Goat Simulator sparked all kinds of new simulators including Cow Simulator and Rock Simulator 2014 (pictured). The latter game was added to Steam Greenlight and prompted video game journalist Jason Evangelho to create Game Journalism Simulator.
Speaking with Siliconera, Evangelho explained the events inspired the title. The first was watching Polygon writer Brian Crecente stream writing an article about the Wii U which included quotes by Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime. "Around the same time, Rock Simulator was announced. Yes, Rock Simulator. Then Deep Silver announced that they’d acquired the North American distribution rights for Goat Simulator," Evangelho said in an e-mail. Evangelho wrote a Facebook post half-joking about the idea for Game Journalism Simulator 2015 and after positive response he decided to start developing the game.
"What sealed the deal, though, was Dan Amrich’s book ‘Critical Path: How to Review Video Games for a Living.’ In it, he suggests that game critics should at least dabble with game development. The argument is that they’ll gain a deeper understanding of the process and be better equipped to judge a video game’s many elements. It struck a nerve when I originally read it, and it struck that same nerve last week," Evangelho continued.
"So I rounded up a few other journos including Daniel Tack of Game Informer, registered the trademark for Game Journalism Simulator, and we’re neck deep in our design document, plotting the course forward! It’s a serious project for us, and we want it to be a genuinely fun game which both empowers players and makes them laugh their asses off."
