Have you ever heard of the term ‘’loot goblin’’?
For the tabletop RPG nerds and the fantasy fanatics, it might sound all too familiar. In pop culture, the loot goblin is usually portrayed as a mischievous, greedy, chaotic being who loves to play tricks and is driven by the lure of profit.
One cozy morning, united by their love for this marginal fantasy creature, a group of 2 game designers and 3 artists started brainstorming game ideas centered around the mystical loot goblin figure. Most of us had previously encountered the small, greedy creature in various forms during our D&D campaigns, but we kept wondering ; how could we bring this archetype to life in a video game?
When we started the design process for Looters, there were a lot of unanswered questions, but one thing was for sure ; goblins are social creatures - they never (or rarely) act alone. Therefore, it was clear to us from the start that this game had to be a cooperative experience. Indeed, what better way to represent the chaotic yet social nature of goblins than to mess around with your friend?
There we had it - our first guiding design principle ; cooperation between players at all costs.
From then on, everything fell into place. We pictured tons and tons of goofy scenarios where a clumsy duo of goblins would do anything - and we mean anything - to get their hands on shiny objects belonging to a wealthy and heavily guarded cult. From stacking on top on each other and disguising as cult members to hoarding stuff in a shared backpack, our goblins had to always work with each other to reach their goal - get as much loot as possible while staying undercover.
For the first prototype, we came up with 6 core mechanics that would support the cooperative gaming experience we aimed for (more would be added later on, but at this point during development, keeping a reasonable scope was our priority) :
💍 Grab any lootable object in the environment
🧎🏻➡️Crouch under furniture and in secret passages
🦘 Vault onto reachable surfaces
💰 Drop items in your backpack (while your friend is holding it!)
⏫ Stack on top of each other to reach higher places
🥸 Hide under a cape while stacked to stay undercover
Still, we felt like something was missing from the game. It was lacking that unpredictability that comes with a heist planned by a bunch of reckless goblins. Taking once again inspiration from our favorite fantasy fictional worlds, we decided to turn the dutiful backpack equipped by the players into an actual character with its own personality traits, behavior and - of course - chaotic influence. The now sentient backpack would serve not only as a (questionable) ally in the players’ quest to hoard everything and anything, but it would also act as a mentor, introducing game mechanics and guiding the goblins through the cult’s vast estate. With a monstrous but friendly backpack running around and carrying their precious loot, our dear goblins now have to co-parent and share the responsibility of looking after it.
Again, cooperation is the key here!
“The backpack used to be a boring and lifeless white cube… It is now everyone’s favorite character! ’’
- Looters Creative Director
It’s been a long way since those first drafts and the development team has expanded from 5 to 26 hardworking goblins in the span of a few months. We are so excited to show you the progress we’ve made since then!
Next week, we’ll share some of the advancements made by the Design Team. See you then, heisters! 💎✨
— The Partners In Crime Team