Untitled Goose Game and Player-Driven Comedy
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- Опубликовано: 26 окт 2024
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There have been plenty of games with comedic writing over the years, but is it possible for games to let players set up and execute on their own punchlines through play? Let's examine why the design of Untitled Goose Game-with its systems-driven gameplay, simple mechanics and carefully crafted aesthetic-allows for just that.
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Intro text animation by Draz - / @drazgames
The interesting part to me about this game is how relatable the humor is. With many comedic games or elements, there's a cultural subtext to it, more often than not depending on the absurdity of it.
But Untitled Goose Game? Well, you're playing as a goose. That's it. No witty reference, no craziness, no specific expectation. Geese are infamous for their aggressive, yet ultimately harmless dickishness. They suck. And knowing that is all it takes to enjoy the game. The catharsis of controlling an annoying character takes over the moment you 'honk' for the first time. Because you know you're the bad guy. Not an evil mastermind, not a sociopathic killer, not a crafty criminal, just a *dick* . The justification is so simple, yet compelling, because what could be the worst a goose could do? Pushing that limit without any genuinely reprehensive action drives you forward.
mischievous bastards.
What's the worst? Scar a child for life, apparently
Goose: "I'm the bad guy. Duh."
Kaze Memaryu and because of that predetermined dickish goose mindset, you void any of the issues that usually come with games like “i don’t wanna be mean to the npc :((“
Kaze Memaryu even if youve never met a goose you know how evil they are
This game captures the inherent delight of being chaotic neutral
The goose in Untitled Goose Game is chaotic evil though.
you mean chaotic chaotic evil evil
@@janNowa i know it's a joke but I think neutral refers to how you as the goose don't pick any side or serve any greater purpose or agenda. The "To-Do-List" has no greater purpose other than causing chaos.
@@teehundeart Causing chaos and destruction is exactly the goal of a chaotic evil character.
@@janNowa hm i would have thought to be chaotic evil would require an evil intent
I live in Colorado, and every year we have a bunch of Canadian geese that stop by on their way to wherever they go in the winter.
Long story short, I've never related more to a game premise. Geese are the honey badgers of fowl. They don't give a f***.
So, yeah, I've been loving the explosion of content for this game, and I loved this analysis.
The white geese go to Aspen in the winter.
Yes exactly
Lifelong Canadian here.
To this day, I have no idea why our geese are all like that, and I just wanted to tell you that we’re sorry.
Every year the same goose returns to my city and camps out right in the middle of downtown where he (she) chases people up and down the sidewalk. It’s gotten to the point that a bunch of signs are put up saying “Beware of goose”. Can attest to accurate depiction of geese in this game.
You should get ready this year by making one of the anti geese signs that the villagers use in UGG.
Why dont you kill them? It would save a lot of trouble. Just grab your butcher knife next time one appears and enjoy your meal for the day. Problem solved.
@@alzhanvoid Because that's illegal. Also, it isn't hurting people, just being a dick.
I had a honkin' good time being an absolute bastard to that poor town.
Often it's the little things in comedy-games that make it a success. I laughed like a litte baby when I realized honking while the goose has the harmonica in its beak makes it play the instrument. These little details make the world feel alive and Goose Game is full of them.
I love that you switched the letter and the package even though it has no effect on anything, that's exactly what I did
mikem Same here! 😂
Goat Simulator video title: I ruin everyone's day in Goat Simulator
Untitled Goose Game video title: I CAUSE MASS CHAOS AND BREAK THE CHAINS THAT KEEP THE WORLD TOGETHER IN THIS GOOSE GAME
Goat sim. is much more chaotic evil than this game
I won't take your reading as gospel, but I'll take your reading as "Goospel"
Take me upvo- like and leave.
This game allowed me to be the annoying pest that I was meant to be. Quite cathartic after working and studying all my life xD
2:03 surprised you dont mention octodad in that same breath. Has intentional kinda silly controls and mainly the humor is writing
Absolutely another good example of player-driven comedy. You can't script beaning your son with a gallon of milk just trying to get to the dining room, but it happens.
Anyone who's lost hours aimlessly wandering as Trevor in GTAV will know the player is capable of causing a tremendous amount of mischief that the writing actually accounts for. Rockstar didn't have to make Michael call you to tell you to "STOP SHOOTING ROCKETS AT MY HOUSE!", but they did. It's not as systemic as Goose Game, but it's still inherently player driven
There's also the co op campaign for Portal 2, which goes out of it's way to encourage players to compete and betray each other. At first, it very specifically goads you towards these interactions, but later on, it stops this and lets the players drive each other crazy all on their own using the puzzle mechanics
God is a goose and we are his playthings
Something important that was definitely touched on is that you’re ruining their day “just a bit.”
It’s mean, of course, but it’s not necessarily cruel (on account of you being a goose) and it’s never tragic (nobody ever gets legitimately, irreparably hurt). The stakes are always low and everybody lives.
Not to sound too crouchety, but there’s not a lot of games like that. I think often the comedy in video games is adjacent to cruelty/gore and it’s (even subconsciously) refreshing and encouraging that nothing sincerely bad can happen.
Amazing video for an amazing game, Hamish. I finished Untitled Goose Game in just about four hours, but that was four amazing hours I wish I could forget just so I could experience again.
So it's like the design ethos of the 'immersive sim', but to facilitate systemic comedy.
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I really enjoyed how some of the to-dos weren't immediately given. Happening upon the (as well) list was a nice surprise that offered extra incentive for exploration to see what else you could do. The tasks requiring you to utilise multiple areas were especially fun, and completing each area before the bell rings made it a bit stressful, but also really satisfying to succeed in.
What I love is not really doing things on the lists, but just doing crazy things for the sheer enjoyment of doing so:
- Take every object in the game and make the guy throw it over the fence, so the lady's yard is full of everyone else's stuff.
- The boy will follow you if you walk just ahead of him with his glasses. I forgot I left him in the river, his glasses went downstream.
- Take all the signs!
- Fun with walkie talkies.
I want the 'Untitled Goose Game' to win Game Of The Year to be honest.
scorpioninpink At the very least be nominated. Lol
Liar
Untitled Goose Game is Australian? I've never felt so proud of my country.
AUSSIES UNITE!!
hjönk
@Allannah Caratzas I'm moving there soon 👌
“This game was made on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. Sovereignty was never ceded.
“Thank you very much.”
they don't call it Australia though, stolen land and all that
@@Heudder Does it say this in the game?
I can imagine a comedy game where the player is encouraged to experience the joke firsthand and then explore it just because of how funny it was to begin with by using game mechanics.
Imagine a sandbox game, where a player's interaction is influenced by a joke that then escalates and leads to new jokes in the process. Something as simple as an NPC starting the joke and giving the player a dizzying number of tools, reactions and outcomes that feel natural and then having the game react accordingly to the player can give a lot of jokes that could only happen BECAUSE the player was in control. You start to think about comedy a different way if you include what your players can do during the joke delivery. The player themselves can become a punchline generator, sometimes in places where the developers didn't intend, where the setup happened because of game mechanics and nothing else.
I was always thinking if this kind of design could work if given enough attention in the development. Postal 2 kind of did that to some extent, but I cannot imagine how good it could be with today's engines and technology.
So basically, an open world RPG where the combat is handled with Three Stooges fighting.
weed eater
Except, what really makes this game funny is the $1 million for "rake in the lake" was won by a some guy wearing a blindfold!
It wasn't even that guy, it was his little brother.
@@Noobgalaxies and he wasn't even touching the keyboard
@@hectorearnshaw1554 and his Controller wasn't connected
@@DeLiVeReR007 and he actually wasn't even trying yet
Im pretty sure he was using a USB steering wheel
I knew that this game was going to pull you out from your hiding.
There is one thing I found out when I locked myself in the first garden- there is a secret entrance hidden at the far left of the garden behind some manure or something- unfortunately I found this out after having to reset from locking myself in without the keys
What I find amazing about the music in the game is that it sounds like there's someone sitting in the room with you at a piano, watching you play. In most games, the music will start or change jarringly when you do something. Pick up an item in a Zelda game and you immediately hear the "got item" music. In Goose Game, though, the music never does that. The transitions are never jarring. It just flows smoothly into whatever "mood" fits what's currently happening on the screen. I have no idea how they pulled that off, and the effect is amazing.
Also: The music totally sounds like Mr Rogers Neighborhood.
It’s all from the same Debussy piece that frequently shifts its speed, etc. Because Debussy’s Minstrels is meant to jump time signature and volume a lot, it just works to modulate in different sections of the same piece.
might be worth sticking a seizure warning on that jazzpunk titlecard bit, just saying
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If you've had farm animals, they do shit like that. Moving stuff and breaking things. While you're looking at them even. The most basic is learning how to open locks. I'm talking about animals you would think aren't very intelligent. We had chickens that learned how to open those flip locks as well as how to unthread the chicken wire with their beaks to break out, then eat my moms garden. Classic comedy.
I also appreciate the memes of the goose taking random characters’ stuff. It is a joke that can be applied to just about anyone.
Oh man, this video reminded me of the time my brothers and I went to PAX with our dad and they demoed Hello Neighbor. Everyone else was playing the game normally, being stealthy as intended, but my brothers took it upon themselves to invent their own game, where they would chuck something at the neighbor (usually through a window) then once he started to chase them, they’d run back across the street to safety. They sat there giggling around the monitor for almost 20 minutes, until along came one of the devs, showing off the game to a reporter. They walked around to the different rigs before they got to my brothers’ and the reporter asked “So what are they doing here?” and the dev looked at the two kids “playing the game” just giggling their asses off as they hit the neighbor square in the head with an apple and said “I don’t think they’re playing it right.” My dad and I just absolutely lost it in the background. The boys kept playing for a few more minutes before we moved on but to date it remains one of the funniest things to ever happen to me. I love the potential for pure absurdity in video games. Even if you design a game for a certain thing people will still find a million other ridiculous ways to have fun with it.
It’s crazy how well you understand and articulate video game concepts and ideas. I genuinely don’t know if another channel on RUclips that explains these sort of things as well as you. Thanks for another really interesting video.
"Ruin their day just a little bit"
*_make the groundskeeper hammer his thumb_*
I busted out laughing at all the hi-jinks the goose out up to, I might have to check it out. It looks super charming
Its great!
The game is really short (he practically showed all areas in the game) but it's still a great experience unlike any game. By buying it, you will get a great but short experience, but you also tell the world: Hey, we want more like this!
“And it all starts off with-“ “Saving money on your home improvement project!”
I was watching, and at 4:27 it cut off to a Menards commercial, and I laughed out loud. So you’re funny too, ironically! And yeah, comedy is an untapped market that depends on the PLAYER experience.
I love dynamic music in games. Who knew Doomguy and the Untitled Goose would have so much in common!
the REAL funniest part of Untitled Goose Game is that most year's indie hits have been genre setters or genre changers (for better in the case of Undertale or for worse in the case of FNAF), but 2019's is just funny goose do an inconvenience
A game that does the "hard to control protagonist" right is Octodad.
He's hard to control, but part of it is lampshaded beautifully by Dads in general being kind of bumbling and clumsy.
No one sees through his paper thin disguise. His kids think all dads are cold and slimy to the touch, his wife reacts so matter-of-factly to his eccentricities, and the locals will ignore him unless he calls attention to himself.
The amount of slapstick pain Octodad goes through is really well done. From being sucked harmlessly through some machinery, to his limbs smoking when placed on a hot surface.
Great analysis, i would wish to hear some of the soundtrack when you are talking about it.
10:09 I swapped the mail, too
There is actually a small hole in the garden's hedge for you to use in case gardener is locked out.
Then again you need to let gardener back in to proceed to the next area so your point still stands
Hat in Time's got a really cute, juvenile kind of humor if you like that sorta thing.
Games are really good at unintentionally adding comically gamey aspects to what are supposed to be real worlds, the example I instantly think of is how in DkS2 there's a path that only the strongest warriors who have acquired the most souls may take, since a tiny bit of rubble blocks the main path. Matthewmatosis mentioned it in his well known critique, at first I shrugged it off thinking it was simply one of many cases where games have obstacles that we'd realistically be able to surpass, but then I realized the world building implications of this path.
Idky but until now I thought this game was 2d... Man, it's a really beautiful art style. I wonder how they achieved that.
Slight correction; only the first area (the groundskeeper's garden) uses Debussy's Minstrels (Prelude 12, Book 1). The second area (High Street) uses The Hills of Anacapri (Prelude 5, Book 1), the third area (the neighborhood) uses Homage to S. Pickwick, Esq., P. P. M. P. C. (Prelude 9, Book 2), the fourth area (the pub) uses The Interrupted Serenade (Prelude 9, Book 1), and the final sequence uses Fireworks (Prelude 12, Book 2), all of which are from Debussy's Preludes.
On a side note, the main menu/credits theme is Bruyeres (Prelude 5, Book 2).
Thank you for the detailed correction!
I greatly enjoyed Untitled Goose Game. I would love it if they did chapters where you are a goose in different towns.
I should have guessed the goose game was an aussie game! no other soundtrack has reminded me so much of playschool
I really like the freedom in the game
you can cause ALL THE HAVOC, steal and displaces everything. IN the same time you can ALSO put pretty much everything back in place (villagers will put them back once things are in range, except for the mini garden and the rubbish bin near the shop)
I end up giving real glasses back to the kid XD and being a total ass to the shop keeper because she is also rude to the kid and gardener lmao.
I really like to think they all get pretty mad at the goose but in the same time take it as a town mascot, and maybe the goose is both a silly chaotic goose... and a chaotic god in disguise...
also
RING RING RING RING RING RING RING
I love you for mentioning Jazzpunk. One of my favourite games exactly for reasons you stated. I also really like Paradigm, great comedy game.
Some of my friends were saying that this game was just a Goat Simulator clone.
Well I guess they judged the book by its cover.
I like this game because I usually have a lot of trouble being mean in games. Even though I know the characters and scenarios aren't real, I still feel like a bad person if I do anything rude or harmful that inconveniences anyone else. Being a jerk just makes me sad and anxious. But, for some reason, when I'm a goose I have no trouble being chaotic and I find myself having fun annoying people. All my morals go out the window and I gleefully enjoy being mischievous and ruining everyone's day. It's delightful to be a nuisance to others with no consequences and wreak havoc with no feelings of remorse.
Watching Joseph Anderson play this game on twitch was pure delight
I will say, no matter what anyone thinks of the gameplay itself, which, fair, it's hard as heck to control- Kid Icarus Uprising is my favorite comedy of all time, Television included. It's genuinely hilarious on every level.
Hi People the 4th wall in that game is outright missing
Gotta say, this and your Thumper video are probably the two best videos you've done as they really nail the way story or narrative get presented in games that are almost entirely mechanically focused and finding the story that could be told within the mechanics. Very good stuff.
Finally glad to be supporting this channel on Patreon after waiting til the end on so many videos hoping to get around to it one day. And man, what a great video to start it out on. Fantastic reading of this game and I really hope more games catch its drift, its super refreshing to play what feels like a launch title for the PS2 or something in this day and age. Stellar work as always Hamish!
I'd say wonky controls are a large part of the comedy in Surgeon Simulator. To proof, in the VR edition, you have MUCH greater control over your character, since, y'know, it's VR and controlling your character's hands is as simple as moving your own real hands. The game end up being completely stripped of any and all unintentional comedy and becomes more of a traditional game, where you're trying to complete it as fast as you can.
In terms of "comedy through anarchy" no game has yet to surpass Katamari Damacy.
It's also funny how nobody really chases you, they just walk and take the items from you, since you're not really a big problem from them, you're just "That asshole goose".
What was the "I've got a land line to install" game? I forgot the name of it.
Jazzpunk
ok I need to play this
I wouldn't say the game /never/ directs you to some of these things. After you finish the main game you get a second lot of tasks which include some of the things you mention (like having someone outside main street buy back their stuff) But you are rewarded for taking initiative to do some of these things by crossing it off before you unlock the page.
I'm so glad I found this channel. I love video games and writing, and I also really enjoy your voice :) I hope that you might one day do videos on the Supergiant Games, because I love them and their writing is amazing.
GUYS GUYS- *The game is a wild goose chase*
I've only just found your channel through the videos on hitman, I've watched the resident evil 8 video before but never came back to your channel but now I've realised how many good videos you put out
I recently just played Katamari Damacy, and I think that game captures a really similar type of humor as untitled goose game
Chaotic Neutral: The Video Game
The year is 2019, we have video essays about a goose in a video game.
when I started this video I immediately thought of Wheatley from portal, then I saw gameplay of Portal in this, but then I thought about how much of a comedic game Goat Simulator was, but I didn’t think it’d make it into the video, but then
i have so many good clips of the music fitting just perfect with the silly antics i get into
this game is so funny :)
I think the closest game-as-comedy analogue to UGG is Katamari Damacy. Similar sort of environments made of everyday objects, emphasis on wordless interaction with that environment, plus the idea of playing as an outsider being who is not beholden to the morals of the society they're messing with, so there's less dissonance with the player's values. Of course, Katamari has you messing with society to absurdly cataclysmic levels, whereas the goose is a relatively harmless prankster. This isn't to take anything away from UGG's novelty, just a similarity I noticed.
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Your writing on this video is, like, SO GOOD.
This is my absolute favorite of your videos and an excellent example of your skill writing. Very fucking well done
I think great and underexplored example of comedic games are troll levels in Mario Maker (and trap fangames of I Wanna Be The Guy, which are basically the same thing). They're organic, level-design driven comedy where player is the butt of the joke. And they are structured enough to potentially have actual comedic story/dialogue in addition to comedic gameplay (I think free game Unfair Platformer is the only one that actually does that).
Yes, I agree about Goose Game x3
Also, this is *exactly* how Geese are like x3 We had two when I was a kid.
theres a hole in the hedge of the garden you can leave through. you never have to give him his keys back
Until you have to make him hurt himself.
The Charlie Chaplin of videogames.
Untitled Goose game is the Dark Souls of Comedy games.
@@Raphael_Bizmann no, you don't have to compare the goose game to dark souls...
Universel slapstick humour
The funniest game of all-time tbh and might just be a masterpiece. We're incredibly lucky that Goose Game exists.
Then there's the comedy games whose comedy are unintentionally detrimental to the game's replay value; the prime example being borderlands 2, presequal and 3.
The series were designed for multiple playthroughs due to its cast of player characters but because the structure of how the story (i.e: jokes) are presented (in the spirit of half life, where getting to a story scene, the pacing stops dead and cant be skipped since it's happening in real time), the game suffers immensely after the first playthrough.
Pretty sure the first level is minstrels, but the each of the different levels features one of Debussy's preludes.
What a disgustingly underrated channel. Great video!
the Monkey Island cameo, yes!!
9/10 video. Very informative but lacks honking.
Very insightful commentary mate, good work!
I didn't know that you could make the gardener come to the shop!
Yaay! I found another video essay channel! And its video game themed! :D
I just want to say that I think GTA is not just funny in the cutscenes and the planned setpieces. I think the funniest parts of GTA come when you're just dicking around in the overworld. One of the funniest game moments I have ever had was in GTA 4. I was driving around on a motorcycle at full speed, when a car suddenly apeared at an intersection. I hit the car at full speed and my character got launched so high he landed on a building next to the road. I laughed so hard at how lucky I got to not die from the impact, only to realise that I was on top of a building with only a sliver of health and had no way to get down. This was the hardest I've ever laughed at a game, and none of it was planned.
Great coverage of the game!
Whoa, nicely put together video game video essays, AND they're from another Scot? Sign me the fuck up!!
you're my favorite games critic on youtube.
This whole video got me thinking about Borderlands, specifically the simple and oddly straightforward side mission in the second game where (it’s been a few years so forgive me if I’m wrong) you have to shoot a guy called Shooty McFace in the face. It just doesn’t progress the mission until you do this, leaving Shooty saying over and over “SHOOT ME SHOOT ME SHOOT ME” until you finally do so, when he says as he dies, “THANK YOU!”
New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Broforce are the funniest games I've ever played in multiplayer.
2:45 should there be a warninf for this flashiness?
Thank you for this video! Thanks for your time and your work :)
Untitled Cobra Chicken Game.
When everyone forgets about the most famous comedy game
Undertale
Stop the demon goose from attacking griffin McElroy
Player driven comedy immediately makes me think Goat Simulator.
that was an amazing video, so funny lol. and i learned something as well. great job
Honk if Thatcher's deeeed
This is exactly why I've been playing hitman 2 for 6 months now, it's endlessly fun.
I will get this game when it comes to ps4 👌
Geese are actually terrifying though
My friend had geese. They were such a deliberate pain he killed and ate one.