SupraOrbital Studios

Wow, it’s been over a year already! Looking back at my last update for the game, all we had was:

• Classic game mode
• One level with 17 holes
• Multiplayer joinable rooms
• Throw replay

Comparing that to today, we now have

• Multiple game modes (Classic, Timed, Simultaneous)
• 8 Levels with 134 holes
• Multiplayer joinable rooms, cross-play, voice chat
• Throw replay and slow-mo replay
• Cloud saves
• Fully fledged tutorial
• 206 unlockable disc customization options (72 hidden discs – 8 per level + menu, and 134 obtainable by getting par or better on each hole)
• Baked lighting
• Throw assist
• A whole new revamped throwing logic
• Big basket mode
• Statistics tracking
• 6 supported languages (English, French, Danish, German, Italian, and Spanish)
• More QOL features

Working on it day by day, it’s been easy to lose track of how far things have come (and also easy to forget to update this blog – oops). But that’s a lot of progress! So much so that I’m finally comfortable calling the game “done”!

It’s hard to decide when the game is done (it never really is), there’s always something more that can be added, or another feature that can be polished. I wanted to make sure that players would be getting enough content from the game that they wouldn’t walk away feeling like it was only partially finished. I also wanted to make sure that the gameplay experience and technical performance felt smooth and consistent across the board.

For that I owe a big thank you to the users in the Disc Frenzy discord community! Without them, I wouldn’t have had to completely rewrite the throwing logic, do extensive network testing to support the widest range of peer-to-peer connections (looking at you, starlink), or derail my timeline with tons of great QoL suggestions. But in the end, all of that made the game far better, and pushed me to revisit and improve a lot of my earlier decisions.

With that said, I’m extremely proud of how Disc Frenzy has turned out. Each of the 8 levels has its own distinct theme, visually and in gameplay, offering different types of challenges (verticality, confined spaces, water hazards, moving obstacles, etc.).

Glasshouse Greens, Farmland Fairway, Penguin Peak, The Lab
Balloon Loft Park, Maple Fairway, Bogey Beach, Twilight Rooftops

Baked lighting played a huge role in making the environments look as good as they do on Quest 2 and 3/3s. Initially, I used flat lighting to hit the 80 fps target for standalone headsets and to keep baked lighting memory (and my poor computer’s bake times) under control. But after revisiting it, I managed to make baked lighting work by combining it with occlusion culling and fixing a memory leak in the disc customization system that increased usage every time a new level loaded. The visual difference is night and day (aha), and I don’t think the latest level would look half as good without it.

Gameplay-wise, I also feel the loop is now solid and polished. With Throw Assist and Big Basket mode, newer players can perform respectably and learn the mechanics without getting too frustrated, and the tutorial guides them through all the major gameplay mechanics in a structured way. The various game modes offer variety, par-based unlockables and high scores add replayability, discoverable discs provide a fun side activity and customization options, and cross-play multiplayer helps keep the player base connected.

I was also able to include some slightly less related but fun activities in the game. Each level has a ‘Disc Launcher’ hidden somewhere. It’s essentially a disc bazooka that lets you choose the RPM, velocity, and rating of your disc before shooting it. Fun to try and get some extremely long shots! There’s also an interactable whiteboard. Completely unrelated, but it’s fun to play some little games on it with friends while waiting for others to join, or just before starting a round. I also added the ability to climb just about any surface. This lets you get at typically unreachable places, and is useful for either trick-shots or just exploring the levels.

In the end, I’m happy to say that the game has reached, and in some ways surpassed, what I initially imagined over two and a half years ago. With the full release coming out of Early Access in the next few weeks, it’s both incredibly exciting and daunting. I hope everyone who’s played it has enjoyed the game, and since it’ll never really be finished finished, I’ll see you on the next course! 🥏