Three of the biggest “new waves” in recent gaming culture have been the rise in the genres of fantasy, shop management and cozy games. With the surge in popularity of media giants likeDungeons & Dragons,Stardew ValleyandAnimal Crossing,there has never been a better time to make a relaxing game about a goblin running and operating their own small business. The game we’re describing, of course, isTrash Goblin, a cozy fantasy shopkeeping game about a goblin who upscales abandoned loot into prime pieces of merchandise for his store. We had the chance to preview the game ahead of its early access debut and had a great time with everything it has to offer so far (even if there isn’t much).
One Man’s Trash is Another Goblin’s Treasure
Our hero the Trash Goblin is tasked with cleaning and repairing leftover and abandoned items from the fantasy world he lives in, and then selling them to potential buyers that approach his store. Gameplay comes in three forms: excavating items from built-up crud with a chisel, cleaning the grime from items with a sponge and combining different pieces and items using the upscaler.
The chisel provides a low-stakes form of puzzle gameplay, tasking players with aPicross-esque mini-game of breaking down a large clump of cubes into the proper shape of the item inside. The sponge serves a similar use to the power washer inPowerwash Simulator, removing grime in satisfying and quick sequences. The upscaler provides a simple item-combination system, which is less of a form of gameplay than it is a way to quickly increase profits.
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Players can upgrade their tools, as well as purchase expansions and decorations for the room that serves as their home/workspace/storefront. Charming hand-drawn customers will converse with you, giving you details of their need for a specific item and even returning later with news of how the item helped them (and why they need something else). The subtle and cute graphics of objects and areas in the game emulate an oil painting, giving a great mix of messiness and beauty that fits the game perfectly. The only problem thatTrash Goblinis truly facing, at the moment, is how all of these great ideas are presented to the player.
The Daily Grind
There are multiple systems that attempt to give structure to the repetitive and short-burst nature of the game, but none of them are fleshed out enough to give the game the longevity it deserves. Characters approach the shop one-at-a-time and request a specific item to purchase from the store that they need, but there’s no way to skip or deny their request. There are a huge range of possible items that you can find in the bottomless pile of scavenged materials, which is equal to the huge range of requests that customers can bring in, so if you don’t have an item in stock, you’ll need to start chiseling through items one-by-one until you find the thing you’re looking for.
There’s a limited amount of storage space in your inventory, which fills up extremely quickly (causing your home to become filled with random items of varying sizes) and will only continue to grow at the rate items are sold. Each mini-game takes up one of the six allotted time slots in a day (which you must sleep through the night to reset), but there’s no point or consequence for this time system whatsoever. The only way to progress is by buying upgrades, but with only one customer to sell to at a time (and them serving as your only revenue source) money comes in slowly. It’s an early access game with lots of great parts, but the way they are currently put together makes it more of a mind-numbing drag than a satisfying interactive experience.
Thankfully, the issues that are currently plaguing the game are easy to identify, and can be fixed with fine-tuning and easy additions. The repetitive mini-games can add incentives for solving puzzles efficiently, with combos of shattering blocks or properly-connected items giving a bonus to the player’s payout. Items should be able to be sold at a reduced price in a side-store or on-demand service, giving players the ability to risk losing out on bigger paychecks in order to clear space and make a quick buck for the work they’ve done. Customer requests should be able to be added to a list of current orders, so that the player has multiple goals and pathways to success and can field multiple orders at once.
Trash Goblinis a cute and charming experience that currently grows more grating as the game goes on, but can be fixed with the right changes and criticism that come with releasing into early access. In a game this close to reaching its full potential, it’s unlikely that it won’t end up being something great within the next few months. You can playTrash Goblinfor yourself now, as the game has been released into early access today on Steam.
