Dev Log: Crooked Hollow
Crooked Hollow is live — a free Halloween course, open to everyone, for October only. Here's how it came together, including everything that went wrong along the way.
The plan
The goal: eighteen holes that could only exist in this one place. Not North Woods with pumpkins.
The hidden problem: every hole in Chain Chasers was secretly a straight corridor. Doglegs were just a painted stripe — the rough and the woods ignored the bend. So the Hollow got new engine work: on its holes, the out-of-bounds follows the actual path. Throw straight through a corner and you're in the trees, which is what a dogleg is supposed to do. The camera follows you sideways now too. The three existing courses play exactly as before.
A few calls I made up front:
October only. It comes back every October automatically.
Open to everyone. No unlock.
A trophy that isn't a cup: the Gilded Gourd, on its own mantel in the clubhouse.
It never rains in the Hollow. The fog is placed by hand, hole by hole.
What's in it
18 holes, par 68, walking one valley from the covered bridge out of town, through the orchard, the corn, the bog and the graveyard, up to the castle. A horseshoe, a two-road hole, an island green, a blind drop, the castle wall in a storm, and the last basket at the top of the tower.
One moment per hole at most — a black cat that bolts, crows off the scarecrow, an owl that watches your disc, witches at a kettle, a zombie crossing, bats, lightning.
A night that's actually lit. The ground goes dark and the light comes from the pumpkins, torches and windows.
New music, lo-fi slasher style.
The Crypt Keeper, a new minigame at the turn: repeat the gravestones' pattern and the residents sit up to watch.
Ten Halloween pins in their own case.
A new intro film for October. The old one is now the reward for unlocking DUSK.
What went wrong (all fixed)
The castle floated. In the intro film, and then twice more on the share image. Rule I keep repeating: this is a world, it has to abide. Things touch the ground now.
The Corn Maze was impossible. I don't guess at difficulty — a bot plays every hole with perfect throws. It took 9 strokes on a par 5. Re-cut, now 6.
Trees were growing in the fairways. On the bending holes, trees got planted inside the playable path — nine in Pumpkin Patch's fairway alone. That's a lot of why the first version felt brutal. After the fix, the Hollow plays about as hard as Low Five Classic for the bot.
Every online round counted as a mulligan round, so none of them ever reached a leaderboard. Fixed — and leaderboards now exist for 3, 9 and 18 holes on every course, in every mode.
My own phone forgot who I was. It still showed my bag tag, but had quietly lost its sign-in weeks earlier, so my scores and progress weren't saving. Two of my rounds are gone for good. Now a device that loses its sign-in tells you and is one emailed code from fixed, and scores that can't post wait and retry instead of vanishing.
Holes 17 and 18 lied to you. The stone walls looked like a straight path you could cut across; the real path zigzagged right through them. The walls now sit where the edge actually is.
The NPCs were cheating, kind of. Championship NPCs don't actually play — their scores are rolled — and the roll didn't know which course it was on. The winner landed around 8 under everywhere. Now each course has its own difficulty for the field: the Hollow's winner lands around 2 under.
The trophies floated too. The cup hovered over its stem. Each cup is one piece now, and each championship has its own look.
The October trophy was on my mantel before I'd won it. Every trophy you haven't won now sits under a cloth. The Gourd under its sheet looks like a little ghost.
The minigame was switched off in championships. It's on.
My scorecard
My first full championship on the Hollow: +15. I blew up on a few holes, and I'm OK with that. I want to see if I can learn this course and get better — that's sort of the ideal game, right?
Your turn
Play it before October 31. Beat my +15. And if your bag tag ever says SIGN IN AGAIN, tap it and enter the code we email you to get your progress back.
— Alex, Assistant Greenskeeper