World of Goo
The Goo-Factor
Indies games ooze with originality but rarely do they come as polished as World of Goo. Striking visuals and music take a simple puzzle game and make it more entertaining and engaging than most.
The makers of the game remarkably are just two people, Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, working on laptops in whatever coffee shop that has free wifi. Indy to the max 
But once you see the game, its hard to believe that this is the case.
Publisher: http://2dboy.com/
Genre: Puzzle-ish
Platform: PC or Wii
Info: Click images to expand!
** WIN ** TWK|gaming competition!
We have kindly been given a FULL copy of the game to give away as part of a TWK competition.
Head over to the forums and read this post!
About
Take a million (at least) balls of goo and shove them into their own tiny little world, add in an evil corporation, some clever physics and a range of ways to prod, poke, mould and titillate them and then use your cunning to solve increasingly difficult puzzles.
Or just build a really big ‘thing' :D
Indies games ooze with originality but rarely do they come as polished as World of Goo. Striking visuals and music take a simple puzzle game and make it more entertaining and engaging than most.
The makers of the game remarkably are just two people, Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, working on laptops in whatever coffee shop that has free wifi. Indy to the max But once you see the game, its hard to believe that this is the case.
Gameplay
The game premise is very simple. You start the level with x number of goo-balls and you use them to build structures to reach a 'tap' to which they are drawn and ultimately sucked into. All you have to make sure of is that you manage to rescue enough of the goo balls to fulfil the quota for that level. Sort of like Lemmings, but backwards. And with goo-balls instead of suicidal animals.
But that's where the simplicity ends, because the more goo-balls you use to build the structure, the less get rescued. So there is an element of architectural design and balance built into the core of the game. The image right shows a level where the aim is to move your goo-balls upwards by creating an ever wider structure between the two towers. This is NOT as easy as it looks ... and as each level unfolds and the puzzles become harder and more inventive you begin to wonder just how on earth it can get any more clever.
But somehow it does... you're not always going up, some structures are floating, cogs shred you or aid you by friction, balloons can strut up long structural bridges or float you somewhere, different coloured goo-balls have different abilities and some goo-balls are reusable allowing you to work your way 'up' a level in stages'...and that's just the first set of levels...later levels include working your way out of a creature's stomach, starting by building a raft on the juices in his stomach!
Below (left image) you can see you have to create a structure around an outcrop whilst narrowly avoiding a vicious cutter and one of a myriad of possible solutions (middle image). The final image shows one use of balloons to float the goo-balls up to a tap in the sky.
Thoughts
Whilst puzzle games are not everyone's cup of tea, the pseudo-scientific elements of this game such as structural engineering and physics make the game almost brain-tinglingly hypnotic and provide a good mental workout. After playing it and becoming absorbed it's a fairly relaxing game despite the intermittent frustration of building a mega-mega-structure only to see it collapse due to being too top heavy.
The graphics are 2D but this makes no odds as anything more complex would steal away from the gameplay (although a 3D version would be intruiging ...) The sound is very good and the musical score fits well within the whole. This game certainly has a spark to it and a very trendy feel. I actually would like to have seen some multiplayer action - I could see an expanded version of this idea working in some way - I'm not totally sure how, but with the right map layout it could be compelling to fire off the odd challenge to a mate. Be it the largest structure in a time limit, or a race to the tap.
Anyway, for those into puzzle games or those wanting to tax their grey matter, forget Dr Kawashima and his Brain Training and get this - it's a hell of a lot more fun and far more interesting :D
Where to get?
World of Goo is available on Steam and directly from the website as a 100% region free and DRM free download. A demo is also available on Steam and at the site. This game is also available for the Wii via WiiWare!
** WIN ** TWK|gaming competition!
We have kindly been given a FULL copy of the game to give away as part of a TWK competition.
Head over to the forums and read this post!
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