I’ve got to give credit to one of my friends (Erin) for making sure I played this game before I leave PAX Australia after three long days of covering the event – otherwise, I would have surely missed out covering this game hidden in the PAX Rising section of the show floor.
GoatPunks comes from Studio Canvas, a one-man game studio from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. It is a very simple multiplayer game. You and your friends play mountain goats and battle each other to be the king of the mountain – all by head-butting each other with lightning, fire and other power-ups you find along the way. The winner is declared when you can stay on the top for 30 seconds.
The art style is very anime-like. That’s no surprise when the developer says that they were inspired by the Studio Ghibli movies. There a wide variety of stages you can play on, including one called ‘Candy Mountain’ (I’ll let you guess what it’s all about).
Oh, and did we mention that the goats look really adorable?
GoatPunks is a very quick game. However, the game is more suited when you have a couple of friends at your place. It should be noted that the game is currently in alpha and still in development, so some things will likely change between the PAX Australia build and the released game.
The developers have said that they will release the game sometime next year, but you can vote for the game on Steam Greenlight – which I suggest you do, because I really, really want this game to be on Steam.
If you need any more convincing, the trailer is below.