What the Golf?
Triband · Apple Arcade, PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox, Android · 2019
WHAT THE GOLF? is a physics-based comedy game by Triband that takes the basic idea of golf and repeatedly twists it into something unexpected. Each short challenge introduces a new variation, joke, mechanic or reference, often changing what the player is controlling or what “golf” means from one level to the next.
A large part of the work was rapid iteration. Because individual challenges are deliberately short, an idea needed to communicate itself quickly, feel good to play and usually deliver some kind of unexpected payoff. I designed and built levels directly in Unity, testing and adjusting their layout, timing and difficulty until the gameplay and comedy worked together.
Challenge Design
I worked primarily on challenge design and level implementation. WHAT THE GOLF? is structured around taking mechanics and repeatedly finding new ways to reinterpret them, so the design process involved experimenting with variations, identifying which ideas were immediately understandable and entertaining, and turning those ideas into compact playable challenges.
I implemented my levels directly in Unity and iterated on them through playtesting, adjusting elements such as level layout, timing, difficulty and the way the central joke or surprise was revealed.
Designing for surprise
One of the things I enjoyed most about working on the project was the relationship between mechanics and comedy. A challenge often works because the player thinks they understand what is going to happen, only for the game to undermine that expectation.
That meant designing not only for whether a level was mechanically functional, but also for when the player understood the idea, when the surprise happened, and how long the challenge should continue after the joke had landed.
That experience reinforced something that has remained important in my approach to game design: small changes in timing, presentation and player expectation can have as much impact on an experience as adding more mechanics.