Goat Simulator 2014

Goat Simulator is a third-person perspective simulation video game developed by Coffee Stain Studios. It was released for Microsoft Windows via Steam on 1 April 2014, while ports for Mac OS X and Linux are presently being developed.



The game has been compared by the developer as akin to skateboarding games, but where the player controls a goat aimed at doing as much damage as possible around an open-world map, without any other larger goals. The game, initially developed as a joke prototype from an internal game jam and shown in a early alpha state in YouTube videos, was met with excitement and attention, prompting the studio to build out the game into a releasable state while still retaining various non-breaking bugs and glitches to retain the game's entertainment value. (Age / PEGI 7)

The game received mixed reviews, with some reviewers praising the title for providing a humorous sandbox title to experiment with, while others criticized the game's reliance on social media to popularize the otherwise simple and buggy title.

Gameplay

Goat Simulator is an open-ended third-person perspective game in which the player controls a goat. The player is free to explore the game's world, a suburban semi-urban setting, as a goat, and jump, run, bash things, and lick objects, which attaches the goat's tongue to the object and lets the player drag the object around until they let go. At any time, the player can let the goat drop into a ragdoll model, allowing the game's physics to take over, and another control makes the game run in slow-motion. A number of environmental features allow the player to manipulate the goat into stunts such as bouncing off trampolines or launching the goat into the air through large fans. The game features a scoring system similar to skateboarding games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, whereby doing tricks or other actions earns points, while chaining such tricks together in sequence helps build a multiplier that applies to the total score of the tricks done in the sequence. Various in-game goals, such as achieving a certain height, completing flips, or destroying certain objects, are given to the player, but the player is not required to follow these instructions.

Small golden goat statues are hidden in the game's world. Obtaining these allows the player to restart the game with various modifiers in play, such as changing the goat model to a demon goat, a giraffe, or an ostrich, or adding a jetpack to the goat that can be activated at any time. Various easter eggs are scattered about the sandbox, such as a castle where one can become the King of all Goats, or where the goat character gains a move similar to Sonic the Hedgehog's spin attack.

Development and release

Goat Simulator started as a joke prototype from a internal one-month game jam held by Coffee Stain Studios in January 2014, after completing work for their game Sanctum 2.The game was described by the lead developer Armin Ibrisagic as "an old school skating game, except instead of being a skater, you're a goat, and instead of doing tricks, you wreck stuff". The prototype used a Nvidia PhysX and Apex physics engine with ragdoll physics for the goat and human models within the Unreal Engine 3. The prototype was meant to be a parody of various other "weirdly successful" Simulation games presently available, such as Euro Truck Simulator. Ibrisagic had no intention of this becoming a full title, instead only offering the prototype for him and other developers to learn the Unreal Engine alongside other developers that were developing prototypes in more earnest.

Footage of the game in its alpha state was posted to YouTube by Coffee Stain, where it received more than a million views in two days and a large response from fans requesting a full release of the game in part due to various glitches in the prototype's engine. The appeal of the video was also picked up by the agricultural magazine, Modern Farmer. Some journalists suggested that the title be developed into a full game even knowing it was meant as a joking title; GameSpot editor Danny O'Dwyer supported the full release of the game arguing that "games should be dumb once in a while".

The large positive response to the alpha photage convinced the studio to develop Goat Simulator as a full title to Steam, putting more people on the title. Recognizing that the glitching was part of the game's appeal, Ibrisagic only sought to fix software bugs that might cause the game to crash, leaving in the other glitches and bugs associated with the physics engine as the results from these were "really hilarious". Ibrisagic felt it was important for the game to be supported on Steam, but initially feared that Valve Corporation would not accept the quirky title. He instead found Valve to be welcoming of the title, including a joking response from the company that stated "[Valve's marketing manager DJ Powers] has started wearing a goat costume to work he’s so excited about this game". As part of its release, Coffee Stain added support for Steam Workshop which would let players modify the game, aware that players would likely create levels and scenarios that will glitch and crash the game for humorous results. While the physics engine allows for spectacular rendering of destruction of the game environment, which is a main feature of the game, Coffee Stain acknowledged the downside of this as "it would synchronise terribly in multiplayer". They estimated that adding multiplayer would remove "90 percent of the physics" and many other features, and left the game as a single player title. The studio considered that it only spent a couple months to complete the Windows version, and opted to outsource versions for OS X and Linux. with Ryan Gordon handling the porting with a yet-specified release date.

Coffee Stain Studios released Goat Simulator worldwide on 1 April 2014, aware that tying the date with April Fools' Day may raise doubts on the validity of the game. Those that pre-ordered the game through Coffee Stain's website received early access to the title three days ahead of release. The official release trailer for Goat Simulator is a loose parody of the highly-praised teaser trailer released for Dead Island, showing, among shots of the game, reversed footage of the goat crashing through a building after being launched from an exploding gas station.

The studio plans to release a free expansion and patch to the game in mid-May 2014, which in addition to fixing game-breaking issues, will add new goat models, a new map to explore, and will add in local multiplayer for up to 4 players via split-screen. Ibrisagic believes that adding multiplayer support atop Steam Workshop support will allow creative users to develop new gameplay modes that will extend the title's playability.

Reception

Goat Simulator received mixed reviews upon release; the game has a weighted aggregate rating of 63.36% on GameRankings, based on 14 reviews, and 62/100 on Metacritic, based on 23 reviews.

Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead complimented Coffee Stain Studios on building in enough content Goat Simulator and potential expansion through Steam to prove it more than a simple joke title, and instead a brief diversion "in which the player is a willing participant". Dan Stapleton of IGN considered the title a "clever interactive spoof of all the broken game physics we’ve seen in open worlds" and despite being short, was a "hell of a good time". Tim Turi of Game Informer stated that the first hour of so with the game would be amusing, but lacked more expansions features that he "[does not] recommend it to anyone looking for more than disposable entertainment". Steve Tilley of the Toronto Sun described the game as one where "most players will have a few hours of fun and then file [it] away as an occasional novelty to pull out when they’re especially bored".

Rich Stanton of The Guardian was very critical of the game, noting how the game is self-aware of its poor quality, and stated that the game's creation and promotion "demonstrates how social media and the internet amplify our supine tendencies". Andy Kelly of PC Gamer was also critical of the title, calling it a "bad, amateurish and boring game", and considered its popularity was only due to word-of-mouth and YouTube videos that enticed players to buy the game themselves.

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