
Goat Simulator Post Mortem - jermo
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/ArminIbrisagic/20150220/236427/Goat_Simulator_Post_Mortem.php
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Diederich
This 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
Did 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
We 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.

~~~
qt7
It blows my mind how you can enjoy the company of an animal and then not only
eat them -- somewhat understandable as we need to eat to stay alive -- but...
encouraging their ritual slaughtering? I'm speechless.

Not only "ritual" and "slaughtering" are words that should give goosebumps
when used together, but even _encouraging_ it, when you don't even believe in
that barbaric procedure, it's frankly inhumane.

~~~
boomlinde
I don't think that the ritual slaughter of islam and conventional slaughter
are different enough for the line between barbaric and non-barbaric to
coincidentally somehow end up right between them.

As for slaughtering an animal that you've enjoyed the company of, I'm not sure
how it is any worse than slaughtering an animal you didn't enjoy the company
of. The former will give you a more intimate understanding of the impact your
eating habits have, if anything.

~~~
qt7
The only civil reply to my comment above. We may not share the same opinion,
but I appreciate your considerate response. My post above probably came out
too harsh, that was unintended.

> I don't think that the ritual slaughter of islam and conventional slaughter
> are different enough for the line between barbaric and non-barbaric to
> coincidentally somehow end up right between them.

[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/outcry-
after-...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/outcry-after-
undercover-film-exposes-brutality-of-halal-industry-10019467.html)

> As for slaughtering an animal that you've enjoyed the company of, I'm not
> sure how it is any worse than slaughtering an animal you didn't enjoy the
> company of.

If you actually believe that which you're saying, you'd have no problem
slaughtering your dog.

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boomlinde
Islamic ritual slaughter explicitly does not involve blunt force or death from
falling. The animal is killed not by hacking, sawing or jumping at its throat,
but by making a single clean cut at it with a non-serrated blade, which is not
to be shown to the animal.

I'm really not trying to make a true scotsman argument here, but unnecessarily
brutal treatment of animals is prevalent through the whole meat industry and
sadly can't be pinned down to a particular religious practice or tradition.

I personally believe that this is an inherent problem of the industry. I think
that repetitively performing these jobs hundreds of times a day requires that
you have absolutely no emotional investment in the animals. Add to that
otherwise stressful conditions, and you have to take care not to develop
sadistic tendencies and loathing of the animals.

 _> If you actually believe that which you're saying, you'd have no problem
slaughtering your dog._

I'd have a problem slaughtering my dog, but that's besides the point. I just
don't believe that it would somehow be less humane than slaughtering some
other animal. In fact, if I were to slaughter my dog, I'd probably take extra
care to do it in the most humane way possible.

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fnordfnordfnord
This 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.

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david-given
While 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
I would absolutely buy and play Goat Tycoon.

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kabdib
Assassin'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.

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christiangenco
I'd prefer "Grand Theft Goat."

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geographomics
Goat Theft Auto

~~~
slowmovintarget
Goat's Row

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angersock
Some 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
> _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

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david-given
That looks really cool. Alas, it doesn't run on a platform I've got, or I'd
get it --- it's only $10...

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detaro
Windows, Mac OS, Linux, PS4. You only use a tablet, or do you only game on
another console?

~~~
david-given
PS3.

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dluan
> 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.

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ebbv
As 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.

~~~
abricot
I 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
Flappy 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'.

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benwilber0
So, 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.

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codeulike
Nope, 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
Survivorship 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.

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mynameishere
I 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
Goat 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.

~~~
kalleboo
> 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.

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failrate
Bad joke: Considering the success of Surgeon Simulator, I am happy that this
is not a Goat Post Mortem Simulator.

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Fiahil
It's amazing how a little free time and good morale in a team can turn things
around :)

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alfonsodev
"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.

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jermo
Didn'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
I'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?

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mdonahoe
Why 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
"Post-mortem" literally means "after death". You can see where the confusion
lies.

~~~
Diederich
I prefer "After Action Report", or AAR, which is what my unit used in the Air
Force.

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stvmcg
This game is awesome. Full stop.

