Walkabout Mini Golf – Edward Felix

PROJECT CASE STUDY

Walkabout

Mini Golf.

Designing immersive VR environments through spatial design, environment art, technical optimisation, and player-focused storytelling.

The interior of the factory on the Sweetopia Hard level from Walkabout Mini Golf.

OVERVIEW

Creating memorable space for millions.

Project: Walkabout Mini Golf
Role: Lead Modeller / Gameplay Design
Client: Mighty Coconut
Duration: 5+ Years
Reach: 50,000,000+ games played and 13,000+ five-star reviews
Skills: Spatial design, 2D design, 3D design, management

Walkabout Mini Golf has been one of the most significant projects of my career. Over more than five years, I contributed to the creation of a wide range of courses, helping shape the look, feel, and spatial identity of worlds explored by millions of players in VR.

Working as Modelling Lead at Mighty Coconut, my role sat between environment art, experience design, and technical problem-solving. I worked closely with designers and artists to transform gameplay blockouts into fully realised environments, developing the architectural language, atmosphere, and visual storytelling that define each course.

The work involved more than simply building assets. It required thinking about how players move through a space, what draws their attention, and how a world unfolds hole by hole. Every environment needed to feel cohesive, memorable, and inviting to explore, while still performing smoothly on standalone VR hardware.

Building Worlds For Play

Each Walkabout Mini Golf course begins with gameplay: hole layouts, player movement, sightlines, and the overall flow of the environment. From there, my work was to transform those rough blockouts into fully realised worlds.

That meant replacing placeholder geometry with custom environment art, defining the architectural language and visual tone of each course, and making sure the space felt cohesive from one hole to the next.

The goal was never just to decorate a golf layout, but to create a place with its own atmosphere, rhythm, and sense of discovery.

Some courses were guided by concept art, while others allowed more freedom in developing the aesthetic direction. In every case, the work involved balancing visual storytelling with clarity, readability, and the playful exploration that defines the game.

walkabout mini golf oculus vr space level overview — A comparison between the provided level block out and the level with the art pass completed

walkabout mini golf oculus vr space level reactor room — The reactor room as originally provided and the completed reactor room with lighting

walkabout mini golf oculus vr space level habitat area — An important part of the level was creating spaces with multiple levels, allowing players to watch each other from various vantages

walkabout mini golf oculus vr space level mine area — There were multiple spaces with different aesthetics, requiring a strong follow through of the level feeling, while still remaining distinct

Designing For VR

Because Walkabout Mini Golf runs primarily on standalone VR hardware, every artistic decision had to be made with performance in mind. Rich environments needed to remain lightweight, readable, and comfortable to experience at scale.

My work involved building assets and environments that could hold up visually while meeting the demands of real-time VR rendering.

This included careful texture planning, the use of atlases, creating custom LODs for heavier assets, and maintaining strong visual impact within strict technical limits.

That balance between atmosphere and optimisation became a core part of the design process. The challenge was not just making worlds that looked good, but making worlds that felt expansive, polished, and alive on hardware with very little room for waste.

An elevation sketch I did when working on the Wallace and Gromit level of Walkabout Mini Golf to make sure we had an understanding of the space.

Some early concept sketches I did of an invention for the course by Wallace, before we decided to only use pre-existing designs.

Whilst the "Putt-o-matic" wasn't used as a gameplay element, it can still be found in the level behind the rocket as a testament to the work we had done. — Whilst the “Putt-o-matic” wasn’t used as a gameplay element, it can still be found in the level behind the rocket as a testament to the work we had done.

Early when talking to Aardman, I recreated the Wallace and Gromit kitchen in the Walkabout style very quickly. A lot of what was done in that initial push was kept into the final level, including the Autochef.

Shaping the Identity of the Game

Over time, my contribution extended beyond environment art alone. I also designed collectible golf balls and unlockable putters, helping build the smaller details that give each course its personality and reward players for exploration.

As the team grew, I also took on leadership responsibilities within the modelling team, helping guide the visual quality of the work while supporting other artists in meeting the technical requirements of VR development.

Across more than thirty courses, this role became about more than asset creation. It was about helping define how the game feels to inhabit: playful, immersive, and full of worlds that players remember long after they leave them.

During my time on Walkabout, I created over 830 unique golf balls and 40 unique putters. All of them are my favourites.

Some of the hundreds of unique golf balls I made. Ensuring that new designs remain unique and enjoyable to collect became a challenge after the first 600 balls.

A poster I designed to sell on the Walkabout Merch store, showing some of the putters I had design at that point.

A poster I designed to sell on the Walkabout Merch store, showing some of the balls I had design at that point.

screenshot of walkabout mini golf shangri la level with nighttime lanterns — Shangri-La hard was one of the most rewarding courses to work on. I feel like it catches more of my design style than any other.

Screenshots

a screenshot of the walkabout mini golf level the hanging gardens of babylon

screenshot of walkabout mini golf eldorado level with monkey statue

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