ALT GOLF
Golf, the universe and everything
Indie developers are finding new uses for videogames’ favourite good walk spoiled
The golf game has felt increasingly niche in recent years, despite once being a videogame staple. With EA taking an extended break from its licensed franchise, HB Studios’ precise simulations for 2K have been the sole serious contenders, while Clap Hanz has emigrated to Apple Arcade and Mario Golf has spent a decade or so in the rough. Yet, while the sport’s representation has flagged, its mechanics have been co-opted by indie developers for alternative ends. Clubbing little balls is a versatile activity, it turns out, with a heap of cultural baggage to explore.
Take Chuhai Labs’ forthcoming Cursed To Golf, a golfing Roguelite dungeon crawl. Its central premise riffs on the ambivalence golfers – including game director Liam Edwards, who played regularly during his childhood – themselves often have towards the sport. “I always had this weird relationship with golf,” he says. “I kind of loved it, kind of hated it.” In Cursed To Golf you play a top golf pro who’s killed on the verge of winning the sport’s ultimate trophy and finds himself in golfing purgatory, turning his passion into a Sisyphean trial.