Hiya! I'm excited to talk through all the cool stuff we've been up to over the past two weeks - there's a ton of non-Trash Goblin stuff going on around the edges of Milky Towers right now, all very exciting... but you're here for Goblin news so let's get on with sharing it!
PROGRESS
Now, we thought it'd be great to show you some of the musical trinkets we've been hard at work bringing to tuneful life! They were the first stretch goal you Goblins unlocked, so it makes sense to start there!
A Viola is not a Violin. And even though it sounds like maybe it'd be smaller, it is actually bigger. Like an Orc is to a Goblin, maybe?
The Lyre is one of the world's oldest musical instruments, and their strings are supported by a yoke. And what's that about 'slotted'...?
A tiny wee drum with cute lil' feet. PLS IGNORE THE SCRIBBLED ONES. Oh dangit, we know you're going to obsess about the Acorn Drum now...
This is a Lute. You can tell it's a Lute and not a Flute because it cannot 🎶Toot🎶
Another glimpse into our process- this time on the Flute! Which definitely 🎶toots🎶! Yours truly used to play the Flute...
In the image above you can see the progression (left to right) from concept to in-engine plus the icon that is drawn for use in the Stash! Donnie is an amazing concept artist and Tahlia does just the most incredible job of realising his work in three dimensions. But who draws the Stash icons? Dare to hazard a guess?
Of course, lots of other things are being worked on - planned, prototyped and polished - but I want to make sure we don't share before we're certain of it. and if we're not certain, we might show you work-in-progress stuff anyway and then ask you questions!
HOT TOPIC - BLOCK TYPES
We always ask you for ideas and steer on what to cover - we could blether on forever about all kinds of things, but it's better if you have something you wanna hear about - and the lovely CitizenSnips came through with a doozy on our discord!
"This randomly snuck into my head this morning. But I remembered some time ago asking about things we wanted to see. Your new block ideas! The calm tinkity tink game sits in the depths of my idle mind. What fun block ideas do you have?"
Well then. Let's go! Usual caveats apply - these are ideas that may be good, some might be bad, and either way may or may not end up in the game. Them's the breaks.
Noodle-Chain Block
Will destroy a chain of blocks when the weak face is destroyed
Type Change Block
Will change the surrounding blocks to different ones
Grow Block
Any time you chip any other block, it grows - both in size and HP!
Unstable Magic Block
It randomly changes to any other block, based on a timer and/or you chipping any other blocks.
Shy Block
Every time you chip it, it teleports to another spot! Chase that block!
Worm Block
Every time you chip a face, it grows another of itself off the opposite face. You'd have to 'aim' it at an occupied block to destroy it!
And talking about this stuff made me realise we can share a little bit of how we work! Visuals are so important, and help us communicate more efficiently when it comes down to mechanics and all kinds of design elements. Don't get me wrong there are tens of thousands of words in our Miro design doc, but pictures are best!
Steve is great at bashing out clear little storyboards for player and game interactions (action boards?) that help the team to figure out all the little wrinkles and opportunities they present us!
We've also got a bunch of concept art of various block types. Much like with all the other concept art we do, there's always a pure 'ideation' phase where a loose brief is given and we encourage playfulness to come up with anything. WELP this was not that - here we're trying to keep within 'definitely still made of dirt' ideas!
This was us figuring out ways to show the Goblin marking blocks with chalk as you find the Trinket during Chipping.
Some slightly more fanciful and intriguing blocks that might suggest fun behaviours to play with.
Can you name all these kinds of stone, dirt and rock? DO THEY EVEN REALLY EXIST?!
Have ya'll got any ideas? We'd love to hear them!
Until next time, take it easy Goblins!