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The demand for simulation games has never been higher. Goat Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, Farming Simulator, Soda Drinker Pro and now Snail Simulator will be among the games transforming simulator games from a niche product into having mass market appeal.

James Grimmett, Snail Simulator creator and founder of ZombieSnailz, explained to TheKohlrabi that he was reading the community forums on Steam and was inspired. Grimmet said, “Someone said they wanted a Snail Simulator game so I already knew that there was an audience for the game.” Not knowing where to start, he scanned in still pictures for the backgrounds and then found a lovable snail in clip art but noticed that it only created files on his computer’s desktop and not a loveable, playable game. Undeterred, James would rethink his strategy. Grimmett would quickly turn to Codeacademy and learn that he needed software development skills for the game to be completed. “I learned that I needed to tell the computer how to use those clip art files.”

Grimmett needed to quickly satisfy his soon to be consumers. He quit his job because he ” Stashed a couple months worth of rent in his savings.” He also told TheKohlrabi that he was confident he could live off of Doritos and Mountain Dew until the game made money. “I was worried because I was getting down to my last couple of bags of Cool Ranch.” Indeed, nobody would willingly eat cool ranch Doritos when a steady stream of nacho cheese is available. That’s when he decided he wanted to try the Kickstarter route. “I knew if I could be funded from Kickstarter the game would be successful” Successful it was, the Snail Simulator Kickstarter met it’s initial goal of $500. In the end, Snail Simulator would net $854,888.48. He thought about adding stretch goals, but he will do another Kickstarter for those goals when he runs out of money.

We asked, what does James think of all of the anticipation surrounding Snail Simulator? “TBH it’s a bit overwhelming, but I can handle it.” It goes to show what a difference crowdfunding sites can make to independent creative projects, as campaigns on platforms like GoFundMe can help provide people working on such projects with the financial backing and community support they need to keep making progress.

TheKohlrabi interviewed James Grimmett a couple of weeks before the funds for Snail Simulator would become his. It has been reported that after he received the money from Kickstarter his social media accounts have been closed and his email accounts deactivated. James could not be reached for comment.