The first post-launch update for Goblin and Recipes: Match-3 Adventure is now live.

This update adds a handful of small quality-of-life and presentation improvements:

• New Fast and Slow animation speed options

• Spicy matches now burst into red sparkles when they disappear

• Match sparkles have been made a little more visible

• Optional hints can now show a possible move after 60 seconds of inactivity

• A small steam puff now occasionally rises from the cauldron when you've been idle for a while

Hints and animation speed can be changed in the Settings menu. Hints are enabled by default.

Thanks for playing and for all the feedback so far.

Update 2: Challenge mode is being tested right now

This update adds a Challenge mode that unlocks after finishing all 50 levels of the "Campaign". It challenges the player to reach 20K points as fast as possible on a progressively challenging board, and submit the final score to the leaderboard. Your personal results are shown in the main menu after the synchronization.

This update branch requires no password and anyone who owns the game can test it already if they want.

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Goblin and Recipes is coming soon!

 

Today I'm happy to announce Goblin and Recipes, a cozy fantasy Match-3 puzzle game inspired by traditional Balkan cuisine.

Swap ingredients, complete increasingly challenging levels, unlock authentic recipes, and discover a whimsical goblin cookbook along the way. It was designed as a relaxing game that's easy to pick up, while still offering enough challenge for players chasing perfect three-star runs.

 This release has a bit of a story behind it.

Over the past year I experimented with several small-scope game prototypes to explore different ideas and improve my workflow. Two of those prototypes eventually grew into complete Steam games: Goblin Solitaire and Goblin and Recipes.

I chose to release Goblin Solitaire first because it reached the finish line earlier, while Goblin and Recipes spent a little more time being polished with the help of testers and community feedback. Many of the improvements in this release—including animations, quality-of-life changes, and bug fixes—came directly from that testing process.

 With this release, that little series of prototypes comes to an end. There isn't another small project quietly waiting in the kitchen this time.

Now it's finally time to return to larger projects.

As always, thank you to everyone who tested the game, reported bugs, shared suggestions, and helped shape the final version. I hope you enjoy cooking alongside our little goblin chef!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4939700/Goblin_and_Recipes_Match3_Adventure/ 

https://www.indiedb.com/games/goblin-and-recipes-match-3-adventure/presskit  

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Update 1 – New Card Deck & Visual Improvements

 

Hello everyone!

Thank you for all the feedback since launch. Based on your suggestions, Update 1 is now available!

Changes

• Added a brand new Pixel card deck featuring unique pixel art for all 52 cards by Snoblin.
• Classic card deck has been renamed to Minimal.
• Improved readability of the Minimal and Dark card decks with larger center suit/rank symbols.
• Refreshed the Dark deck color palette.
• Changed the Minimal deck card background from pure white to a warmer paper tone for a more comfortable look.
• Minor visual polish and fixes.

As always, thank you for playing Goblin Solitaire and for helping improve the game with your feedback!

 

 

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Goblin Solitaire has officially launched on Steam!

 Enjoy a cozy fantasy take on classic Klondike Solitaire with multiple card decks, seasonal backgrounds, achievements, statistics, Steam Cloud support, and relaxing music.

To celebrate the launch, the game is 20% OFF for the next 10 days!

Thank you to everyone who wishlisted the game, tested early builds, reported bugs, and supported its development. I hope you enjoy it!

Happy gaming! 

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4854700/Goblin_Solitaire/ 

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Goblin themed card set updated

One of the most common pieces of feedback I've received since announcing Goblin Solitaire was that the Goblin card deck could use a bit more personality.

I've just updated the Goblin card theme with large custom suit artwork inspired by the game's fantasy setting. It's a small visual change, but it makes the deck feel much more distinctive while keeping the cards easy to read.

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to share suggestions and feedback—it genuinely helped improve the game.

Goblin Solitaire launches on July 10.
Wishlist on Steam if you'd like to be notified at release!

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Goblin Solitaire Releases July 10

Over the past year, many people have asked what I was working on after releasing Goblin and Coins II: The Lost Recipes. The honest answer is: a little bit of everything.

While I was relatively quiet publicly, I spent a lot of time after work experimenting with different game ideas, prototypes, and small projects. Some of them were abandoned quickly. Some of them turned out to be too ambitious for a solo developer. A few were promising, but never quite came together.

Eventually, one of those small prototypes kept pulling me back: a cozy fantasy-themed solitaire game.

Once my workload outside game development became lighter, I decided to fully commit to finishing it. Over the last few weeks, I spent long days polishing features, fixing bugs, improving the user experience, creating content, preparing the Steam page, and making sure the game was ready for release.

The result is Goblin Solitaire, a classic Klondike solitaire game wrapped in a charming goblin-themed fantasy world.

 

What is Goblin Solitaire?

Goblin Solitaire is built around the classic Klondike solitaire rules that many players already know and love.

The goal wasn't to reinvent solitaire, but to create a relaxing and polished version of it with a cozy fantasy atmosphere and modern quality-of-life features.

The game includes:

• Classic Klondike Solitaire gameplay

• Draw One and Draw Three modes

• Multiple difficulty options

• Achievements

• Detailed statistics tracking

• Win streak tracking

• Card and background customization

• Save and continue functionality

• Auto-complete for solved games

• Relaxing fantasy-inspired music

Why Solitaire?

After working on larger projects, I wanted to create something with a much smaller scope that I could finish, polish, and release without spending years in development.

Solitaire felt like a perfect fit.

It allowed me to focus on creating a comfortable experience, refining small details, improving usability, and building something complete from start to finish.

About the Art

As a solo developer, I simply do not have the budget to hire a full-time artist for every project.

For Goblin Solitaire, I used AI-assisted tools to help create many of the fantasy background illustrations while focusing my development time on gameplay systems, features, testing, polish, localization, achievements, and overall presentation.

I know opinions on AI-generated artwork vary, but it allowed me to create the fantasy atmosphere I envisioned while keeping the project within the limits of what a solo developer can realistically accomplish.

The Goblins Continue

A few people have asked why everything I make seems to involve goblins.

At this point, I honestly think they've become my unofficial mascot.

Goblin and Coins II: The Lost Recipes featured goblins. Goblin Solitaire features goblins. Somehow every project eventually ends up with goblins sneaking into it.

I've stopped fighting it.

Release Information

Goblin Solitaire launches on July 10 on Steam.

Steam Store Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4854700/Goblin_Solitaire/ 

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oMmPq-fPVk 

Press Kit:
https://www.indiedb.com/games/goblin-solitaire/presskit 

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback, tested early builds, reported bugs, commented on screenshots, watched the trailer, and supported my projects over the years.

I hope you'll enjoy spending some time in this small goblin world.

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The Lost Recipes releasing on August 28th

Hello little goblins,

Let's head back into adventuring and numismatics! The Lost Recipes, a much easier stand-alone expansion for the Goblin and Coins II, will release on August 28th on Steam.

What can you expect?

•     Familiar mechanics and enemies, but improved!
•     25 handcrafted levels that get a bit challenging close to the end, but are a walk in the park compared to most of the GnC2 maze-like levels. Focus is more on the casual audience, but there's just a pinch of challenge later. 
•     Unlimited continues / level restarts
•     No boss fights, just platforming
•     Double-jump available from the very start of the game
•     5 brand new recipes to unlock, prepare and post your artwork to the game hub
•     Affordable price

Click here for mediakit

Press copy inquiries through the Keymailer 

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Goblin and Coins II: The Lost Recipes coming in late August 2024

The stand-alone expansion to Goblin and Coins II, "The Lost Recipes", should be expected in the last week of August. Most of the levels are done, the last ones are being finished and tested. Some finishing touches are needed, but you can expect more running, jumping, double-jumping and collecting coins to arrive to Steam in about a month. It's not a completely new game, a lot of known enemies and traps return, but it should be far less difficult than the original game that scared a lot of players away with the fake "game-over" screen looming over their heads. 

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Goblin and Coins II: The Lost Recipes announced for Q1 2024

 Standalone expansion to Goblin and Coins II should arrive on Steam in Q1 2024. The game is in development for a while and will bring 25 handcrafted levels of pure platforming, but will also bridge the gap in difficulty between Goblin and Coins and Goblin and Coins II by providing the player with unlimited continues. Even better, double-jump will be unlocked from the very beginning of the game.

 For those who want to be the first to find out latest news and updates, there's a steam page available to wishlist and follow, and thus support the project in gaining visibility. If you have additional questions you can join the discord community and ask directly.

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Where are the lost recipes?

 A question on everyone's mind after finishing Goblin and Coins II. Well, here they come (TBA)!

• 5 areas with 25 levels total 
• familiar and new enemies and traps 
• unlimited continues for a casual experience 
• new recipes to collect 
• TBA 

 (follow the dev page or discord to be the first to know, store page coming later)

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Pre-release buzz

 Goblin and Coins II will be released on Steam on April 11th, 2023. Members of the press, youtubers, twitch streamers and other gaming media are welcome to the media kit, and of course, to request pre-release keys through the Keymailer or Woovit. I've also reached out to some Steam curators, and others contacted me... And now we wait. 

Besides a really nice and informative stream, you can also read an interview that Play!Zine did with me. 

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Goblin and Coins II coming in April

 A date has been set for the release of Goblin and Coins II, a sequel to the 2016 indie small bean Goblin and Coins. The game is coming to Steam in April this year! 

It's a 2D platformer created by a solo-developer, focused on bringing features gamers requested after enjoying the first game. Run and jump through a new adventure, explore the world, collect coins, unlock upgrades, revisit levels to find secrets and face enemies old and new. 

 What's new? 

•  Improved graphics, extended mechanics and simple puzzles 
• Create your own difficulty by getting or ignoring the upgrades 
• Revisit levels, find secrets, optional easier start for the new players 
• No game over - there's a secret way to regain your lost lives... 
• It Already supports English, Serbian, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian, with more languages coming in the future.  

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End of the year update

The last time I've wrote in August, mentioning some new levels. Well, it's been a few months since, this year is slowly coming to an end, there's a few more levels in the latest alpha2 build being tested right now, and I'm working on the next one as we speak. So, what's new?

Before the Cpt. Greenbeard boss fight and the shipwreck level, there's a run through the Piratopia. It's a short but hectic level.



After the shipwreck, we continue on into the Dwarven territory, and the first level there is industrial zone where dwarven forges and saws are, where stone is cut and... hammers are thrown. Unlike GnC1, this time hammer-throwing enemies hammers don't hone in into you, they just fly... toward a certain point. Also if a player is too low beneath their platform, they won't throw at all.



If you survive that, you actually get down under into the dwarven mines and halls, where even some unique Easter eggs can be found. Not gonna write any spoilers here, though.



This is the first underground area with real dwarves inside, as previous caves and mines were basically abandoned by them. There are constructs like flying security bot and similar remnants of previously technological civilization that is now trying to survive and live another day. After exiting this area, you'll end up on an ancient bridge that connects it to abandoned halls in the next mountain peak, where otherworldly things rule now and dwarves are no more... But they still hold the bridge, or at least part of it.



That's it for now. I've recently finished "Abandoned halls" level, which will introduce some new mechanics and will is an L sized underground maze. Following that, there's a third boss fight that is in testing phase right now...and that finishes the second third of the campaign map, thus making the latest build alpha3. 

Once I finish all the story/campaign levels it will transform into beta, which might happen during 2023 if everything goes well, and then it's "just" polishing graphics a bit, testing a lot, adding achievements and... releasing at some point. 

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A few new levels...

 A short look through a few GIFs showcasing the details of some recent levels. It's been a productive period and GnC2 is now considered alpha2 with more than 50% content being done and tested. It's early to talk about a release date, but if this tempo continues... Well. Let's take a look.

So, in the Rolling hills you escape the evil spellcasters by entering an unusual portal... Where does it lead?

Desecrated fields, a short visit to an otherworldly dimension. Also an opportunity to meet an old "friend" from GnC1 (not pictured here). After you escape this horrid place...

A long stretch, introducing murder-axe-bunnies. It's what they do and what they are. Are you really back to the "real" world?

Swamps are traditionally difficult levels in GnC series, and this time it's not different. Besides the enemies, you need to avoid projectiles coming from the local unfriendly flora. Not to mention various spikes, sinking logs...

After the Swampland and a few other levels you end up in a BOSS fight with this sail ship in the distance... and after you manage to beat it enough...

You actually get to pay them a visit up-close. Not so tough anymore, ah, Pirates? And after this we'll visit some Dwarven areas of the game, but more about that in the future ;)

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Goblin and Coins II DEMO in Steam Next Fest in June 2022

Development has been slow these past few months, mainly due to my day-job obligations and everything else that's been going around for everyone these past two years. But, it has not stop and I'm working on new levels all the time, be it drawing on paper, brainstorming new enemies and traps, backgrounds, drawing sprites or tiles and animated details... And of course, actually doing level design. It's been specially fun re-introducing old enemies from GnC1, as to keep the continuity, but reimagined and redrawn from scratch up. I'll try to keep the spoilers to the minimum, but maybe you've been following GnC YouTube channel and already know some of it.  

There's another Steam NEXT Fest coming up, this time June 22 edition, and I've decided "alpha demo" is good enough to be publicly shown (not counting the sort of semi-public playtest last year) and potentially gather some new followers and future fans of the series. I'm looking forward to any potential feedback and comments from the Steam users whom dedicate some of their time and try out Goblin and Coins II DEMO in June. I don't know if it needs to be said, but this build is still work in progress and many things might change in the future (actually, some things have already changed as the build for this demo is from November 2021), before and maybe even after the release. 

What can you expect to see in this DEMO during the Steam Next Fest? You'll be able to access the entire first quarter of the map, which includes the intro level, shop (in game coins exchanged for upgrades, no mtx!), six regular levels and an easy boss fight... and a "secret" underworld level where you end up only if you lose all lives and continues. To make things easier, "shrinky in a blinky" upgrade, which enables the player to shrink and crawl through crawlspaces between areas is already unlocked, and you're able to "purchase" double-jump upgrade for free, even if that turnes your total amount of coins into a negative number. Of course, this won't be like this in the full game, it's just so you'd be able to see more and try out more things in a short period of time during the demoFest.

If you decide to try the demo, be sure to tell me what your thoughts were, I'm listening.

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Music and game file size

I've added music to menus and existing levels, and with that, the total game size surpassed 17 Mb of the original Goblin and Coins. My goal is still to keep it under 100 Mb if possible and so far seems very doable. 

 Can't say I predicted SteamDeck back in 2015 when I was working on GnC1, but I did know of 2in1 tablets using Windows and wanted people to be able to download GnC1 and play it while on commute or whatever... and those things had their storage in the form of 32-64 GB eMMC cards most of the time, as SSD's were still expensive for mainstream notebooks, with Windows itself taking a huge chunk. So 17 Mb was amazingly small and convenient download size. 

 It would be a bit crazy to plan for GnC2 blowing up and being super-mega-ultra-popular, of course, but that doesn't mean that some of the people playing it won't have SteamDeck or a similar device... and why not try to keep the game size down to a minimum if it can be done, for them and in general. That way you can squeeze GnC2 in between some larger games and have it with you all the time. 

 Oh, also, hoping to make another playtest this winter. If you've already participated you'll automatically get access again, everyone else will be able to apply through store page during the test itself.

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First quarter of the map done... for now.

 I'm proud to say, with the implementation of the "Downhill" level and a "Cpt. Greenbeard" boss fight, the first quarter of the map/campaign is done. There's an into level, store, 5 regular levels, 1 boss fight and "the underground", so the game is finally shaping into something solid. The plan was never to fill all four quarters at release but only three - some 25 to 30 levels total - the last peace of the map was always meant for additional content some time later, like bonus missions, seasonal content and so on, maybe even an unrelated mini-story. To be decided later. 

Easy boss fight: Cpt. Greenbeard - Indie DB

So, at minimum, I have to make another 19 levels and 5 secret levels to finish the game, not counting further boss fights. In theory, if my day job doesn't get me too busy, I could finish by the next summer... or autumn. Otherwise, hard to say.

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Steam playtest May 15th to 30th, everyone is invited

 The first ever public playtest for Goblin and Coins II will happen between May 15th and 30th of this year on Steam. It's completely free for you to participate, just request access on the store page at any time during (or before) this period and you'll get notified when you can download and test the game.

Participate in a steam-playtest for Goblin and Coins II - Indie DB

More info on what is available in the current build for you to see, try out and provide feedback, how to do it, where to write of your experience and all of that cam be found if you click here.

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Using the same tile-set several times

This April I've finally managed to take some time away from my day job and create a new tile-set: beach. Sand, dunes, palm trees moving slowly in the wind. As with other tile-sets, this one will be used for several levels and not just one, but this is a good example to showcase that levels using the same tile-set won't be the same, as the tiles used are just the base to build further.

GnC2: Sunny beach (Work in progress) - Indie DB

In the video above you can see a basic "beach" level. There are tile-set based platforms, some small details, animated background (not too animated, don't want it to be distracting), enemies and a "trampoline" in the form of a turtle. Don't jump on real turtles please! Anyway, that's the "Sunny beach" medium sized level, there's some verticality to it but it's not large.

Next, let's take a look at the starting location for the "Fisherman's village" level, which is a small (short) linear level that connects the "Sunny beach" and the next level, which will be the first large level in the game. I'm not promising a maze but I'll try my best to give the player an interesting experience. Anyway...

If you look down, that's the exactly same tile-set that makes the platform Goblin is standing on, the parallax backgrounds are the same (at least for now, I might remove one layer to optimize the level) BUT the additional assets created just for this level make the difference. Here in the picture you can see a fisherman's shack and some nets drying in the sun. There's more of these assets that make this level unique visually and story-telling wise, but you'll have to wait to see them, I can't reveal everything upfront.

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A brand new level and how it progressed

 It's been a while and mostly due to my day job being crazy because of covid. Had some time off lately so I've managed to start crafting the first "variation" tileset and that's snow/ice, and with it, the first snowy level - "Snowy Pass". It's a mountain pass between two peaks, which leads from the first quarter of the map to the second. Easy and short level, specially compared to what's planned with this tileset for the remaining 4 snowy levels.

Goblin and Coins II: Snowy Pass details (WIP) - Indie DB

Initial preview videos show it as a very simple tileset, no variations, details... There's one enemy type, a winter-coat pirate that chases after the goblin after it notices it. There's also an icicle trap that can be triggered by the player to hurt the enemy... or goblin, if not careful.

What I've added now is some... life to this little area. First of all, there are snowflakes falling down slowly. They aren't actually touching the ground, if you look carefully, but that's the intended effect, I want them to pop-out of dark background and not actually go through the ground. Maybe it will look better otherwise but so far I like this. Second, I've added a moving platform. Just because it's the first snowy level you'll encounter in the game, doesn't mean there should be only the most basic platforms hanging in the air. And in the end, I've created 2 animated tiles. There's a bunny hole with blinking eyes inside and... a snow hare, showing up behind the platform edge. Now that I'm looking at the video, I realize it lacks some depth. No worries, I'll fix that with some shading soon.

GnC2: Snowy Pass [WIP] moving platform, snow hare - Indie DB

And with this, the level is mostly done. The way the game has been built from ground up allows me to easily update graphics later if needed or even change the levels without too much hassle about compiling & building future versions.

Next, to the caves and underground mines!

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