Goblin Colony

[MonoNordGames]

Hello! I'm the solo developer behind Goblin Colony, a new RTS/sim/builder in the vein of Dungeon Keeper!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2...Goblin_Colony/



The game is set for release later this year, but there's a demo out for you to play now!

I'm a huge fan of the original DK series. I've never really enjoyed the sandbox style that most village builders seem to go for these days, so Goblin Colony (like many of Bullfrog's games) is very much campaign-driven.

I never intended for Goblin Colony to be an exact DK clone, but the inspiration should be obvious and one I'm proud to admit. Main differences from DK, I'd say, is that the overall scope is smaller, and there are less complex systems. GC has more traditional RTS controls. You control only one species: the goblins. A key element is that goblins can swap professions (worker <> warrior) back and forth depending on your needs. The tone is not as dark as the original DK, but also not as humor-focused as the Dungeons series. There's a dark/light mechanic that encourages you to light up the dungeons by building torches as you explore.

Hopefully, the demo will give you a taste, but of course, the full game will have much more complex maps and some additional features.

I'd love to hear what any hardcore DK fan thinks of my game. Please enjoy the demo. Thank you!

[YourMaster]

I played the demo to completion.

The tutorial was too hand-holdy. Those two levels took some time since you forced my every move I could not do it in my own time. I did not need as much help as you offered.

There are some interesting mechanics here, but I do not know how it will play out beyond 'get as many goblins as you can afford'. In the third level I wanted to try that ballista but did not manage to research it, not even with 2 research benches. My guess is it was unavailable in the demo, but that could have been made clearer.
Recruitment of the goblins between workers and warriors was interesting, but the demo did not hint at how this would continue further into the game. Will I get more options to choose from or more units or is this it? Torches were fun, but I think the cost of different items should be tweaked. A treasure room is quite expensive for instance, and that would make it optimal to just wait very long for gold to be mined.

What I found frustrating is that picking up gold had such a low priority for the workers.

[MonoNordGames]

I played the demo to completion...

Thanks for playing!

Yes, the tutorial would be too hand-holdy for veteran players of the genre. Tutorials are notoriously hard to do since you can't predict player skill. It's more aimed for novices/casuals and many people get stuck if not told explicitly what to do. I also took the opportunity to give the goblins some dialog and flavour-text as this will not really be a thing later in the main game. It is optional and skippable though.

Yeah, no ballista in the demo I'm afraid. It could have been clearer I agree.
Other then the mentioned ballistas, unit-wise that's it. There's only goblins and the two professions. It's not meant to be a complex RTS in regards to combat which is dumbed down in favor for puzzle/exploration elements.
Glad you liked the torches, I was wondering how DK players would feel about that one in perticular.
Costs and balancing are still very much in the testing phase. As it is now the goblins will always prioritise digging so queing up lots of digging will put everything else on the backburner, but I have been thinking of making priority player-selectable.

Thank you for your time and feedback!

[YourMaster]

On the steam page you said `Achieve victory through superior numbers or cunning tactics.`. In the demo it would have been good if I could have gotten some idea on how I could have been cunning and do some tactics.
Because some mechanics were interesting, but it did not feel like I could apply that.