Putt Till You Die

About the game

Putt Till You Die is mini-golf distilled: a ball, a hole, a green drawn in squares, and a putter that you swing with the mouse. There is no clock and no opponent, just you and the number of putts it takes. The holes are generated, from a seed that is the same on every device, so there is no last hole: you can play for as long as you like, and the numbers on the screen keep your hole, putts, total and average.

The greens are made of tiles, and the hazards are on them: sand slows the ball down, and water sends it back to where it was putted from. Shapes get more twisted as you go, with corners and detours, and the best shots are often a bank off a wall. The game is quiet and without fuss, and its author suggests playing it full screen with some chillout music on.

It was made for js13kGames 2022, on the theme Death, though the game itself admits the link is thin. Its author, Cliff Earl, dedicated it to a friend who loved golf.

Playing it here

Click Play, then OK twice to get past the title and the instructions. Your game is saved in this browser as you play, so when you come back you start from the same hole with the same totals; Backspace opens the menu that resets it. The page is meant for a mouse and a roomy window.

Controls

A few things worth knowing

Short lines for short holes. The putter has a power limit, and a line that is too short does nothing at all, so do not be afraid to pull long on the long holes.

Walls are your friends. The ball bounces off the edges, so a bank shot often beats a straight line past a hazard.

Sand is not the end. A ball on sand rolls less, so aim a little harder than you think.

Credits and licence

Putt Till You Die was created by Cliff Earl of Antix Development and is released under the MIT licence. The sound effects come from a player based on ZzFX by Frank Force (MIT). The licence texts are linked from this page.