World of Goo is cute, fuzzy game filled with fun. It reminds me of childhood days - picking my nose and seeing just how long a booger could stretch between my fingers, dangling a long strip of spit to see if I could touch my sister’s head, or learning to make bubblegum bubbles (and hoping I would not get it stuck in my hair). This is a low-budget game without the intense cinema-like cut scenes or epic dragon fights. Because it is so simple, it is that much more powerful of a game. The World of Goo allows you to become the savior of innocent creatures, a designer, and a builder.
The graphic design of the game is beautiful. It is a whimsical combination of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas type of Goth-style drawings. The characters in game have enormous, lop-sided eyes, small heads, and even smaller bodies. They have adorable little outfits, complete with stripes. The girl shoppers in the game are bouncy and fun. The colors of the world are muted and many of the boards are in a simple monochromatic color scheme. The mix of adorable goo balls and surreal landscapes allow users to feel as if they are playing within the frames of a comic book. This feeling is reinforced by the chapters and changes that occur within the game.
The music is one of my favorite parts of the game. The soundtrack is reminiscent of Danny Elfman, the composer for the soundtracks of many of Tim Burton’s movies. The song – Going Up – is part waltz, part polytonal soundscape. It is like taking a ride on a carousel and then tilting your head back and just watching the colors spin together. Many of the songs in World of Goo are just as intense. The combination of industrial music, electronic, and ballads that tickle your heartstrings give just enough sense of urgency, a sense of empathy to the goo balls, that you need to save them. Being able to listen to the music alone is worth the price of the game.
The goal of the game is to save the goo. The game is divided into five chapters with each containing about 11 games. Each level has a set of goo, obstacles, and a pipe. The pipe, an onscreen vacuum, will suck the goo to safety. To pass through a level, a certain number of goo must be saved. The proper goo must be used in the correct order. The order depends on the puzzle. Some levels have timers that require goo to be saved. Goo can be used to build structures, towers, and bridges to pass through hazardous terrain. This is a very simplistic view of the game. Until it is played, any amount of description will never give users the same feel as participating the game.
The story is told in pieces by sarcastic signs placed by the goo puzzles. Some of them are funny and helpful. Some are frustratingly vague in helping users complete a puzzle. The sign painter can be silly and offer a lot of humor to tense situations that the game creates. The cut scenes help piece together what the signs are missing. Little bobble-headed children are running around, trying to go shopping. Your goo helps the Goo Corporation function.
The game cycles through seasons and industrial ages. The first stage is summer and it is a very happy scene. There is fall and the scenery becomes darker. As the user progresses, the changes become more apparent. Chapter Four is the most stunning change. The world changes from an industrial, dark age feel to a green and black grid. There are goo missiles and shooting trajectories that must be maneuvered to proper place goo. It is a huge change that makes you evaluate your current play style and adapt it to the new puzzle. There are achievements to be won, such as the OCD (obsessive Completion Distinction Criteria) for saving all the goo in a puzzle. This will eventually open new puzzles to the user.
The goo are utterly adorable, sticky blobs that can join together. There are a few main states of being goo. The stuck goo are pieces of goo that have been placed and are no longer useable, like when a child sticks gum to the bottom of a desk. While you can attach items to the gum, you would not want to play with it again. There are goo that are originally in an active state that can go into a stuck state or goo that is just part of the scenery. These are generally black in color. Other goo, such as the green goo, can be used and recycled as part of the game. They can work as anchors and then pulled back into the game to be used again. Green goo will unattach themselves after a period of time. If they are not reattached, there is a potential of losing your entire goo structure.
Goo structures are also affected by the wind, fire, spikes, and other hazardous items. The wind makes it difficult to anchor items. Some pink goo balloons will float away if not properly attached. The wind will make your creations wobble and sometimes collapse into itself, which at times, can be frustrating. The terrain can make moving goo difficult. There are chasms, hills, spikes, and cliffs that will cause players to lose goo, as well as mechanical cogs that have the potential of squishing your goo.
The types of goo are most exciting. Goo is not only used for creating structures. It can be used to float, detonate, or traverse across a screen. Pink goo balls will form balloons that can be placed in different areas to help support structures. Skull goo are adorable, bouncing balls that can handle touching sharp objects. They can also be used to float objects from one part of the screen to another. Red goo balls will ignite when used and make giant goo explosions. Clear goo acts like water – it can only bond in one direction. Goo will make noises, depending on what type they are. Some will giggle or cheer the user on. The water ones make dripping noises. The constant, cute chatter causes the users to feel like they are not just saving snot – they are saving cute pets that have their own personalities. Losing a goo ball is not just losing a point to gain a higher score – you are essentially losing a cog in the machine that will help you complete the chapter and move on. Every goo is important.
There is a two-player option that is as irritating as it is fun. Two people trying to position goo and reattach them properly is nearly impossible if players do not talk about their goals. At times, it seems better if one person plays instead of two. It can get very complicated when balls are being moved and structures are on the verge of imploding. Watching people play the game is as much fun as playing it. By standing back, you can see the potential of proper placement. While playing, it is easy to lose yourself inside the structure of goo, especially when pieces are floating off or your goo is being squished by cogs. By watching, many things can be noticed. If I was unable to complete a puzzle, I could watch another user attempt it. Even if the user did not complete the puzzle, I often had a better sense of the level.
Puzzles can be repeated. After become more proficient, I found that we could redo puzzles to receive a better score (and possibly receive the OCD title, which was not possible before). At times during my observation, I realized that the intent of the user is complicated by the game design. It caused some frustration. When the goo balls were wandering, sometimes on top of each other, the user may pick the wrong goo for placement. Even if the good intent was there, the structure could be compromised. I would recommend using darker colors that for anchors and lighter colors for unattached goo balls. It would be much easier for users to see the difference.
What did I learn from this game? Patience - this is not a game that can be rushed through and quickly won. It is a game that requires users to think about the path that they are taking and the means that will get them to the goal. Attaching balls together and hoping that the structure will work will not win the game.
It is obvious to me that a good amount of time was spent making sure that the artwork, music, and puzzles related to each other in some way. It made me think about why I place things in game or even in my papers. Sometimes the most elegant way is the simplest design. Every game design does not need to be fancy. It does need to have a consistent feeling of challenge and worth to the user. The challenge and frustration in the World of Goo keeps users trying to complete puzzles. Saving the balls of goo are just as fun as creating the structures to move them to safety. There are many clues in the game that will help a user along the correct path – it is the balance of making something obvious to the user but just on the tip of their brain. The World of Goo does a fantastic job of indirectly helping players work through the puzzles. Each skill builds on another as users work through the puzzles. It is not just making the puzzles harder – the best part is that the puzzles offer new ways for looking at solutions. The same solution will never be used more than once and the skills that you have learned help you get through the harder levels.
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