Happy Holidays!!
The artwork is by our very talented Svetlana Mironets, the lead artist behind all of our recent titles. The whole team is wishing you Happy Holidays!
Too ashamed of our again¹⁰ broken promises to write anything personal, so I’ll go straight to the news!
1. We sent a playable Forsaken Souls Part 3 demo to our publisher a couple of weeks ago.
2. We’re sending another build late January and at that point we should have the final dates.
3. We expect to have the final mobile and PC/Mac versions in June.
4. Unfortunately, as we needed money, we signed a few “side deals” as a result of which we will have to release on many platforms simultaneously. We’re aiming for a Halloween 2022 release.
Why late again? A number of factors, but lately it was mostly my fault. I’ve spent the last 4 months dealing with health issues. Nothing serious and mostly planned, but it did take away 90% of my time and energy. I’ll be back in my bed as soon as I finish writing this.
Please don’t feel sorry for me, though! I could have planned this better and the work would not have suffered as much…
There have been a lot of changes at Goblinz.
Since experiencing firsthand, what I like to call, “publisher censure”, with Mystery Valley and then Forsaken Souls Part 1, I have done my best to avoid “owing” anything to publishers. I’ve sold my car and borrowed money from family and friends, but did not accept any investments.
Lately however, going through the 60+ of my scripts that have been sitting on a shelf (drive) for 10+ years, I decided to start seeing investors again. Our publisher The Digital Lounge have shown themselves extremely supportive over the last years, rarely prioritizing quantity over quality and trusting us in almost every detail. So we agreed on a Goblinz growth plan with them!
Thanks to The Digital Lounge’s help, over the last few months we have hired more people than in the last 5 years and we are still hiring. For now most of the new recruits have been helping on Part 3, but next year a new studio will start working on a new HOPA.
Possibly more exciting yet, for the last 6 months I have been working with a skeleton crew on a project we’ve started and “paused” in 2016 - a VR horror game codenamed True Fear: Possessed. We have been showing playable demos to our publisher and so far the reaction has been great. I’ll start telling more about the project as soon as we announce the final dates for Forsaken Souls Part 3!
We have also been working on a new website. As per usual with Goblinz, what started as a minor update spiraled into a complete overhaul. It might take us a few more months, but I think that you will be surprised with the amount of content and interactivity.
I will probably not be reading the replies this year. Not due to health, but because… I am honestly too ashamed of having betrayed your trust once more. However, I expect to soon be back here with the final dates and then much more!
I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Strength, ambition and health in the upcoming year!
Yours truly,
Dimmie Azu
PS Since I have mentioned investors, I think that I must add another message.
Over the last years we were very touched to receive several offers from fans who wanted to invest in our projects. I have only replied to one and even then quickly stopped (very sorry, Mikael!). The reason for this is quite simple - I cannot in all honestly accept money from our fans unless I “know what I am doing”. And our experience with Part 3 illustrates that it is far from being the case.
A 3 year delay on a project is clearly not great for a publisher, but could be downright catastrophic for a private investor. In a way, we have already “stolen” from our fans who paid for a game with no ending. We weren’t about to do it on a larger scale.
If I start seeing that we can hold our internal dates and after we have the Part 3 finished this Summer, I will start replying to those emails! I’ll start chronologically.
Please, accept my apologies for not replying!

Thank you MarkoH01!

Haven't thought to visit Steam's True Fear forums in a long time, so this is fabulous news.

Also, very happy to see this forum open :)

If you ask me, it was about time. These games are so much more than simple HOGs and the story is mind blowing .... can't wait for part 3 to arrive.

And here are some "new" news from the devs :)

"Dear friends,
I have some good news to share with you! In March we finally signed an investor to finish Part 3! The work has been gathering steam since then - I was waiting to see if we could hold the pace before making the announcement. And while there are minor issues, overall it does look like we'll meet the deadlines.
Knowing Goblinz, you are probably already wondering "what's the catch". Because, yes, there is one...
While we expect to finish the game before the end of the year, we probably won't be authorized to release it until we're done with the porting on all platforms and have the Collectors Edition ready, which will take another 4-6 months. This is still up to debate with our publisher, but I'd rather give you the "worst" estimate first.
The silver lining is that our (wonderful) publisher found a (fantastic) investor who has given us all the creative freedom we needed! No compromises are to be made on the content, quality or style. While the investor prefers to remain anonymous, all the Goblinz team is very grateful to them for the support and allowing the trilogy story to be told without compromise!
As I was going through my original game design, a memory resurfaced. Years ago in Venice, after an undisclosed amount of cheap yet delicious Italian wine, I stumbled upon the Gallerie dell'Accademia. Among the exhibited self-portraits, one painting captivated me. The artist began it at 17 but completed it in her forties. Being not much older than 17 myself, I stood before the artwork, imagining the artist's experience.
Could she recall her thoughts and emotions from that moment? Was it just an image to her or could she close her eyes and remember the sun, scents, and sounds? Did she long to revisit that time, making different choices or reliving it exactly as it was? Did she remember why she ceased; did she resume from where she left off? Did she modify her portrayal, armed with knowledge of her future self, or did she honor her teenage vision as she remembered it?
While True Fear is not exactly an autoportrait, it was influenced by some of my important experiences. Going back to those storyboards I drew 10+ years ago is overwhelming at times - remembering the original vision and balancing it with how I see things now... And, yes, part of it is also having to come to terms with the compromises and mistakes made in the first two Parts. However it does feel great to finally see those last shapes take form and knowing that the story will be told in full!
Below are a few recent screenshots. They are still work in progress, but should start to give you an idea of the different environments in the game. For those of you who are into the story, both cutscene shots may give you something to think about.
Love,
Dimmie"

Has there been any recent update?

Now that you ask ... I just have a new one - again from facebook:

"Happy Halloween, dear friends!
First, a quick update. Work on Part 3 is progressing (surprisingly) well and we expect to be almost on schedule to start QA in late February or early March. However, there might be a further 3 months to wait as our publisher is contemplating a simultaneous multi-platform release. We're still arguing about it and I'll keep you posted!
Thanks to the amazing team, the game is looking absolutely gorgeous, but we're still struggling to finish the 40+ cutscenes. Part 3 will end up costing four times as much as Part 1 and a staggering forty times more than Mystery Valley! It is (very-very) unlikely that we'll ever recoup it, but we're sticking to our guns and not taking any shortcuts. Luckily, we are doing some work for hire that keeps the lights on. We've been expanding this line of work and you'll even find some of our names in the credits of Baldur's Gate 3. Yep.
In the meantime, starting November, I'll be sharing monthly updates with you, a developer's diary of sorts. There I'll give more details on our fantastic team, the challenges we faced, our work for hire and even our new project!
The team passes their best wishes and our lead artists Svetlana and Vlad prepared a plethora of postcards for you. As always, we picked just a couple.
Let me know in the comments if you would like to see all of them. I could, for example, make one of the dev diaries about all the New Year and Halloween postcards we didn't post over the years with the reasoning behind it. I am contemplating for the diaries to center around all the things we didn't do, such as deleted areas and removed cutscenes, so this would fit nicely.
Vlad and I have also collaborated on a comic strip. I must apologize if it leans more towards the bitter than the sweet. Between everything that's happening in the world and the inevitable regrets that resurface when I revisit my Part 3 notes from over a decade ago, it seems that's the mood I find myself in.
But, please, let it not ruin the celebrations! Despite all the odds, Part 3 is on the horizon, and perhaps it's a small signal that things can improve if we stay the course. Let's focus on the little joys and take time creating them for those around us. And, yes, sometimes indulging in an abundance of pilfered Halloween candy is precisely what the doctor ordered!
Love,
Dimmie"

Thanks.

Fantastic news, thank you for the updates.

Gonna have to catch up with the facebook & steam pages shortly.

Just curious: progress report?

Ditto?

Yes ...

"Hello friends,
I'm thrilled to finally share the release schedule for True Fear Part 3! It's been quite a mess of a journey, but we're nearing the finish line. I wanted to be completely certain before making this announcement, so I held off until now to give you the full roadmap.
Here's what's coming:
June: Fully playable game.
July-August: Launch of the official trailer.
August: Completion of voiceovers and the remaining cutscenes.
September: Free demo available on Steam.
Halloween: Official release on Steam and mobile platforms.
Q1 2025: Release on PS5, Xbox, and Switch.
Q2 2025: Ultimate Edition launch across all platforms. More details on this soon.
I know many of you might have doubted the project would continue, and frankly, I don’t blame you. As usual we’re including a free demo with Part 3, so you can see for yourselves if it was worth the wait. I truly believe Part 3 is the best of the series, wrapping up all storylines and answering your lingering questions. I won't say any more as we've disappointed you so many times that I believe that the only thing left for us to do is to release the game.
We've prepared a few wallpapers in case anyone wants one. A 4K and a 2K version of each is included. Let us know if you'd like another format!

I kept promising a dev diary and I might as well start with our recent issues. Yes, it does sometimes feel that the project is cursed...
Last fall, our bank required numerous documents and financial plans from us, only to then inform us they were closing our account due to profitability concerns. This left us scrambling, and for a while, our (amazing) publisher, Digital Lounge, had to cover our core team’s wages and essential software costs. It was a challenging period, more so because it impacted not just our project but our team members and their families with many not seeing a payment in months. I don't think that I've slept that little in any other period in my life - I know most of our employees personally; know of their problems, bills, etc.
Thankfully, our (wonderful) CEO Eleni was able to secure new banking services recently. This time she insisted on opening accounts with three banks to avoid any surprises down the line. We’ve even added some fresh talent to the (first-class) team, thanks to our (incredible) investor who has stood by us through thick and thin, insisting we never cut corners on quality. Though I was once part of the banking sector, having worked at a risk department after college, the decision of our former bank was a tough pill to swallow. Luckily, our new banking partners have been a breath of fresh air, offering better services that have significantly eased our

Part 2/2

operations. In fact we've spent a few evenings with my (fantastic) right-hand person Anna gushing over the smooth UI
ourselves, and now it'll take us hours instead of days. preparing all the quarterly statements ourselves, and now it'll take us hours instead of days.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to finalize the game. For the first time in a long while, I’m genuinely enjoying the creative process - writing, directing, and collaborating with our actors. We plan a few more posts and even a survey in the coming months, but I won't promise anything this time other than we will keep the above release dates.
Thanks for sticking with us!
Love,
Dimmie"



It has been a long time since I was so excited about the release of a new game. The wait was - and according to the news still will be - long, but I am somehow sure it will absolutely be worth it in the end. This will be a day one purchase for me for sure :)

What about the GOG release?

No confirmation yet but he talks about "all platforms" and we can just hope that he includes GOG as well. Since the other 2 arrived here I'd say chances for a GOG release are pretty good.

Thanks. -_-