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TSN Senior Reporter

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For one business in Lunenburg, N.S., today feels a lot like Christmas morning.

After two years of work, the team at HB Studios is set for the release of the video game it created and developed, PGA Tour 2K21. If early reaction from insiders is any indication, it should be a massive hit for golf gamers.

“There’s a ton of excitement for everyone here,” said Shaun West, a producer at the company. “The team has put in two years of hard work and time.”

So how did a company in Lunenburg, with a population just over 2,000, come to be at the forefront of this expected multi-million-dollar selling game? HB Studios was started by British entrepreneur Jeremy Wellard, who relocated in 2000 to the town made famous as the home of the Bluenose sailing ship.

He built a team of developers and created successful games based on cricket and rugby. Since then, the company has had a hand in building games featuring hockey, football, soccer and basketball, in partnership with the NHL, NFL, NBA and FIFA.

Wellard stepped down from his role as CEO in 2015, and the company, which has about 80 employees, now is led by James Seaboyer. Over its 20 years in business, HB Studios has shipped over 50 titles which have sold more than 28 million units. It’s also contributed work to another 21 titles.

Its first involvement in golf creation was the 2010 edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour and its most recent was The Golf Club 2019.

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Building off those successes is the newest edition, PGA Tour 2K21, which is published and marketed by 2K, one of the largest such outfits in the world.

It’s the first big PGA Tour-endorsed game since the Rory McIlroy PGA Tour game published in 2015 by EA Sports.

The new edition has a number of great features including the ability to play against a group of PGA Tour pros, including Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Cameron Champ and cover boy Justin Thomas.

West said that the involvement of the players was minimal, limited to a head shot with a 360-degree camera, which the studio did at a PGA Tour stop. Those images were then put atop bodies created by the studio.

Somewhat more involved was getting a collection of courses in the game. HB worked in partnership with Terra Imaging to fly drones over the courses to capture data that was then used by the HB team to create a stunning likeness. Courses featured include TPC Sawgrass, TPC Scottsdale and Riviera.

Of course if you don’t like any of the courses, there’s a feature that allows you to design your own or download from those others have built.

One of the most popular creations is called MyPlayer, which allows the gamer to build a player right from scratch with everything from height and hair colour,  to outfitting them with shoes, shirts and hats, to specific clubs in the bag. Licensing agreements with major companies such as adidas, Puma, TaylorMade and Callaway allow for the inclusion of the top brands to put on the player.

Another feature is the MyPlayer career mode, where you can guide your golfer from the Korn Ferry Qualifying School through a myriad of levels on to the PGA Tour.

As for playing the game, the interface is easy enough for a beginner but has a ton of scalability to allow an experienced user to dial in shots to a precise degree by choosing ball position, stance and how much spin to put on a shot. It feels comfortable and easy to use no matter what level of difficulty you choose.

That’s something that West, who plays regularly at the Bluenose Golf Course, says makes the game as realistic as possible.

“We’re really proud of being able to dissect what goes into a shot and bring that into the game so you get a sense of what really impacts how a shot works,” he said.

There are so many other features with this game including different play formats such as Match Play, Skins or Stableford, and the ability to play online against friends.

With PGA Tour 2K21 now on the market, West said the next steps for HB Studios will continue to build the game’s assets and create more content that players can download in the coming months. For now, however, it’s time for the team to reflect on its accomplishments.

“We’re really proud of how a small developer like us on the East Coast has grown,” he said. “We’re proud of the dedication and passion that’s gone into the creation of this product.”