Goat Simulator studio explains the benefits and dangers of not planning

At the beginning of last year, developer Coffee Stain Studios started working on a big new project, but it didn’t have anything for most of its staff to do. As part of an internal event at the company, some people came up with the idea for Goat Simulator as a joke. More than a year later, it is the company’s most successful game ever.

Now, Coffee Stain is looking back on what it learned from making Goat Simulator. In a blog posted to Gamasutra, the company’s PR manager and game designer Armin Ibrisagic wrote about some of the things that Coffee Stain did right and what it did wrong. Most notably, Ibrisagic expounded on how going into Goat Simulator with no plan or long-term strategy freed up the studio to do amazing things while it also is still causing them pains today. Goat Simulator has surpassed 2.5 million copies sold on PC and mobile, and it is one of the best examples of a game that took advantage of the power of social media and YouTube.