Text-based sports simulations on the PC are nothing new to the gaming scene. Games such as Worldwide Soccer Manager and Out of the Park Baseball have gone on to sell large numbers of units, attracting more mainstream gamers along the way. Grey Dog Software is adding to its respectable retinue of text simulations with an upcoming game entitled Total Pro Golf. Designed by Gary Gorski, the man behind Grey Dog's Total Pro and Total College Basketball games, Total Pro Golf is a departure from the norm. While baseball, football, basketball, soccer, hockey and even wrestling have its text based counterpart, golf has yet to be fully translated into text form. With the numerous options that are presented to the player in a golf game (or to a real golfer for that matter) taking the strategic side of the sport and making that the focus of a game could make for a very unique experience. We had a chance to chat with designer Gary Gorski to get the latest on his new project.

GameShark: First off, why text based golf? Is there anything in particular about the sport that you feel will translate well into a text sim?

Gorski: I think that there's a whole host of reasons as to why golf can work as a text sim. First is that sometimes less is more - games like Tiger Woods are absolutely stunning to look at and its really interesting to see the intricate details of the course environments as well as the players themselves but you really need a powerful computer with a great graphics card and you also need an hour to sit down and play a round. With Total Pro Golf (TPG) there's a simple, yet attractive, 2D view of the entire hole - no redrawing after every shot, no waiting for AI opponents to line up shots and take their time doing so and certainly you don't need to go upgrade your processor and graphics card to play.

I also think that golf lends itself very well to a RPG/career side as well and that is something that I don't think is really emphasized in other golf games. Take equipment and sponsorship for example. In TPG your golfer will become more familiar with his equipment over time allowing him to score better (to a point of course) but what happens when the big golf manufacturer offers you a sponsorship to sign with them? Will you take the chance on learning how to hit a new set of clubs and possibly having your play suffer to pocket the money that will keep you going on tour? Decisions off the course will play an important role in this game as well.

The other thing I am excited about is the course designer. If you are a talented artist and have about six months of your life to devote to it you can recreate beautiful courses in some other golf games. But what about the people who have a weekend to make a course? A 2D text based game allows for a much, much simpler course designer - one that anyone can use.

GameShark: Can you give us a brief overview of how the game will work? What sort of options is presented to the player when it comes to shot making?

Gorski: The game basically will work with you creating your golfer and allowing you to start wherever you would like in his or her career. I assume most people will take the challenge of creating a rookie level golfer starting out on the minor league tour. You'll compete on the tour in the hopes of meeting one of the qualifications for earning a card on the pro tour. And of course once you make it to the pro tour your job will be to stay there or risk having to go back and do it all over again if you fail. As your golfer ages he or she may qualify to play on the senior tour allowing you to extend their career a bit before picking up as a new golfer and starting all over again.

In terms of shot making you're going to have realistic options that you would face on a golf course. Let's say you're on a par 3 and the green is 20 yards below the level of the tee - do you take one less club? What about the weather conditions? What if the green is very large and has one side that is faster and more difficult to manage than the other? Do you aim for the hole or aim for the safe side? The hitting of the ball will be simplistic (a simple click of a button) but the strategy behind the shot will not be. There will also be a caddy option so that you can get advice on what to do (assuming you have a competent caddy) so that people who aren't really that familiar with golf will be able to learn something about the game and not feel like TPG is too technical for them to enjoy.

GameShark: The press release mentions taking your player from the qualifying ranks all the way to the senior tour. I assume this means that your golfer will age with each passing season? Will the other players on the Tour age as well? Is this similar to other career based sports games in that regard? I could see the potential to build up a lot of neat rivalries this way.

Gorski: Yes, all players will age and eventually retire. Your golfer will also be forced into retirement at some point either from age, lack of skill or whenever you are tired of using him or her and you will be able to create a new golfer to start over with in that same universe meaning that if you go through and build up years of history it will not be lost when you pickup with a new golfer.

GameShark: How do you plan on differentiating the golfers? What sort of skill set are you looking at using? Along these same lines, how does a player improve from season to season?

Gorski: There will be a robust skill set that will allow golfers to compete differently. AI controlled golfers also will have built in ratings that a human controlled golfer does not such as their willingness to play aggressively. Skill improvement will come from practice as well as competing in events.

GameShark: How does earning sponsorships work and how important is it to get a big company to back you?

Gorski: Basically you play well and get offered a sponsorship. There will be different sponsorship types as some sponsors may only be clothing manufacturers or something and simply want you to wear their gear while allowing you to play with whatever clubs you want. Others may be corporate giants that want their name and their name only on everything you use or wear. It will be up to you to decide what you are willing to accept. Getting sponsorship is important though because you will have expenses playing on tour. If you don't finish in the money or have sponsorships you will not have money to continue playing in events. If you become a top pro the money will just build up but when you are starting out every dollar will be important to keeping your career hopes alive.

GameShark: How will the graphics work in game terms? Can you literally see your ball landing in a 2D bunker, for example?

Gorski: Each hole will have a 2D overhead display of it and you will be able to see your ball travel on the screen from its lie to wherever it lands.

GameShark: I love the idea of the course designer. How intuitive in this tool? How much detail does it allow you to add to a course?

Gorski: The beauty of the course designer is that it can be very simple or allow for painstaking detail. For graphical novices it comes with a built in set of textures and you simply point and click on a grid to fill in fairway, green, water, etc...For those who are more graphically inclined you could create your own complete representation of a hole in an outside graphics program, import that single image into the course designer and then simply select which areas of your image contain fairway, rough, etc. People will be able to make their own texture sets to use with the designer as well. It really is designed to be a tool that anyone and everyone can use and that they can use without the frustration of trying to design a 3D environment.

GameShark: Can you create your own tourneys and add them to a tour? Speaking of the Tour, I realize that you can't use real golfer names but is there editing capabilities available if I wanted to add Tiger or Phil to the player roster?

Gorski: There will be three tours built into each season - a minor tour, a pro tour and a senior tour. You can do whatever you like to those tours. You can rename them and have up to 52 events for each. Not all events have to be stroke play either. You will be able to setup match play tournaments and special events like a match between the US and Europe or US and the World. Golfers will also be easily customizable. You will be able to create a database of players to use or customize your golfing world. If you would rather the tours represented a European tour than an American one you can change the golfer population to be all from countries in Europe or if you wanted to have female tours you could have the game create a female population or even a mixed one if you wanted to have co-ed tours or something. There are so many possibilities with customizing the game that everyone will be able to create a golf world to their liking.

We'd like to thank Gary for taking the time to discuss Total Pro Golf. The game is still in development with a tentative release date sometime in the third quarter of 2006 as a digital download for $24.95. See www.greydogsoftware.com for details.