It seems more and more like October will be Gobtober, and I can only imagine we'll be launching sometime soon after the October Steam Next Fest! Most of the Roguelite functionality is now operational, some of which is already implemented into the current closed beta demo of the game. We have a good chunk of "Draw 3 Pick 1" upgrades, whether they come from Keepsakes, Goblin Unit Upgrades, or Initiative Enchantments. Large carriages containing this precious loot will mosey their way through the waves of enemies, and taking them out will secure you some good ol' fashion randomized progression!
We also have a new way of managing the economy. You can still mine and gather resources on the map, which is strongly encouraged since it will also free up more room to place your goblin units, but we now also have new UI to help manage the economy and growth of your goblin den!
You'll need Food to buy more Workers, and then assign those Workers to gather more Resources passively at the end of each round!
You'll need Wood to unlock more buildings which are important for purchasing Building Upgrades. And you'll also need Wood to build more scaffolding on the battlefield, which is used for more space to place more goblins to defend your den!
You'll need Gold to purchase more goblin combat units!
You'll need Gemstones as the currency used to purchase the Building Upgrades after you've used the Wood to build those buildings in the first place! You can also use Gemstones to upgrade the attributes of your individual goblins, which can make a HUGE difference on the battlefield!
And you'll need Dice for Meta-Progression Upgrades. Though, Dice are gathered from defeating enemies, and are not gathered via the new Economy update. So no worries there!
Defeating the enemy in the long run will require more than simply choosing the right combat units and placing them in great strategic order. It will take a sharp mind to manage the economy with the long-term in mind. Having all of your Goblins spam Gold farming might make for an easy victory on the first level, but if you neglect your progression upgrades which require other resources, you likely will fail to defeat the enemy in the future if the rest of your economy is not up to snuff!
Make sure you don't forget to hire and allocate your Workers before starting the first wave of enemies! (I forget to do this all the time, still. I should probably physically stop people from beginning the first wave until they've hired and allocated some workers... another patch for another day =])
Check out this inventory UI I made. This is where all of your Upgrades will be! I'm really just wanted to show off the new UI because I am personally very excited to have some new UI, lol. BEHOLD!!!
I buffed the Cleric's AoE heal so that it covers a bit more space. Really only affects people who are placing them criss-cross applesauce on the grid instead of strictly keeping everything uniform on a 2x2 tile basis.
This means that pyramid formations are now strong as heck compared to before, so definitely give it a shot and try building your battlefield formations in new ways each run! Fail fast, have fun, onward!
So, October (Gobtober ftw) is what it's looking like, folks. For better or worse, I'm locking in and choosing that as the time for these goblins to shine. It'll be Spooky Season, there's a Steam Next Fest which I'll be participating in with this game, and I also just prefer to keep things moving along, if I can. Many game developers fall into habits of scope-creep and seem to trap themselves in an ongoing loop of development, and although I know any game can become better with more time and love poured into it, I prefer to roll things out sooner rather than later.
We live in amazing times where we can push out a new update on a whim while drinking our morning coffee. We are no longer doomed to only release a game only once. There used to be a fear of pushing out a game too quickly, because you had to actually print it out onto a disk, package it, and ship it out to the world via trucks. But those days are long gone, so don't be shy, folks! Push those updates to your hearts content, and if you ever release something that you end up feeling is lacking, you can simply just keep on polishing it! Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!
The almighty wishlist is a powerful metric and function in the world of Steam. These goblins have amassed a pretty solid amount of them in not very much time, but we're only just getting started. The big efforts to spread these goblins across the land will begin shortly, and with any luck, they just might have a decent conversion rate to sales so that the next game on the horizon will see the light of day, lol.
Regardless of if this game flops or not, I will be updating it with more levels, enemies, upgrades, party leaders, etc. as time goes on. I created this game with the main purpose in mind to create a game that I'd want to play which does not already exist. This is also the reason that I decided to make it a Roguelite, as I have a habit of spamming the same thing over and over again. So having the replayability of a Roguelite will definitely help me play this game many times over until I feel satisfied enough to roll into the next endeavor of taking this cute goblin world and turning it into a farm-sim! (Another update for another day, again, lol)
If this game seems interesting to you, please consider giving it a wishlist! The demo, and eventually the full game, will be out before you know it!
-baba