Goblin Layer 0.57.5 Released! Many changes...

Goblin Layer  Update 0.57.5 "Unreal 5 Remake" -Edition

Randomly stumbled over this?  Goblin Layer is a (nsfw) parody Adventure with a large cast of characters, humor, animations and more! Not to be confused with Goblin Slayer.

This is a big gameplay update which changes many, many things. The last public/free release was 0.57.3, so basically you're getting 2-in-1.

Also 0.57.6.1 is out Patreon  if you're interested. 
It contains a "lockpicking" scene involving Priestess. And also a lot fixes.
I recently upgrade the artstyle and that's the first scene using the new style, more to come!

Anyway, here are the full changelogs for 0.57.4 and 0.57.5
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== 0.57.5 "Unreal 5 Remake" Edition ==

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This updated adds even more stuff and fixes the worst issues from the giga-update 0.57.4.

There might still be some issues here and there, so I'll keep polishing.
Will focus mainly on """"plot"""" for the next update!

For example some "Physical Encouragement" scenes...

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"Plot"

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Replaced some renders, etc for Town Hall Girl. And made a small addition.

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Game

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- Chapter Select is back in business, up to Chapter 4.

(you can still play beyond Ch4. It's just the chapter select 5-6 that needs renovating, not the actual story)

- Chapter 6 is back in business

- Chapter 7 is back in business

- Balancing/mechanics adjustments for some consumables

- Balancing adjustments for enemies

- Balancing/mechanics adjustments for some skills

- Added Throwable electric eel

- Added Throwable water bottles

- Added Throwable pocket sand

- Added Staff reward after dealing with Goblina

- Added Spear reward after dealing with Amazon

- Added new tactical crossbows

- Added other new Items/Weapons/Armor as well

- Added New Battle backgrounds

- Added more loot to the world

- Added new Enemy skills

- Made some animation improvements

- Made some map improvements

- Implemented line of sight/detection for some enemies on map

- Made sprite art improvements

- As the story progresses, there will be some visual improvements around Hubtown (Broken things getting repaired etc).

- Anvils & Barrels rooms will similarily get more 'lived in'.

- Wall Market will have slightly lower prices

- Added short dialogue about hammers with Barrel in the Wall market

- Made some additional dialogue additions and tweaks here and there

- Church Maiden can heal you when you talk to her in the Capital

- Church Maiden can allocate 🍆 when you talk to her in the Capital

- Can allocate 🍆 in the house of Bazza (Norfwich)

- Made Priest in house of Bazza sell supplies
- Made some Lightning improvements

- Added a new music track or two

- E.g for the 'football scene' in Ch6

- Improved the treasure popups a bit

- Edited which weapons each class can equip a bit

- Increased and more randomized encounters in Grinder

- Grinder will use the 'classic' battle music

- In some fights the enemy might put up a barricade.

- Improved some cutscenes, timing/sound effects/etc

- Added a new battle animation or two

- Made QoL improvements for the Cheat Room, seriously the place was a a mess.

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Bugfixes and other fixes

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- Fixed Cheat Room

- Fixed a spot where you could get stuck in OCSE

- Fixed a lot of 'Loading Error' errors

- Fixed Ch.6 and all related locations, in general

- Fixed a bunch of 'unsafe' quest-triggers in Northwich, which may have caused bugs otherwise

- Fixed selection control not working as intended for some skills/items

- Updated a plugin which made the menu open/close faster. Previously it caused trouble when loading saves, an unforeseen side effect

- // Fixed text color of dim 'name boxes'

- Some items that didn't 'stack' in inventory, now stack

- Fixed some items using up a turn in combat

- Removed 'test 0' skill, it was a leftover from testing

- Bottled lightning now properly applies 'shocked' to wet targets

- Torch now properly ignites flammable targets

- Fixed a missing animation for Goblina

- Fixed 'protection' animation not playing during a cutscene

- Apparently it's called hollow, not hallow.

- Fixed Goblina mysteriously disappearing after a cutscene

- Fixed some inconsistent sprites in the Journal

- Fixed some journal entries not showing at certain quest stages

- Fixed ladder trigger getting triggered the wrong way during CH4

- Fixed incorrect sound FX in some places

- Fixed Amazon's panties
- Fixed 2nd Inn scene being broken

- Fixed randomly getting 50 gold after talking to GG at a certain point

- Fixed some inaccessible areas

- Fixed some npc greets not triggering

- Fixed player ending up in the wrong spot after moving from one map to another

- Fixed some dialogue lines getting cut off

- Removed a bit of code which caused the shop menu items to be greyed out the first time you opened it.

- Corrected various typos etc

- Can use red stimulant outside of battle

- Fixed Northport

- Added shadows to some npcs missing them

- Fixed up the descriptions and such for some items

- Fixed the functionality of a whole bunch of Augments

- Overhauled some additional encounters

- Fixed some whack errors with the frontier conquest fights/areas

- Fixed the Dungeon dive below grindr

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Dev Notes/Other/Behind the Scenes

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TIP: "Failed to Load" errors can be fixed just by copying a file and renaming it to the missing file.

Lots of changes (0.57.4) --> Lots of bugs --> Lots of fixes (0.57.5). The cycle of life and also gamedev.

I think the worst issues should be gone now. I'm going to do yet another playtest playthrough for the next update though....

Anyway, I'm gonna try focusing on renders and "plot" for the next update, so look forward to that. Kinda had to shelf it for a little bit while getting the gameplay in order.

Was planning on adding the physical encouragement art stuff this update, but decided to do it next update instead.
So I can make some improvements to the 3d models first!

In other news:

Improvements to some character models in Blender.
E.g. Anvil has gotten a bit of a makeover + Thicker thighs. The chest is still flattish tho.  New outfit & hood.

New hair planned as well.

And Some subtle touch-ups for Priestess, mainly face & butt

Tweaked some skin shaders

Fixed some whacky topology

And so on

Bugs which got reported, but I haven't manage to replicate. (Still looking into it)

//1. ch 6 courtyard black screen

//2. talk to farm girl triggered after amazon after cave scene

//3. after walking inside the potato place for the first time and killing all enemys outside and going once again inside there's glitched cutscene after it there's black screen and you need to use candle to fix it

To those who have played 0.57.4:

I had to made some code changes, e.g. there's was a plugin I forgot to enable, and some other code that didn't work that well in the long run so I threw it out.

When playtesting I got a combat crash using my 0.57.4 save. You may be able to bypass it by opening YEP_X_SelectionControl.js (in js/plugins) and just deleting all code inside and saving.

But a new game is probably better. Chapter select 1-4 should work now.

Also, I experminmented a bit with an Android port, but basically I am incompetent at mobile dev.
At one point I managed to get it to run on the phone, but saving didn't work. I will keep trying.

0.57.5 Changelog END

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== 0.57.4 "Spring-Cleaning" Edition ==

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Please observe:

I have restructured the game's database, and made many other changes.

This means if you try to use an old save with this version, horrible things will happen.

This had to be done due to some big improvements and changes currently being implemented.

2. This version is quite rough & and I've had time to playtest it up until after Watertown.

The game isn't my "9-5" job, so the development basically depends on how much free time I got. I should be pretty free the rest of april though!

So I will try to speedrun the next update, which will make things more polished.

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Art, Scenes & "Plot"

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You'll notice something different with the prologue scene.

Improved one of the Mission Madame's animations

Priestess sometimes mishearing stuff is canon now.

New dialogue & writing improvemnts

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Gameplay Changes & New Additions

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Reworked literally everything (combat/skills/itemizations/etc)

Added 'Physical Encouragement' skill. a.k.a. 'touch' each other to buff each other.
- it's just the framework for now. I'll try to speedrun the next update and and some 'art'

Remade many, multiple combat encounters

Cleaned out a lot of old assets and junk that had accumulated in the game folder

Cleared out lots of old code/plugins.

Cleaned, sorted, replaced & added new sound effects, double-checked the licensing was ok etc

Added New Music tracks

Optimized a bunch plugins, for better performance.

Added cutscene in which the Catgirl trader commits vehicular manslaughter.
Rebuilt Loot lists

Sewer Pirates have a ship and cannons

Added a fix specifically for people with hi-refresh monitors

Upgraded the plugin which handles playing the animations from 1.3 to 1.7.

I'm too low IQ to  understand the performance log, but one thing went from taking 37% of something to 16% of something so that's probably good.

Optimized most .png graphics, the pic folder became 3-400 mb smaller. I can't see any quality difference, but I got backups juuust in case.

Experimented a lot with different NW.js and Pixi versions. It the stuff the game runs on. It was very annoying. I think things run smoother now though.

- Would like to upgrade them further, but can be difficult without something breaking.

Added mini-game: "We have Skyrim lockpicking at home"

- Will improve art & functionality in future update!

- Completely unrelated: Priestess accidentally buys a Chastity Belt instead of a Chainmail Vest, and loses the key.

Added Attributes category to main menu, to see stats and such

Overhauled the equipment slots for all party members

Added Equipment slots for underwear >:)

Went back to the more Compact choice windows

Better position for menu selection cursor

Made a new sprite for the Catgirl's caravan cart

Officially bought the vine boom sound effect

Improved the menu layouts. At least in my opinion.

Improved the menu style. At least in my opinion. It is easily reversed if no one agrees.

- I went for a manuscript style

Added tacticool shop in the Capital

Added lots of new icons for armor/weapons etc

Added lots of new gear of all kinds, that's why I made the icons

- Loot will come in different rarity levels

Added Multiple new weapon sprites (for the battle scene)

Overhauled starting gear as well

Changed/Edited/Improved effects and updated descriptions for various items. Actually all of them.

-or let's say 87,65% of all items, just in case someone tries to fact check me

Overhauled the Weathered Watchtower map

Improved the windmill animation

Made some General tileset upgrades (tilesets are the art for the maps, the artist remastered parts of them recently)

Changed the garden outside the cathedral, more ORDERLY and lore friendly now.

Improved the Cathedral Interior as well

Also added some new dialogue in that area

You now need a potion to speak to animals

The cat in Hubtown got a task/mini-quest for you, like an actual cat, not a Nekoharan

Restructured all databases, items, animations, events all of them... Not something you'll notice in game. But behind the scenes everything much better organized now, which makes me happy.

Added Augments slots for weapons & armor, like you shove a rune into it or something to give it bonuses.
I also added muscle upgrade slots, just shove some protein in there

Upgraded the intro & disclaimer aesthetically

Upgraded the Chapter Select aesthetically

- if you wait maybe 10s or so on the chapter select screen something uninteresting happens.

Added more font options

Added a button to various menus, which can be used to quickly switch between party members

Various dialogue improvements, small rewrites, better grammar etc

Overhauled the the Hubtown Church (interior). 1. To make it more Rustic (its the frontier) and 2. To make it more romantic-looking (there's a reason for that too).

Made the Goddess statue thicker as well.

Improved the Hubtown Town Hall (exterior), + general improvements to the Hubtown map.

Added some new combat animations for throwables (like bombs, spears, torches, rats, etc)

You now gain 🍆 when levelling up.
🍆 can be used to improve your main attributes (Might, Vitality, Arcana, Esotery, Agility & Luck). Re-spec Included.

Church Maiden will explain everything you need to know about 🍆

Made New Sprite for Church Maiden

Made New Sprite for the Mission Madame

Made New Sprite for Barrel + New Combat Sprite

Nyalexandria will be renamed to Patrapolis after certain events take place

Updated/Remade many battle sprites. Many old ones were kinda blurry due to how I scaled them back in the day. Still a whole bunch to go but its a good starts.

Also added completely new enemy sprites

Added new Goblin Lore: The agricultural revolution and its consequences...

In combat, you can use one item 'for free' every turn. Meaning you can use an item and a skill for example.

Made New Sprite for the Red Bard + Face edits

Added Some additional dialogue if you talk to the Red Bard in the Capital

Overhauled basically all maps during CH4.

Overhauled the Gentle Glade

Added way to view changelog to the title menu

Sorry if there are any repeated entries in the changelog. I kinda lost track.

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Bufixes etc

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Got rid off old titlevideo plugin

Cleaned up some cat-related stuff after the Ch7 quest

If you entered the Blue House in Nyalexandria and leave immediately, you can't go back in. It's fixed now.

Tbh due to all the changes and new mechanics, I've probably introduced more bugs than I've fixed... But I'll fix those as well.

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Left to do (in terms of gameplay mechanics)

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This update is kinda like the balance equivalent of a first sketch, so it will improve in future updates.

Balancing mainly involves tweaking numbers etc, so it shouldn't break any saves.

Will work on adding more art and interactions for the 'Physical Encouragement'. Currently its GL & Priestess.

I'm going to make some tweaks to Barrel's & Anvils 3d models, then I'll start making scenes for them as well.

You might see both a "Might" and "Strength" attribute. But they're the same. I just haven't decided on which term to use yet... I'll decide on one until next update.

Currently, when you view an ally or enemy status in battle, the 'hover mouse over option highlights it' doesn't work like it does in every other menu. I'll see if I can fix that.

Addd more party skills, plus polishing those that are already implemented

Ch 6 & 7 will be back again next time. And the specials if there's enough time. Just need more to fix and time to playtest them.

There's still a bunch of items, skills & enemies etc that needs adding.
I had to sacrifice them this update to have time for the new rendered/animated stuff.

I tried out a manuscript UI style, but it may be an acquired taste, so I might add an add option to change the overall window style etc.
A whole bunch of elemental interactions are set-up (like fire + oil = burning), but
Spend 🍆 on skills (maybe) and gain 🍆 from quests (for sure)

More augments with more unique effects.
Remake the rest of the combat encounters.

More Loot tiers, currently the 'mundane' tier is implemented.

Tax Collectors

Elemental combos are a thing now.
E.g. Apply 'Oily', then use a fire skill to apply 'Burning'.  Or if an enemy is wet, then Ice to Freeze. etc.

Like everything else in this update, some functions might not be 100% done, and will require a more polish, but I think it'll be fun.
I want to add 'detonations' as well, but need more time to make them work exactly like I want them yet.

To make fights less static, I've also added some basic skills that lets you manipulate enemy positions. Like pulling them together and then hitting them with an AOE.
I think that kind of stuff might be fun.

Tldr; There's a lot of new mechanics. And they will get more polished over time.

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Near Future Plans

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Besides the stuff in the 'left to do' section these are my current goals which I work towards:

- Ch.8, the farm is attacked & a chain of events will lead to Goblin Layer being open to Human Relationships.

- Upgrading old art

- Better scene progression for Townspeople, should feel more natural. For example, the Bath Girl, there'll be more scenes before she softens up.

- Just more scenes in general with the Townspeople

- New method to play spicy scenes.
Like in the goblins' cave, instead of selecting options in a text menu, it will be more of an (simple) minigame, you do a bit of touching, a bar fills up, now you can do some other things...

- More Laying' focused "fights" with the Goblin bosses Goblina/Hoblina/Paladin. Like a combo of how you pose and stuff to fill up the Paladin's bar, or the special skills you use with Goblina.

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(Optional)

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- If you want the old cursors back, they are in img/cursors/backup

- If the updated Video Player (PKDVplayer.js) causes any problems, the old plugin is in js/plugins/backup

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Dev Notes

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Well it's been a pain the ass, but the biggest part of the overhaul is done. It's still a bit "raw", but hopefully it will be "well-done" in an update or two.

When I started working on this game I had basically 0 experience with gamedev. And so I used a lot of weird methods and made dumb mistakes in the beginning.

Thanks to this update, I now have a much better foundation to build on.

Besides overhauling basically everything, the 'Physical Encouragement' skill is probably the best new addition.
It is a bit bare bones at the moment (consisting of basic interactions between Priestess & Protagonist, but will be fleshed out in future updates.

I thought to myself, how do you integrate the spicy stuff into the combat?
I guess you could see this game as a comedy rpg, but it's also an adult game at the end of the day...

Some games have terrible things happening when you lose, but that doesn't really work for Goblin Layer's style.
Or you do fabulous things with the opponent in combat. This works for the special encounters like Goblina/Paladin, but not for smelly goblin dude #4.
So what remains are the Protagonist & the Party Members.

Thus the Physical Encouragement skill was born: buffing each other, by touching each other.
It will start with an awkward pat on the back. Then gradually increase in intensity to weapons-grade depravity.

I will add renders & animations for all the interactions of course :-)

The higher your 'Intimacy' score is with you party members, the more 'intense' the encouragement scenes will get.

This is probably the best, maybe only, good idea I've ever had, so I hope you'll like it.
I think even the payment processors will like it.

Making the art and animations for all the touching combinations will be the most time consuming part, but It'll get there.

There may be 1 more save-wrecking update after this one. But that's a worst case scenario, I'll do my best to avoid it.

0.57.4 Changelog END