GDN: Other than Tiger Woods on a yearly basis, realistic golf games haven’t really managed to take a piece of EA’s pie. Will Custom Play ’09 finally put a dent in their dominant record?

 DB: Well, the good news for us is that Tiger Woods is no longer coming to PC. This gives us a chance to step out of it’s shadow and we intend to continue to strive to make the most realistic looking and playing golf game we can.

GDN: There will be a course editor on the PC version. Will this carry over to the Wii with the potential to send made courses to friends online?

 DB: The editor is a very complex piece of software, designed round the mouse so there may need to be some changes but we would love to offer some form of course creation or customisation on the Wii. Same goes for sharing creations online, which is a huge part of our approach but it’s a bit too early to confirm anything for definite, unfortunately.

GDN: Custom Play has 15 courses available. How many of these are authentic and how many of them are developer made. Oh...and which one’s your favourite?

 DB: CustomPlay Golf 2009 will contain at least 15 traditional golf courses as well as some additional mini, crazy, par 3, pitch and putt courses and driving ranges. At least half of the golf courses will be licensed, my current favourite is Le Fontainebleau, a Canadian course.

GDN: It has to be said the graphical ability is, although still decent, perhaps not up the standard we see in some other games of this style, but then Pro Evolution Soccer has been of a similar ilk and beaten FIFA on many occasions. Do you think this will be the same trend here?

 DB: Traditionally we tend to focus on the graphics and performance towards the end of development. We’re confident we can make great strides in the future and one day we can show courses in-game that look just as good as the real thing.

GDN: What can Custom Play ’09 offer that no other golfing game can?

DB: One thing we focussed on was drawing the entire course, all the time. Typically golf games cut out a hole, with minimum surroundings but we wanted to change that as we felt a big part of the beauty of a real course is seeing all the other holes and features off the distance. We managed to achieve this and with zero load times between holes, which we’re really proud of. The editor goes far beyond anything seen before, offering full import from Golf Course Architect files, for maximum authenticity. By offering additional forms of golf, like pitch and putt and crazy golf, we hope to offer more than any game before too.

GDN: Will all of the modes (Crazy Golf, Driving Range, Par 3, etc.) make it to the Wii version?

DB: Yes, that’s the plan.

GDN: Have any of the development team came from a sporting videogame background or is a fresh team of eager people ready to show what they can do?

DB: I worked on some motorsport titles including Colin McRae and WRC and Co-Founder Richard M. Smith worked on several LMA Manager titles, when we were both at Codemasters.

GDN: Are there any plans to take the game beyond the PC and Wii formats?

DB: We’ve talked about it and we’d love to do it, so maybe one day.

GDN: Can you tell us a bit more about the PlayMail option?

DB: The idea came from the way email jokes, movies etc spread round the Internet. We wanted to create such an email but containing a playable golf hole. We succeeded with PlayMail, which allows you to send a playable version of any hole to anyone, even if they don’t own the game. To achieve this we scale down the textures and general detail and include an exe of the game, all in one package. While it loses some graphical quality the gameplay is the same and hopefully it acts as a demo for our game.

GDN: How did you do yourself on a round in the game?

DB: A bit better then my real life game but not as good as the beta-testers unfortunately! I’m getting better but just like the real thing I need more practice.

Cheers Dean! Keep an eye out for our preview of CustomPlay Golf 2009 coming very soon.