Crazy Golf

It's a mini golf competition between two players (may also be suitable for up to four under certain conditions), with a few differences.

First things first: it's important to choose an attractive theme for your mini-golf course. Combine the theme not only visually but also functionally with the holes. Here's one game with a jurassic park theme. Digital Chocolate, a well known mobile developer, has a whole line of mini-golf titles with different themes: Beach, Carnival and Casino. A piratey theme, for example, would be most welcome.

Now change the rules somewhat, so that Par is much less important. What's important is scoring more points than your opponent. One important aspect of scoring is, indeed, getting the ball into the hole first. But you can also score critical bonus points by collecting gold coins strewn through the course, some two dozen per hole, and even the rare gem (two per hole, worth more). Points are constant through the 18 holes, with the player with lowest score going first on a new hole. You still get more points the less shots you use to get to the hole. You should also impose a 12-shot limit on each hole so that the game doesn't drag. A player that can't get his ball into the hole with 12 shots collects 0 points on his way out, or even a penalty.

Next, increase the interaction between players so that they can hit each other. By hitting your opponent's ball you can send it into a difficult corner or one of the traps that litter the course, sending him way back, throwing him into the water or miring him in slow terrain. Or you may screw up the shot and send him flying towards that valuable gem.

Finally, carefully place special power-ups and power-downs on each hole. Each player aims to collect the power-ups (deviously placed near edges and other dangerous bits) and bump his opponent into the power-downs.

Power-ups may include Heavyweight (much greater mass for ball-to-ball calculations), Great Attractor (attracts gold coins from some distance away), Jumpin' Jack (automatically jumps when a non-walled edge is reached, may save the ball and even provide shortcuts), Telekinetic (has limited control over ball direction after shot is made by moving the mouse right and left). Their duration can be shot limited or until the end of the current hole. Power-downs are similar, with examples being Drunken Meister (ball has slight random deviations from course), Aztec Curse (gold collected is deducted instead of added to score) and Hot Potato (ball turns into a time bomb: player has limited amount of shots before ball explodes and is teleported back to the beginning of the hole).

Games can be played over an entire course (18 holes), a half-course (forward or backward half), or up to a thousand points. In the former case, the winner is the one with more points at the end of 18 or 9 holes, and in the latter, the first to reach a thousand points.