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Goat Simulator Post Mortem
- angersock 12y agoSome really great quotes in there: When you’re making a joke prototype game where the main character is a goat, you don’t exactly focus on thinking proactively. In hindsight, it’s resulted in a lot of extra work. The entire bit about customer interaction was great too.
- Osmium 12y ago> When you’re making a joke prototype game where the main character is a goat ... Kind-of tangential, but speaking of goat-themed video games... around the same time Goat Simulator was released, there was another video game released called Escape Goat 2[1]. I've played it and it happens to be a wonderfully-crafted, well-executed puzzle platformer. At the time it came out, I remember thinking it was unfortunate that a 'joke' game (Goat Simulator) got a lot of attention, while there many more heart-felt indie efforts out there that struggle for similar exposure. But I suppose that's just how it goes. [1] www.escapegoat2.com
- ohjesusthatguy 12y agoThey're not in the same league at all; I can almost guarantee no one went out looking for "that goat game" and bought Goat Simulator by mistake when what they were actually looking for was Escape Goat. My seven- and nine-year-olds have had at least the $5 worth of fun out of GS that I paid for it. EG looks more like my kind of game but it's not available for my platform of choice.
- archagon 12y agoEscape Goat 1 was really great too. Fantastic sort of DOS-era, strange/mysterious platformer vibe.
- david-given 12y agoThat looks really cool. Alas, it doesn't run on a platform I've got, or I'd get it --- it's only $10...
- detaro 12y agoWindows, Mac OS, Linux, PS4. You only use a tablet, or do you only game on another console?
- david-given 12y agoPS3.
- jermo 12y agoDidn't expect this at all. When I first saw it go viral I thought they'll have no problem selling it. So I guess this reinforces the importance of execution vs idea. Kudos to Armin and the team for taking on a project like this.
- blowski 12y agoI'm confused. The title makes it sound like they're ending development, the post refers to the game in future, present and past tense... are they killing it off or not?
- mdonahoe 12y agoWhy would they kill it? "Today it’s safe to say that it’s the most successful game we’ve ever made." This is just an article talking about the development and reception. Doesn't mean the game is dead.
- freehunter 12y ago"Post-mortem" literally means "after death". You can see where the confusion lies.
- blowski 12y agoI would be very surprised if they killed it off, it's just that the title made me think that's what they were doing. Thanks to you and others for explaining why the title is as it is anyway.
- ebbv 12y agoAs interesting as this is, I don't know how much of this is applicable to anyone else. Goat Simulator was a fluke which gained popularity just by the idea being funny on its own. The game itself really didn't matter. It was supposed to be bad. For 99% of products, game or not, that's not going to fly.
- estefan 12y agoYeah. Survival bias I suspect.
- abricot 12y agoI think the same thing could be said about Flappy Bird. That game were also considered a joke but gained a following. The fact that the developer pulled it out of the market oddly enough skyrocketed it's popularity. I also remember the Beavis & Butthead game becoming pupular, even though it was a joke game too.
- codeulike 12y agoFlappy Bird was not a joke as such, it was a proper game that just happened to be simple but very hard. Somehow Gears hit a sweet spot that was 'hard' but also 'addictive'.
- david-given 12y agoI also think it's actually a pretty good game. There's a surprising amount of stuff to do, and things to discover, and puzzles you need to solve, but you have to go look for them --- unless you're the type of person who likes poking into corners you're unlikely to find them (like that famous review from someone who said they'd finished all the content in an hour... uh huh). Also, the MMORPG simulator is great.
- mynameishere 12y agoI can't believe the same studio that made Sanctum (a really good game) also made Goat Simulator. I figured it was a one-person weekends-only throwaway joke effort. Cripes. On Steam, Goat Simulator has 20x as many reviews as Sanctum, but they all appear to be sarcastic, so that's good. Yet, according to wikipedia, they sold 2.5 million copies. Bizarre. Anyone want to explain that one?
- ssully 12y agoGoat Simulator is the perfect word of mouth game. It's really bizarre and it fits perfectly into internet culture. I don't follow youtube personalities, but I could see this being the kind of game that does really well for them and in return well for the developers. Also Sanctum is another tower defense game in a market overflowing with them. It's interesting and does coop well, but it didn't set the world on fire because it is honestly pretty average. I like it, but I understand why it isn't super popular. Either way good for them on their success.
- chii 12y ago> I don't follow youtube personalities, but I could see this being the kind of game that does really well for them you are correct - especially the highly edited short-ish videos (ala, 10-15 minutes) of jump cuts to all the funny bits. Personally, i don't really like the game, as it seemed too gimmicky to play for more than a few minutes.
- kalleboo 12y ago> I don't follow youtube personalities, but I could see this being the kind of game that does really well for them The first PewDiePie Goat Simulator gameplay video has over 11 million views.
- guhcampos 12y agoI bought Sanctum a long time ago and honestly I could not play it for more than an hour. I LOVE tower defense games, but there was just too much stuff on the screen for my taste on Sanctum. By the way: the same happened with Dungeon Defenders, never got to really enjoy it. Those are two great games that lost me because of their excess. Goat Simulator is a joke-game. It's absurdly hilarious all the way through, and purposedly idiotic. There is a lot of fun to be found on the game, but you got to have the right type of humor, and be very fond of goats, to find it. Also it is a sandbox of sorts. Sandbox games please a range of gamers, but they're not for everyone. This could be your case.
- benwilber0 12y agoSo, I'm taking from this that the moral is to always do your best work no matter if you think it's a just a toy or if you actually want to sell it. Sometimes toys accidentally become products.
- codeulike 12y agoNope, because its quite rare for toys to accidentally take off like this. If you 'always do your best work no matter if you think it's a just a toy or if you actually want to sell it' you'll just waste loads of time polishing things that no-one will ever see.
- yen223 12y agoSurvivorship bias. There's probably a million developers out there who poured their heart and soul into their game, only to have it languish with single-digit sales figures. Uh, not to discourage anyone or anything.
- dakotasmith 12y agoYour comment reminded me of Chris Dixon's idea that big things start out looking like a toy. http://cdixon.org/2010/01/03/the-next-big-thing-will-start-out-looking-like-a-toy/ http://cdixon.org/2010/01/03/the-next-big-thing-will-start-o...
- slowmovintarget 12y agoI thought the take-away could be something a bit more specific, like, make your games fun to play. Al Lowe gave that interview a little while back and it showed up here on HN. He said he was a little sad that people didn't make funny games any more. Well, sometimes they do, and it turns out, people are willing to buy them.
- missn 12y agoSecond that. A friend made a platformer for an incubator called "Runnin' Around With No Shirt On" where it's basically about a (shirtless) guy running around in hell (and dodging all the basic platform obstacles like spikes, moving platforms, etc.). The goal of the game was to defeat Satan in order to get his shirt back. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever played but I couldn't go one second without laughing at how ridiculous and how much fun it was to play. I love "serious" kinds of play and games with these awesome narratives but sometimes you just want something funny and fun to play!
- Fiahil 12y agoIt's amazing how a little free time and good morale in a team can turn things around :)
- fnordfnordfnord 12y agoThis Christmas instead of buying a console I built a PC and put SteamOS on it for the family. Of course I bought Goat Simulator. I got it on a Steam sale and probably didn't pay more that five bucks. We hosted a bunch of family from out of state, and the combination of the family visit with the ridiculousness of Goat Simulator really let me channel my inner Clark Griswold. Everyone who came over scoffed at the game yet at the same time the game had them all, from age two to age eighty-nine laughing or at least rolling their eyes. A lot of people who weren't at all into video games had a go. They still had a good time even though they weren't experienced video game players. People enjoyed it whether they were watching or playing. I guess we're all easily entertained.
- david-given 12y agoWhile I do seriously think that Goat Simulator is one of the most underrated games-as-art works of our time, my main take-home message from the postmortem is: If you take a perfectly sensible game development sentence and replace one of the nouns with a goat, it becomes intrinsically funny.
- mathnode 12y agoI would absolutely buy and play Goat Tycoon.
- kabdib 12y agoAssassin's Goat. Sid Meier's Goat. Grand Theft Auto Goat. The Elder Goat: Skyrim. You Don't Know Goat. These would, in general, be a hoot.
- mpdehaan2 12y agoGoat City 2000. XCOM: Goat Defense. Goatcraft II. Super Goat Brothers. Plants vs Goats. Sonic the Hedgegoat.
- prodigal_erik 12y agoGoat Age: Origins. Goat Effect. Goat Raider. Goat Space Program. Goats of the Old Republic. Goatville. Sins of a Goat Empire.
- Diederich 12y agoThis game really resonates with me, and so does the writeup. I had the fortune to work a high-tech job (in person) and also own a 20 acre farm for a number of years, where we attempted to produce some/most of the food we ate. (That's a really hard thing to do by the way.) Of course we raised goats, for the meat as well as the milk. For those of you who haven't interacted with goats, know this: there is a hilarity about them that is difficult to describe. They have some sort of almost human, child-like curiosity and bravery that was always refreshing. Add to that their willingness/desire to climb on/stand on anything, and honestly, they were just a hoot to have around. They roamed fence free on our property for a time. I'd go out in the morning to ride my motorcycle to work, and there's be a couple of goats standing on my wife's car, just standing there, chewing cud. Or there'd be a goat balanced calmly on my motorcycle. Or a small goat standing on the back of a larger goat. Or a couple of goats dancing joyfully. Or a few goats gloriously playing with a piece of fiberglass. And many of them were really, really friendly to you. My (then toddler) son enjoyed playing with them enormously. Goats are awesome. I do miss having them around. I liked to say that you could add a goat to nearly any somber real-life situation and it would instantly become funny. EDIT: 'add a joke' -> 'add a goat'. Ugh.
- ryan-allen 12y agoDid you end up eating them? I'd find it hard to eat them as I'd end up feeling like they were pets. Do you have any photos of them standing on your car or bike??!!
- Diederich 12y agoWe did indeed eat some of them, but the meat wasn't as tasty as traditionally farm-raised animals. Ours lived mostly free-range, which is very good for them, but it makes their meat less 'yummy'. The meat most everyone (who eats meat) likes usually comes from animals who don't get very much exercise, and so has a lot less 'density' (not sure how to properly describe it.) We also sold a number of them to Muslim friends and their associates for Eid al-Fitr, and even allowed them to consecrate part of our property to do the sacrifice. Previously they could find no place within hundreds of miles that would allow them to do that. That we were (and are) Christians, who not only allowed them to do this, but even encouraged it, kind of blew their minds. :) I'll see if I can dig up some pics. It's a funny thing how so often you don't end up taking pictures of really neat, but daily things, but wish you did.
- stvmcg 12y agoThis game is awesome. Full stop.
- dluan 12y ago> Fun fact: the 3-D model for the actual goat in Goat Simulator cost $25 on TurboSquid. But it was on a 75% off sale, so we got a pretty good deal on it. This had me cracking up.
- failrate 12y agoBad joke: Considering the success of Surgeon Simulator, I am happy that this is not a Goat Post Mortem Simulator.
- alfonsodev 12y ago"2. We should have focused on optimization since day one" The oposite could have been even a bigger mistake, "first impressions persist" but that first impression is much better that no impression at all, very often optimized games don't see the light, ending as that pet project that I'll finish some day.
- usman002 12y agohttp://newstoday45.blogspot.com/2015/03/nail-care.html http://newstoday45.blogspot.com/2015/03/nail-care.html
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