We all know that most mini-golf courses could use a serious face-lift. I love polycarbonate dinosaur figures as much as the next person, but they do lose their luster when one dinosaur foot in the middle of a green is the most exciting obstacle on the course. But before jumping into how technology could enhance the mini-golf world, I will say that the environmental and user-centric design factors for products on mini-golf courses are surprisingly challenging. You have to design around rain, wind, snow, children dropping golf clubs, players losing their ball, and above all else, players trying to destroy course property:
Despite the challenges, mini-golf can leverage some of the same design constraints (freedoms?) that escape rooms have. The equipment (balls, clubs, courses) goes through periodic use, and the people managing the course can interact with the equipment between uses. The entire course does not operate 24 hrs/day which has additional benefits, and depending on how you design the course, you can isolate groups from one another. Mini-golf courses can also be closely contained, and scoring requires players to aim into a target that is recessed in the ground, which has additional benefits.
In short, mini-golf is poised for a technical breakthrough, akin to that of production companies (like 5wits) increasing the complexity, immersion, and excitement of escape rooms. However, it is worth noting that the financial constraints are likely much tighter for mini-golf courses than for high-production-value experiences. And with that in mind, here are some ways that creative technology use can improve the mini-golf experience:
Dynamic Green
There are a ton of mini-golf video games, including some of the first flash games on the internet, that have used moving green features on the course to redirect the players shot in different directions. In the games, most are simply just arrows moving in a given direction on a green, or a well-defined grey treadmill feature moving across the green.
The basic implementation of this type of feature may not be overly complex. Outdoor moving walkways and treadmills have existed for a decades, and more likely than not, low-power motors driving any pulley system underneath the course will have fairly defined operational load parameters, and can be tucked out of environmental harm underneath the course. The devil, of course, is in the details when it comes to implementing such a feature. I won’t run through all relevant design nuances, but a couple areas for particular focus are:
1. Safety: Above all else, having erratic moving walkways that might aesthetically blend with a green could be a huge fall and pinch safety hazard. Assuming that we need to have these dynamic green features installed, we’ve already blown through the base of the hierarchy of control pyramid, and can process immediately towards isolating the players from the hazard. There are a lot of ways to do this including railings, see-through covers over moving sections, person detection, and more, but how you blend the safety features into the course leads into the next challenge.
2. Aesthetic integration: When designing any feature of a product, you have to ask yourself questions like “do I want this to stand out to the user?” and “how do I provide the user information about how this works without text?” Any moving feature on a mini-golf game is the same, with the additional layer that you still want any design features to blend in with the rest of your course theme. If I’ve got a sci-fi or industrial themed course with grey and black greens, then maybe a ruggedized, metallic moving walkway with sheet-metal stamped arrows is appropriate! Or if I have a dino-themed course, maybe we teach the player early on that any part of the green that has embossed footprints will move, and the ball will travel in the direction of the prints– the possibilities are truly endless, but worth thinking about for a cohesive product.
Automatic Score Tracking
Automatic score tracking might not be in, and of itself a groundbreaking feature, but it’s interesting because of the number of ways it can be achieved and what else it unlocks. You can use accelerometers in the ball or in the club to track the number of impacts (and toss a buttload of work to the software team on filtering shots vs the players messing around with the ball), you could do visual tracking of the ball from top-down cameras if you have an indoor course, you could use active RFID chips in the ball to track position, you could try to guess the number of shots by sensing pressure on the course itself, you could use audio detection on the clubs, and many other methods. What ball, and shot tracking gets you though, is maybe more important than how you achieve it.
If you can track the number of shots each player makes, or their ball position at all times, you can unlock some completely new game modes and features (this is a non-exhaustive list):
- Speed golf: separate the players, and see how quickly they can go from tee to hole on all 18 greens on the course. Again, have to be aware of the safety risks of running around a golf course, but could be a really fun twist on the game that lowers the skill gap between the best and worst golfers.
- Metric tracking: basic data like fastest shot, most birdies, worst close-cup game, and more can be presented to the players. Not necessarily the most exciting for the causal players, but dedicated golfers might want to dig into these CSV files, which can be purchased for $9.95 upon departure, of course.
- Automatic long-term bookkeeping: Players can easily see their past scores and accomplishments if they want to associate themselves with their play. This also enables overall leaderboards, like any good arcade game.
- “Closest to the pin”: For every tee shot, players can compare who is the closest to the pin. While there are minor benefits to pace of play, this might be a fun game-within-the-game to see who the best mini-golf “driver” is.
Harnessing the (Electro-mechanical) Elements
Using compressed air and electro-magnets to transport, disrupt, or otherwise influence the ball travel could lead to some “wow” moments and some clown-killing frustration (see above). Of course, the end goal isn’t to launch balls over 1/2 a mile like Bob (who is probably on some lists because of this video). However, using compressed air nozzles hidden along the edges of the green to periodically blast someone’s ball in a random direction, or use magnetic “sand-traps” to lock people’s ball in place could lead to some pretty unique putting experiences. The extended use of magnets does require some level of dense magnetic material be embedded in the golf balls, but the great thing about mini-golf is that most players aren’t concerned about the quality of their ball (but I will still bring my own Titleist Pro V1 in serious rounds). The great thing about both pneumatic and magnetic hazards and features is that they are largely invisible to the player, so might provide a more genuine surprise for players.
Eventually, your course could look like a magical version of the ever-mesmerizing and ever-filmed-with-a-2006-Motorola-Razr ball machine at the Museum of Science in Boston:
Internal Ball Power-ups
This one is fairly simple: the basic premise is that if Sphero can move around a sphere (or very cute BB-8 toy, which was admittedly a major technical challenge) in whatever manner they please, couldn’t you do the same for mini-golf balls? A few ways you could use momentum control of a golf-ball, for fun or for chaos:
- Super-speed: the ball will increase speed in whichever direction it is hit until it hits an obstacle
- Slug: the ball constantly tries to arrest momentum in whichever direction it is moving
- Wall-ball: whenever the ball hits a feature, it immediately tries to come to a complete stop
- Jump ball: the ball will randomly hop 6″ in the air once per shot
- The alligator evasion: twice per shot, the ball will zig or zag in a random direction perpendicular to travel
Maybe some day mini-golf courses can sell their own DLC (and also charge $24.99 of course):
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