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I can't make any promises about timing, as this is a strictly in-my-free-time thing and sleep plus my full time job don't leave all that much of it, and I have other hobbies too. It might be ready by fall, it might be ready by summer (maybe), it might have to wait for winter or next year. I don't think that last one is very likely (and I will be very disappointed myself if it happens), but we'll see. It might conceivably be ready in a month or two, but I think that's overly optimistic.

It will not be purely text based. There will be a considerable amount of art, all drawn by Thunt. The art plus the premise and rules all come from Thunt, though I have made some suggestions and comments on the rules. The kind of character portraits Thunt was originally going to do manually will be there (automated, of course), along with pictures of the monsters you fight, rooms you explore, and equipment you find.

Most of the core gameplay, i.e. actions you can take, is done. You can move between rooms, search for loot, fight monsters, disarm (or get hit by) traps, etc. The battles with humans are not done, the system of personality traits Thunt wants to add is not done, unique items such as the Shield of Wonder have not been implemented yet, and there are a number of smaller things still to be done. As an amusing side note, the limit on actions per turn is deliberately not yet actually enforced and my test character has something like -140 actions remaining .

I come by the live drawing channel sometimes (same username as here), and when I think it's ready I'll call for beta testers there. I'll probably announce it a little in advance here, too.

Awesome to hear from the guy programing this year's most anticipated game. (by Goblins fans, at least)
*Puts hand up for beta-lab-rat*
However testers get picked, count me interested.

For those that didn't get to see the original system, it's still right where Thunt left it. I was surprised to find it so easily. I just went to TF8, changed the url from 8 to 9 and BOOM.

Check it out and see what the fuss it about at

http://www.goblinscomic.com/tf9.html

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That's actually part of how I got the job, incidentally. I went there, spent three full days throwing together an ugly and simplified but functional version of the rules I could find, then emailed Thunt with a link. He sent back that he'd had several people emailing him offers to make the game, but I was the only one who'd given him something to look at up front.

Oooh, could you at least give us some teasers/screenshots? (or ask THunt if you can)

I may regret saying this later, but...

In about two weeks, I'll be between semesters at my local college, where I'm taking a course in computer systems. I've learned quite a lot about the programming aspect of things... so...

If you want, would you like to assign me some grunt work? Just a few simple code snippets to help you along? Something simple that won't require much experience, but takes up your time? I'm not sure what language you're using, so I may not be able to help, but if you can describe what you need, I could try to implement it.

Or... it could be vastly beyond my current skill level, but hey... I never know until I ask, right?

I'm using php and MySQL, plus a little bit of JavaScript.

Sorry, but I can't think of any "grunt work" that I could easily assign to someone else. In a well written program, most such things either are already done somewhere easily accessible for copying or can be delegated directly to the computer without much trouble.

Hehe, I just got through with a lab using php and mysql to process sql queries to a database, then display the result using AJAX. Man, talk about co-incidence.

Well, sorry to hear that I can't help any. I know what you mean though. I've got projects where doing such things would be foolish. Still, if you think of anything I could do to help, I'd love to make the work go faster.

Best of luck though.

AJAX, now there's a miracle of teh intarwebs. Put together with the other two it's ideal for this situation. Excellent!

Er, yeah, that was a pointless remark. I guess I'm just raising my hand as another web developer/programmer.

I'm glad I found TF9. It's a good refresher.

I am thoroughly fascinated by bringing this game to life. It's an extraordinarily ambitious thing to do for a webcomic. Even if it crashes and burns you got to love the the fact that Thunt tried it anyway.

Okay, so this will work essentially the same way, only no/little emailing because it's all automated now?

If you don't mind, I would like to run down how I think how this will work when ready and you can tell me if I am right or not. If it's not prying, that is.

-When you register, the process will be the same as joining our forum. An email adress will be needed to confirm but we don't have to send an email like the first time.
-Then we do the character creation. All automated.
-After that point, there is a waiting period until the game starts.
-We will get 3 "steps" per turn as in the original.
-All the original steps except "hide" will be intact. That is, we will keep "search something", "find a trap", "solve something", "fight something", "alter something", "move to another room", "equip/drop gear", "react to an event", and "heal yourself".
-"Hide" will be removed because that was made to protect yourself from the mistakes of fellow goblins. This was okay when Thunt didn't expect too many people but with the numbers he now thinks may come along... it's too unforgiving a mechanic. Besides, there wouldn't be enough magic items if the first person to come along and search was the only one to get anything.
-No new steps will be added.
-Because nothing that one does (except "alter something") has any effect on anyone else, it's no longer important to be "first to move" like it was in the original version.
-All remaining steps will be automated except "alter something" and "react to an event". The former will have to be typed, then reviewed and added manually (because any alterations will have to be vetted first) while the latter would be sent and determined via email, as it is a special event and initiated by Thunt himself.
-We will still look at the map like we do in the original version but instead of it being a common map, visible for everyone, it will be private so that when one person moves to a new room, not everyone can see it.
-We will get the same number of turns/steps per week, the same number of human attacks and it will take the same amount of time as the original.
-Since it's automated, the game could be more forgiving of being absent but I'll bet that he will want to keep his "skip 4 turns and your character erases" rule.
-There will be a scoreboard where we can see how many bravery/intuition everyone has.

I think that is everything that needs to be done, pretty well. Is that about right douglasm?

Also, I agree with Jokes. Screenshots would be cool.