leave you with a second shot to the green just watch out for the bunker and trees.
Screenshots
Process
Painted in the terrain based on my sketch using a master material to connect all my textures together so I can easily switch textures as I create the course. I also added a landscape coordinate node to adjust the tiling offset of the textures.
Sculpted in in the landscape to create slopes and other geometry to make the course more complex rather than be all flat.
The hard part was creating the theme for the level so I looked around for inspiration and found colourful autumn themed images and used warm colours like red, brown and yellow for the vegetation and lighting which makes the green grass pop out amongest the warm colours. From there I added various vegetation and surrounded the map with some mountains. The result is a beautiful sunrise that illuminates the entire course.
Conclusion
I found this to be the most difficult map so far to create due to the complication of making the course challenging yet fun for the player in such a small scale. The layout of the course turned out how I envisioned it however I struggled to find a theme for the course and luckily I found something that would fit Golf Clashes variety of seasonal courses with this autumn themed course. However going for a more realistic art style doesn't suit the games more stylized aesthetic but the overall design of the level and the use of colours I believe will fit nicely with Golf Clashes seasonal courses. This course was tough yet fun to make, their are downsides to this course but I have learned how challenging it is to make a course on a much smaller map as well as trying a more realistic art style to see how it fits with Golf Clash. Also using a different game engine was well worth trying to see if I felt more comfortable creating courses with Unreal engine 4.