Goblin and Coins II coming in April

 A date has been set for the release of Goblin and Coins II, a sequel to the 2016 indie small bean Goblin and Coins. The game is coming to Steam in April this year! 

It's a 2D platformer created by a solo-developer, focused on bringing features gamers requested after enjoying the first game. Run and jump through a new adventure, explore the world, collect coins, unlock upgrades, revisit levels to find secrets and face enemies old and new. 

 What's new? 

•  Improved graphics, extended mechanics and simple puzzles 
• Create your own difficulty by getting or ignoring the upgrades 
• Revisit levels, find secrets, optional easier start for the new players 
• No game over - there's a secret way to regain your lost lives... 
• It Already supports English, Serbian, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian, with more languages coming in the future.  

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End of the year update

The last time I've wrote in August, mentioning some new levels. Well, it's been a few months since, this year is slowly coming to an end, there's a few more levels in the latest alpha2 build being tested right now, and I'm working on the next one as we speak. So, what's new?

Before the Cpt. Greenbeard boss fight and the shipwreck level, there's a run through the Piratopia. It's a short but hectic level.



After the shipwreck, we continue on into the Dwarven territory, and the first level there is industrial zone where dwarven forges and saws are, where stone is cut and... hammers are thrown. Unlike GnC1, this time hammer-throwing enemies hammers don't hone in into you, they just fly... toward a certain point. Also if a player is too low beneath their platform, they won't throw at all.



If you survive that, you actually get down under into the dwarven mines and halls, where even some unique Easter eggs can be found. Not gonna write any spoilers here, though.



This is the first underground area with real dwarves inside, as previous caves and mines were basically abandoned by them. There are constructs like flying security bot and similar remnants of previously technological civilization that is now trying to survive and live another day. After exiting this area, you'll end up on an ancient bridge that connects it to abandoned halls in the next mountain peak, where otherworldly things rule now and dwarves are no more... But they still hold the bridge, or at least part of it.



That's it for now. I've recently finished "Abandoned halls" level, which will introduce some new mechanics and will is an L sized underground maze. Following that, there's a third boss fight that is in testing phase right now...and that finishes the second third of the campaign map, thus making the latest build alpha3. 

Once I finish all the story/campaign levels it will transform into beta, which might happen during 2023 if everything goes well, and then it's "just" polishing graphics a bit, testing a lot, adding achievements and... releasing at some point. 

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A few new levels...

 A short look through a few GIFs showcasing the details of some recent levels. It's been a productive period and GnC2 is now considered alpha2 with more than 50% content being done and tested. It's early to talk about a release date, but if this tempo continues... Well. Let's take a look.

So, in the Rolling hills you escape the evil spellcasters by entering an unusual portal... Where does it lead?

Desecrated fields, a short visit to an otherworldly dimension. Also an opportunity to meet an old "friend" from GnC1 (not pictured here). After you escape this horrid place...

A long stretch, introducing murder-axe-bunnies. It's what they do and what they are. Are you really back to the "real" world?

Swamps are traditionally difficult levels in GnC series, and this time it's not different. Besides the enemies, you need to avoid projectiles coming from the local unfriendly flora. Not to mention various spikes, sinking logs...

After the Swampland and a few other levels you end up in a BOSS fight with this sail ship in the distance... and after you manage to beat it enough...

You actually get to pay them a visit up-close. Not so tough anymore, ah, Pirates? And after this we'll visit some Dwarven areas of the game, but more about that in the future ;)

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Goblin and Coins II DEMO in Steam Next Fest in June 2022

Development has been slow these past few months, mainly due to my day-job obligations and everything else that's been going around for everyone these past two years. But, it has not stop and I'm working on new levels all the time, be it drawing on paper, brainstorming new enemies and traps, backgrounds, drawing sprites or tiles and animated details... And of course, actually doing level design. It's been specially fun re-introducing old enemies from GnC1, as to keep the continuity, but reimagined and redrawn from scratch up. I'll try to keep the spoilers to the minimum, but maybe you've been following GnC YouTube channel and already know some of it.  

There's another Steam NEXT Fest coming up, this time June 22 edition, and I've decided "alpha demo" is good enough to be publicly shown (not counting the sort of semi-public playtest last year) and potentially gather some new followers and future fans of the series. I'm looking forward to any potential feedback and comments from the Steam users whom dedicate some of their time and try out Goblin and Coins II DEMO in June. I don't know if it needs to be said, but this build is still work in progress and many things might change in the future (actually, some things have already changed as the build for this demo is from November 2021), before and maybe even after the release. 

What can you expect to see in this DEMO during the Steam Next Fest? You'll be able to access the entire first quarter of the map, which includes the intro level, shop (in game coins exchanged for upgrades, no mtx!), six regular levels and an easy boss fight... and a "secret" underworld level where you end up only if you lose all lives and continues. To make things easier, "shrinky in a blinky" upgrade, which enables the player to shrink and crawl through crawlspaces between areas is already unlocked, and you're able to "purchase" double-jump upgrade for free, even if that turnes your total amount of coins into a negative number. Of course, this won't be like this in the full game, it's just so you'd be able to see more and try out more things in a short period of time during the demoFest.

If you decide to try the demo, be sure to tell me what your thoughts were, I'm listening.

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Music and game file size

I've added music to menus and existing levels, and with that, the total game size surpassed 17 Mb of the original Goblin and Coins. My goal is still to keep it under 100 Mb if possible and so far seems very doable. 

 Can't say I predicted SteamDeck back in 2015 when I was working on GnC1, but I did know of 2in1 tablets using Windows and wanted people to be able to download GnC1 and play it while on commute or whatever... and those things had their storage in the form of 32-64 GB eMMC cards most of the time, as SSD's were still expensive for mainstream notebooks, with Windows itself taking a huge chunk. So 17 Mb was amazingly small and convenient download size. 

 It would be a bit crazy to plan for GnC2 blowing up and being super-mega-ultra-popular, of course, but that doesn't mean that some of the people playing it won't have SteamDeck or a similar device... and why not try to keep the game size down to a minimum if it can be done, for them and in general. That way you can squeeze GnC2 in between some larger games and have it with you all the time. 

 Oh, also, hoping to make another playtest this winter. If you've already participated you'll automatically get access again, everyone else will be able to apply through store page during the test itself.

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First quarter of the map done... for now.

 I'm proud to say, with the implementation of the "Downhill" level and a "Cpt. Greenbeard" boss fight, the first quarter of the map/campaign is done. There's an into level, store, 5 regular levels, 1 boss fight and "the underground", so the game is finally shaping into something solid. The plan was never to fill all four quarters at release but only three - some 25 to 30 levels total - the last peace of the map was always meant for additional content some time later, like bonus missions, seasonal content and so on, maybe even an unrelated mini-story. To be decided later. 

Easy boss fight: Cpt. Greenbeard - Indie DB

So, at minimum, I have to make another 19 levels and 5 secret levels to finish the game, not counting further boss fights. In theory, if my day job doesn't get me too busy, I could finish by the next summer... or autumn. Otherwise, hard to say.

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