Goblin Gobbler

About the game

Goblin Gobbler is a puzzle game written by Tyler P Evans for Sprig, the open-source game console made by Hack Club that you program in JavaScript. The rules are written in the game's own first lines: shove the goblin in the hole. You are a small adventurer, the goblins are green troublemakers, and the holes are mounds of earth waiting for them. You cannot push a goblin yourself, though. What you can push is a box, and the box can push the goblin.

That one extra step is what makes the game. To get a goblin into a hole you have to line up a box behind it, from the right side, without trapping the box against a wall, and without putting yourself in a spot where you cannot reach the next one. A level with two goblins and two holes means two boxes and a plan for the order. Early levels are a few moves long, with the answer in plain sight. Later ones fill the room with boxes and force you to think several pushes ahead, because a box in a corner is gone for good, and the only way back is to restart.

There are about a hundred levels, and the scenery changes every ten of them: green meadows, caves, sand, fire, snow, a dark void, a laboratory, the seabed and a forest, each with its own tiles and its own take on the same puzzle. When the last goblin is gone, the game says "Goblins Gone!". The game counts your moves on every level and shows them if you ask.

Playing it here

Click Play and the game starts in the page, on the Sprig's own 160×128 screen scaled up so the pixels stay sharp. The screen size changes with the level, because each room is only as big as it needs to be. There is a short jingle each time a level is solved. The game keeps no save, so closing the page starts you at the first level again.

On a phone or tablet, two groups of buttons appear under the screen, like the eight buttons of the console. On a computer, use the keyboard; the arrow keys work like W, A, S, D.

Controls

Tips

Boxes push goblins, you push boxes. Walk up to a box, push it, and let the box do the work on the goblin. Walking straight at a goblin does nothing.

Mind the corners. A box against two walls cannot be moved again. If a box ends up there, restart the level with J rather than push on.

Work backwards. Start from the hole: which tile must the goblin be on, which tile must the box be on behind it, and where do you have to stand.

Use the level skip as a safety net. I and K let you move between levels, so a stuck level does not end your game.

FAQ

Is this an official Sprig game? It comes from the public Sprig game gallery, where anyone can send in a game. This one was sent in by its author, Tyler P Evans, and it runs here unchanged.

What is a Sprig? A small console with a 160×128 screen and eight buttons, made by Hack Club to teach programming by making games. Its games are plain JavaScript programs, and the engine that runs them is open source.

How many levels are there? About a hundred, in ten themes.

Does it save my progress? No. Closing the page starts you at the first level.