Untitled Goose Game

[H-O-W-L]

Intrigued by the game at first. Sick of hearing it now. Hate it since it's an Epic exclusive. Tae fuck.

[H-O-W-L]

Don't care where a game is sold, really, but there's a steam page despite it not being out until "late 2020" while it's "available now" on Epic and on Consoles. Kind of wankery I can't abide. Devs are saying that Epic is the "only sustainable small platform", which is bullshit, Epic just gave them enough money to make it exclusive. Wankonauts.

Were it on GOG I might not give a toss.

[Twed]

Limmy likes it? Of course he does.

You might have spotted it, but they're using Limmy's endorsement officially.

[Blue Jam]

I did, and it's great. Where did he give it 10/10? Twitter?

[Twed]

Not sure, Twitch probably

[popcorn]

I keep thinking about how great this would have been if it had had proper design. Nothing heavy, but with goals that emerge from necessity, not instruction.

Why do they never check with me first?

[Twed]

I dunno, not every game needs to have emergent gameplay. This is just the right size and challenge. We should have some things like this, there's enough of the other stuff.

[Zetetic]

The checklist approach tackles pacing and gives the goose itself a sketch of a personality that would otherwise be too absent in the early game.

I strongly suspect that the checklist wasn't part of the original idea, and was developed in response to testing.

[The Boston Crab]

I keep thinking about how great this would have been if it had had proper design. Nothing heavy, but with goals that emerge from necessity, not instruction.

Why do they never check with me first?

OK I'm back on lovin this now that AUTEUR DE JEUX VIDEO MAGNIFIQUE turned up

[madhair60]

I keep thinking about how great this would have been if it had had proper design. Nothing heavy, but with goals that emerge from necessity, not instruction.

Why do they never check with me first?

I agree with this and said it before you, elsewhere, which I can't prove but I have once again outshone you on a grand stage

[popcorn]

I dunno, not every game needs to have emergent gameplay. This is just the right size and challenge. We should have some things like this, there's enough of the other stuff.

I'm not asking for it to be more challenging, or longer. In fact I think a lot of games would benefit from being as brief as this one.

Instead I'm suggesting something akin to a very basic adventure game. An early challenge would be like "I want to get through this gate and it's got a big padlock on it", and the gardener is walking around with keys on his belt, so you put two and two together. I think it would be a lot more natural, and more player-driven.

The checklist approach tackles pacing and gives the goose itself a sketch of a personality

I didn't get the sense of the goose having written the to-do list. Would the goose have neat cursive handwriting? If anything I, as the goose, felt a bit narked that someone else was telling me what to do.

It felt like the devs had given the list to me. Which they had.

I strongly suspect that the checklist wasn't part of the original idea, and was developed in response to testing.

Me too. I think they made a cute goose prototype and couldn't think of a way to give it any point, and this was just a basic fix.

[Twed]

I'm not asking for it to be more challenging, or longer. In fact I think a lot of games would benefit from being as brief as this one.

Instead I'm suggesting something akin to a very basic adventure game. An early challenge would be like "I want to get through this gate and it's got a big padlock on it", and the gardener is walking around with keys on his belt, so you put two and two together. I think it would be a lot more natural, and more player-driven.

It would still be driven by the developers, it just wouldn't be explicit anymore. I guess that could be better but it's also potentially at the expense of balancing the difficulty. If so I think it's a reasonable trade-off, instead of catering to the 2% of people who don't like there being a list.

[Cloud]

I quite like having a checklist, think I'd feel a bit lost if it was just a sandbox, and there's nothing to me that really indicates "how about getting this woman to dress up the bust" for example.  It gives a structured game to play and get through, and you can still go back later and see what else you can do that's not on the list if you enjoy the game enough.

[bgmnts]

It's a comedy game, not Half Life 2.

[popcorn]

It would still be driven by the developers, it just wouldn't be explicit anymore.

Sure, but it's psychological. When you solve a puzzle in Portal (or a crossword puzzle) you feel like you figured it out and you're smart. You know what you want to do and you get it done. Of course, it's artificial - it's still just jumping through hoops set by the developer or crossword setter. But I think you see the distinction I'm drawing here.

In Goose Game, though, you get GIVEN goals. They're arbitrary. I found them dull.

Note: I'm not saying Goose Game should have puzzles or difficulty like Portal or crossword puzzles.

instead of catering to the 2% of people who don't like there being a list.

This isn't really fair - it assumes you could not make a different version of the game that might be equally popular, or moreso.

[popcorn]

It's a comedy game, not Half Life 2.

It's odd, the lower standards people ascribe to "comedy things".

[popcorn]

I quite like having a checklist, think I'd feel a bit lost if it was just a sandbox, and there's nothing to me that really indicates "how about getting this woman to dress up the bust" for example.

Yeah, absolutely true. So you'd have to design the game in such a way that the goals emerge from necessity (as in my key example).

I'm not asking for a sandbox game. I think sandbox games are well boring.

[Zetetic]

I didn't get the sense of the goose having written the to-do list. Would the goose have neat cursive handwriting?

The to-do list isn't diegetic. It represents the goose's agenda, it isn't literally the goose's agenda.

Yes, this makes the goose less goose-like, but it's not a goose simulator. (See also the lack of shitting, which in reality is a fairly fundamental part of the experience of being a goose, or even being near one.)

[popcorn]

The to-do list isn't diegetic. It represents the goose's agenda, it isn't literally the goose's agenda.

Fair enough, perhaps I'm being a bit literal-minded. But I did perceive it as being "external" to me in the sense that if I'm going to be a prick goose I'm going to set the motherfucking agenda, not the devs.

[Twed]

In Goose Game, though, you get GIVEN goals. They're arbitrary. I found them dull.

Note: I'm not saying Goose Game should have puzzles or difficulty like Portal or crossword puzzles.

The design of Goose Game is fuzzier than Portal. Not every item in the game world can easily be connected with its purpose. What you're suggesting would create something that is like a point and click adventure game with all the dialogue removed. It would be too aimless. "So they should make the signalling clearer and..." NO. Not every game needs to have the same cadence.

[popcorn]

The design of Goose Game is fuzzier than Portal. Not every item in the game world can easily be connected with its purpose. What you're suggesting would create something that is like a point and click adventure game with all the dialogue removed. It would be too aimless. "So they should make the signalling clearer and..."

Yes exactly!

NO. Not every game needs to have the same cadence.

Oh.

[Cloud]

Yeah, absolutely true. So you'd have to design the game in such a way that the goals emerge from necessity (as in my key example).

I'm not asking for a sandbox game. I think sandbox games are well boring.

Mm, I get ya... the other side of that, is that it can feel like a bit of a railroad with the abilities most game designers have these days of guiding you to puzzles and goals through clear necessity to progress. 

Some of the old point and click puzzle/adventure games did seem to do it well.  Imagine this game by LucasArts.  But that's another league, I feel

[MojoJojo]

Yeah, absolutely true. So you'd have to design the game in such a way that the goals emerge from necessity (as in my key example).

If the goals emerge from necessity, it undermines the basic humour that the goose is just an arsehole. Which is at least 80% of the appeal (the rest being slapstick and nice characterisation).

[popcorn]

Nah, you'd still have to nick the kid's toy, you'd just have to figure out why you wanna do it.

Guybrush did loads of arsehole things.

[The Boston Crab]

Thank FUCK you got sacked from making games. We all been to game school via Mark Brown on YT not every game has to follow some shit design standard.

[Cuellar]

And this adds mystery. Who is the demiurge behind this goose, who's directing it? Why does it have such neat handwriting? Are you really a goose, or are you an insane man who has written this list of mischiefs himself and who believes himself to be a goose?

[madhair60]

I disliked the list (and commented as such, again, before Popcorn, making me better than him) because - as an example - I found it laborious to be told to "have a picnic" and the exact items to bring, where I would have found it charming to organically stumble across the picnic blanket and put two and two together. The "fetching" part would have been my decision, not a goal to check off.

[Twed]

There are lots of hidden tasks to do as you play though, and the game registers that. I think the mistake it makes is that it adds them all to the list when you finish the game, taking away that surprise/discovery element.

[Zetetic]

Are you really a goose ... ?

I don't think the player is the goose, insofar as they're not intended to self-other merge with the goose or engage in any kind of place-taking with the goose.

[Twed]

You sound like you're trying to cover up the fact that you've fucked the goose.