'We should make a game about this': The story behind Untitled Goose Game

'We should make a game about this': The story behind Untitled Goose Game

RMIT PhD researcher and games designer Michael McMaster proves that research isn’t all work and no play as his now viral Untitled Goose Game takes off.

McMaster is one of the four creators behind the surprise hit which topped Nintendo Switch's UK and Australian download charts following its release last month.

With Melbourne International Games Week in full swing across the city this week, he shared the inspiration behind the game with RMIT News and gave us a peek into his research journey so far.

What is the focus of your PhD?

My PhD research looks at video games within museums as in the last decade or so there’s been a surge of videogame exhibitions and other programming within museums.

I’m interested in trying to figure out what this means for both videogames as a cultural form, and museums as cultural institutions.

More specifically I’m trying to work out what happens in museums behind-the-scenes when videogames are introduced, so my research is heavily informed by ethnographic fieldwork.

I spent six months in London last year at the Victoria and Albert Museum, following the curatorial team to document the final stretch of development of their major videogame exhibition.

What else do you do?

Beyond my research, I’m also a video game developer, working in a small company called House House here in Melbourne.

In late September we released our second videogame called Untitled Goose Game, which ended up being a lot more popular than we were anticipating.

What do you love about games and game design?

One thing I really like about making videogames is that there’s so much unexplored territory.

Games in the general sense are extremely old, but videogames as a distinct audio-visual medium are still very young, so there’s a huge amount of white space for new ideas to be tested.

Not that we’re making wildly experimental games ourselves, but I think it says a lot that “a game played from the perspective of a horrible goose” seems so novel and interesting to people.

Where did the inspiration for Untitled Goose Game come from?

The idea originally came from our collective agreement that geese are inherently very funny.

In August 2016, my colleague Stuart posted a stock photo of a goose in our Slack and said, jokingly, “we should make a game about this”.

We decided in earnest to attempt to present what we thought was funny about geese through a video game which was captured quite early on in the game’s tagline, “It’s a lovely morning in the village and you are a horrible goose.”

Has the popularity been a surprise?

It has been very surprising and overwhelming. Since we put our first trailer online in late 2017 there’d been a lot of excitement around the game, but we’d always tried to be as pessimistic as possible in the leadup to its release.

We weren’t prepared for the game’s wild success. It’s been a really amazing and totally surreal few weeks and seeing so many people playing and enjoying the game has been incredibly gratifying.

Download Untitled Goose Game

 

Story: Grace Taylor

11 October 2019

Share

11 October 2019

Share

  • Research
  • Media & Communication
  • Design
  • Arts and culture
Engage

Related News

A journalist is working on a computer at their workplace.

Australian media need generative AI policies to help navigate misinformation and disinformation

New research into generative AI images shows only over a third of media organisations surveyed at the time of research have an image-specific AI policy in place.

Key design and creative subjects ranked #1 in Australia, top 20 in the world

RMIT has secured its position as the nation’s leading institution for design and creative fields, with Architecture / Built Environment and Art & Design both ranked #1 in Australia and in the top 20 globally in the latest QS World University Rankings by Subject.

A navy box next to three playing cards, covered with abstract orange and pink label

RMIT graduates celebrated at the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Design Awards

A toolkit to help fashion businesses build better strategies for a sustainable future and a prosthetic leg for amputee motorcyclists designed by RMIT graduates were praised at the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Design Awards.

A doorway into a gallery exhibition with a text description on the left and the artwork through the doorwayin the distance

New exhibition explores AI’s influence on the future of photography

A new exhibition at RMIT Gallery explores photography’s transformation into a software output, featuring an interactive AI-image-generator.

Show more
aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

More information