I'm restarting my game after 2 years 

Hey everyone! I very much appreciate the feedback and wanted to address a few things that I'm seeing in a lot of comments, since I couldn't fit all of it in the video: 1) I've seen a lot of people say that procedural generation is boring, and I agree. Minecraft-style procedural generation is soul-less and we've seen it all before. Luckily, however, we have the luxury of generating the maps before play rather than during, so the map creation algorithm can make as many tweaks and place as many pre-made structures as we want. I think wave function collapse will come in very handy here in making something that not only looks good, but can be done very quickly. It'll be quite a challenge, but I think it's possible to make something that feels non-generated. I mean, think about the real world - it's just generated terrain, with human touches added on afterwards. I think if the terrain is non-repetitive, and the added landmarks, buildings, biomes, towns, dungeons, roads, rivers, caves etc are interesting enough, it should be just fine.. likely better than if I hand placed every single tile 2) The houses - it seems a lot of people liked the old house exteriors, or at least the art style.. I agree they felt like they had more of a personal touch, and the gaping roof-less igloos are a bit of an eyesore. Perhaps we can have roofs appear over them to at least look more like complete structures. Then when you walk in, the roofs fade. It is sad to lose the personalization on the old buildings, but I think that personalization can come in the form of other objects 3) I've seen a lot of "why would anyone play this over stardew?" I'll be honest, my old version was more of a stardew clone than this one. I'd like to think this experience will be something relatively new. There are a few "top down terraria" games out there (necesse, core keeper), but I've got some ideas to add something new to the space - That conversation is better suited for the next devlog 4) some have expressed that it doesn't look that good - this demo here was thrown together in a matter of weeks, the art is all very early or poorly scaled from the old version :) If there's anything I'm confident in, it's that I'll be able to make it look good in the coming months 5) "Just finish the old idea first". After releasing "This is Hell" and seeing a lot of my friends say "nice, looks fun, but I don't like that kind of game," I found myself saying "me either." I don't like rage games, I just made it because I thought it would be popular. I don't want to be doing that anymore. I want do do something that I would see on Steam and find irresistible - life is too short to finish something that I felt would just be a 7/10. I was trying to be unique and innovative, sometimes at the expense of what was actually fun to me Anyways, thanks for reading through all that and watching the video. I appreciate all of you, and certainly understand that both the positive and the negative comments are out of concern for the success of the project. I have a clear vision of how this will end up, gameplay loop and all, and I hope you'll bear with me through these changes. See you in the next update!

Good choice with changing the way goblins are portrayed. There were no reasons for them to be non human if they behaved basically the same. More like green haflings than goblins

I'd suggest to let overworld static while dungeons be procedural generated. So dungeons are replayable while the overworld looks more personal and handmade. You could also keep using what you already have this way

To be honest I feel that some of your decisions made it simpler to make the game at the cost of the personality that made your game stand out. The rhythm mechanic, the art style, and the lighting drew me in more and I don't even play 2D games like that. As a hobby dev myself, I would have reduced the vision (removing the open world plans) while using proc-gen for dungeons, just like moonlighter.

People are always weird about starting over on projects but nobody realizes that when it's necessary it's super rewarding and it goes way faster, good job on the game I hope to see it when it releases whenever

I'm looking forward to new character sprites! I was a little bummed before that the sprites wouldn't have that cute oval head and large ears from the illustrations in these devlogs. The tech upgrades accompanying a non turn based movement seem like they'll work really well too! You can always keep your custom building sprites and still allow players to build their own structures as two possibilities. I need my fancy potion shop and tattoo parlor to meet the NPCs in :D

I actually like the changes. But I do think handcrafted experiences are always better when it comes to a world than procedural ones. Especially when it comes to Zelda-likes. Maybe do a hybrid of both so important areas are handcrafted and others are procedural.

You can decorate houses with a roof that could be placed as blocks of walls in a Terraria, but at the same time would be hidden when you enter the house. So you have beautiful outside and comfortable inside the building.

Perhaps their could be a dancing minigame with a character you've chosen to dance with, being forced to avoid other goblins whilst trying to stay near your partner

The changes look great, Watt! However, this may be the point in development where you need to seriously consider whether a systemic refactor was necessary or it was an aversion to creating content (the surprising bulk of game dev.) If you enjoy making systems, it may be very helpful to find someone who enjoys making content and consider letting them go loose on your Game 1 while you set up systems for Game 2!

Maybe you could re-add roofs back and when inside a building it becomes transparent. I think the roofs would still be a really nice addition. Also, maybe you could add ancient ruins or lost temples that give loot. Good luck on the game!

The changes you made are so good. The lore you can develop behind actual trolls could be really engaging. Also... awesome video :)

I was honestly a little disappointed upon reading the title but after hearing your reasoning and seeing what you have accomplished so far I have never been more confident in this project. I think this new direction is a very good idea.

I think the building system could leverage some kind of auto-tiling that allows them to be flexible, simple to build but still very "arted up". The old designs were really awesome.

I was expecting someone with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, just by the video editing and the incredible game development, but I was not expecting someone with only 16k subs!

I'm a professional sprite artist with an unhealthy goblin obsession. I've been theory crafting a game like this for a couple years but it seems you're branching into what I was considering making. If you want help creating sprites and animations, writing story, scripts, or mechanics work, I'd love to work on this.

Not gonna lie. You’re tearing my heart out. I’ve been looking for this title specifically. Obviously I’m happy you’re going in a direction that works for you. Suggestion: what if you implement your “shrine” dream later. As like an expansion. You may have more help at that point.

Reworking the game is a great choice! I had to rework my game because I wasn't "feeling it" either and it makes such a huge difference.

I really like the new changes. Congrats on your first sponsor 🥳

Good luck with your new direction. Keep us posted!

Had this tab open at the time, so HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Congratulations on the bold move. Love the tricks you have found to improve performance. Looking forward to the next update!

That was so cool to see SNHU being featured in this video. I'm a student there now. After I complete my degree, I will (time and money permitting) go back to take some of their game dev/coding courses. Trying to teach myself during my spare time has been.. slow moving. I have been LOVING my time at SNHU (online) though. Also, thanks so much for sharing so much of your creative process for your game. It's very helpful for my brain to see what coding looks like when implemented into a game and the thought process for how coding should work. I'd like to get into the gaming industry so following game channels like yours has been so eye-opening. Thank you.

Have all my support man, also a fellow dev starting over the game after 2 years of development. I was almost glad to see you take this step, it reafirms how important it is to make decisions at the right time before its too late to go back. I learnt from my mistakes, and learnt what i need and dont need to use. I can apply new concepts from the ground and build something way better. Cheers!!

Just found your channel and I love the video, I think your change makes sense. I'll be getting the game once it releases, it looks fun and takes inspiration from some of my favorite games.

Good luck! Looks like you've got an achievable goal and a solid plan!

Godlin is working smart not hard I see, big respect. I totally can understand the slight frustration when play-testing an adventure game, when you constantly have to wait an extra half second every time you want to go anywhere. But if you did want to keep turn based movement for multiplayer, you could have slimes split and change color when another player enters the screen; your colored enemies react to you and the other player's enemies only move when they do. Or Enemies could just switch who they're targeting, they only move with whoever's closest. But yeah, super happy your short project has given you new insight into this one. Keep it up 👍

Wow! Great job, Watt. That required courage - to throw away the things you had already worked out and start again. I like that you make the best of it and it adds a spark to the new development. Good luck. (I also recently started fresh and the best part is when you fall in love with your project all over again. 😊 )

im starting to watch all the videos in order after seeing this on my fyp. This looks amazing, and km glad you decided to pursue this

First time seeing your project and I like the direction you're going now hope it will end up well. Game looks amazing btw

Hey, I found your channel through this video and I'm really fascinated. I am currently working on a game myself, so I now how tireing it is to do so. I only have been working on it for a about a week now. I can't even start to comprehend, how hard it was to make a game, eventhough still being in work for many hours. I'm currently watching your other devlogs about this game and I already got sooo much inspiration from you. You should do what you want and just make what you want to make. I'm already so excited for newer devlogs of the game and I hope you now have even more fun making them. Btw I will totally play it when it comes out. I hope the best for you and your game!

I love the beautiful pixel art, and the explanations of concepts and features are really engaging. Keep it up!

Good luck with your release bro, excited to play this one!

I love you, can’t wait for your game and for the next devlog

honestly i love the games referenced and just seeing how honest you are about the directions youre taking, i'm in love with this!

I’ve been binge watching your dev logs and I honestly think this was a good idea to restart like this, seems a lot more like something I would personally play. Great job so far! The game looks incredible!

New direction you are going for seems great! I respect you for making the decision this far into development to change up some of the core ideas of your game. I can't imagine it was easy to make the decision. Hopefully things go well : )

Love the changes and great job with those lighting and shadows features

This video just popped up on my recommended, i have never seen your channel before but this video makes me want to check it out. I can tell you that from a totally outsider view this new idea for how the game will be has made me very interested in it!

Excellent video! Really great arguments for switching direction, and I'm excited to see what the future holds 👏 Sounds like it could add some extra replayability too

Nice job. I think your reasoning for the changes is pretty good. The info about the sectors/regions was very interesting. Good luck with the rework and the new direction.

I've only just stumbled onto this channel and I am hyped for this game!

Wow this is a huge shift! You seem to have a good idea of where it's going which is great. Good luck!

Make sure to prototype to make sure this is actually what you want. I’m glad you’re taking steps to do that now. Rooting for you

Personally I really like the look of a full bulding over a cube with a floor, maybe when your outside the building a roof and other gubbins (chimneys ext) appear? kinda like what towns did back in the day?

I am follower number 100 on the steam group... and I am very proud of that! I can't wait to see your finished works Watt!

Yup good choice. I'd love too see what is going to happen

Looks cool, never saw the project before today but I'm following it now. Let's go goblins.

I support your decision, things are already looking amazing. Keep it up, you got this :)

I can see how some people may have aproblem with this new change, I believe its important for a dev to know what they like in games and want their games to resemble (typically what they like lol). Removing interesting systems for to direct your game towards what you really like and want I think is a good decision and multiplayer really does make games better. Ive played a decent amount of singleplayer games and multiplayer games and truly it is the multiplayer games i have the most fun with. I hope this change helps you finish the game and keeps your support!

I saw your video and it was quite interesting! If I would give an opinion, saying that I never watched your other video's, I quite like this new look instead of the old looks you showed for a few minutes. I think the other one was a bit zoomed in and made the goblin quite small. This is quite a mix of terraria and minecraft but with a different camera view, Im quite interested what you'll do next :)

You could make a cutscene at the start where one goblin goes away from his group and gets lost in the forest where he finds some kind of food like an apple that glows and when he eats it he gets enlightened, and That’s when the player can start playing. It could then be used as an extra objective. Finding more special apples so you can enlighten the rest of your tribe. And I think you should change the color of the black “fog?” At day time That occludes unseen areas to grey or white or something similar. Because I think it looks to dark otherwise if half your screen is black even though it’s day.❤

First time I hear about your game, looks awesome best of luck

I love this project. I'm super excited for this

Starting over is always scary, but it looks like you have a really good plan! You proved that the new systems would solve the problems you needed them to, and you'll be able to re-use a lot of your old work. I'm excited to see where this will go!

Great idea using rimworlds’s pathfinding! Excited to see the game progress in whatever direction you take it in; if you are passionate about it, it will turn out great!

I’m glad this was in my recommended! Now I have a new dev channel to watch

Nice changes you made! I like this! I kinda suggest making the goblins look less human-ish in the dialog sprites. I really want to see where this is going!

Keep it up! It always hurts to overhaul the original game design but it's just another step in the process. You've seem to come out of This is Hell with a better perspective too. So trust your gut on this one!

good to see you're still working on this! I wonder if there will still be much of a story and npc relationships with this new version? since those things dont usually go well with procedurally generated anything ig you didnt talk much about the actual gameplay of the new version but I do feel like tossing the rhythm based stuff completely makes it lose a lot of unique-ness so I'd definitely try to incorporate it somewhere somehow

I've never heard of you before, but this game looks incredible! I'll definitely be looking forward to updates on this game.

These tweaks are definitely improvements. Good calls.

Woah your game's visuals are really cool!

0:39 Removing the grid-based movement was a good idea. It looked very tedious to play in your other videos. 1:27 I agree with this point. I thought the earlier designs were essentially humans with green skin and pointy ears. 2:00 What’s wrong with taking four years? I know of several indie games that have been in development that long or even longer. When I started creating my game Outcasts of the Rift, I knew from the start it would be a multi-year undertaking, and I’m married and have a full-time job. 3:34 I chuckled here, since I’m from New Hampshire. 😉 I’ve driven by the SNHU campus a few times. It’s remarkable how much it’s grown over the years.

Good choice Bro, I think will be nice even with the changes!

had me worried there for a second. this seems like less of a restart and more like a revision, i good one at that i think all of the changes you're making are good ones to make.

Great video and great progress !

New viewer here, I was actually about to suggest moving away from a grid based movement system so I was happy when you later said that you did. I know big changes, especially ones that erase some of your progress, are scary. But you got this!

I actually loved the buildings and the NPC designs, I've been following this project since the first Devlog and fell in love with the quirky aesthetic starting at the game's name. I have been looking forward to playing this game since day 1 and I still do, but I for one liked the idea of the grid based movement (but I tend to enjoys games like this completely solo without multiplayer). I do however think the game will be released at its best potential if you have passion in making it, and if you burn out or aren't happy with the direction then it is the right decision to go with your instincts in changing it. Good luck, I will continue to follow avidly! ✌❤

This is really exciting stuff to see from a one man army. The art and animation are very clean, and you seem to be approaching every newfound problem with stoicism and gusto. I can't wait to see the final product! I know this would demand some extra work, but I think the pixel art would benefit greatly from softer outlines (i.e. dark green for goblin and tree outlines, dark brown for cliffs, etc). I'm a big fan of this trick because it makes the outlines (which are basically visual guides for distinguishing sprites) look like real contours that make sense.

Sounds like it was the right choice for you! Good luck!

I'm looking forward to see your take on things more gobliny. I hope the buildings become more interesting than just a cave box though!

i am a huge fan of this cjange!! keep up the great work

For the love of god, please no on the procedurally generated world. I'm sick and tired of procedural generation. I'd gladly wait like 4 years for a game to come out, that sounds like a perfectly reasonable dev time to me.

I remember your last video ! Love the content, sadly forgot about you but thanks to the algorithm I found back.

I know the feeling man, I had to restart my game twice already to fix issues and change art direction. Great video

This new version looks really good!

I'm happy you got to recover most of the old content Old houses really are cute from the outside

This looks really fun!

It looks great! I would definitely play.

The only thing I don't like much is the lack of goodlooking homes for the goblins :(

You're amazing! Keep going.

The pathfinding is great and the grid-based movement change is a really good call. It's a cool idea but ultimately very limiting as you pointed out. It's all part of the great indie-dev life, looking forward to your next major design change in another year ;)

good work senpai your coding skills far outstrip mine (and you are working in Unity!)

I honestly like the changes, looks great!

you could probably make something of a house builder "minigame" where you go into a view like when you're moving buildings in stardew, then you have a variety of roofs and walls to choose from so you can build your house up to look good from the outside, but then the moment you go inside, all of those assets disapear so you can see what you're doing

damn... you have the point... I also have some issues with my graphics coz i still learning. And every 2 weeks i feel like i don't like my sprite sheet anymore and have to redraw it with my new knowledge, damn... But it becomes better and better so it's a good thing i guess.

i like that superhot kinda grid movement, maybe it could be a feature in areas with enemies? like in a certain radius or entire area your movement is suddenly grid based. also i think multiplayer movement should work like anyone can move once but it makes the enemies move too, meaning more firepower, less turns, more strategy. glad i found this channel it looks cool.

Props man, restarting when things aren't working is such a frustrating, but necessary step, and I can already tell it's going to pay off!

looks good👍👍👍 a lot of people who aren't into worldbuilder sims might have a word or two to say about it but this looks like the beginning of a game project i can really see going somewhere fun and having interesting mechanical interactions within the game

Tbh, I do not actually care if a game would be released. I just love watching these high quality devlogs.

Much better and reflection is important in game dev so this was a great lestion.

I like the new plan and the game, it's almost finished, don't stop now!

It makes sense why you did this I hope you make it better than the orignal

I +1 the movement aspect in regards to what you're going for -- the alternative could have been switching to turn-based mode for combat with a "ring" around the combat area that multiplayers could choose to step into (distance from the "ring" would determine how many "turns" would need to pass before they could join the fight), but, that obviously breaks up the gameplay quite a bit. Actually, I think this is starting to look a bit like Corekeeper, which is a game that I adore. It has goblin-y creatures called cavelings, but, you only get to fight them, so I'm excited to get to play as the gobliny character! I'm very sad about the loss of the cute portraits and the super charming homes -- the aesthetic was really pleasing imo, however, I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out!

Hard to envisage the new direction properly yet but the logic for the change seems sound. With the changes though, it does beg an important question, "what makes the game stand out now?"

well you goat this, remaking the game after 2 years is a load of hardwork and mentality, I was developing a game in 6 months and it's sadly didn't go as planned, in short the project file is corrupted and i lost the project, gotta admit I'm so careless to not do some backup, causing 6 months works back to zero, even until now I haven't think of the motivation to remake it, but i sure I will someday, btw Good luck with your gamedev.

Can't wait for it to come out! Some of the new changes are ones I wanted to see in this game anyways...

RIP your other game, it looked sweet. hope you can find more joy in this one!

This seems super hype!