Hello Gobbos, how is the start of the new year to you? We hope it’s a good one for everyone as well. We’re starting off our year with another success for Goblin Stone with the recent news from Tencent’s Games without Borders Game Awards 2023.
Goblin Stone received a Bronze Award in the Indie Game Game Awards category in a fierce competition among some of the most outstanding and upcoming games in the industry. Not only that, Goblin Stone is also showcased in the ongoing GWB Games Award Steam Event. You can check our demo and wishlist us in the event page to give us your support.
We are truly humbled and overjoyed to hear this big news as this means that Goblin Stone is slowly receiving more support and recognition globally. The GWB Game Awards are renowned for celebrating excellence in the gaming industry, and winning the Bronze Award is a testament to the hard work and creativity that went into Goblin Stone.
What’s next for Goblin Stone this year?
Of course, this is not only the major success that our team has accomplished. Goblin Stone also reached the end of its beta milestone for its development. We’d like to first thank our community for joining us in our final Closed Beta Test. It was a big success! Our team was able to consider some feedback and fixed most of the issues that the community has brought up during the testing period. We also focused on implementing the following changes and included it in the full game:
Smoother performance with the Homebase
Better game icons and UI
[/th] [/tr]
More critters and fauna in the game
[/th]
More flawless goblin and enemy animations
[/th] [/tr]
[/table] And more!
We understand that anticipation has been building for the game's release, and you might be curious about the significance of this milestone in relation to that. Goblin Stone is at its completion with every game feature, such as game mechanics, art and story fully implemented in the game. All that's left is the continuous polishing of the game and making sure we are almost bug free until we are ready for the big day! Rest assured that we will do our best to ensure a seamless launch and to deliver a great game for everyone to enjoy. We're as eager as you are to reveal the exact date soon, so please keep an eye out for the official announcements.
In A.V.A Global, exciting developments continue to unfold, and we are pleased to share the progress with you. Thank you for providing various opinions related to the Weapon Modification System. Your feedback is highly valued, and the operations/development team actively considers it for fair gameplay.
Balance:
We recognize that many of you prioritize game balance. AVA had plans for character specialization as part of the direction for game improvement. Adjustments, including HP increases, were made considering future updates and balance, but due to unfavorable player experiences, a quick rollback(of -20hp) was decided. We are currently in careful discussions about the balance direction, aggregating opinions from users such as "one-shot headshot" and "classic model adjustments." We aim to improve in the optimal direction by listening to your opinions, not just the thoughts of the AVA team. Please bear with us a little longer.
Feedback Implementation:
Firstly, we anticipate being able to share good news with you soon. We are preparing the most-requested feature, custom room creation, and appreciate your patience for the slight delay in ensuring a stable environment. We are also carefully reviewing modes to be included in custom rooms and welcome your input.
Modification System:
Aware of the significant impact the modification system can have on gun balance, we approached it cautiously. Initially, the system was designed to minimize the impact on individual gun modifications. We are now preparing to provide clearer feedback on the system's effects, addressing the unclear aspects based on continuous data analysis and user feedback.
Game play Rewards:
Feedback regarding a shortage of in-game currency, Euro, hindering the utilization of the special store content, has been acknowledged. To address this, we introduced the new "Euro Box" to increase the Euro amount obtainable after each game. The Euro Box is now part of daily quests and includes a variety of premium items in the Supreme Box (Titanium, Euro), excluding AVA BOX and Premium BOX. This allows you to choose rewards according to your play style, and we will swiftly apply additional opinions.
Counteraction against Unfair Practices:
We are consistently addressing unfair practices such as illegal programs and bug exploitation. Through automated detection systems, reviewing reported content, and various methods, we respond robustly. Monthly updates on our official website inform the community of the actions taken. We commit to continuing strong measures against unfair users.
Notice: Those with this icon(💌) are inspired by the players’ opinions. Thank you so much again.
💌 Added a [Peaceful difficulty] level where enemies do not invade.
Although we updated the user-defined difficulty level feature previously, there was a critical issue where tutorials could not be progressed. To address this, we have added the [Peaceful difficulty] level, which prevents enemy invasions, focusing on tutorials and allowing players to concentrate solely on city management.
💌 The pathfinding performance of Ratizens and enemies has been improved.
As the city developed, there were many terrains that could not be overcome with the existing AI pathfinding algorithms. Thanks to the save data sent by our users, we were able to conduct AI tests in various terrains and improve the pathfinding algorithm. We will continue to develop and enhance it further.
💌 Changed the color of the health bars for friendly Ratizens and structures to sky blue.
As the number of enemies increases and invasions intensify, the frequency of friendlies and enemies getting entangled in battles has started to increase. To make it easier to distinguish between friendlies and enemies in the chaos of battle, we have changed the color of the health bars for allies and structures.
💌 Added Subsidy to support the use of service structures on Welfare Law
The Welfare Law is a feature designed to aid Ratizens who are in the blind spots of society. Similar to the cultural life vouchers in reality, we wanted to provide a function that not only supports goods but also offers subsidies for consuming services.
💌 The Royal Wardrobe structure has been added.
With the Royal Wardrobe structure, you can change the appearance of your leader. Research various structures and try on different outfits!
💌 The Royal Tunnel structure has been added.
You can instantly travel to another tunnel network by paying a certain cost.
The Telescope structure has been added.
Through the Telescope structure, you can view other locations in real-time.
A mass production feature for production structures has been added.
You can activate this feature in the detailed settings of the structure. When activated, the materials and work load are doubled, but the production quantity is also doubled.
- Tutorial additions and enhancements have been made. - A currency exchange log has been added to the bank exchange feature. - The maximum exchange rate has been adjusted from 1500 to 2000. The minimum and maximum exchange rates are now displayed on the exchange rate graph. - Empty building blueprints are set to be deleted after 12 days. - Save and load functions are now asynchronous to prevent interruption during gameplay. If there is a failure in saving or loading, a related error message will be displayed as a popup message. - Auto-placement will immediately assigne Ratizens to the beds as soon as they are built. - The creation save files with the same kingdom name has been expanded to allow up to 10,000. - Minimum affecting area of the active ability of Shrine of Dog has been enlarged. - When entering a dungeon, a save file is created before the dungeon entry. This file is overwritten each time you enter the dungeon. - Default price will now be shown on UIs when changing the prices of goods with the commercial law. - Coal tiles and recipes using coal have been added.
Bug Fix
- 💌 Fixed the issue where citizens overlapped while using the dining table. - 💌 Fixed the issue where the Curfew on Ratizen groups of Doors resets when loading the game. - 💌 Fixed the issue where the background turns black when saving and loading during storms and blizzards - 💌 Fixed the issue where the cracked effect on tiles with low health was not displayed when loading the game. - 💌 Fixed the issue where Ratizens wait in front of the door when multiple Ratizens use a door at the same time. - 💌 Fixed the issue where some tiles could not be mined, causing an error when attempting to mine.
- Diggers will not dig on days other than invasion days. - Invading enemies will appear with the [Starvation] buff. - Expiry date and next trade day shown in the trade window will appear correctly. - When Garden is demolished while plants are being harvested, the harvesting motion of Ratizen will stop. - Canceling demolition command will affect on intended areas correctly. - Work speed in the status information window will appear properly. - The effects of structures in the statistics window will display values affected by the Ratizens' abilities. - The intermittent bug with statistical data that occurred when loading the game has been fixed. - Currency exchange ticket alerts will be displayed properly after save and load operations. - Currency exchange ticket will now expire properly as written. - Scroll will be activated when the number of currency exchange tickets becomes excessively large. - Fixed the name of the item “Coral Necklace” to “Snorkel”, which is visually more appropriate. - Consumption values of research points for some structures have been rectified. - Rails will not be usable when it is destroyed.
Names may or may not be final. Content presented in this announcement is not yet available in-game. This is only an announcement of progress to ensure current playtesters the game is still alive and will be receiving updates to its completion.
The playtest pool is on pause and will continue with the next game update.
The Void Round
A new zone, tentatively titled the Void Round, has been completed. The name is in large part due to the ring around which most of the map's paths are built. It continues the story of the prior map and includes additional nuggets of information about the Twin Gods world.
Compared to all existing levels in the game, this level is huge. There are no breaks, no loading screens. It is all one level. There's an estimated 45 minutes to maybe 2 hours of gameplay, depending on how complete one wishes to be. Seeing as how the game is intended to be 5-10 hours minimum, this is great because the next few levels might be as large.
Next Game Update
The next update will be massive. Along with the Void Round, there will be additional scenes in all existing levels. (More later.) At minimum, gameplay changes with the next update include increased walk speed and changes to stamina and the run mechanic.
Game Development Progress
After the Void Round, there are about 3-4 more levels, approximately of this size. Do not expect this information to be included in every update of this type made.
