Hi, I wanted to know what you all think of this game I'm currently making. The goal is to sell it on Steam. This is a pretty small game but I think it could be fun. It will be my first finished game if I finish it. No more working on MMOs lol. You play as a goblin who runs through a medieval city at night carrying a sack to kidnap sleeping maidens from their houses for their despair energy. You take the maidens back to your lair and collect despair energy. The more despair energy you have the more goblins you will attract to your lair. You also collect weapons for your goblin army and food for the maidens. If you are low on food, maidens will start dying. You have limited sack space and each item you carry takes up some sack space, including maidens. You can increase your sack space by collecting randomly placed pieces of cloth. You have to find randomly placed lock picks to enter a maidens house, or you can bash down the door but if you do you might alert the guards... each time you alert the guards they get more hp. You defeat guards by jumping on them. If a guard damages you, you have a chance to drop any items you are carrying. There are also guards that patrol random places. You can level up by gaining xp from bringing stuff back to your lair. Leveling up gives you faster movement, higher jumps, and more damage to enemies. You can also kidnap the princess and bring her back to your lair but once you do the city will send a lot of soldiers to destroy your lair. You defend your lair with the goblins you have attracted and weapons you collected. If you successfully defend your lair you will gain a large amount of xp. After a certain amount of time the city will send another wave of soldiers that are stronger than the last. So, that's the game, let me know what you think.

I don't have time to give a full critique right now, but a couple of questions/suggestions:

You mention weapons, but also defeating guards by jumping on them - how does combat actually work? Also when defending the lair is there some kind of mass battle system?

It sounds like a stealth element should be involved - can you expand on the mechanics of creeping around town and then creeping round a house without waking everybody inside? Is it standard "enemies patrol, stick to the shadows" business?

Does only one goblin gather victims or do several "maiden snatching units" work in a coordinated way?

Does the game keep track of which houses still have maidens left to capture?

What is the effect of captive maidens dying from lack of food? Will goblins begin to leave the lair?

Having to find randomly placed lock picks might add a fairly arbitrary feel to the game - rather than planning to invade a house you have to aimlessly wander until you find a lock pick and perhaps the game becomes more about finding lock picks than snatching maidens?

Kidnapping the princess - does this involve infiltrating a large castle and exploring the inside? This is quite a contrast to the (presumably very humble and small) houses of the townsfolk

What is the ultimate goal? Is it to capture and retain the princess, or is that just a means to gain loads of XP and build an even bigger goblin army (if so, surely you become too powerful to be sustained by the town)? Are there victory conditions?

Is each town a different scenario/level or is there only one larger town?

I like the general idea of the game very much (collecting and keeping maidens, sack size upgrades, stockpiling resources for an epic final battle). Of course your description was pretty brief so you may already have answers to all of these questions - if not, hopefully some of them have revealed some problems or possibilities for extending the design.

Good luck!

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Original post by WavyVirus I don't have time to give a full critique right now, but a couple of questions/suggestions: You mention weapons, but also defeating guards by jumping on them - how does combat actually work? Also when defending the lair is there some kind of mass battle system? It sounds like a stealth element should be involved - can you expand on the mechanics of creeping around town and then creeping round a house without waking everybody inside? Is it standard "enemies patrol, stick to the shadows" business? Does only one goblin gather victims or do several "maiden snatching units" work in a coordinated way? Does the game keep track of which houses still have maidens left to capture? What is the effect of captive maidens dying from lack of food? Will goblins begin to leave the lair? Having to find randomly placed lock picks might add a fairly arbitrary feel to the game - rather than planning to invade a house you have to aimlessly wander until you find a lock pick and perhaps the game becomes more about finding lock picks than snatching maidens? Kidnapping the princess - does this involve infiltrating a large castle and exploring the inside? This is quite a contrast to the (presumably very humble and small) houses of the townsfolk What is the ultimate goal? Is it to capture and retain the princess, or is that just a means to gain loads of XP and build an even bigger goblin army (if so, surely you become too powerful to be sustained by the town)? Are there victory conditions? Is each town a different scenario/level or is there only one larger town? I like the general idea of the game very much (collecting and keeping maidens, sack size upgrades, stockpiling resources for an epic final battle). Of course your description was pretty brief so you may already have answers to all of these questions - if not, hopefully some of them have revealed some problems or possibilities for extending the design. Good luck!

Hey, glad you like the general idea of the game.

The combat I have planned is just jumping on enemies but I could switch it to throwing daggers or something(Trying to decide which would be more fun). The weapons are just for your NPC goblins who battle with them instead of jumping.

For the lair battles there will just be a bunch of soldiers and goblins battling. You will be able to help with the battle too of coarse. Goblins will stand outside your lair and wait for the soldiers. I don't have a limit set yet for how many soldiers and goblins there will be on the battlefield at once yet.

I was thinking about making it so you have to hold a sneak button while close to maidens, but no positive on that yet. I might also make it so guards have a larger aggro range if you are close to a light source. Right now I'm planning on just making it so guards aggro if you get too close or are alerted by banging on a door.

Right now it's just the player that gathers maidens, although I was thinking about adding a goblin nemesis with who you compete with.

Yes houses will have locked doors and once you open doors they stay open. So you can tell which houses you've been to. I was planning on maidens eventually respawning or moving in and the doors will respawn with them.

Ya, I forgot to mention that, despair energy will decrease when maidens die and goblins will leave your lair for it.

That's a good point about the lock picks, but you could always choose to bash down the door if you don't feel like searching for lock picks, there's just a chance you will alert some guards and increase their toughness. I'll see how it is and change it if necessary.

Yes, I plan on making a castle for the princess.

The current end goal is just to see how long you can hold the princess for. Or to reach max level.

Thanks!

At the moment I only have plans for one large town.

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Original post by Butabee That's a good point about the lock picks, but you could always choose to bash down the door if you don't feel like searching for lock picks, there's just a chance you will alert some guards and increase their toughness. I'll see how it is and change it if necessary.

OK, I see how this can work either way really - if lock picks are readily available then the game is all about stealth, or you decrease the number of lock picks and force the player to use the "smash n grab" approach sometimes and involve more combat. With some play-testing and tweaking I'm sure you'll find a lock pick spawn rate which achieves the right balance.

Also, this is the kind of thing that could be tied to an adjustable difficulty level quite nicely.