Links Corner Forum

Coming to Steam soon!!!!!!! For the last 3+ months (over 500 hours) I've been building this. It should be available for purchase on Steam in the coming months. This has been a dream project that AI has made possible in the year 2025. I already have plans for Version 2 that didn't quite make the cut for Version 1. I'm also building some baseball apps, a personal finance app and plan to build an app for running a Links 2003 replay similar to the one I've been running that I plan to give to this community for free. My replays over the last 20+ years were definitely the inspiration for this project, but this is so much more than I ever imagined I was capable of. If you've ever played out of the park baseball or front office football or baseball mogul then this is the golf version of those games. It's over 40,000 lines of code so it's extremely in depth. When it goes live on Steam I'll make sure to come back and post that link.

Also, I've tried extremely hard to create a .PIN editor and an overall Links2003 editor. I haven't given up on either project, but an old game that AI is having a hard time deciphering files has definitely stalled both projects.

Hope everyone is doing well. I've missed the Links community.


The Ultimate Golf Sandbox: Your Universe Awaits


Step beyond the fairway and take control of your own professional golf universe. A revolutionary new golf simulation experience has arrived, offering unparalleled depth, realism, and emergent storytelling. This isn't just a game where you play golf; it's a world where you build legacies. Manage the careers of thousands of players across a sprawling global landscape, watch dynasties rise and fall, and read the stories of every triumph and heartbreak.

Welcome to the deepest, most detailed golf management simulator ever created.

Key Features at a Glance
• Four Unique Game Modes: Including the groundbreaking, persistent Universe Mode and three distinct Career Modes.

• Living, Breathing World: A global tour ecosystem with over 15 professional and amateur tours, each with unique schedules, purses, and prestige.

• Dynamic Narrative Engine: The world reacts to your actions. Experience unique, procedurally generated news stories, season previews, playoff breakdowns, and off-season reports that bring your simulation to life.

• Deep Player DNA: Every player is unique, with seven core skill ratings, hidden potential, and a dynamic career arc. Watch players develop, peak, and decline based on age, performance, and random career events.

• Authentic Player Lifecycle: Manage a world of over 3,000 players. Witness the excitement of new player generation, the tension of relegation, the triumph of promotion, and the emotion of player retirements for three distinct reasons: age, injury, or unfulfilled potential.

• Realistic Tournament Simulation: A sophisticated engine simulates every tournament with realistic scoring, major championship exemptions, signature event qualification (including "Aon Next 10" & "Aon Swing 5" logic), and dramatic cut lines.

• Comprehensive Stat Tracking: Dive into an ocean of data with detailed seasonal and career stats for every player, team, and course. Track everything from earnings and points to detailed hole performance averages.
• Full Customization & Control: Edit any player, team, course, or tour structure. Import custom player and course files to create the golf world of your dreams.

Deep Dive: Game Modes

Universe Mode: The Flagship Experience

This is the ultimate golf sandbox. Take the helm of a persistent, evolving golf world that runs for decades.

• A Global Ecosystem: Manage a world of over 15 distinct professional and amateur tours, from the elite Pro League Tour to developmental circuits in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

• Dynamic Player Movement: The off-season is just as exciting as the season. Experience a fully simulated player lifecycle including Q-School, amateur graduations, tour promotions and relegations, and free agency.

• The T54 Tour: A unique, 13-team league modeled after modern team golf. Features a snake draft for initial parity, a 14-event global schedule, realistic team-based scoring, and a high-stakes Team Championship. Manage contracts, recruit top talent, and build a dynasty.

• Living Narrative: Every week brings a new story. Read detailed recaps of major tournaments, track players on hot and cold streaks, get notified of new world #1s, and follow the off-season drama as players change tours, rookies turn pro, and legends retire.

Career Modes: Your League, Your Rules

Create a self-contained league and play through season after season with your favorite format.

• Stroke Play Mode: A classic individual competition. Create a league of up to 125 players and compete for points titles, earnings crowns, and the coveted Player of the Year award.
• Team Play Mode: A 16-team, two-division league where you manage a roster of four players. Experience a full season of head-to-head team matchups, a dramatic playoff bracket, and a detailed off-season with a rookie draft and retirements.
• Combo Mode: The best of both worlds. Players compete in weekly individual stroke play tournaments while their scores also contribute to their team's success in head-to-head matchups. Crown both an individual and a team champion each season.


The Living World: A Deep Simulation Engine

• Dynamic Player Progression: No two careers are the same. A sophisticated engine models a player's entire career arc, from their raw potential as a rookie to their peak and eventual decline. Random events like breakthroughs, slumps, coaching changes, and injuries can alter a player's trajectory at any moment.

• Realistic Player Movement: The world is constantly in motion. Players fight to keep their tour cards, with bottom performers being relegated to lower tours. Top players from feeder leagues get promoted to the big leagues, creating a constant churn of talent.

• Authentic Tournament Qualification: Fields are determined by merit. Players qualify for Majors based on world ranking and past championships. Signature Events feature exemptions for top international players and in-form golfers via a system that mirrors the PGA Tour's "Aon Next 10" and "Aon Swing 5" pathways.

• Detailed Off-Season: The off-season is a full-fledged event. It includes player aging, skill progression/regression, retirements, Hall of Fame inductions, and a complete player movement cascade that reshuffles the global tours for the next season.

The Story Engine: Every Season Tells a Story

This is more than a spreadsheet; it's a story generator. A powerful narrative engine creates unique, readable reports for every phase of your season.

• Season Previews: Get detailed, newspaper-style previews analyzing the defending champions, top rookies, and expert predictions for the upcoming season.
• Playoff Previews: Before the championship begins, receive a full breakdown of the playoff bracket, including "Tale of the Tape" style statistical comparisons of the key matchups.

• Championship Recaps: Celebrate the champions with a full recap of the playoffs, honoring the winners and highlighting the most dramatic moments.

• Off-Season Reports: A comprehensive summary of every off-season transaction, including awards, draft results, notable retirements, promotions, relegations, and Hall of Fame inductees.

• Universe Mode Narratives: The world never sleeps. Get weekly pop-ups for major tournament winners, new world #1s, record-breaking performances, and players on incredible hot streaks or in deep slumps. The off-season report is a massive, multi-section story covering everything from top free agents to the next generation of amateur talent.

For the Ultimate Golf Nerd

• Record Books & Hall of Fame: Track a massive list of single-season and all-time records for both individual and team play. Evaluate retired players against rigorous criteria for induction into the Hall of Fame.

• Deep Stats: View comprehensive stats tables for every player, team, and course, covering everything from basic performance to advanced metrics like par-3/4/5 scoring averages.

• Complete Control: Dive into the settings to edit anything. Change player ratings, team names, division structures, tour rules, course details, and even the points models for tournament payouts. Your world, your rules.

This is the golf simulation you've always dreamed of. Your universe is waiting.

Can you post some screen shots?

Sage........

Sure is nice to hear from you - sounds very interesting. Will wait to see final. My question is when do you find time to sleep? Sure wish I had your energy! Most of all have fun with whatever you undertake.

Hi,

that sounds very interesring. Playing OotP Baseball/Hockey.

I surely will giv it a try.


Greetings
Derek

Here are some screenshots from universe mode. I'll get some of the other modes when I'm actually in those at another time.

Here are some more screenshots from universe mode.

Thanks for the screenys Big S..........

Looks interesting..............

Sage......

I assume you manually enter your own score per hole?

How does it react to different courses having different difficulties and conditions per round varying in difficulty? Like, how do you ensure the roster as a whole scores realistically low or high per course and conditions? Can I as a user customize parameters for that by myself?

Is it possible to have tournaments being played on different courses (i.e. round 1 on course A, round 2 on course B, round 3 on course C)?

Can I choose to only see news / highlight commentary and such for the most relevant players to avoid unwanted bloat?

Is there a prepared roster one can use that corresponds to real life PGA Tour players either today or in the past?

Adelade,

I assume you manually enter your own score per hole?

Absolutely not. The game has a simulation engine that I built that uses 6 physical (driver, long irons, short irons, fairway woods, chipping and putting) and 1 mental rating (determines score deviation/consistency) that is assigned to each golfer when they are created. Upon creation, each golfer is assigned a rating for each of those 7 skills that make up the golfers overall rating and assigned a potential (hidden or not, your choice) rating in each of the 7 skills. Depending on the mode you are playing, the simulation engine sims out hole by hole results for a round, then a tournament, then a schedule, then a season and then a career. The person playing the game doesn't enter anything. They just sit back and see careers/golf universe unfold.

How does it react to different courses having different difficulties and conditions per round varying in difficulty? Like, how do you ensure the roster as a whole scores realistically low or high per course and conditions? Can I as a user customize parameters for that by myself?

I have a course library of over 1100 courses. Each course has total pars ranging from 70-73 with a slope of 115-155 that determines it's difficulty. Each tournament has a conditions variable (1-5) that determines the weather/course setup variable to make the course easier or more difficult. The players ratings, the course slope and the course conditions all factor into the hole by hole results. This is all adjustable in a massive sliders menu system that lets you tweak just about every aspect of the game you want.

Is it possible to have tournaments being played on different courses (i.e. round 1 on course A, round 2 on course B, round 3 on course C)?

This won't be available in version 1. Since version 1 is literally done and in testing phase I've already created a list of features to be added to version 2. Those are below.

- Full Ryder Cup/President's Cup implementation

- Realistic college golf world will replace the WCT (world collegiate tour) in universe mode that will have college names, conferences, schedules and PGA (I can't use PGA) University points system. Version 1 has the WCT included with the PGA U points system for promotions, but doesn't have players on teams, teams in conferences, etc.

- Women's career mode and university mode. Basically if you want to use women in career mode or university mode you will be able to do this. Technically this could be done in version 1 by changing the CSV's to include women's names, but version 2 will already have those CSVs with an option on the main menu for women modes.

- Multiple venue events such as American Express, Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Torrey Pines events on PGA Tour

- Live mode for all modes (it's only in universe mode in version 1). Career mode is state mode only, which means it simulates a tournament, week or season instantly and then displays the results. Live mode displays the results while the sim is in progress.

Can I choose to only see news / highlight commentary and such for the most relevant players to avoid unwanted bloat?

In career mode, since it's an instant state simulation, always pops up the narrative engine for each button press (playoff preview, playoff results, off-season, next season preview). I left these permanently on in career mode because they do a good job of summarizing and displaying results as much as they do narrating and came to the conclusion that they are necessary/better for the user experience. Even with these, you can sim an entire season and look at all the pop ups for each button press in career mode in less than 2 minutes.

In university mode there is a full narrative engine that is totally customizable so you can pick and choose when you want interruptions similar to how OOTP handles pop up interruptions. This narrative engine, when it's done with have almost 10,000 lines of narrative content so things don't get repetitive.

Is there a prepared roster one can use that corresponds to real life PGA Tour players either today or in the past?

This is my favorite of your questions. I wanted the app to be very easy to customize for the user so all the courses, tournament names, schedules, player names are all pulled from CSVs that will be included in the game so they can be modified to the end users liking. I have a full PGA database that I built that has every player, every year they've ever played with ratings for each year from 1920 to 2025. I will update that every year. However, I don't have a PGA license (yet) so I can't include the PGA names, tournaments or courses. I have all the PGA tournaments, courses and schedules already built, but just won't be able to include them so I have generic/fake ones in the CSVs that will come with the game. The user can edit those CSV directly or use the built in editor within the settings menu to adjust anything they want.

The player generation, ratings and progression system are one of the parts of the game I'm most proud of. I have two different names files (one for career mode and one for universe mode) that allow the user to play infinitely into the future (500+ seasons in career mode and forever in universe mode) without ever getting duplicates. You can save your sessions and re-load them and play them forever, but every time you start a new career or universe you are getting a 100% new set of players so each one creates a unique gaming experience.

Big Sexy JC wrote: ↑August 12th, 2025, 3:42 amAbsolutely not. The game has a simulation engine that I built that uses 6 physical (driver, long irons, short irons, fairway woods, chipping and putting) and 1 mental rating (determines score deviation/consistency) that is assigned to each golfer when they are created. Upon creation, each golfer is assigned a rating for each of those 7 skills that make up the golfers overall rating and assigned a potential (hidden or not, your choice) rating in each of the 7 skills. Depending on the mode you are playing, the simulation engine sims out hole by hole results for a round, then a tournament, then a schedule, then a season and then a career. The person playing the game doesn't enter anything. They just sit back and see careers/golf universe unfold.

No, I mean, entering your own scores if you want to play along the season yourself in Links? Is that not intended to be possible?

Big Sexy JC wrote: ↑August 12th, 2025, 3:42 amEach tournament has a conditions variable (1-5) that determines the weather/course setup variable to make the course easier or more difficult.

Each tournament, but not each round? In real life, day 1 might be easy, but day 2 difficult, for example.