baa baa black sheep.
There's a disease that travels often around the Steam new releases, and it's the low effort trash titles made by developers who, more often than not, spot a very simple 'make a game' tutorial and then turn around and try to sell that prototype game. It's a dishonest practice that pollutes the ecosystem for actual up and coming developers who have to try and stand out from the deluge with their efforts, which is obviously far easier said than done. The most common of these low effort, stocking filler steam titles are known as 'Simulator Games', a pithy catch-all to encompass a style of game that attempts to emulate some activity, typical a mundane and boring one, with the appropriate sterile specificity that the simulator genre demands of it's ilk. But all too often that description is merely a smokescreen for what turns out to be little more than a grift of a product.
You'll play a flight simulator and expect to come out of it with a basic understanding of the real elements that a pilot must take into consideration, hence earning the title of 'Simulator'. But what about 'grass simulator'? What inner truth about the life and growth of common garden variety grass does such a game possibly have to elucidate it's audience on? Simply nothing, and that is the sad and honest truth about it all. You'll see these games resplendent with #market store' assets and pre-built play areas that offer nothing in the way of unique gameplay opportunities or intuitive fun. They are meant as jokes. But jokes that cost money to take part in do sort of stumble on the landing, more often that not. Yes, I certainly think the spirit of comedy is kind of smothered beneath that avaricious veneer these projects usually display.
But that doesn't have to be the rule, now does it? Of course not; the very genre of 'simulator game', even one made without a serious face or big budget team, can still offer us something of value. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the very idea of making a simulator game as one's virginal development outing can, should you approach it with the correct attitude, be an invaluable exercise in the practices demanded for making a proper engaging product. Because at it's heart, a Simulator game gives us the opportunity to explore a single topic to an exhaustive degree, pushing all systems to imbuing a single experience to the player and teaching us what concepts can be easily gamified and what concepts are best left idle and to our imagination. Treated correctly, there can be solid Simulator game experiences.
And I think the solid one's tend to float above the refuse and last around to give us some small impact, a notable ripple, in the vast sea of Steam new releases. Take 'Thief Simulator' for example, a tongue-in-cheek small game about exactly what it says on the tin, being a window-breaking thief who takes on jobs nicking TVs and beating up toilets for chump change. It's a simple project with a surprising amount of systems at play. Different lockpicking minigames depending on what level of lock you're working on, slight variances in job objective so that you're not always stealing the same stuff from the same houses, and even some vague simulation of 'casing' and performing 'stake outs'; concepts that most big budget stealth focused titles happily swing by for fear of slowing down the gameplay cycle too much. Altogether, Thief simulator is a pretty fairly descent title with a lot more thought put behind it than one might expect with that name; providing a worthwhile experience for the price point asked.
Another title which surprised me with it's effort, was 'Weed Shop', of the eponymous 'Weed Shop' franchise. Now being such a 'complex' concept, it of course took the developers three full tries to get to the real heart of what it's like to run a weed shop empire, but I have to give it to the creators- when the time came they really did nail the end product! Weed Shop is an irreverent simulator title that lays out progression paths from securing customers and growing the storefront, to improving the quality of the product and establishing supply routes, to crazy minigames fuelled by high stupors and running circles around gang-banging local dealers looking to keep you out of their territory with their guns. It's really a very solid title, even if the late stages get lost in those annoying time gates that I've spoken about recently. What is actually there to play around with is seriously worth commending on it's own. I'm genuinely excited to see what Weed Shop 4 has in store.
Of course, I cannot in good faith cover such a topic without recalling the deadbeat father of this entire movement of development: Goat Simulator. I've never been quiet about my dislike for the franchise and it's 'randomness = funny' mentality when creating jokes, but I'd be a fool to disregard their years of successful development and the impact it's had on the zeitgeist of gamers. Goat Simulator is built on ragdoll mechanics and refence humour from the ground up, revelling less in intricate systems attempting to conjure the spirit of... being a goat, I guess- and more on telling as many slapstick jokes as possible. It is whole hearted in it's efforts, and that's where the appeal comes for those who like that style of humour; which just goes to highlight how commitment is really the key to making these games work. Stick to the theme and heart of the idea and someone is going to appreciate the effort.
But there is a new pretender to the title of 'greatest simulator', and it's certainly an unexpected hero. Largely because this is a simulator in more of a serious sense, attempting to somewhat properly depict the act in question, but I guess it's the process itself which just proved so appealing to the general consumer enough for the game to become an unexpected smash hit and gaming cultural icon. Of course I'm talking about 'Powerwash simulator', the game which took the world by storm with the simple act of washing down dirty building, parks and vehicles with pressurised hoses. It's blown up into something of a phenom, spawning endless updates and collaboration DLCs to the point we're at now where you can finish up cleaning the gutters of the Croft Manor on your way to sparkling up Cloud's bike in Midgar. A totally bizarre success story for a game that simply lived off people's heartfelt desire to make things look clean.
See, Simulator Games can be something of an acquired taste. In premise usually asking you to forgo the usual trappings of a rounded video game, from plot, theme and purpose, and instead find fulfilment in the simple process of completing the listed objective. But when made right, a simulator game can really capitalise on the innate pleasure of developing a chosen vocation, or simply have fun creating exaggerations on an otherwise sterile subject matter. And I argue that Simulator game creation can be a stepping stone on the path to making full fledged and whole hearted games for the experimental developers out there. You just have to go dumpster diving through all the refuse of the rip-off games to find those gems under it all, but when you find that something special it can be just as rewarding as anything else you'll find on the mixed bag which is the Steam marketplace.
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