#GAMES LIKE UNTITLED GOOSE GAME TV#

Like so many good games of its ilk, it does a lot with a little. Yet it is a simple game, a testament to minimalism. This is a game whose puzzles can often be solved many ways, where almost everything is tactile, and where amusing bits of interaction (like using a walkie-talkie to ‘throw’ your honks) fill the gaps in between more mundane silliness. But its theme, its humor, and its mechanics all garland that problem-solving with a great deal of unique fun. And thus the goose, possessed by a malevolent intelligence, turns the average player’s aimless futzing-around into a directed and purposeful affair. As the goose, you grab stuff in your bill and drag, tweak, twist, or poke it about. In essence, the game takes our proclivity for mucking about in video games (think of all the ways we played around with the ability to pick up random objects in games like Skyrim or Gone Home) and made it the core mechanic by focusing it. Goose does an excellent job riffing on its limited suite of themes. There’s an elegance to this: simple goals that admit multiple solutions and extensive fiddling with the game. Sometimes even the simplest sounding goals - break a shopkeeper’s broom - can prove to be tricky to solve (that particular one is especially amenable to being overthought).

#GAMES LIKE UNTITLED GOOSE GAME TV#

Make someone hammer his own hand make someone buy back their own stuff get on TV trap someone in a phone booth break someone’s vase. Your goal in the game is to make mischief in very specific ways. Hearing an academic yell “get rekt!” as his goose drenched a hapless gardener with his own sprinkler was. My friends/colleagues and I were all watching one fellow play the game and collaborating on solving its puzzles - and laughing uproariously at his goose antics. Goose has that social watchability in spades. The value of a watchable game - that is, a game that’s fun for onlookers to watch someone else play - is sometimes underestimated, especially in the era of always-online games. I worried it would be an imposing and irritating distraction from our chit-chat but it, instead, supplanted it in the best way. Someone put Untitled Goose Game on while we were all sitting in the living room. At a recent conference several colleagues and I decamped to a friend’s house for pizza and a low-key party. Taken together, the game is a hilarious experience that’s actually fun to watch. There’s inherent comedy in the premise, of course: a pain-in-the-ass goose who locks people in their garages and honks triumphantly. How you get the gardener damp in the first level is bound to elicit a chuckle, as is thwarting the broom-wielding shopkeeper in the second level.

Instead, the game’s affordances offer a variety of comic puzzle gags. You torment the hapless humans, but you never really hurt them. It thrives on uncontroversial and silly cartoon violence. It is, again, wordless it allows for easy translation. In this case, Goose’s comedy gives it a nearly universal appeal. The game is a masterclass in postmodern slapstick, updating the kind of comedy that made careers in early film. Not every game can be, or needs to be funny, but there’s something worth studying about how Untitled Goose Game gets its many belly-laughs. The resistance is taking the fight to the village streets and the Nazis know you as 'The Death That Honks.' #untitledgoosegame /cRgx7MnF0R- Scott Lynch Octo21st Century Slapstick A meme’s language relies on instant legibility, after all. You know you’ve nailed a unique aesthetic when memes copy it in order to riff on your game. All told, it’s instantly recognizable but also simple enough to imitate - which lends itself to a wealth of fan art and memetic word-of-mouth advertising. Meanwhile, the humans’ thought bubbles and animated gestures complete a theme of wordless language. Everything is lineless - and ever-so-slightly silly. The humans have a certain amount of character but are faceless save for their distinct blobby noses. 'Untitled Cassowary Game' - a user-made meme riffing on Goose Game (credit: Game’s art is consonant with its theme: light, caricatured, and distant. Art isn’t a four letter word, and for all the mockery still heaped on arts students and artists, most successful games have a powerful sense of style that is at once unique and legible. Making a game “iconic” feels about as easy (and meaningful) as striving to make it “epic.” The term is overused to the point of meaninglessness, but most of us can think of a few games that are instantly recognizable. What made it stand out? Well, there are a few ingredients it’s mastered to great effect.

Games like untitled goose game