What Walkabout Mini Golf’s Players Tell Us They Value in VR Right Now

Making memories together is fun. Walkabout Mini Golf isn’t so much of a game or an app as it is a place. Players of all backgrounds, ages, and skill levels go there to relax and to be together. Parents and their adult children. Spouses. College mates. Coworkers. And groups that have met not in our open lobbies (we don’t have those, for good reason) but through each other and our Discord and Facebook group. The story-infused worlds allow them to share an activity while firing up their imaginations in a way that helps them connect with each other. Players go back again and again because the courses are easy to play, but hard to master. 

Realism doesn’t matter. We have what is called a “low poly aesthetic” or as CNET’s Scott Stein called it – “magical origami” – and that includes our highly customizable avatar system. While the industry is pushing for full bodies and ultra-realistic faces, we chose a more impressionistic style where people can express themselves and their friends can recognize them… and then get on with it. This is especially important because our players want a very, very similar experience across all of our platforms. Indeed, there is a power that comes with a curated environment that is crafted with a focus on charm and appeal. Each design choice is made to bring you into the story and it is peppered with surprises for players to discover together. We hear time and again how much they appreciate these details and approach. 

An intentionally positive place. Something that’s so wholesome about our community is that it is truly all types of people—and skewed to non hard-core gamers who are primarily there to connect and have fun, with very little trash talk. Toxicity is not tolerated by us, but more importantly, we’ve structured and modeled things in such a way that our players don’t stand for it either. They tell each other ‘we don’t do that around here’. And that’s key. We also show them what matters by not making the top scorers the rockstars of our game. Instead, we spotlight the couples that meet and fall in love in Walkabout Mini Golf, the brothers who had some of their last times with their father before he unexpectedly passed away, and the sisters who rediscovered laughter and togetherness after one was lost in grief. We encourage decency and kindness, and as a result, our players are very protective of that spirit. 

Players want reasons to come back. By having a dozen courses in production at any moment, and releasing a new course every 6-8 weeks, we’ve made our studio sustainable and taught our players that—even if they don’t follow us on our social channels—there is something new to experience at any time. We meet with our players wherever we go, and listen when they tell us about the deep personal traditions they are building around Walkabout Mini Golf. It matters to them and so it matters to us. 

It’s meaningful to spend time in a beloved world. Players have been daydreaming about licensed themed courses from day one, and so we approached like-minded studios interested in satisfying their fans’ wish-fulfillment. We began working with brand partners several years ago, starting with courses based on The Jim Henson Company ’s Labyrinth film, Cyan ’s classic video game Myst, Meow Wolf ’s sentient creature Numina, and coming soon with Wallace & Gromit from Aardman . What our community tells us is that they deeply care about spending time in these worlds that are so important to them and they LOVE sharing them with each other. They welcome the opportunity to experience a beloved brand in a new way, much like visiting a theme park, but one not subject to the rules of gravity or realism.

Simplicity is key. Making a video game—especially a virtual reality experience—is highly complicated. But being in one should be very simple… especially if you hope to attract and keep a broad base of players who want to get to the good stuff right out of the box, and each time they return. We always prioritize getting the UI out of the way and just making things apparent. Sometimes, this means that important experiences are not front and center, but rather learned about in more circuitous ways. It’s a delicate balance and one we debate often. 

Comfort is crucial. Something about VR physiologically and technologically makes it prone for amped up experiences and sensations. A lot of early adopters and hardcore gamers tend towards adrenaline-spiking ideas, almost like hazing users into being worthy of being a part of it. We fundamentally disagree. Everything from the physics to the movement to the community management and multiplayer connection are all about putting people at ease. Our players have told us that playing Walkabout Mini Golf has helped them overcome loneliness, physical maladies, shyness, and much more. We take that role we play in their lives very seriously. Their joy is our joy.