Released by Gaggle Studios in October 2021, video game Goose Goose Duck has recently gained global attention, and was even the most-played game on Stream, a video game digital distribution service and storefront.
In the free-to-play game, which has a similar premise and visuals as the 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game Among Us, players must collaborate with their ‘fellow geese’ to identify malicious birds among them.
The game is especially popular in China and South Korea, thanks to gaming livestreamers and Kim Tae-hyung aka V of K-pop group BTS. Watch the latter play a round of Goose Goose Duck:
According to the developers’ description of Goose Goose Duck, the game includes over five site maps, at least five built-in game modes, accessories for your goose (think hats, shirts, pets, cosmetics, and even farts!), and over 30 sub-roles (you can opt to be a camouflaged villain).
However, due to a sudden spike in the game’s number of users and massive cyberattacks, its server went down multiple times. Its makers had to temporarily take the game offline for maintenance.
After three days of server outages, Goose Goose Duck finally came back online today, much to the joy of Chinese fans, who have been celebrating the news on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo; a related hashtag has garnered almost 33 million views at the time of writing.
It would appear that many Chinese fans enjoy the title because of its similarity to the globally popular party game Werewolf or Langren sha (狼人杀) or Mafia.
In an interview with RADII, Shi Mengyuan, a Guangzhou-based video game writer who has spent 10 hours exploring the game, said, “Goose Goose Duck’s mechanism is better designed than Werewolf, as it has neutral roles and diverse skills. Players can have a better gaming experience no matter which role they get.”
Shi also mentioned that because Werewolf has been around for years, veteran players may have formed their own groups that are either exclusive or hard for new players to penetrate.
“Also, [Goose Goose Duck] is visually interactive, I get to manage ducks or geese to run around the map to kill or deceive other people. It feels real and I’m more emotionally invested,” she laughed.
Gaggle Studios is currently seeking partners and publishers in China, but has not reached any agreements or registered its trademark with any Chinese parties. Whether Goose Goose Duck will maintain its popularity in the country, which has its own epic video games, remains to be seen.
Cover image via Steam
