“Climb up, tryst with amorous billy goats, eat grass, give birth."
A little odd as the nutshell for an upcoming iOS title? To be sure. But, then, odd too is the game’s hirsute developer, affectionately known as Yak. The title in question is Goat Goes Up by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft, who brought us Minotaur Rescue [link], Minotron: 2011 [link], and Deflex [link] for iOS.
The upcoming Goat Goes Up (a working title) is, according to Minter, inspired by several oldschool platformers, including the Atari 2600 title Man Goes Down, Nebulus, and Rainbow Island. And, as for the climbing, trysting, eating, and birthing, the developer indicates that the game in its final form will offer plenty more than that.
Minter recently posted a preview video of the game in early stages of development. The video below is a little rough, but represents the state of the title after just two days of coding.
UPDATE: Moments ago, Jeff Minter got back to me with a bit more detail about the upcoming title.
GGU is a simple but fun endless climbing game in which the objective is to raise a family of goats – literally, as high as you can. Platforms continuously scroll down and you have to keep climbing – the game ends if you get carried off the bottom of the screen. On the way you will meet billy goats with whom you can tryst. Meeting the billy goats makes you pregnant, and you have to eat grass to eventually produce a baby goat which follows you. Keep doing that to get more kids; more kids give you higher scores for the various bonus items that you can collect along the way. Various powerup collectibles help you as you climb.
On the journey you will pass through various zones, some of which refer to famous platform games from throughout history.
Simple and fun and despite the goat breeding theme actually quite innocent and lovely.
As well, he underscores the fact that the preview video was a very early sample and that the game has evolved significantly since it was released.
We’ll be sure to share any further details we get about this one right away. Stay tuned.
