Trash Goblin News

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We're so excited to have the launch date out there - we're just going to throw ourselves at making Trash Goblin as great as possible for the launch, and then carry on full speed regardless after that date all the way through to the 1.0 launch which is probably going to be next year!

Tell your friends, wishlist it, throw us a follow, and let's get this party started!

So much has been going on with the game recently, and it's on the cusp of being presentable, but I thought why not give you a look at the state of things literally right now. As in, I wrote this sentence, went away and grabbed a screenshot, then came back here to paste it in and write the rest of this post.



If you've played the demo or seen screenshots you might be thinking... where'd it all go?!


So what, indeed, has changed? Some big things, and some smaller. Rather than force you to guess (though that would be fun) how about I list it all*?!

*except I might forget some and/or leave some out on purpose 😅

No More Cruft
That's right, you ain't cleaning that up, and the HUD ain't counting it either! Basically this was a vestigial feature that had no purpose (yet). And people kept asking. So out it comes!

Decorations-be-where?
Yes indeed. It's rather sparse there, isn't it? We're in the middle of building and testing the expansion gameplay! So yeah, at the start of the game, it might feel a little emptier than you're used to from the demo, but you'll be able to buy all kinds of things to decorate with!

Stash Book In Your Face!
We've moved the stash book to the HUD, essentially linking it to the camera so it's always with you (and right now so are the comically large VFX that moved with it). Makes things easier, and simpler, and declutters the workspace too!

Strange Button, I See You. Explain Yourself.
Off to the right-hand side of the Personal Space navigation button is a little price-tag-looking fella. This unassuming fellow is what gets you into Expansion Mode! Oh boy, what fun you'll be having there.

I'll leave it there - with one or two more changes for ya'll to spot and discuss. Rest assured we are super excited about all of this getting into your hands, and if you're on the right backer tier, we're dearly hoping to get another Beta going in the coming weeks. There's a lot more than just UI and assets being moved around, lemme tell you!

Meanwhile, in the ramp-up to the huge news coming next week - yes, that's right, I said HUGE - I think you might wanna get all up in our discord if you've not bothered yet.

Please do wishlist us, and give the game a Follow right here on Steam too of course 😇

Till next time, stay Goblin, and keep those floppy ears out for the rumbling of that news I've teased about fifteen million times by now, does it even count as a tease or is it just annoying at this point...

Welcome Goblins, to another development update! I hope you've all been enjoying August, as it's nearly over (my, how time flies) and as I type that I realise how close we are to the game's Early Access launch!

I'm still not going to announce that just yet, but blimey if we aren't beginning to really feel the pressure. We've got an amazing team and every confidence we'll be delivering this game soon, to a really high standard... as you know Early Access launch is just the beginning so we're also planning the update roadmap and that's all really exciting too.

Anyway, what choice cuts of development am I going to share this time? Read on!

[h3]SHOP EXPANSION GAMEPLAY[/h3]

We keep talking about letting you play for as long as you like, even at EA launch. And with that comes a challenge - what will you want to spend all your hard-earned Gold on? Well, we've spent a lot of time figuring that out, and we want to show you a little glimpse that tells a lot.

This is a mockup, the real button will be Well Nice.

The extra button there is to move into Shop Expansion Mode, where we let you tinkering goblins purchase expansions and cosmetics across all areas of the game. We obviously want you to be able to upgrade your Tools. We think it'd be ace for you to customise your workspace in some meaningful ways. And we also want to let you spend on, for want of a better word, buffs or modifiers that make your days as a Trash Goblin more fun, all while locking into the vibes of the game and the world we're building.

We're still discussing and feeling out which ones we want to launch with, but it's safe to say they'll feature in these updates as and when we get them into a shareable state. I want to tease, but not over-promise!

[h3]CUSTOMERS AND MORE![/h3]

One thing we're completely confident of is the initial cast of characters you'll meet in the Early Access launch version!

Left to Right we've got Geronimus, Redoir, Aimon, Nomia and a new mystery character!

No prizes for spotting there's one more who we'll unveil properly at some point soon, but currently we call them "Delver Goblin - Aunty X". The X makes them sound a bit sinister, but trust me when I say that the only person who needs to be nervous around this character is Aimon. I'll say no more!

This means the current plan is that Donoval & Jaq won't feature in the launch version, but of course, this is the "minimal" plan and as soon as we know how much time we can devote to more quests, they'll be top of the list to be added back in! We just want all the named characters to have really awesome stories for you to enjoy with them, so until we're confident we're hitting our quality standards, we won't promise anything more.

[h3]DIABLO IV LOVES GOBLINS TOO?[/h3]

We didn't realise Diablo runs an event that celebrates makes players be mean towards goblins every year?! Well, we told our little fellow about it and despite our warnings he couldn't resist the opportunity to meet some new customers, and maybe even turn them into friends?!

Our lil' goblin is just so excited to share his trinkets with other goblins, regardless of the dangers involved!

We're not so sure it was totally safe to be there, but I don't think anyone could confuse our Goblin for any other type. Besides, it was a flying visit and we're told nobody got hurt.

[h3]SXSW[/h3]

Oh boy, I wonder how many of you spotted this in the build version of that screenshot? We've been shouting about it a bit and will be more, but Trash Goblin is going to be at SXSW Sydney! Sadly the team can't make the trip but we're super excited about people playing our game all the way around the world, so if you're there in Sydney, please do tell us - maybe even take a selfie with the game and share it with us!


[h3]FOLLOW TRASH GOBLIN[/h3]
If you haven't, please do go and "Follow" Trash Goblin on Steam, it'll help us reach you with even more great goblin content and updates, especially once the game's out!

See that highlighted button? It sits right next to the Wishlist button - which you've already all clicked of course because you're the greatest goblins in the world - and this is what it looks like when you've been lovely and Follow-ed the game too 🥰

[h3]TOODLES FOR NOODLES...[/h3]

...that's daft-and-tired-writer-speak for "bye for now". Yup, that's it for this update, so until next time make sure your favourite goblins don't go near Diablo IV ⚔️

Welcome once more to the regular update! Last time we skipped it because, frnakly, yours truly was on holiday so... my apologies, but we're back on track now! Well, we're only a day late this time, so that's an improvement.

We're running headlong towards the Early Access launch date and so we've been a last round of planning around all the cool things we want to squeeze into Trash Goblin before it comes out. It's all very exciting and cool and we'll share an updated roadmap in the not too distant future 😇

What's that? You want to know the launch date? I'm afraid you'll have to hang in there a little longer before we announce!

[h2]TUTORIAL? PFF, YOU-TORIAL MORE LIKE[/h2]
Um... that sort of works as a header for this section? I wanted to show off something that landed in the game a mere day or two ago; our Game Guide menu!



Accessed via the in-game Menu, each tab will take you to a panel like the one shown here which contains not only the tutorial text for that gameplay element, but also a handy image to reinforce or remind the player what the context/use case for it is. The eagle-eyed among you will spot that one of the tabs is redacted... that would've revealed a brand new feature now wouldn't it?! We wouldn't want that, would we!

Oh wait, you would?

Apparently I'm feeling like a slightly meaner-than-normal tease today, I blame the scone I just ate. It was too big. Can you imagine? A scone that is too big.

Scone-scowling aside, it's very important to us that even at the Early Access launch, all you lovely players have all the info you need at your fingertips to ensure that you enjoy the game to its fullest.

[h2]WHAT ELSE?[/h2]
Of course we're all working very hard on a bunch of other stuff, so here's a little non-exhaustive list!

• When you sell a Trinket, you'll get a receipt that summarises the transaction - plus your upcycling efforts - as a sort of mini "mission complete" screen!

• We've added some lovely sound effects to the Time Of Day counter, so you get a gentle little audio nudge that you just used a slot up.

• The game's tutorial is undergoing a chunk of rework, and as part of that we've been playing around with some more "speech bubbles" along the way:

• We've been exploring more unique Trinkets, and the idea of Garden Gnomes really tickled us so we couldn't resist seeing what they might be like:

• We've really changed up the Customer Desk. No more Keep/Sell areas. In fact, to sell a Trinket you've got to place it on the attractive mat, while the big desk is just space for you to arrange things. Also when the sale is complete, the customer leaves their Gold Pouch there too, which makes it really hard to miss, plus there's no more fiddling around with it near the bottom of the screen. There's still more in progress on the whole "Sales Moment" as we like to call it, but this was always confusing to people, and already we feel this gameplay sequence is a lot simpler, clearer and smoother.

• We have a handy (and cute) icon for when you have a Customer waiting!

I reckon I'll stop there, but it's exciting to see all this coming together so well and I know the whole team are super excited to let you get your hands on it for some playtime!

We demo'd Trash Goblin in the Indie Showcase at Develop Conference last week, with hundreds of people coming by to play! the demo is the same one live on Steam right now, and the response was amazing. So many people had already backed us (um, hi!) or wishlisted us, and it was such a huge boost to our energy! Honestly I can't describe how much it means to feel peoples' excitement in real life, and seeing the love for Trash Goblin at the show really makes us confident of a great Early Access launch later in the year!


We tend to go overboard with booth decorations. It's been agreed we need like a million more candles next time!

I wanted to give a huge shout-out to Steve and Anthony who were manning the booth for 2 days straight, with almost no stopping in the queues and crowds, and they did a brilliant job of representing all the team's hard work.


Ant mid-flow as he helps someone a) make a sale and b) deal with the weird vertical mouse we had on the stand 😅

[h3]WORLD BUILDING[/h3]

As usual we like to bring a little behind-the-scenes magic to these updates, so here's something from literally a couple of hours ago!

We've been working with the amazing Pip on the narrative design, and part of that requires solidifying the rules and reality of the world we're trying to build, so the stories we tell there resonate and come across as authentic. So today we had some fun thinking about the geography of Silver City (also known as Harkfell...) and thought we'd share this very work in progress image!



I know a few of you have been hankering for more lore and story, so we'll leave this here with a big "subject to change" sign and see what ya'll think of it! For reference, the scale means Silver City is roughly the same size as Greater London. And the Chasm... well now that is a big hole.

Until next time, and as ever, stay goblin!