Honest truth? Most people like Untitled Goose Game because it lets them be a jerk without actually hurting anyone's feelings. You aren't saving the world. You aren't grinding for XP. You’re just a goose who really, really wants that gardener’s rake in the lake. It’s a specific kind of "slapstick stealth" that House House perfected back in 2019, and ever since, players have been scouring Steam and the eShop for that same hit of low-stakes mischief.
Finding games like Untitled Goose Game isn't actually about finding more birds. It’s about finding games that understand the "toybox" philosophy. You want a world that reacts to your presence in funny, physics-based ways. You want a "To-Do" list that feels like a prank list. If you’ve already finished stealing the boy’s glasses and locking the shopkeeper in the garage, you’re probably looking for what’s next.
The Physics of Funny: Why We Love Being the Antagonist
There is a very thin line between a frustrating puzzle game and a hilarious one. Untitled Goose Game walks that line by making failure part of the joke. When the gardener chases you, it’s not a "Game Over" screen; it’s a chase sequence from a silent movie. This is a genre some critics call "Comedy-Stealth," and it’s surprisingly hard to get right.
Take Donut County, for example. Ben Esposito’s physics puzzler is often grouped with the goose, and for good reason. You play as a hole in the ground. That’s it. You move the hole, things fall in, the hole gets bigger. It captures that same "I am an unstoppable force of mild inconvenience" energy. But where the goose is about precision and timing, Donut County is more about the tactile satisfaction of watching a whole house get swallowed by the earth because a raccoon wanted a donut. It’s short. You can beat it in two hours. But those two hours are pure, concentrated dopamine.
The Goat in the Room
We have to talk about Goat Simulator 3. Forget the first one; it was a broken tech demo that went viral. The third entry (there is no second one, because Coffee Stain North loves a joke) is a legitimate masterpiece of open-world chaos. If you want games like Untitled Goose Game but with a much higher budget and way more explosions, this is it.
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The goat doesn’t just honk. The goat can drive cars. The goat can wear jetpacks. The goat can headbutt a grandma into orbit. It’s louder and crasser than the goose, sure. But the DNA is identical. You have a list of "Instincts" which are basically the goose’s To-Do list on steroids. "Perform a 720 backflip off a building." "Lick a high-voltage power line." It’s ridiculous. It’s buggy on purpose. It’s also one of the few games that captures the sheer joy of seeing a system and deciding to break it.
When Stealth Meets Slapstick
A lot of people miss that Untitled Goose Game is secretly a Hitman game for kids. Or for people who don't want to garrote anyone. You’re scouting patrols, learning NPC loops, and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. If that’s the part you liked—the "social stealth" aspect—you should look at Thank Goodness You're Here!
Released recently by Coal Supper, this game is a "slap-about" set in a fictional Northern English town called Barnsworth. It is weird. Like, "British 70s cartoon" weird. You play a tiny salesman waiting for an appointment, and you just... help people? Except "helping" usually involves hitting things until they work or crawling through a chimney. It doesn’t have the free-form physics of the goose, but it has the same heart. It’s a comedy game where the world is your plaything.
Then there’s Little Kitty, Big City.
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This is probably the closest spiritual successor we’ve seen. You are a cat. You are lost. You want to get home, but honestly, you’d rather trip humans and steal their bagels first. Double Dagger Studio clearly took notes from the goose’s playbook. The animations are fluid, the city feels alive, and the "To-Do" list is filled with cat-specific mayhem like "Knock 10 items off a ledge." It’s gentler than the goat but crunchier than the goose.
The Indie Gems Nobody Mentions
If you go deep into the itch.io or indie Steam scene, you find the real experimental stuff.
- Rain on Your Parade: You are a cardboard cloud. Your goal? Ruin everyone’s day. You rain on weddings, you zap people with lightning, and you eventually escalate to hoovering up entire cities. It uses a mission-based structure that feels very familiar to anyone who spent hours trying to figure out how to get the goose into the pub.
- A Short Hike: This isn't a "mean" game. It’s actually very sweet. But it fits the "Goose" vibe because of its bird-based movement and the way it encourages you to just mess around in a small, dense environment. You're a bird named Claire, you're hiking a mountain, and you're talking to quirky NPCs. It’s the "after-care" game for when you’re tired of being a jerk.
- Katari Damacy Reroll: This is the grandfather of the "messing with the world" genre. You roll a ball, things stick to the ball, the ball gets bigger. Eventually, you’re rolling up skyscrapers and clouds. It’s Japanese surrealism at its finest, and the soundtrack is a literal masterpiece of J-pop and jazz.
What Developers Get Wrong About the "Goose" Formula
I’ve played a lot of bad "animal simulators" that try to capitalize on this trend. Most of them fail because they think the "funny" comes from the animal itself. It doesn't. The funny comes from the reaction.
In Untitled Goose Game, the gardener’s frustration is the reward. When he puts on his sun hat and you steal it again, his little "!" bubble and his frantic arm-waving are what make you laugh. Games like Maneater (the shark RPG) try to do this, but they often lean too hard into combat. When you’re just killing everyone, the comedy dies. You need the NPCs to be annoyed, not dead.
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That’s why Untitled Goose Game is so hard to replicate. It requires a level of restraint. You have to keep the stakes low so the humor stays high. If the goose could fire a shotgun, it wouldn't be funny. The fact that the goose’s only weapon is a "HONK" and a bit of a wing-flap is why it works.
Handling the Chaos: A Tactical Approach
If you’re moving from the goose to something like Goat Simulator or Just Die Already (a game about elderly people causing mayhem), you have to change your mindset.
- Look for the "Rube Goldberg" moments. In these games, one action usually leads to three others. If you knock over a trash can, a dog might bark, which scares a pedestrian, who drops their phone. That’s where the magic happens.
- Ignore the main quest. The best moments in Little Kitty, Big City happen when you stop trying to get home and start trying to see if you can fit into every single jar in the game.
- Experiment with the physics. Can you stack these boxes? Can you drag this NPC into the water? Usually, the developers have programmed a specific reaction for that, and finding it is the real "win."
The Final Verdict on Slapstick Gaming
We are in a bit of a golden age for "unserious" games. For a long time, the industry was obsessed with being "gritty" and "cinematic." Now, we have developers who just want to make a game about a cloud that poops thunder on a barbecue.
If you want the absolute best experience, start with Little Kitty, Big City for the vibes, then move to Donut County for the satisfaction, and finish with Goat Simulator 3 for the pure, unadulterated madness. There isn't a single "perfect" replacement for the goose, but the genre of "joyful jerkiness" is wider than you think.
Your Chaos Roadmap
To get the most out of your next session, stop treating these like puzzles to be solved and start treating them like playgrounds to be explored.
- Check the "Achievements" list early. Often, indie devs hide the funniest jokes in the trophy descriptions. They act as "hidden" To-Do list items.
- Play with a friend. Untitled Goose Game added a two-player mode later in its life, and Goat Simulator 3 is built for four-player co-op. Comedy is always better when someone is there to witness your stupidity.
- Record your best moments. Physics-based games are notorious for "glitches" that are actually hilarious. Most of the viral clips that made these games famous were accidental interactions the devs didn't even plan for.
The next time you feel the urge to honk at a stranger or steal a hat, just fire up one of these. It’s cheaper than a fine, and honestly, the NPCs in Barnsworth are much more fun to mess with than your actual neighbors. Focus on the games that prioritize the "toy" over the "task," and you'll find exactly what you're looking for.