Greetings and welcome to the first ever dev blog for Goblin Storm!
I am NS2 Xenophon, Community Manager and Beta Test Coordinator at NS2 Games and over the coming months, I will be writing a series of dev blogs that give you a glimpse into the world of Goblin Storm.
What is Goblin Storm?
Goblin Storm (GS for short) is a turn based fantasy game of strategy and deception that pits invading goblin hordes against the kingdoms of men. It can be played single player against an AI, co-op against huge AI armies, or head to head against other players. Our design philosophy is that game play should be deep but easy to learn and accessible to players.
Gameplay
Combat is GS is fast-paced and ruthless. Units are able to move and attack many times per turn, so after the carnage starts there is never a dull moment. Armies of thousands of warriors can be reduced to fields of corpses in a matter of minutes. Entire strategies can be upended by unexpected ambushes, wild beasts will hunt down your warriors and if you're really lucky, a Basilisk might fly by and rip you in half.
Armies are divided into specialized units that vary from ranged combatants such as crossbowmen to super heavy assault troops like trolls and recon experts like human rangers. Each unit type possesses unique strengths and weaknesses on the battlefield and is affected differently by different terrain. For instance, mounted knights may be the kings of the battlefield in the grasslands, but are easily slaughtered if they wander into forests or marshes. Trolls are unrivaled melee combatants, but worthless in ranged combat.
Combat in GS is about far more than simply massing huge stacks of soldiers and throwing them at the enemy. You must learn how to use terrain to your advantage and how to employ the units at your disposal to out fight and out maneuver your opponent.
Deception plays a significant role in GS. At the start of every game the invading Goblin player is given a secret objective (gold, slaves, relics or full-scale invasion) and the human player must use reconnaissance units and wits to determine the Goblin's objective and react accordingly. Thus, misdirection and deception play as much of a role in winning in GS as grand battles.
Development Status:
Goblin Storm has been in development for one year and is nearly ready for release. We are currently debugging co-op, working on game balance and expanding beta. All other game elements are complete and closed beta is progressing smoothly. Goblin Storm is planned for a December 2017 release on Steam.
That's it for today's dev blog, if you're interested in reading more feel free to head on over to the second dev blog on combat. Otherwise, I shall return next Monday with a new devblog to explore how every GS scenario is made unique by allowing the human player to place their own towns, villages and fortifications in Goblin Storm. In the meantime, saddle the horses, Goblin Storm is coming!