Golira Simulator

Golira Simulator was a first-person-shooter parkour video game developed on Roblox by the founders of Akimbo Game Studios, exrahs and sour_s0ybean. Originally released in early access in July of 2020, the game garnered minimal support from players, however the devs didn't seem to care in the slightest and that doesn't really matter. After Golira Simulator was released in early access, Akimbo Game Studios went silent for a while. After about 2 months of silence and inactivity from the team, the game was unexpectedly launched on October 4th, 2020. Initial reviews were mixed; positive reviews cited the game's freedom of exploration and lack of rules, creating a fun anarchist environment. The negative reviews went into depth about the game's launch in a remarkably broken state, however the official statement from the devs states that they "dont give a sh*t."

As of November 11th 2020, a sequel promptly titled Golira Simulator 2 is in development, despite exrahs's claims that there would be no follow-up game.

Development
The concept for the game was formed when exrahs was bored one day and accidentally opened Roblox Studio. He stated at a later date, "I was bored as f**k. And I like games, so naturally I had Roblox and Roblox Studio on my laptop. I was scrolling through my phone, and I saw a meme of someone texting someone else a gorilla emoji, following up with a message saying 'golira.' And I laughed. It was funny as f**k to me, and I'm not entirely sure why. So I sent it to my friend, who later became the co-dev of this project. Later I was on my laptop, and I accidentally launched Roblox Studio, thinking it was another game. Instead of just straight up closing it, I decided to screw around a bit. I took inspiration from the golira meme, and put a bunch of gorillas in a sandbox environment, made the player character a gorilla, and gave him an AK-47. So I tested it, and I was like, 'wait.' I hit up my man [sour_s0ybean], who I sent the meme to earlier, and I was like, 'bro I might have something here.' And by 'I might have something here,' I meant 'let's make the sh**tiest game the world's ever seen.'" From there, this game became a self-described "downward spiral into golira madness." The beta version of Golira Simulator was created "over a span of a week or so," and was released for "early access" the day it was completed. The game recieved generally favorable reviews, with the only drawback being the lack of content in the long-term. exrahs and sour_s0ybean worked continuously on the game until the end of July 2020, when Golira Simulator recieved its final update for a while (titled Update v0.3). The game went neglected until October of that year, when the two founding members of Akimbo Game Studios made their explosive return onto the scene of Roblox game development. They worked on v1.0, a huge update which went unannounced to the public until they launched Golira Simulator in full on October 4th, 2020. The game received mixed reception. The positive reviewers said that they enjoyed the freedom and absurdity of the game, and the complete randomness that spawned the Golira kind. The negative reviews cited that the game was in an incredibly broken state, which the developers confirmed to be true. "It adds to the charm," exrahs claimed sarcastically. The reviewers didn't care and gave Golira Simulator flak anyway. On October 6th, 2020, exrahs took to the Akimbo Game Studios Roblox group wall to say: "if you dont like golira simulator, we dont give a sh*t." Golira Simulator remained untouched for almost 3 weeks, until October 22nd 2020 when Akimbo announced the shutdown of the game after only one update. "people of the nation, it is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce tonight's closure of our breakout failure of a game, golira simulator. we are just as upset as you all are. we spent a little bit of time on it, working for minutes a day, with the dream of becoming the world's best slackers. but we believe the game has served its purpose. goliras don't live that long, after all. so thank you all for the journey, and we hope you enjoy the other games we have to come.""-Akimbo Game Studios's concise, yet powerful official statement regarding the closure of Golira Simulator"The game was closed later that night. Although it was painfully obvious why they decided to close the game, amateur journalist and future Akimbo developer Tag inquired about the matter. exrahs replied, "Golira was... well, it was what it was. Truthfully we didn't put a lot of effort into it, and we treated it as a joke from the get-go. And what do you get when you mix that with two of the most laziest and unmotivated developers ever? You get a pretty sh*tty game. And when you throw gorillas and the tagline of a "breakout failure" into it, you get... whatever hellscape we created."

Weapons
Below is a list of weapons that were available in Golira Simulator.


 * M4
 * P90
 * Intervention
 * TMP
 * M249 SAW
 * Glock 18
 * M1911A1
 * Ham Shank

exrahs has confirmed that the Ham Shank was both a reference to Team Fortress 2 and a small hint for their next game, Ham Warfare.

Gameplay
The gameplay consisted of a player (playing as a "golira," essentially a gorilla but cooler) armed with an arsenal of weapons, and left to take out forces of AI goliras dubbed the "Golira Cartel," as well as killing other player goliras, all from a first person perspective. On the positive side of the gameplay, the wackiness and absurdity produced by things like the broken nature of the game, the intentionally high jump height, and the randomness of the game's elements and lore caught the eye of many. On the negative side, the seriously flawed state of the game was not very popular with a lot of reviewers, although it produced odd amounts of fun. The broken condition it was launched in was likely the result of a few factors: this was Akimbo Game Studios' first game, and neither exrahs nor sour_s0ybean had much experience in coding, level design, or any other elements going into a game like Golira Simulator. Also, the neglect the game received during its early access phase probably caused a lack of motivation for the devs to get back to the game.

Sequel
Main article: Golira Simulator 2

There were rumors circulating that a Golira Simulator sequel is planned. They've were met with yet more mixed reception: some people argued that Akimbo should work to improve the game they already created or just give up on Golira, and some argued that a fresh slate would be good for the devs and that Golira had potential. These rumors cited much more serious and streamlined gameplay, with an ambitious currency system and shop. The addition of these elements would make for a more life simulator type of game, met with dismay by some who enjoyed the chaos and absurdity of the original, but gained approval of those looking for a fixed version of the game that already showed little to no potential.

These rumors were shot down by exrahs in an interview by the aforementioned Tag, who asked about the rumors of the Golira sequel. "Um... no," exrahs replied. "We have no interest in recreating or expanding upon our biggest mistake yet. That's just... that makes no sense really, it's illogical. If you get a stain on a shirt and you can't seem to get the stain out, and you go as far as destroying the shirt by burning it at the stake to remove the stain, then chances are you're not gonna make the same mistake again." Akimbo seemed more focused on the future of the Ham franchise and what other projects they have to come.

On November 11th 2020, exrahs confirmed the development of Golira Simulator 2, despite his previous comments shutting down rumors of a second Golira Simulator game. When asked about his change in thought, ex commented, "I mean, yes, Golira Simulator was a disaster, and no, we don't want to repeat that sh*t. But we thought about it, and we decided to improve upon it instead."