A Titled Book About an Untitled Goose Game - Our Interview with Author James O'Connor

Institutionalised now as one of Australian game development's greatest achievements, Untitled Goose Game is now also a book that explores the game's journey from humble beginnings to global sensation...

Success and cultural phenomenon aren’t mutually exclusive terms in the videogame landscape. Something can be successful and reach a big audience, but its impact, culturally or indelibly, might be minimal at best. Call of Duty is a series known the world over, but despite its incredible popularity you could argue only its popularity stands as its pillar of impact (though based heavily on its polish, modes and how many work on it at any given time). That’s not to diminish the millions of lives it affects daily who love, live, play and compete within its walls, either, but it has hardly shifted the needle of meaningful game-design, or elevated the discussion of “games as art”. It is an unashamed ‘summer blockbuster’ and that it knows this and leans lovingly into it is something hard not to admire.

But art, it is not.

On the other end of the spectrum then, are games like Disco Elysium, Journey and even the AAA hit BioShock, among many others. Games that challenge players to elicit emotional responses to bold concepts, brilliant or simple design loops, challenging or engaging writing, philosophical touchstones or just new ways in which to even consider playing a game.

One specific example of a cultural phenomenon is, as you’ve probably guessed, the Aussie-developed Untitled Goose Game from House House. A game that, for many reasons, probably shouldn’t have exploded in the way that it did, but did so because there really was nothing like it out there. And because its simplistic approach to design and world-building and presentation meant it spoke to… everyone.

During Melbourne in Games Week ahead of PAX Aus 2024, Untitled Goose Game found its way into ACMI (former the Australian Centre for the Moving Image) as an exhibition running from September through to February 16, 2025, celebrating the game’s success, its cultural impact, its design and its Australian roots. In addition to this accolade for House House, however, is a book published through Boss Fight Books and written by Aussie gaming industry veteran, James O’Connor. We caught up with James to discuss all of the above and to learn just what he learnt during his research and writing phase of one of Australia’s greatest gaming treasurer -- Untitled Goose Game. 

Author: Stephen Farrelly
Date: October 22, 2024

Let’s start with the basics – what was the genesis point for you to even consider doing this, and then how did you hook up with the cats at Boss Fight Books?

I've been a fan of Boss Fight Books for a long time, and have wanted to write something for them for a while. I actually pitched a book on a different game a long time ago, but that pitch wasn't successful -- I'm a bit older and wiser now. BFB periodically opens itself up for new pitches, and when they did their callout in late 2022, I started thinking about which games I'd like to write about now. Looking over the titles they've already published books about, I decided that it was time for a book about a game developed in Australia -- we have such a rich and interesting game development culture here, and I wanted to share it with the rest of the world.

I think that 2010-2019 was an extremely interesting decade for Australian game development - I get into it at length in the book, but the way the local industry shifted and morphed following the global financial crisis is fascinating. And Untitled Goose Game not only capped off that decade in style, but it was also a huge, worldwide phenomenon -- one made primarily by four friends in Melbourne. So it made sense to write a book about Untitled Goose Game in the context of the wider scene it emerged from, and to re-examine "goose mania" now a few years on.

Luckily for me, BFB editor Gabe Durnham was extremely enthusiastic about this pitch and the angle I wanted to take, and the deal came together pretty quickly!

Was it difficult to default to US spelling as a learned word and grammar-smith? (Had to chuck that in there!)

Funnily enough, the last few years have gotten me very used to writing "color" and "favorite"! Working the news desk at GameSpot (which I was from 2019 until 2020) meant that I had to adapt to American spelling, and then when I shifted over to writing for games (Ava's Manor, Star Trek Lower Decks Mobile, Power Rangers: Mighty Force, a few other projects), my scripts all used US spelling there, too.

Actually, we had a discussion during editing about whether we should use UK/AU English throughout the book, but I wanted our style to be consistent with other BFB titles. So apologies to everyone who cringes a bit when I talk about the "colors" of a goose, it was a conscious decision!

Would you like to know more?
Untitled Goose Game's Metacritic 'Metascore' is "Generally Favourable" and rests at an average of 81 from all critic reviews tracked by the aggregate site. Its User Score is also "Generally Favourable" with a 7.7. On Steam the story is a bit different with, at the time of writing, some 17,774 user reviews hoisting the game to "Overwhelmingly Positive". While these scores and sentiments -- positive overall -- are great they still somewhat belie the overall impact of the game -- somethig James' book explores brilliantly. It can be purchased at ACMI as part of the Untitled Goose Game exhibition.

There’s a lot of “building” and “camaraderie” peppered throughout the book, which highlights, poignantly, how ‘from little things big things grow’, to quote the great Paul Kelly (and maintain an Aussie theme), but what did you learn more holistically from your time with the team and those around them who helped. Was there a vibe or theme or an intangible that stood out to you?

I've met a lot of local developers who have made enormous games, which is always a good way of demythologising the development of totemic works - at the end of the day, they are always just normal people. They're nice, they pleasant, they are very good at their art, they usually have thoughtful responses to your questions. But underneath it all, they're just regular people. There's no defining secret sauce beyond a thoughtful commitment to craft.

One thing that impressed me greatly about House House is that they have tremendous conviction to their beliefs and values. They support their communities and each other because they can, and because it's the right thing to do as human beings and artists. They just want to do what's right. I feel like this is true of many of the folks I've met in games.

Like you (I think), I’m a firm believer in the power of long form, written content. Our medium of choice, though, is videogames (I refuse to un-portmanteau the word, which I know you’ll either agree with or hate with your degree hahaha) – a visual medium. Did it ever occur to you or cross your mind to potentially look to do this in a video format? Or was the choice always book format?

(I am also a "videogame" guy, so no shade from me).

I am a words guy. That's a slightly ironic oversimplification, but my favourite work usually involves sitting down and typing out words on a page, or editing, or reading and noting. It's the angle I like to approach criticism from because laying details, observations, and opinions out on a page just makes sense to my brain.

I was recently at ACMI in Melbourne, where there's currently an excellent exhibition on Untitled Goose Game. By virtue of being in a museum, it communicates information in a visual, sensorial way -- watch these screens, flick through these materials, play through these demos. There is room for both! In a book, I might not be able to show you exactly what an in-progress build on a game looks like, or match information directly to footage, but there are other advantages. I can go a bit more internal into the thought processes of the creators. I can digress without upsetting the flow of information. I can clean up and polish interviews, build intrigue, inject personal anecdotes. So it was always a book for me, and I never found myself thinking "this would work better in another format".

At the time of development and even release, games in Australia were hit and miss from a success and discoverability perspective. What insights did you learn, despite your own dev experiences and experiences as a games journo over the years, from research and interviews? Was it clear, support and funds aside, that there were issues infrastructurally or more?

Discoverability is not an exact science, but Untitled Goose Game had a tangible hook - you watch five seconds of footage and you understand what the game is and why it's a good idea. You see the goose honk and flap and you want to pick up the controller. I can write a whole book about this game, but really dig deep, but I think there's no deep mystery to why this specific game was a big success -- geese are funny. Honk!!

Beyond that, though, the game received funding support from VicScreen, and the story of the game's development is full of people whose influence and assistance made a huge impact on the team and their game. It's a good story of game developers supporting one another, and there are similar stories behind a lot of our locally-produced titles -- not just the ones that sold extremely well, either. I think the Australian industry -- and I'm saying this in the broadest sense possible -- has historically worked hard to shine a light on local productions brightly enough that the rest of the world takes notice, although there's plenty of room for more support.

Based on the above, how has their journey shaped your view of game development to now in Australia?

This isn't just specific to Untitled Goose Game and House House, but I have had a lot of experiences over the course of writing and promoting this book -- and in my own career recently, especially at this moment of extraordinary economic downturn -- that has made me think about how, for many of us, games are just in our blood. Developers, journalists, content creators, what-have-you -- a lot of us are driven by an internal need that actually can't be switched off. We need to do the things we're doing, however we manage to make that happen.Writing about House House has made me think more about the complicated relationship between business and art practice, and what a sustainable development environment looks like. There are many different models for game development.

Was there a self-indulgent element to this exercise on your behalf to, essentially, do the deepest review of an Indie game, ever? How much during writing did you pour over every facet of the game and how many hours do you think you put into it overall?

Beyond all the many interviews, the planning, the extensive deep dives into the available material you'd expect, I definitely feel like I went deep. Not everything I did is in the book, but I watched a lot of speedrunning videos (and learned about how to glitch to the ending very fast), looked at a lot of tattoos, spoke to a lot of friends and relatives about their experiences geese, replayed the game a few times, went to the library and picked up every book I could find that had "goose" in the glossary… I went fairly deep to make sure that I was approaching everything from the most well-informed position possible.

It would be difficult to calculate the hours -- the whole process took about 15 months until I had a polished draft. But it felt like I was a radar constantly tuning in to new possibilities. There's anecdotes in the book from a vacation I took midway through the writing process where I found myself thinking about the game in a different context in the middle of a Balinese resort. There are sections that expand on pieces I wrote myself more than ten years ago. In November last year, I told my partner (with apologies) that I was going to be spending most nights in the office until fairly late working on my draft. I managed to do this all without losing my mind or completely unbalancing my life, which feels like an achievement!

I reviewed Untitled Goose Game for GameSpot when it first came out. I gave it an 8/10. That still feels right to me.

In additional to the above, were there quips, anecdotes or insights from the team where, after learning them, you saw the game in a different light? If so, do you have an example?

There's a particularly cool Easter egg in the high street level that you'll learn about when you read the book. One thing that coloured my experience a bit was the way House House talks about the responsibility that comes from depicting a place - in this case, a small English village - and how your choices in that depiction need to be made with a lot of intentionality. This is a very thoughtful team that really worked hard to make sure that their game couldn't be misread.

We know you’re spread between a few different worlds, how has this writing and research experience spurred your move into dev or elsewhere?

Right now, I'm split between a few worlds -- I work in games funding and government support three days a week, and then freelance the rest of the time, spread across narrative work and writing work. I feel like writing this book -- the process and the content -- has really informed how I operate in all of these different (but overlapping) spaces.

Finally, was this experience enough to leave you thinking about the next book? And if so, what game would you love to do a similar deep-dive on?

Without saying too much, I'm in some conversations about what the next thing might look like. But to pitch something I'm currently not discussing with anyone, just in case a publisher sees it and says "finally, yes, let's make this happen" --  I think I could write a pretty killer book about the Ace Attorney series.

About the author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport under his belt. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms but particularly street and tattoo culture, and is the director of Swear Jar...
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