Multiplayer with friends

[ProdigyXP]

I enjoyed playing the demo with a friend. I have a few questions/suggestions regarding my experience.

- Is there a way to play online (live) with more than one friend? Is there a lobby system other than looking through the challengers list? Something where you could invite specific people into?

Somewhat related to a lobby for friends would be the ability to turn off the shot timer. Obviously I can see this as a problem when playing with strangers where they might not appreciate someone taking too long for their turn, but when playing with friends, it is a much needed feature.

On multiple occasions, we were talking and/or someone needed to do something else for a few moments, but the timer started and the score was automatically set to 0 when the player was absent. I liken the situation to actual bowling with friends. Nobody is timing anyone and forcing a shot or the player loses their turn. It is very casual/social. Again, I understand that this makes complete sense in public matches, which is why I am asking about a friends lobby (probably referred to as a private match). This would allow for a more relaxed setting and more discord chatter and banter. :-)

Another suggestion would be to just show all the scores at the top of the screen instead of just the current bowler. There is plenty of room since it only requires one line per player. It would be nice to see them together at a glance instead of only seeing one player at a time... especially in close games. I found myself forgetting my friend's score/situation between shots and it kind of hampered the tension.

[spl]

Hi, and thanks for the feedback! It's possible to challenge as many players from the list as you want:

1) Just gather a group of friends online
2) Everyone needs to have "Available for Challenges" option checked
3) One of friends makes the challenge for all to-be-challenged friends

I think it's a great idea to add an option to disable (or at least hugely increase) the turn timer. That could be an option when someone's creating challenge. Yes, we'll add this to a future version!

Everyone's live scores can be seen at the Game Menu by pressing ESC during the game. We have also thought about adding a shortcut to show all scores by keeping TAB pressed but it's not implemented yet.

[ProdigyXP]

Awesome! Thank you for replying back to me. Your answers made it a no-brainer to pick it up today. Thanks again.

[Grandpa Jack]

I love bowling with my son. being able to disable the timer is a great Idea. there are times when nature calls or our wives call us and the timer runs out. you developers are great.

[TheNecroswanson]

I think a friends lobby for casual play would be nice.

[canis39]

Disabling the timer would be great. Was this implemented and I missed it, or is it coming in a future update?

[vesa]

Originally posted by canis39:

Disabling the timer would be great. Was this implemented and I missed it, or is it coming in a future update?

Hi. It's already available. You can turn time limits off from challenge menu.

[canis39]

Originally posted by vesa:

Originally posted by canis39:

Disabling the timer would be great. Was this implemented and I missed it, or is it coming in a future update?

Hi. It's already available. You can turn time limits off from challenge menu.

Awesome, thanks for the clarification!

[noah222]

Originally posted by TheNecroswanson:

I think a friends lobby for casual play would be nice.

Agree. The friends multiplayer is such a hassle to setup, especially when trying to play with less technical friends. How about a simple 'room' like in Walkabout Minigolf?
1. create a private 'room', give it a name
2. tell your friends the name of your room
3. they click 'friend multiplayer', enter the name, and you start playing.

It's such a workaround to make sure all friends load the app, then send a friend request (or hope they're online at that exact time and you can search for them), and then inviting them to a game, and then waiting for them to find the small notification that they're invited, and then suddenly someone exists by accident. Also, it's impossible to invite a friend while a game has already started (again, check Walkabout Minigolf for how they handle this).

[TWiG]

I'd like to see an option to have multiple people using multiple headsets. So each headset has a profile but each profile can have x guests to share the headset with too. That way 6 people could all play together on 2 or more headsets

[LatteCoffees]

My husband and I share a headset but we also have an out of state friend with her own headset… is there no way to set up a game between the three of us currently? And if not, is there maybe a possibility in the future? We’d love the option to bowl with family/friends long distance even though we only have one headset in house.

[vesa]

Hi. Online multiplayer game requires each player to have their own headset or PC. Mixing with pass the headset playing mode is not supported.

[CaTaPulT]

I agree with Noah, I did set a password (room name?) so only my friend with the info would be able to join, but I cannot play until he would join.
In Walkabout Mini Golf, I set a room name and I can play the game, so I do this in case my friend comes online while I'm playing and can join if he wishes.
I just got this bowling game so I might be doing something wrong, can't seem to find a manual for it.

[vesa]

Hi. This is old thread. There is now Friend Game play mode in the main menu, and it is the easiest way to quickly start a game with friends. So select Friend Game -> Many Headsets/Computers -> optionally change game settings & Continue -> Select your friend or friends from the list -> Challenge.