Another pretty big update with lots of technical improvements, and also story, spice, scenes and dialogue!

Randomly stumbled over this? Here's the tldr: 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 update is a combination of 0.57 and 0.57P.  These two have been out on the Patreon for quite some time already, and normally the free/public updates just gets released one by one. But there were some important bugfixes in 0.57p so this time I combined them. The changelog is quite long, but try to at least check out the important info at the bottom of 0.57 list of gameplay changes. 

0.57P "-olished" Edition

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Scenes
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Additional "stealth" animation during the Palace infiltration quest (in 3d)
Improved some animations
Added some new renders
The banter during the 'ritual' is more interesting now
Additional sound effects added

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Gameplay
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Spiced up Sorceress shop with new sprite art.
Ogre's Diary added to the Swamp hut
Some UI improvements
Some dialogue adjustments
Adjusted the Amazon training fight slightly
New sprite art for the 'dummies'
All combat scenes should now have battlebackgrounds set-up, with some exceptions, where I felt no battleback was better. Will hopefully add in some custom ones in the future

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Bugfixes
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Fixed a problematic combat bug
Fixed some missing labels
Fixed some direction fixes for lootable food items (prevents flickering when you click them)

0.57 No More Pyramid Schemes - Edition

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Scene Additions
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New Animation for Gobapatra!
Better writing for her scene!

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Gameplay Changes
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The finale of Ch.7!
- New Enemies!
- New Locations!
- New Dialogue!
- New Cutscenes!

In terms of gameplay there's really been a lot of changes. I've playtested the new stuff, but I'm just one person, so please report any issues if you find them.

New Skills for the Party & new skill Icons
New UI skin! The windows got wooden frames and I made the UI in the morning, so I named it "Morning Wood". Don't get too upset if you don't like it, I'm planning to test a few different ones.
There's a new shop menu as, though it's a work in progress.
New cursors as well, cost me a whole dollar.
Overhauled the 'Solemn Swamp' map with a fresh tileset from WinLu. This mans art has singlehandedly saved the 2d visuals of this game (and ruined my budget).
Overhauled 'Northport', visually. Larger map (but walking distances stay the same).
Overhauled the 'Overrun Outpost' with new tileset additions. Both Cleared/Destroyed version. Plus increased size. Same walking distance.
Overhauled the 'Ceremonial Circle' (including the Summer Special maps) & increased size. Same walking distance.
Streamlined and improved the Summer Special. Also added more sound effects and improved the cutsenes, sprites and animation. Option to bury the gnome should he perish during the story.
Further map, tileset & sprite edits and improvements for a better visual experience
Adjusted the hitboxes/triggerboxes for some events via a new plugin. Things like the Midsummer Pole and the Pyramid Elevators should be more inituitive now.
Added a small 2d cutscene in the 'Overrun Outpost', just before you fight the bandits there.
Added a small 2d cutscene before the Ogre fight & extra FX. + Updated his face art.
Added a small 2d cutscene outside the Tavern, after you sleep in the tavern in Nyalexandria, for the first time.
Added a small 2d cutscene when you visit the market Nyalexandria, for the first time. (look at the table with the fishes). Might be worth following it.
Small improvements to the Cutscene after CH II
Custom Slime enemy during Barrel's Crystal quest, suits the cave better
A few new greetings for the Swamp Witch + 4 new items in her inventory
Better (and with a simple animation!) Battle Intros, still a bit jank though, but it's a step in the right direction

Much, much, muuuch smoother movement between pages in the Quest Guide. If you've noticed any non-smooth teleports or moves (on the same "map") pls inform me so I can update those using the same method.

Lowered the level requirements for some skills, so you access them a bit earlier, which might make the early combat a bit more interesting
Randomized greetings for the random people in Hubtown.
Increased the amount of Random Greetings in Nyalexandria, //The greetings will change after Ch.7 is finished to reflect the changes in town
Some sprite updates for the townsfolk
Randomized greetings for the random people in the Capital as well.
New 2d Sprite for ex-Goblinette, Overhauled her dialogue as well.
De-cringed some dialogue lines & some general dialogue adjustments and polishing during various parts of the game. Rewrote some dialogue during the Cheese dungeon quest (Ch. 3).
Updated the control hints
Improved the 'flow' of various scenes. Less waiting.
Set up 'wait' functions for some background 'parallel events' (it's good practice, for performance, so they don't refresh all the time)
Bunch of other sprite updates for random characters
New Animation for Holy Shield + Slightly different sound effects for both Holy Shield & Protection. (these are skills used by Priestess)
Additional Tweaks to various combat animations
Added a bunch of secret mini events. It's nothing big or important, but I thought they were fun. And they're easy to add. Remember, if the cursor changes there might be something going on...
Bought a new voice pack, slowly implementing it into the game. (Not so much talking... but other sounds).
Likewise, added and tinkering with some new Sound Effects.
In the Cheese Factory there's now an extra trap room (non-sexual), with some extra treasure. Also some overall improvements to the maps there & Events.
Removed multiple screen flashing effects for combat skills. Because some people have issues with that and I am a magnamious dev? Yes. But mostly cause I think flashers are annoying.
New Rest sound.

New music tracks!
- Mostly McLeods CC0 stuff. Even if you don't recognize that name, you've probably heard his music at least once in your life. But also a custom track or two.
- RpgmakerMV default music isn't all that bad tbh, but I'm trying to move away from the 'basic bitch' RPGM experience.
- I guess CC0 music isn't all that unique either, but I enjoy the tracks. Maybe I'll order a full soundtrack to be made at some point.

Barrel had a slightly different hair color in some portraits (the ones during dialogue), they've been made consistent now
Changed a trigger from click to touch in the Pyramid. A bit more inituitive that way.
The Cheat Skill work faster now, hit all enemies simultanously. Likewise, Anvils arrow barrage & Barrel's shrapnel hit.

Goblinette has changed name. The name had to be changed due to lore reasons. A bit strange, I know, but it'll make more sense when her backstory is added. Pls report any instances of the old name being used.
(According to the Poll we had the new name will be "Gobihime". If you see any cases of the old name being used, please report it as a bug.)

Town Hall Girl is now Mission Madame. We actually also had a poll on her name-change a really long time ago. But I forgot to change it. Anyway, the people have spoken and I will obey.
Edited the 'emote ballons' slightly. Y'know the ones that pop up above a characters head. Like "!, ?, ..."
Compressed all parallax images, might or might not help boost performance or loading times a little.
Option to turn off animated tiles, might be useful for perfomance if you're using joiplay to play on mobile. Or if you got a potato-computer. By default you should keep them on though.
Some new plugins to improve game functionality, like the Equipment screen.
Goblin Layer can now dual wield. Dunno if this is gonna make him OP, let's just test it for now.
Also testing a battle info pop-up, that gives you an estimate of how effective an attack will be & likelyhood to land a hit.
Updated some of the in-game books you can find.

Active Defense Core: New animation & sound upon successful parry/block. (It's still a work in progress)
(If you missed the last changelog, you can now parry/block enemy attacks if you time it right. Click Mouse/Z/Spacebar when they attack.)
(It's a work in progress functionally as well, at the moment it might be a bit too easy to time the blocks).

!Observe!
Your 'locked' equipment (Muscles of Iron, Goblin Layer's helm, etc) might get un-equipped as a side-effect of the Equip menu getting upgraded.
Talk to Grandma (Hubtown), or Dhakir Qayn (Nyalexandria), or Barry (Norfwich) and they'll re-equip it for you.

Spiced up Sorceress shop with new sprite art.
Ogre's Diary added to the Swamp hut
Some UI improvements
Some dialogue adjustments
Adjusted the Amazon training fight slightly
New sprite art for the 'dummies'

All combat scenes should now have battlebackgrounds set-up, with some exceptions, where I felt no battleback was better. Will hopefully add in some custom ones in the future

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Bugfixes
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Fixed the greetings of the people in Hubtown, I started working on the randomized greetings last update, but got distracted & forgot to finish them, so they ended up broken. But properly set-up now.
Fixed map bug in the south, involved walking on water
Fixed map bug in the south, involved clouds blocking your way
Fixed a bug that made 'open door' sounds not play 50% of the time, on certain doors
Fixed tyupos
Fixed some passability issues on the world map
Fixed Grindr fast travel sending you to Goblinette's cave instead
Fixed weird robotic movement for the chickens at the Farm
Sorted out various visual bugs for maps and tileset
Fixed a bug with the plugin that handles the "buttons" on screen (quest log etc), though I don't think anyone ever noticed that particular bug existed in the first place.
Fixed a bug where you could die after a Frontier Conquest battle, despite winning
Previously when clicking the quest journal, the player would move a little before it opened, cause the game registered a movement click. But that's fixed now.
Fixed a bug from the Summer special that transported you out of the map if you stood on a specific spot, left over from testing
Resolved some navigational issues in Nyalexandria
Fixed duplicate sprites and other weirdness during the Gobapatra resurrection scene
Fixed a problematic combat bug
Fixed some missing labels
Fixed some direction fixes for lootable food items (prevents flickering when you click them)

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Dev Notes!

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With Ch.7 wrapped up I'll now also start preparing for the "Human Relations" story-arc.
Despite the game being called "Goblin Layer", and not "Human Layer", I've heard there's a bunch of people who want to know the Townspeople & Party members a bit closer.
So there's where we are headed. The protagonist will have to recieve some serious therapy along the way.

I kinda want to make a polished edition for the polished edition... but no! Don't worry! It's time to move on with the plot, and leave the South for now. I will sneak in some improved renders later on instead. Consider Ch7 to be done!

As mentioned earlier, I'm sizing up outside maps, because it's needed if I want to increase the game resolution in the future and still have thing look normal.

But I'll try to keep the important stuff close to the map 'entrance' so the walking distance should remain mostly the same.
For the people who actually enjoy the exploration there will probably be some additional loot and such, but nothing required to progress the plot.

4. "fluid" simulations in Blender (this is for the 3d scenes) are tricky, and I've struggled a bit with those. It was on ofthe main issues to overcome out for this update. Just a couple more things to figure out & it's gonna speed up future fluid-related animations. Do you know how I handled fluid "simulations" pre-blender? I photoshopped in a stock photo of splashed milk. It's why the climactic scenes are usually still images. But once I nail down the fluids in blender I will have better options for handling those scenes. And it can be used for normal stuff as well, like bathing scenes and such.

Besides new spicy stuff, also some planned gameplay improvements in the short term:

-New battlebackgrounds, I'm currently using the standard rpgm at the moment combined with some very shitty edits from me. But I will replace them with something better looking.
-Sprite updates that are closer to the 3d model
-Overworld enemy parties walking around, or sailing, like sea ra...vagers. You'll be able to dodge them though.
-Smaller sprites for the party when moving on the 'overworld' maps.
-New ways of navigating maps to access some bonus loot and such, like you spot a rope ladder and Anvil uses and arrow to shoot it down
-Maybe some way of counting killed enemies and cashing in at the guild
-More skills
-Couple more 2d story scenes
-Some new sprite art for lootable objects on the map
-Revamp how the items slots work and who can use what items
-Menu/Interface improvements
-Improvements to combat animations & behavior

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Behind the scenes

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I guess you could say Chapter 7 was the my first big "trial" for using Blender to Render all the 3D art. Yes, I did make a scene with the Guild Girl, but it was quite limited and without physics, fluids or things getting squeezed.

Originally, I had planned to first make a small game on the side to practice Blender first, but instead I chose the yolo route and started using it for Goblin Layer directly. So it has been a bumpy journey. I've had a chaotic time behind the scenes, hehe.

However! Since I made a lot of mistakes, I have also learned a lot. In terms of fluids, deformations, pushing an object into another object, squeezing things, making things jiggle, and so on. Hopefully it won't be long before you can see the result of my suffering in the form of higher quality renders and smoother animations!

And it feels great to finally be able to make literally whatever I want, and use Blender seriously for the game's 3d art.

The old program was easy to use, but very limited. I kinda had to adapt the story based on whatever assets I had and the quality was quite shit. For example if you made certain body parts too big, you could literally see low-poly pointy edges. Study Goblinette closely during the prologue, and you'll see. I had to use certain camera angles, or photoshop to cover the worst parts. Those are things I don't have to worry about anymore.

I don't know if you've seen the animations of Lara Croft, or various Overwatch characters, doing immoral things, but those types of animations are quite often made with Blender. Not all of those animations are my cup of tea, but from a technical standpoint they are real good, and I'm aiming to the reach the same level of 3d skill as those guys :-)