Double Fine’s Patrick Hackett really wants Bad Golf to exist. In a previous Amnesia Fortnight, he pitched the idea of a 4-player golf game where you harass your fellow players by running over balls with golf carts, demolishing the fairway and breaking their carts. It sounded great, but failed to get the necessary votes to get turned into a prototype.
In this year’s Amnesia Fortnight, he pitched Bad Golf 2, the sequel to the game that would never be. Once again, his dreams were dashed. Instead, Mnemonic, Steed, Dear Leader and Pendleton Ward’s Little Pink Best Buds made the cut.
The story of Bad Golf could have ended there, were it not for diligent fans who decided that they would make the game a reality.
Although all of the pitches from Amnesia Fortnight are copyrighted, Double Fine being who they are, the studio has decided to give fans permission to make Bad Golf.
“Personally, I was flattered by the idea that people would want to collaborate to make a game idea of mine.” Hackett told Eurogamer today. “I really couldn’t have been more excited to hear about this idea and told them I’d support them as much as I could.
“As for it being Double Fine’s property – Greg and I brought the situation up to Tim and Justin and they approved of the idea, citing that any production should remain in the creative commons. Because of that, the project’s source control repository is available for free and the final product will never be sold.”
This fan-made version of Bad Golf, being worked on by an 18-strong team, doesn’t mean it will be the end of Hatchett’s vision for the game, either. “Speaking again for myself, I don’t see this as any harm to the Bad Golf concept – many of the team members working on the Community Edition want me to continue to push the idea at Double Fine to make the proper version. In fact, I see this as a huge boost to the possibility of a DF created Bad Golf title. Bad Golf 3 in 2015!!”
Cheers, Eurogamer.