Games like Goat Simulator or Wanted Raccoon?
- Thread starter Drak0rex
- Start date
- Views 1,133
- Replies 5
Doesn't sound like exactly the same thing but have you played Untitled Goose Game? Much mischief to be made.
Curious way to look at them.
The sort of sleeper hit of goat simulator did inspire a few attempts at copying it in the immediate aftermath but nothing that particularly stuck. Did influence a few other rather disparate genres though; Teardown probably owes more than a passing nod to such things and that is more in the driving/minecraft aspect.
The guy that designed that made Goat Simulator did also more recently make
https://gbatemp.net/review/just-die-already.1810/ however that deals with cartoon old people instead so if animals or bust is your criteria then carrying on.
Untitled Goose Game
https://gbatemp.net/review/untitled-goose-game.1133/
Probably the most notable entry in this style in recent times, though don't know if that quite ranks as sandbox. Can well see it scratching the same itch though, and it is not like 95% of Goat Simulator is not scripted as you like with you having to do old school adventure game logic (try this on this, what is this) to discover it.
Probably should at least note the existence of Man Eater
https://gbatemp.net/review/man-eater.1402/
Different style/sense of humour compared to the above stuff but I will note it and probably as close as you will get in many ways if animals are a must.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/894020/Deaths_Door/
might be something to look at but we are deviating heavily.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/285900/Gang_Beasts/ probably has better multiplayer as a long term thing if you want to go that way (multiplayer goat simulator was OK but nothing special, though split screen co-op is still appreciated).
Long shot but you might also find some of the various survival simulators based around living/playing as animals/dinosaurs scratch something of an itch here, certainly many of those going in for Man Eater also found themselves talking about this where something like Untitled Goose game seemed to get more of the puzzle game set.
The Isle and Animalia Survival being among the more notable in this. It is still something of an evolving genre (don't know if it will be the next big one, but certainly where a lot of interesting gameplay design discussion is happening) and there are many splits and ways of thinking about things so might take a bit more research -- Atermishea, The Great Circle, Eidols, Path of Titans, Wild... all doing subtly different things and having all sorts of results.
Never heard of Skater Cat. Seems something of a collectathon/runner type game. There are a million of those, fewer with animals if that is a criteria and most of all of them are microtransaction laden dross or boring as you like. Interestingly the same people responsible for Just Die Already (which again have the guy behind Goat Simulator at its head) also have animal super squad which might be closer to angry birds than a runner game but I would wish to note it as part of all this, and going further off track there then probably should note a somewhat older game called Rocketbirds.
http://www.doublemoose.com/games
The sort of sleeper hit of goat simulator did inspire a few attempts at copying it in the immediate aftermath but nothing that particularly stuck. Did influence a few other rather disparate genres though; Teardown probably owes more than a passing nod to such things and that is more in the driving/minecraft aspect.
The guy that designed that made Goat Simulator did also more recently make
https://gbatemp.net/review/just-die-already.1810/ however that deals with cartoon old people instead so if animals or bust is your criteria then carrying on.
Untitled Goose Game
https://gbatemp.net/review/untitled-goose-game.1133/
Probably the most notable entry in this style in recent times, though don't know if that quite ranks as sandbox. Can well see it scratching the same itch though, and it is not like 95% of Goat Simulator is not scripted as you like with you having to do old school adventure game logic (try this on this, what is this) to discover it.
Probably should at least note the existence of Man Eater
https://gbatemp.net/review/man-eater.1402/
Different style/sense of humour compared to the above stuff but I will note it and probably as close as you will get in many ways if animals are a must.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/894020/Deaths_Door/
might be something to look at but we are deviating heavily.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/285900/Gang_Beasts/ probably has better multiplayer as a long term thing if you want to go that way (multiplayer goat simulator was OK but nothing special, though split screen co-op is still appreciated).
Long shot but you might also find some of the various survival simulators based around living/playing as animals/dinosaurs scratch something of an itch here, certainly many of those going in for Man Eater also found themselves talking about this where something like Untitled Goose game seemed to get more of the puzzle game set.
The Isle and Animalia Survival being among the more notable in this. It is still something of an evolving genre (don't know if it will be the next big one, but certainly where a lot of interesting gameplay design discussion is happening) and there are many splits and ways of thinking about things so might take a bit more research -- Atermishea, The Great Circle, Eidols, Path of Titans, Wild... all doing subtly different things and having all sorts of results.
Never heard of Skater Cat. Seems something of a collectathon/runner type game. There are a million of those, fewer with animals if that is a criteria and most of all of them are microtransaction laden dross or boring as you like. Interestingly the same people responsible for Just Die Already (which again have the guy behind Goat Simulator at its head) also have animal super squad which might be closer to angry birds than a runner game but I would wish to note it as part of all this, and going further off track there then probably should note a somewhat older game called Rocketbirds.
http://www.doublemoose.com/games
What would be a better way to describe it? You run around as a character ranging from mundane to out of the norm, in an environment filled with variety, possibly physics based, interacting with an assortment of different characters and objects in creative ways, resulting in surprising and amusing results. Not limiting the character choice to just animals, Destroy All Humans would also qualify.
(Not being snarky, just wondering how to best articulate it)
(Not being snarky, just wondering how to best articulate it)
Last edited by Drak0rex,
Sounds like we would agree on genre being a useless term for many things. Sadly outside of a few Steam tags I have nothing like the purported Netflix https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/netflix-secret-codes/ https://www.wired.co.uk/article/how...rning-helps-to-predict-what-viewers-will-like or even the IMDB tags system. At one point Steam had a few things that might resemble this (see the life and times of "not a game" tag for a slightly older one) but that has since been kicked in the head and was never much to begin with, its "similar games you might like" being pretty useless for my purposes here. https://www.giantbomb.com/goat-simulator/3030-45405/similar-games/ being as close as it gets after that and... yeah (though I am reminded I need to check out Tokyo Jungle).
I wonder if the title of this thread in decades past might have been "I like the disasters button in sim city, give me more that plays to that", though I am sure an academic would probably ponder emergent gameplay.
Anyway in that case I would definitely look into Teardown. All sorts of crazy happenings in that one.
https://www.teardowngame.com/
Destroy All Humans you say... many at the time would have contrasted that with Stubbs the Zombie and I am going to bring it back again, not least of all because it had a remake of sorts. Sticking with zombies then Dead Rising for at least the first few games has something that might work for you; wacky items, physics, destruction, lots of enemies... all there.
Again if Destroy all Humans is going to be a thing I would suggest maybe having a look at the Earth Defense Force titles. Same sort of anarchic fun in those (big weapons, bugs/aliens, destruction aplenty), and usually co-op as well. If you want to go more old school then Body Harvest on the N64 could be something of a "see where it came from". We are straying somewhat in this though, mind you keeping with older games I was never a fan myself but Black and White sees you train up a giant monster that does all sorts of fun things and might be something to look into.
Sticking with deviation then Sunset Overdrive could be worth a look, though there is also a reason few particularly speak of it today. That would also open the door to other sandbox superhero efforts, some of which are pretty good (see something like Prototype and/or Infamous) but not particularly fitting.
I am not sure what mods I would suggest (baseline is certainly good, and scratches the disasters in sim city itch but not quite goat simulator, mods though are a different matter) but Factorio could be worth a look here, as might many of the "deceptively complex" simulation games (Rimworld being the obvious choice to look at next).
Never mind the actually straight up multiplayer ones
Going somewhat more out there then I am going to mention Dwarf Fortress. The learning curve is huge but the inevitable failure and means by which it happens... more please.
I would also possibly draw a line between Goat Simulator and Tony Hawk 3 (see a breakdown of Canada if you want) through maybe the first American Wasteland as far as physics, humour and movement, the movement here being far nicer than Goat Simulator as well. Though everything is way more scripted, far less of it, and far less organic even when not.
Godzilla/Kaiju and mech games I would love to be able to suggest but other than a handful of fighting games and shmups they are all boring at best and generally awful compared to the promise of cartoons and films.
While above I contemplated a few of the play as animal games then actually I might consider going back further still -- after Spore turned up and made people take note even if most of the stages played like demos of better games then some people took those individual elements and ran with them. There are a handful of evolution simulators as it were where you can twiddle various environmental settings and other things to make interesting creatures, and then destroy them.
Species ALRE probably being the leading light in this https://store.steampowered.com/app/774541/Species_Artificial_Life_Real_Evolution/ , though evolution simulation is a massively popular aspect of computer science (see AI and machine learning) so you get stuff like the many efforts in https://itch.io/games/genre-simulation/tag-evolution
Universe Sandbox could also be a thing to look into -- can happily make a nice little solar system or three and then fire a supermassive black hole into it and see the results. This falls very much in make your own fun though.
I wonder if the title of this thread in decades past might have been "I like the disasters button in sim city, give me more that plays to that", though I am sure an academic would probably ponder emergent gameplay.
Anyway in that case I would definitely look into Teardown. All sorts of crazy happenings in that one.
https://www.teardowngame.com/
Destroy All Humans you say... many at the time would have contrasted that with Stubbs the Zombie and I am going to bring it back again, not least of all because it had a remake of sorts. Sticking with zombies then Dead Rising for at least the first few games has something that might work for you; wacky items, physics, destruction, lots of enemies... all there.
Again if Destroy all Humans is going to be a thing I would suggest maybe having a look at the Earth Defense Force titles. Same sort of anarchic fun in those (big weapons, bugs/aliens, destruction aplenty), and usually co-op as well. If you want to go more old school then Body Harvest on the N64 could be something of a "see where it came from". We are straying somewhat in this though, mind you keeping with older games I was never a fan myself but Black and White sees you train up a giant monster that does all sorts of fun things and might be something to look into.
Sticking with deviation then Sunset Overdrive could be worth a look, though there is also a reason few particularly speak of it today. That would also open the door to other sandbox superhero efforts, some of which are pretty good (see something like Prototype and/or Infamous) but not particularly fitting.
I am not sure what mods I would suggest (baseline is certainly good, and scratches the disasters in sim city itch but not quite goat simulator, mods though are a different matter) but Factorio could be worth a look here, as might many of the "deceptively complex" simulation games (Rimworld being the obvious choice to look at next).
Never mind the actually straight up multiplayer ones
Going somewhat more out there then I am going to mention Dwarf Fortress. The learning curve is huge but the inevitable failure and means by which it happens... more please.
I would also possibly draw a line between Goat Simulator and Tony Hawk 3 (see a breakdown of Canada if you want) through maybe the first American Wasteland as far as physics, humour and movement, the movement here being far nicer than Goat Simulator as well. Though everything is way more scripted, far less of it, and far less organic even when not.
Godzilla/Kaiju and mech games I would love to be able to suggest but other than a handful of fighting games and shmups they are all boring at best and generally awful compared to the promise of cartoons and films.
While above I contemplated a few of the play as animal games then actually I might consider going back further still -- after Spore turned up and made people take note even if most of the stages played like demos of better games then some people took those individual elements and ran with them. There are a handful of evolution simulators as it were where you can twiddle various environmental settings and other things to make interesting creatures, and then destroy them.
Species ALRE probably being the leading light in this https://store.steampowered.com/app/774541/Species_Artificial_Life_Real_Evolution/ , though evolution simulation is a massively popular aspect of computer science (see AI and machine learning) so you get stuff like the many efforts in https://itch.io/games/genre-simulation/tag-evolution
Universe Sandbox could also be a thing to look into -- can happily make a nice little solar system or three and then fire a supermassive black hole into it and see the results. This falls very much in make your own fun though.
