Goat Simulator

The player is free to explore the game's world — a suburban setting — as a goat, and jump, run, bash things, and lick objects.

[5][9][10] In-game assets were purchased from third-party vendors instead of developed in-house, such as the original goat model which the studio acquired for use for less than $20.

[9] They limited themselves to a short development time of four weeks without significant management oversight as to set an urgent but realistic goal to bring the game to a playable state.

[10] Ibrisagic felt it was important for the game to be supported on Steam, but initially feared that Valve would not accept the quirky title.

[19][20] They estimated that adding multiplayer would remove "90 percent of the physics" and many other features, and left the game as a single player title at launch.

[11] Those that pre-ordered the game through Coffee Stain's website received early access to the title three days ahead of release.

[27] The patch also adds in additional controls that the player can use to make the goat perform various freestyle tricks comparable to those in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

[17][29][30] A paid-content expansion titled "GoatZ" was released on 7 May 2015 as downloadable content for the game on personal computers and a stand-alone application for mobile devices.

[31] The expansion's content spoofs zombie-based survival games, such as DayZ, and includes a new map and gameplay aspects such as fighting off zombies and crafting.

The expansion features a new map based on a space colony, and spoofs much of the recent science fiction media genre.

[40] Similarly, Deep Silver approached Coffee Stain Studios to work out a deal to publish the title in North American retail markets starting in July 2014.

[50][51] With the acquisition of Coffee Stain through THQ Nordic AB on 14 November 2018, it was announced that a Nintendo Switch version of Goat Simulator would be released.

[66] Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead complimented Coffee Stain Studios on building in enough content Goat Simulator and potential expansion through Steam to prove it more than a simple joke title, and instead a brief diversion "in which the player is a willing participant".

[2] Dan Stapleton of IGN considered the title a "clever interactive spoof of all the broken game physics we’ve seen in open worlds" and despite being short, was a "hell of a good time".

[61] Steve Tilley of the Toronto Sun described the game as one where "most players will have a few hours of fun and then file [it] away as an occasional novelty to pull out when they’re especially bored".

[67] Rich Stanton of The Guardian was very critical of Goat Simulator, noting how the title is self-aware of its poor quality, and stated that the game's creation and promotion "demonstrates how social media and the internet amplify our supine tendencies".

[17][69] 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.

[17] 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.

[73] With the success of the game, Coffee Stain Studios has worked to license out Goat Simulator-themed properties with third-party vendors.

[77] Zen Studios released a Goat Simulator table for Pinball FX on August 29, 2024 in what Gamespot called the weirdest crossover yet.

In Goat Simulator , the player acquires points by performing acts of chaos—in this case, getting struck by a car shortly after licking a non-player human character. The game's novelty comes from various glitches in the game purposely left in place, such as the distortion of the human character's neck as a result of the collision.
Goat Simulator was originally intended to imitate QWOP (pictured) , whose title refers to the four keyboard keys used to move the muscles of the sprinter avatar.
Game designer Armin Ibrisagic presents on Goat Simulator at the 2016 Game Developers Conference