- DEV BLOG #13 - All maps are done! - 9 August 2026
Perhaps the biggest milestone has been reached;all maps are now done and the campaign can be played from beginning to end!There are 17 main maps and 3 optional for a total of 20 maps for the campaign.On top of that we also got the random map generator (virtually endless) and user made maps created with the included map editor. This should make for a fairly big game! :)So the main game is basically done. However, there's still more work:Map editor - I've been using it internally to create all the maps for the campaign but it needs some polish and QoL features before release.Music & SFX - A couple more tracks and sounds needs to be mixed and added.Steam integrations - Achievements, cloud saving etc.Translations - This is the only part of the game I can't really do all by myself but hopefully I can find good help. But most of all it needs more testing. Difficulty needs balancing. Maybe som…
- DEV BLOG #12 - Boss battles! - 25 January 2026
Good news! The game is actually at the state where I'm working on bosses.Naturally I want the boss battles to be big and exciting events but usually in RTS, boss battles are just microing challenges. The boss unit has some AoE attacks that you need to avoid before you can attack and then the pattern repeats.Personally I find these type of battles to be quite tedious, and as micro-managing combat isn't really the focus of this game, it felt weird to have bosses that emphasize this type of gameplay. I wanted something different for the bosses in Goblin Colony.I'm trying to incorporate more of other aspects (building, strategy) of the game and not just rely on micro. At the same time the boss maps should feel unique and not just like any other map. It's a difficult task but hopefully the result will be cool.Wish I could say or show more but I don't want to spoil too much. However, I can sa…
- DEV BLOG #11 - Work continues! - 18 September 2025
There are over 200(!) patch notes since the demo build. This includes bugfixes, balancing issues and additional features.I've done about half of the campaign so far, so about 7-8 maps more to go.While the campaign maps are handcrafted, I've also been working on a exciting new skirmish mode that uses a random map generator.With this you can generate a virtually endless amount of maps!Now, making a random map is fairly easy but making a good random map is much harder.I've taken much care into making sure that all generated maps are viable (winnable), with different layouts that plays well and look good.I've actually had great fun playing these maps myself as it's a fresh new experience every time even for me, the developer! It's also proven to be a great tool for playtesting and bug hunts so I'm very happy with this new feature. As always, thank you for your support!
- DEV BLOG #10 - Demo update - Patch notes - 27 March 2025
I've updated the demo with the following changes: Bugfixes: - Victory/Defeat jingles played at wrong volume - Loading a map with preplaced warriors could cause loading to end premature - When placing torches radius could show unvalid locations (unreachable corners) - Not able to cancel building some objects - Missing bounce effect when building weapon racks - Various text fixes (misaligments, typos) - Removed leftover debug code Added features: - Reworked gold storage. No more individiual storage, chests now contribute to a pool - Goblins carrying gold will recalculate paths if a new chest becomes available - Reworked Destroy/sell. The player will now recieve half golds worth of objects deleted with the destroy tool. Refunds are instant any excess gold will be dumped outside shrine - Deleting (canceling) unbuilt object now gives back all gold - Added number effect when selling - Rewrote…
- DEV BLOG #9 - Player feedback and design deep dive - 7 March 2025
I got some great feedback from the demo. Thank you all for playing and leaving comments! It's been wild watching people play and reading comments. I read everything and try to respond to as much as I can. Based on some of your feedback I've decided on some changes and thought I'd share some of my reasoning behind them. Rework to how gold is gathered and stored. Previously chests had it's own individual storage. The reasoning was to make it feel more dynamic and "alive". Ideally goblins would put gold in different chests which I thought looked cool. In reality it had very little positive impact on the game. It mostly just made it unintuitive which caused unnecessary player frustration. Another problem is that it was pretty complicated. Not only does the game need to keep track of the content of each chest but also constantly test for updates. Whenever a goblin picks up gold, chests needs…
- DEV BLOG #8 - Demo finished and Steam NEXT - 10 February 2025
Exciting news; the demo is done! Goblin Colony will be participating in the upcoming Steam NEXT event February 24 where the demo will be available for you to play! The demo consists of 3 levels. The first two serving mainly as tutorials and the last being more of a "normal" early map. It's been tough deciding what to put in the demo but hopefully this should give a taste of how the game will play. All in all there should be about 30-60 minutes of gameplay. As the game is still a work in progress and this will be the first large scale testing I expect there to be some bugs (please report any you find) but I will be watching carefully and try to fix any problems asap. Also please note that the demo lacks features and polish that the final game will have. Hope you will enjoy and are excitited to try out my game! Please tell your friends and favorite streamers to try it out. Any bit helps a…
- DEV BLOG #7 - This and that - 30 December 2024
Super busy. Let's get to it: * I've added one more tutorial, this one focusing on combat. This was a pain to code as it contains lots of custom scripting. All in all the tutorials has over 70 scripted events (in comparison normal levels don't really have any at all). Hopefully it will be worth it. With this out of the way the demo is mostly done. * New objects added. Portals, enemy lairs and gates. * Added a bunch of custom win conditions. Things like "Build X amount of X" "Defend for X minutes" etc. This will be not only available to use for the campaign but also when making your own custom maps with the built-in level editor. * I've also been busy working on the soundtrack for the game. So far I've made around 15 tracks though I'm not sure how many will make it into the game. I will make a separate post about this later with some previews but for now expect the soundtrack to be in the…
- DEV BLOG #6 - Graphical update - 5 September 2024
Goblin Colony is a 2D game with hand-drawn pixel graphics viewed from a top-down perspective (or a mixed top-down oblique perspective, I guess, if you want to get real technical). As everything on the screen is a flat image (sprites), there really is no concept of mass like there would be in a 3D environment. This makes it tricky to convey a sense of depth, and things can look a bit flat (because they are). While I’m using shades and baked-in transparency shadows for most sprites, I always wanted the environment to have a bit more depth but couldn’t find a good way of doing it without sacrificing performance. Until now. Now all walls cast shadows, and objects get an added effect similar to ambient occlusion. before/after The effect isn’t final as I’m still fine-tuning the intensity, but I’m very happy with this change. I think it’s a dramatic improvement that sets the mood for exploring…
- DEV BLOG #5 - Bug-hunts (aka what's taking so long?) - 6 August 2024
As a gamer I'm tired of all the buggy unfinished games released these days so naturally I want my own game to be as bugfree and polished as possible. As this is my first comercial release I want it to prove the quality of my work. Bugfixing isn't fun and can also be very time consuming but obviously this is very important work. If you're lucky it's an quick easy fix like a typo or some temporary test code left in by accident. It can also be something so obscure and rare that even replicating the conditions were the bug occurs is difficult. Also as more stuff gets added, previous code might become unsuitable. In Goblin Colony I've redesigned the combat system 3 times as an example. Basically "fixing a bug" can take anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 years. Sometimes you might not even find the bug at all. With that said, I'm happy to report that currently, there is 0 known bugs in the game! Of…
- DEV BLOG #4 - Tutorials - 20 February 2024
Nobody likes tutorials but they are a necessary evil in order to teach the players how to play the game. Tutorials are also infamous for being tough to design and for a UI-heavy strategy game doing an "invisible tutorial" (ex: Half-Life 2 and Super Mario Bros 1-1) just doesn't work. One of the most important design philosophies in Goblin Colony is that it should be as intuitive and clear as possible. I've taken much care when designing icons and made sure to include tooltips and non-intrusive explanatory texts whenever possible. By doing this I'm hoping to have a less heavy-handed approach for teaching how to play. That said, the game is relatively complex and still needs tutorials. Personally I don't like when tutorials include quirky characters that drag things out with "flavor text". With that in mind I intended for my tutorials to be as quick and to the point as possible. However, m…
- DEV BLOG #3 - End of year report - 3 January 2024
Goblin Colony was originally set to be released 2023 but unfortunately this won't be happening. I won't bore you with excuses. The reason is simply that things are taking longer than I anticipated. I don't want to rush things in order to make arbitrary deadlines and the quality of the game will always be my top priority. Sorry for the bad news but ultimately this will make the game better. However, good news is that the game is actually coming along great. All major game systems are in place (including combat) and the game is fully playable and in working order. There's still lots to do. Levels needs to be created (and playtested), tutorials, more soundfx to be added, bugs to squish and things to polish. The game now features traditional RTS-control (e.g. box-selection, right-click to move/attack) and I've been working on enemy AI such as aggro-range and patrol-routes wich should make w…
- DEV BLOG #2 - Combat - 24 June 2023
I'm currently working on the combat system which is the last missing piece of gameplay. This is perhaps the most complex system in the game since it involves multiple AI routines and pathfinding algorithms that need to work together. It's important to get right since it's an integral part of the gameplay. One of the challenges is to make pathing feel intuitive and look natural, especially when entering combat. For example, I want goblins and enemies to be able to surround their foes. Goblin Colony uses a grid system for movement and normally when building or digging, goblins only perform tasks when positioned one tile above, below or to the direct sides of the goal. In order to achieve the surrounding effect and make combat more engaging I've decided to make use of diagonal positioning so units can path to and attack their foes from all directions. This gives potential for bigger and mo…
- DEV BLOG #1 - State of the game - 21 March 2023
Hello and welcome to the first dev blog for Goblin Colony! For those who don't know, Goblin Colony is developed by just one guy and that's me, Magnus. I'm doing all the programming, graphics, and everything else (including music and even voice-acting!). I'm hoping to do these posts regularly up until the release to keep you informed on what I'm currently working on and the overall progress of the game. I have also posted a FAQ in the discussions forum for some more general information. Although the game is still in alpha, most of the graphics, sound, music, and engine code are done. However, nothing is final at this point and will be updated/improved if needed. The game is very much playable in its current state, the main thing missing is combat (more on that later) and actual levels as so far levels have been set up for testing purposes only. Short list of updates since January this ye…
