science

Surgeon Simulator

Surgeon Simulator is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Surgeon Simulator rather than just read about it. In short: Surgeon Simulator (formerly Surgeon Simulator 2013) is a surgical simulation video game developed and published by Bossa Studios. The initial version was created by Tom Jackson, Jack Good, Luke Williams and James Broadley in a 48-hour period for the 2013 Global Game Jam; the developers continued and spent 48 days creating a commercial version.

Key takeaways

Surgeon Simulator belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Surgeon Simulator to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Surgeon Simulator from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Surgeon Simulator (formerly Surgeon Simulator 2013) is a surgical simulation video game developed and published by Bossa Studios. The initial version was created by Tom Jackson, Jack Good, Luke Williams and James Broadley in a 48-hour period for the 2013 Global Game Jam; the developers continued and spent 48 days creating a commercial version. The full version was released via Steam in April 2013, and GOG.com on 10 October 2013 followed by an iPad release on 7 March 2014. On 26 August 2022, Bossa Studios sold the franchise to tinyBuild for $3 million. On 26 June 2024, Atari SA acquired the franchise from TinyBuild for an undisclosed amount and transitioned it to their Infogrames label. A sequel, Surgeon Simulator 2, was released in August 2020.

Gameplay Surgeon Simulator is played in first-person perspective. Mouse movement is used to control the movement of the player's hand. By holding down the right mouse button and moving the mouse, the player can rotate the hand. The left mouse button is used to lower the hand. By default, the A, W, E, R, and Space keys are used to control individual corresponding digits for grasping items. Gameplay of the player attempting to perform various surgical procedures, for example a heart transplant. Multiple extra modes are available after completion of the early operations, such as performing an operation while inside an ambulance where surgical instruments bounce around at random, and operating in space where the zero-g environment causes all of the instruments to free-float. Three free downloadable content (DLC) features and one paid DLC were added after release. The first was released on 21 June 2013, and features an operation in which the player performs surgery on Team Fortress 2's character Heavy, based on the "Meet the Medic" Team Fortress 2 promotional video. The second was released on 9 September 2013, named "Code Name Trisha", and features an operation in which surgery is performed on an alien. The third was released on 2 June 2016, named "Inside Donald Trump", in which a heart transplant is performed on then presidential candidate Donald Trump. On 14 August 2014, an Anniversary A&E Edition was released on Steam. It added the eye and teeth transplants from the iOS version along with some other features, such as operating while running through the hospital corridors.

Plot The game's protagonist is a surgeon named Nigel Burke, who has a placement at a fictional hospital somewhere in the fictitious United Kingdom town of Barnardshire in 1987. He carries out various operations, at first on a patient affectionately named 'Bob' by the game developers, and later operates on Bob inside a space station orbiting Earth. Afterwards, he is contacted by an alien race by VHS tape, and operates on one of the aliens, gaining the title of 'Best Surgeon in the Universe'. Free DLC "Inside Donald Trump" will takes place in present day during a presidential election in 2016 and begins to operates a heart transplant for Trump to maintain his health, Nigel will either choose the two type of heart organ, such as the gold or the stone heart.

Development An initial version of Surgeon Simulator 2013 was created for the Global Game Jam in which the team had 48 hours to make the game. The team took inspiration from the game Jurassic Park: Trespasser for the control scheme, which also came about because teams in the jam would gain bonus points if a game used ten buttons on the keyboard. The team initially wanted to assign a finger to each button but soon realized this was impractical and instead only limited this style of control to one hand with the other being controlled by the mouse. The developers were initially unsure of whether or not the game was "genuinely" funny, although they found themselves laughing they were not sure if it was the game or their sleep deprivation causing it. It was only when they finally presented the prototype to the audience that they realized the comic potential.

Release In January 2014, Bossa released footage of an iPad release of the game to be released sometime that year. On 7 March, Surgeon Simulator (at the time called Surgeon Simulator 2013) was released and featured the classic heart and kidney transplants and two new transplants: eye and teeth. The app includes the new corridor feature in which the player has to save Bob while carts with at least seven items pass by and have to not kill him. There is a new feature taking advantage of heart rate, which makes it more challenging for players. When it reaches 0, the player has to charge the defibrillators to save Bob. A PlayStation 4 version of the game was announced on 10 June 2014 and released on 12 August 2014, featuring all of the games surgeries in every location. The PS4 version was released and named Surgeon Simulator: A&E Anniversary Edition. A Nintendo Switch version was announced in July 2018 and released on 13 September 2018, with it being branded as Surgeon Simulator CPR standing for "Cooperative Play Ready". The game included a special local cooperative mode, allowing two players using separate Joy-Con to control Nigel's arms.

Reception

Reception for the game has been mixed, with critics stating that although the game was hard to control, this difficulty was "part of the appeal." Ars Technica commented upon the narrator's voice-over, saying that it "belies the ridiculousness that unfolds as he flops and flails his way through surgery". Rock, Paper, Shotgun praised the game's humour and fun, and said "Surgeon Simulator 2013 is not a brilliant game. But it is a brilliant joke. In the form of a game. It's an idea that is a clean magnitude of awesome above 90% of what will be released this year because it is so absurd." Eurogamer rated the game 7/10 and also praised its humour. Surgeon Simulator 2013 has sold 2 million copies as of 4 February 2015.

Sequel The game's sequel, Surgeon Simulator 2, was released on August 27, 2020, and received similarly mixed reception. Compared to the first game, it adds a controllable player character for a full first-person viewpoint, as well as 4-player co-op and a "creation mode" that allows for player-designed levels.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Surgeon Simulator

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Surgeon Simulator claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Surgeon Simulator before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Surgeon Simulator ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Surgeon Simulator

In research: Surgeon Simulator appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Surgeon Simulator in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Surgeon Simulator is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2013 video games, Android (operating system) games, Bossa Studios games, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Surgeon Simulator outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Surgeon Simulator in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Surgeon Simulator means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Surgeon Simulator out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Surgeon Simulator in simple terms?

Why does Surgeon Simulator matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Surgeon Simulator?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Surgeon Simulator.