Barkers Crest Studio wants to know How Low Can You Go!

• Weeping Willow
• Desert oasis
• Robot Retreat
• Hazard County
• White Mountain C.C.
• The 19th Hole

• 3 new premium courses courtesy of Nicholas Wilson ( Desert Oasis, Robot Retreat, While Mountain C.C. )
• 8 player simultaneous online
• 14 Unlockable character accessories such as a cowboy hat, pirate hat, clown nose, sombrero, top hat, and much more.
• 4 new backgrounds ( Outer Space, City Lights, Rain Clouds, Snow Clouds )
• New weather effects ( Rain and Snow )
• New Course Records ( Saves your best score for each course based on tee box including downloaded courses ) WARNING: If you modify a course your designed or redownload a course from someone else the course records for that course are reset.
• Hole Flyovers ( Press right on the right analog stick for a hole flyover...the hole flyover route is calculated automatically for gamer created courses )
• Drastically improved physics ( ie: float feeling and terrain collisions )
• Top Spin ( Push up on Right analog stick...note: reverse view has been moved to pressing left on right analog stick)
• Modified ball flight camera ( Give it a try and you'll see )
• Faster loading times between holes
• Player statistics are saved during online matches

• 3 new desert themed trees.
• 2 new rocks
• Build islands in water
• Place any terrain object inside of any other terrain object now. (Nothing can be placed inside a tee box)
• Faster building
• Reduced code 4 errors
• Can build larger areas of tall grass with no code 4 errors.
• Can build larger areas of water with no code 4 errors.
• During hole setup, wider options are available to accomodate sharp dogleg designs.
• Terrain objects no longer randomly dissapear after elevation adjustments
• Unsupported font characters no longer crash the game ( they are ignored )

• Improved golfer shadow
• Improved graphically effects on tee markers
• Player stats and course record menu option moved to main menu ( still exists in options menu too )
• Graphical changes to a few of the Weeping Willow holes.
• Added help screens so gamers can more easily find online matches or courses to download.

• Game Review  - destructoid.com - 7.5/10
  "Easy Golf is a title that makes full use of what XNA has to offer, and that deserves some real commendation."
• Game Review  - gamestyle.net - 8/10
  "Easy Golf restores our faith in the Community Section of Xbox Live. It just shows what one person can achieve with talent and dedication. If you have enjoyed golfing releases previously then this warrants your time, so make it your next purchase and get involved online."
• Game Review  - cheatcc.com - 7.6/10
  "All told, it's Wii Sports golf for the Xbox 360, at the price of $10, with a well-functioning if not user-friendly course creator. We're not seeing the downside."
• Game Review  - totally360.com - 8/10
  "Overall this is a tremendous community game. I highly recommend it to everyone. At the very least be sure to download the demo and give this title a shot. You don’t need to be a golf fan to enjoy the title and you don’t need to know the rules either. This is a casual golf title that everyone can enjoy. If you want you can just spend your whole time building courses for friends and families to try and beat. Be sure to give this one a try."

1. On your Xbox 360, navigate to the "My Xbox" section and find Easy Golf, just like you would if you were starting up the game for playing.
2. When you are prompted with the choice to play or delete the game.  Select delete.  Don't worry, your saves will NOT be lost and you do NOT have to pay to download the game again.
3. After the game is deleted, head over to the Community Games section of the XBL Marketplace.  Find Easy Golf there and select it.
4. The very first panel should give you the "Download Again" option.  Select that option and the game will download again.  When the download is complete you now have the updated version of Easy Golf.

If for some reason you have already purchased Easy Golf and the "Download Again" option is not there or you are prompted to spend Microsoft Points, don't.  Contact Microsoft support and they should be able to help you out.

If you need any additional help feel free to contact me:  matt.davis@barkerscrest.com

• The first Christmas surprise is a special Christmas gift from me to you.  Upon download of the update you can look into your playable course list and see an extra course.  The course is called "The 19th Hole" and I designed it specifically to take advantage of the new backspin feature of this update.  If you've been waiting for a course to test your Easy Golf skills, this is the course for you.
• The other surprise will only show if you play the game on December 24th or 25th.  Should I tell you what it is?  ...hmm.  Not right now.  You'll just have to wait.

• Downloading other gamers courses for local play is now available.  Click here  to learn how.
  • The creators gamertag automatically displays while playing a downloaded or shared course.
  • Delete courses you don't like.
• You can now preview your hole as you are building it.  Features of the hole preview include:
  • Showing frames per second to see if your course renders slow.
  • Place your golfball anywhere at anytime.  This way you can practice shots from any location on your hole.
  • Jump between design and preview quickly while working on that extra little bit of detail.
• In the course designer you can change the order of your holes.
• You can also change par for each hole.
• Add backspin to your shots from the fairway or teebox. ( Awesome )  You do this by pushing down on the right analog stick.
• You can preview your shot landing area by pressing up on the right analog stick while in swing setup.
• The golfball can now hit and bounce off of the flag stick.
• The golfball is now shadowed, which basically means if the golfball is in a shadow it is darkened a bit.
• The basic palm leaf's color is adjusted a bit to it's proper color.  Somehow a bright green one slipped into the first version.
• Once you start the swing meter, you can cancel your swing by pressing ( B ) if you press it before setting the power.
• A few crash bugs have been fixed in the course designer.
• A few controller input bugs have been fixed in the menu screens.
• Trial experience has been modified to help people learn about the course designer.
• In a network multiplayer game, once you have finished the hole and are waiting on other gamers you can use the left analog stick to look around.  ( One of my favorites of this update )
• In any game mode once you get 10 or more shots you can quite the hole and move onto the next hole.  Do this by pressing start to pull up the option screen.

I've worked my tail off and put an enormous amount of hours into this update just for you guys because you all are the best.  Hopefully we can build up a nice sized community of Easy Golfer so we can have a large list of courses to play.

Happy Holidays,

Matt Davis
matt.davis@barkerscrest.com

• Developer Interview  - nometet.com
• Developer Interview  - diehardgamefan.com
• Game Review  - diehardgamefan.com
  "The course editor in Easy Golf is amazing. Honestly I don’t even like golf games very much, but I do like playing around with editing software."

• Developer Interview  - www.gameroutfit.com
• Game Review  - www.xnplay.co.uk
  "if you’re looking for a cheap, fully featured and highly polished golf game you can’t go far wrong."
• Game Review  - www.gamerbytes.com
  "It's a full blown editor which allows you to make exactly what the one guy who made this did. It's very robust with terrain formation and freeways and all you need for a golf course. It's got online play too. For 800 Points it's a pretty good deal."

I also came across this website: http://www.xblaratings.com/xna-ratings .  Check it out and give Easy Golf or any other community game you've played a review.  Pretty neat seeing all of the interest people have in games made by Joe the Plumber.  :^)

I try to email back everyone who emails me but a few times I've replied to a few folks and got back an "unknown email address error" response.  So, if you haven't received an email back now you know why.

The most important thing I want you to know is this.  Send me pictures of courses you create so I can post them on the website.  Don't worry if you think it is good or not just send it to me and I'll post it here to show off your fine effort.

Also, this weekend I created a course called Barker's Revenge.  I think it is awesome and every bit as good as the ones that came with the game.  I'm looking for people to play it so if you see me online send me a message.  My gamertag is Barkers Crest and you can always look at my gamertag here on the website to see my online status.

Till next time,

Matt Davis
matt.davis@barkerscrest.com

1. Create your course and create as many holes as you would like up to nine holes  per course.
2. Then, if you have an Xbox Live Gold Account select Xbox Live Multiplayer on the title screen. 
3. Then select Host on the next screen. 
4. After that you will see your created course in the course list.  Just select it and you will be on your way to sharing your course with people around the world

Nothing is more cool than seeing your friends golf balls fly around on your created course in real time.  One of my favorite things to do is re-create my favorite holes from the local golf courses I play.  As a matter of fact, the 9th hole on the Hazard County course is one of my most favorite.

I know the website is a bit empty in functionality for now but there is a lot planned and being developed by our 1 man team.

Upcoming Features Include:

1. Posted Games:  That little section you see to the right is where you'll see posted games.  What are posted game?  Good question.  I'll be adding in some functionality where everyone will have their own personal account with the website.  That way when someone is planning on playing Live Multiplayer match they can post what day and time they plan on doing it so others like you and me can hop on at the same time and join their play session.  I'll be posting there quite a bit so you'll know when you can jump on and play me.
2. Video Tutorials:  This is pretty self explanatory.  I'll be working on some video tutorials so you can get the most out of your Easy Golf experience.  There are some cool tips and tricks I can share to make your design experience AAA.
3. User Content:  That is right.  I want you to take pictures or videos of courses you create and send them to me.  I'll post it here on the website for everyone to see.  Send them immediately to matt.davis@barkerscrest.com .
4. XNA Developer Tutorials:  Once things settle down I'll start posting tutorials for people who are interested in making XNA games.  They'll be intermediate to advanced level because there are plenty of beginner resources already out there.  If you are a beginner and interested in creating community games, visit creators.xna.com .

Well, that is all for now.  Thank you for reading and I highly advise you to give Easy Golf a try if you haven't already.  If you have any questions, comments, or want to report a bug just send me an email.

Matt Davis
matt.davis@barkerscrest.com