Hey Goblins,
Before I signed with my publisher, I used to be an electrical engineer, but now my side hustle is my main hustle and I wanna show you some of the cool behind-the-scenes updates I've been working on. I've been tinkering away in lots of different parts of the game, so grab a drink or your favourite snack, and let's get into these Goblin Research Notes.
Steam Cloud Saves
- Added Steam cloud saving
- Added option to choose which islands and characters are synched with the Steam cloud
You know when you put off a task because you think it's going to be a challenge and then it takes you, like, 5 minutes? Yeah, that's what happened when I went to add Steam cloud saving to Isle Goblin. It's now possible to save your game to the Steam cloud and to select which islands and characters you sync. Perfect if you wanna switch between desktop, laptop, and/or Steam Deck. I use Unity as my game engine and I keep finding that the Steam API is really nice and easy to use. 10/10, would Steam again.
Cutscenes & NPCs
- Added 45 new NPC cutscenes
What would Isle Goblin be without the goblins? Well...it'd just be "Isle", I guess. There are a whole bunch of goblin NPCs in the game and you can befriend them all by talking to them, giving them gifts, completing quests, decorating their houses (to their tastes, not yours), and inviting them to hang out with you. I wanted each goblin to be unique, so I started working on cutscenes to flesh out their interactions and to give you a kind of story arc to work towards.
The problem is, I'm not the best writer in the world, but luckily my publisher put me in touch with a narrative guy who has done a tonne of consulting and writing for other games. He had a look at my storyboards and gave some great feedback. It'll take me a while to work these storyboards into in-game scenes with final artwork, but I'm really liking how they're turning out so far.
Biomes
- Built up volcano area
- "Swamp-ified" forest biome artwork
- Added final area, dungeon, and boss
I finally got 'round to adding content to the volcano area of the game, which was just an empty stretch of land for a loooong time. In news that will surprise no one, the first thing I did was add a big volcano in the middle. That was pretty cool, but then I thought it'd be fun to be able to mine your way in there, so I added a dungeon below it with some unfriendly bosses including a giant clockwork spider thing.
I then got to work on updating some of the existing biome artwork in the game. I mentioned before that Isle Goblin is all about goblins (duh), but besides quirky goblin characters, the world just didn't feel gobliny enough to me. Specifically, the forest biome felt kinda generic. Since it's the area you start in, I wanted to make it the perfect goblin biome and thought that swampy vibes would fit the aesthetic way better. I haven't made too many changes here yet, so I'm curious to hear if you think this is the right direction in the comments!
Oh, and I also added the final area, dungeon, and boss to the game, but you'll have to play it to see what that's all about 😉.
Invasions
- Added a new invasion system
- Updated enemy spawning system
Human invaders are one of the main antagonists in Isle Goblin, but I ran into a problem where the game seemed to just be endlessly spawning humans. I originally programmed it so enemies would continuously spawn from the edges of the screen, stopping if you were close to home or any skull effigies you'd place to ward off humans. If you were out in the wild, however, there'd always be a steady trickle of humans and native enemies coming to get you. This isn't super unusual for survival games, but it felt a bit punishing.
The solution I came up with was to still have edge spawning, but to drastically reduce it — especially for humans. I then calculated a bunch of places for enemies to spawn so that the player would uncover them as they walked around. This way, it was more like the world had a tone of humans scattered about and, once killed, they'd go away, making it feel more like you'd cleared out the area. To make the reinforcement invasions more interesting, I also made it so players temporarily get flooded with enemies when the invasion is occurring. You know, for fun.
Leveling System
- Added leveling-up system
Players will now slowly gain experience when using the axe, pick, or weapons. When you level up in one of these categories, you'll get a skill point, which can be spent on passive skills for stat boots or to unlock something I call "techniques". Techniques are different ways to use the tool or weapon. For example, you can unlock a technique that allows you to throw a spear and have it return back to you or one that lets you deflect a projectile with your sword.
Dyes
- Added dyeing system for armor
There are flowers all around the island that can now be turned into dyes that will change the color of your armor. This was something I wanted to do for a long time but it took A LOT of work because I had to make all the armor art in the game black and white then program it so the game could tweak the color. This worked fine at first, but I discovered that if an armour had two colors, the system I programmed would cause both of them to change, which was something I didn't always want to happen. So, I had to export 2x layers for this type of armor — a layer that would change color and a layer that wouldn't. This way, some armor gets little accent colors that don't change. You then just stack them on top of each other in-game and it looks like things are colored separately. Easy peasy.
Playtesting
Now I want to update you guys on the playtesting situation. I get lots of questions about when people will be able to playtest it. Right now, it is only available to people who pay for one of the Patreon tiers since I'm trying to avoid a massive flood of feedback. I want to keep it small until I feel like the kinks are ironed out. In the coming months though, I'll start opening it up to more and more people. You can sign up if you go to the Steam page, and I'll make an announcement when that starts.
What's Coming & Wishlists
When I was an aspiring developer, I remember always wondering what the wishlist count was for other indie games was. I think we could stand to be a bit more transparent about these things and, who knows, maybe me sharing this will even help another indie dev on their journey. Our wishlists are currently sitting at around 60.8K thanks to a big boost from the Summer Games fest. If you liked reading these research notes, make sure you wishlist too!
In the next set of research notes, I'll be talking in-game holidays, weather systems, desert goblins, and more! In the meantime, make sure you're following Isle Goblin on social media and Discord for more updates and videos!