World of Goo

World of Goo is a puzzle computer game with a strong emphasis on physics, for the Wii, Windows and Mac OS X (a Linux version is currently in beta) by 2D Boy, an independent game developer founded by Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, both former Electronic Arts employees.^[2][4] It was nominated for the Seumas McNally grand prize, Design Innovation Award and Technical Excellence at the Independent Games Festival.^[5] It was released for the Wii's WiiWare in North America on October 13, 2008.^[6] On November 11 2008, 2D Boy announced that World of Goo will be released as WiiWare in Europe, instead of a retail release.^[7]

The game is built around the idea of creating large structures using balls of goo. It is based on the prototype game Tower of Goo developed for Kyle Gabler's rapid game prototyping Experimental Gameplay Project.^[8] The game is divided into five chapters, each containing several levels. Each level has its own graphic and musical theme, giving it unique atmosphere.^[4] There is also a bonus meta-game called World of Goo Corporation, where the objective is to build the highest tower using goo balls which the player collected through the course of the game. Players from all over the world can compete, as the height of the tower and number of goo balls used are being constantly uploaded to the 2D Boy server.

The main objective of the game is to get a requisite number of goo balls to the pipe representing the exit. In order to do so, the player must use their various abilities to build bridges, towers and other structures to overcome gravity and various terrain difficulties such as chasms, hills, spikes or cliffs. Extra Goos recovered in the pipe are pumped through to the World of Goo Corporation, a sandbox area where the objective is to compete with other players worldwide by building the tallest tower possible.^[9] Players can also try to achieve the "Obsessive Completion Distinction (OCD) Flag" for each level by completing the level under more stringent criteria,^[10] such as collecting a larger number of Goo balls, finishing under a set amount of time or using as few moves as possible.

Levels and chapters in the game are interspersed with cut scenes.

There are many types of goo balls in the game and each of them has unique abilities. The player needs to exploit their combinations in order to complete each of the levels.

The Wiiware version includes multiplayer with up to four people on the same Wii.

The overall World of Goo is split up into five chapters, each containing a number of levels. The chapters are set over the course of a year in the World of Goo. Each chapter takes place over one season beginning in Summer and ending in Spring.

The other selectable 'chapter' from the main menu is the World Of Goo Corporation. Goos collected above and beyond the required amount to pass a level are piped out of each of the played levels to here. Starting from just a single triangle of Goo, the aim is to build the highest possible tower. The Goos in the World Of Goo Corporation are very similar to the Ivy Goos, in that they can be repositioned; however, they are black, and can only form two connections at a time, as seen with the Common Goos. In the World Of Goo Corporation, towers built by other players of the game are represented by clouds bearing the player's name, nationality and height of the tower, including details on the total number of balls collected by the player and how many were used in constructing their tower. The altitude of each cloud represents the height of that player's tower. An online leaderboard charts the heights of the top 50 towers, as well as the top 10 players for each level of the game.

There are a total of 48 levels in the game, World of Goo Corporation included.

In an interview the developers stated that the retail version released in Europe will receive an additional sixth chapter, set on the Moon.^[11] Few details were disclosed, but reportedly this chapter will feature a freeform sandbox mode, similar to that of the World of Goo Corporation. This was then canceled for Wii when 2D Boy announced they were releasing the game on WiiWare in Europe.^[12]

The story is told by two primary sources in the game. The first is the previously mentioned cut scenes. The second is signs encountered throughout the game, which were left by a mysterious figure known as the Sign Painter.

Pipes appear throughout the land, very suddenly. This wakes up many sleeping Goo Balls who have gone undisturbed until this. As they are filled with a childish sense of curiosity and naivete they build themselves towards the pipes. They are then sucked through the pneumatic pipe system into the "World of Goo Corporation" main building where they are processed into many products, prominently a drink. The excess Goo Balls are let outside The Corporation headquarters where they begin to build a giant tower. At the end of the chapter a few green Goo Balls escape from a Corporation building by attaching themselves to eyeballs which have the ability to float. The chapter ends with the Goo Balls "seeing far away new lands".

As this chapter begins more pipes appear in a very windy desert where a giant power plant is located. However, during the past, the location and appearance of the power was forgotten as it stopped producing energy. During the chapter a new Goo Ball is introduced which is ground up by The Corporation into a beauty cream. Near the end they find the power plant which looks like a giant woman. It turns out that the power plant "ran on beauty" which is (according to the game) a volatile chemical like gasoline. After some of the Beautiful Goo Balls are injected into it, it becomes able to produce energy and power again, which allows The Corporation to open up a new factory.

During this chapter it is said that The Corporation develops a mysterious "Product Z". It eventually turns out that the mysterious Product Z is actually the third dimension. This causes much commotion amongst the general population who cannot see where anything is now. World of Goo Corporation tells them to contact tech support in the Information Superhighway.

In this chapter the goo balls set out to find the mysterious "MOM" program amongst a vector style environment. Shortly after beginning the Goo Balls find the object responsible for rendering the graphics. After pumping many of their own kind into the object the abilities of the graphic render increase, and a more realistic environment is created. Near the end they encounter the MOM program who turns out to be a spam bot. The Goo Balls get the idea to overload Product Z by sending every message in the history of spam to everyone at the World of Goo Corporation. After venturing to the recycling bin and un-deleting everything, The Corporation headquarters explodes. This causes Product Z to shut down, and a massive layer of smog to envelop the entire world.

In the end, the remaining and pure scientific Goo Balls are sucked away to the ruins of The Corporation's Headquarters. In the final level it is revealed that all the goo has been sucked away, and the massive telescope has been rendered useless as it cannot see past the layer of smog. However, some fly like fish in the water connect to the telescope and pull it out of the ground, where it passes the layer of smog. It rises and sees the tower of goo that has been built at the former World of Goo Corporation Headquarters, that can also see past the smog. The telescope falls back to earth, unable to see what the Goo Balls were building towards. It ends with the green Goo Balls attached to eyes from the beginning of the game floating through space, where a new planet can be seen.

This is a prequel to the original story, and begins back two years ago, when WoG Corp. was just a small company. They had a plan to set up neon lights on the moon, broadcasting advertising messages down to the world below. This world was originally meant for a European retail version of the game, but Europe refused to pay more, and the normal version was sold.

World of Goo was imagined by two ex-Electronic Arts developers, Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, who had very little money at the time. Their game studio, 2D Boy, was essentially based out of whatever Wi-Fi enabled coffee shop they could find. World of Goo had a budget of $10,000, which consisted of their combined personal savings. The two developers attribute the game's success to their blog and early web presence, as well as the awards it won at the Independent Game Festival at the Game Developers Conference in 2007, causing publishers who did not respond to their requests now wanting to publish the title.^[13]

The developers used many open-source technologies such as Simple DirectMedia Layer, Open Dynamics Engine for physics simulation, irrKlang for sound, and TinyXML for configuration and animation files. Subversion and Mantis Bug Tracker were used for work coordination.^[2] The proprietary PopCap is used for font generation. The game was created by a very small team, with only three members at its peak.^[14]

The developers depended upon the community to translate the game into Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish for the EU release in December 2008.^[15]

Eurogamer called World of Goo "Physics' latest, purest, and most brilliant gift."^[30] IGN said of the Wii version "World of Goo is an amazing WiiWare game that you simply must buy for this is exactly the type of software that needs both recognition and support", finding only minor fault with the camera controls and lack of a level editor.^[14] WiiWare World gave the game 10/10, saying "Not only is World of Goo easily the best WiiWare release to date, it's also proof that you don't need a large development team or millions of dollars to create an outstanding video game."^[31] 1UP.com said "World of Goo isn't "just" anything -- except, that is, one of just a handful of truly excellent original games for the Wii."^[32] Nintendo World Report criticised the "slow start" of the game, but otherwise praised it as "easily the best WiiWare game to date and, perhaps, one of the best this generation."^[33]

World of Goo has won many awards. It won Best Independent Game from the Spike TV Video Game Awards show,^[22] and won six Wii-specific awards and one for the PC, including Best Puzzle Game (for both Wii^[24] and PC^[23]), Best Artistic Design,^[25] Best WiiWare Game,^[26] Best New IP,^[27] Most Innovative Design,^[28] and Game of the Year from IGN.^[29] GameSpot awarded it as the Best Game No One Played.^[34] It was featured in Eurogamer's top 50 games of 2008 in the tenth slot.^[35] Peter Moore, the head of EA Sports, in a rant about FIFA 09 being missing from Eurogamer's list, commented that he was surprised it was included up so high in the list, despite not having played it.^[36] 2D Boy responded by saying they were honored that World of Goo had this much mainstream awareness, and that it derives sick pleasure from "industry big-wig's indignant, self-righteous incredulity".^[37]

• Official website
• 2D Boy's World of Goo page
• Tower of Goo prototype
• World of Goo on Steam