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Goat Simulator Post Mortem

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11–20 of 94 posts

Re: Goat Simulator Post Mortem

#11
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?

Re: Goat Simulator Post Mortem

#13

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?

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.

Re: Goat Simulator Post Mortem

#14
post #8

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.

Yeah. Survival bias I suspect.

Re: Goat Simulator Post Mortem

#15
post #3

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.

From the article: it’s the most successful game we’ve ever made

A game 'Post Mortem' doesn't mean its been a failure, the 'Post Mortem' is just a discussion of the development project (now its mostly finished) with analysis of what worked well and what didn't.

edit: from the wikipedia page:

Ibrisagic stated that Coffee Stain Studios made their money back on the development costs within a few minutes of the game being offered on Steam.[16] As of August 2014, the studio has reported that nearly a million copies of Goat Simulator have been sold, outperforming their other games over the previous four years.[7] The mobile release for iOS and Android systems reached 100,000 downloads within 6 days of launch.[46] By mid-January 2015, over 2.5 million copies of the game were sold across all platforms

Re: Goat Simulator Post Mortem

#16

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.

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.

Re: Goat Simulator Post Mortem

#17
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

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

Re: Goat Simulator Post Mortem

#18

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.

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.

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.

Re: Goat Simulator Post Mortem

#20
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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