World of Goo
Encyclopedia
World of Goo is a physics
-based puzzle game by 2D Boy
, an independent game developer
consisting of Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, both former Electronic Arts
employees, released for Microsoft Windows
, Mac OS X
, Linux
, iOS, Android and WiiWare
. It was nominated for the Seumas McNally
grand prize, Design Innovation Award, and Technical Excellence at the Independent Games Festival
, and has gone on to win several other gaming awards since its release.
The game is built around the idea of creating large structures using balls of goo. The game is divided into five chapters, each containing several levels. Each level has its own graphic and musical theme, giving it unique atmosphere. 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.
Levels and chapters in the game are interspersed with cut scenes.
The WiiWare version includes multiplayer with up to four people on the same Wii. This facility is also available, albeit unsupported, in the Linux port.
seasons. The 4th chapter is seasonless, and is set in a virtual world.
An additional 'chapter' selectable 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 unique in that they can be repositioned like Ivy Goos but are black and can only form two connections at once like 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, including World of Goo Corporation.
In an interview the developers stated that the retail version released in Europe would receive an additional sixth chapter, set on the Moon. Few details were disclosed, but reportedly this chapter would have featured a freeform sandbox mode, similar to that of the World of Goo Corporation. This addition was, however, canceled for Wii when 2D Boy announced they were releasing the game on WiiWare in Europe.
known as the Sign Painter.
Initially, pipes appear throughout the land, waking up many sleeping Goo Balls who have gone undisturbed until this, as they are filled with a childlike sense of curiosity and naivety they build themselves towards the pipes. Upon reaching the pipe entrance, the Goo Balls are sucked by the pipe system into the "World of Goo Corporation" main building where they are processed into many products, for example an energy drink
. The excess Goo Balls are left outside the Corporation headquarters where they together begin to build a giant tower. At the end of the first chapter, some Goo Balls escape from a Corporation building by attaching themselves to eyeballs which have the ability to fly. The chapter ends with the Goo Balls "seeing far away new lands".
In the second chapter, more pipes appear in an impossibly windy desert where World of Goo Corporation turns out to be searching for a new power source due to wind power not being sufficient anymore. However, the location and appearance of the power source was forgotten, because in the past, it stopped producing electricity."Lately, its output has been less than satisfactory." -- Fly Away Little Ones, Little Miss World of Goo, World of Goo A new Goo Ball is introduced, which is ground up by the Corporation into a facial cream
. Near the end of the chapter, the power plant, which looks like a giant woman, is discovered. It is revealed that for many years, its tremendous "beauty juice" powered the world. Unfortunately, as the years went by, its energy started to die. Thanks to the Goo Balls' actions, however, it becomes operational again, causing the world to fill up with energy again. This energy, among other things, opens up a factory in the south.
During the third chapter it is said that the Corporation is developing a mysterious "Product Z". It eventually turns out that the mysterious Product Z is actually the third dimension (Product Z is the Z axis
in mathematics
). 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 after mankind, all animal and plant life becomes rendered "incompatible with the world".
In the fourth chapter the Goo Balls set out to find the mysterious "MOM" program amongst a vector style environment. Shortly after the beginning the Goo Balls find the object responsible for rendering all the graphics. After pumping many of their own kind into the object, the graphics rendering improves, creating a more realistic environment (and the Pixel Goo Balls). Near the end they encounter the MOM program, during a somewhat disturbing conversation with, turns out to be a spam bot. The Goo Balls try 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 Recycle Bin and un-deleting everything, World of Goo Corporation receives the mail and, unable to deal with so much spam and mail, explodes, shutting down Product Z while creating a massive layer of smog
, dust
, smoke
and debris
that envelops the entire world.
In the final chapter, it is revealed that all Goo Balls, except "scientifically pure" have been sucked away to the shattered pieces of the Corporation's Headquarters. The remaining Goo Balls decide to work their way up the island to reach a site where a telescope
is located. The final level of the game reveals that the Goo Balls are now completely extinct, all the remaining having been sucked away to the shattered remains of the World of Goo Corporation and added to the tower, and the gigantic telescope at the site has been rendered useless as it cannot see past the layer of smog. The Sign Painter reveals that in his final sign he has now become the Telescope Operator. Some balloon-like fish in the sea connect to the telescope and lift it out of the ground, where it breaks through the layer of smog and sees the tower of goo that has been built at the former World of Goo Corporation Headquarters, which can also see past the smog. The telescope falls back to earth before it could see what the Goo Balls were building towards. However, a final and last cutscene reveals their goal; the camera pans up into space to reveal that the Goo Balls that escaped at the end of Chapter 1 have managed to reach a far-off planet populated entirely by Goo Balls.
An additional chapter, located on the Moon, was initially planned for the European retail version of the game. This idea was put on hold as the developer felt they were rushing to finish extra content to justify the price, "If we release any additional content, we will make it available on all platforms, to all people, at the same time. No more of this “region” nonsense".
, a team based in San Francisco consisting only of former Electronic Arts
employees Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel. Carmel and Gabler estimated that development on World of Goo lasted two years and cost USD $10,000 of their personal savings, which included equipment, food, and rent. Actual development was usually carried out in coffeehouse
s equipped with Wi-Fi hotspot
s.
World of Goo was programmed using available open-source technologies, including Simple DirectMedia Layer
, Open Dynamics Engine
for physics
simulation
, TinyXML
for configuration files, Subversion, Mantis Bug Tracker, and PopCap Games Framework. Allan Blomquist, a friend of Gabler and Carmel, was responsible for porting
and optimizing the game for WiiWare
.
in North America
on October 13, 2008. The Mac OS X
version was released on November 2. The Linux
version was released February 13, 2009. After the initial release 2D Boy announced a bonus patch
called "Profanity Pack", which would "[replace] the normal voices in the game with naughty words." The patch would be made available to users who pre-ordered the game. As of September 2011, the patch has not been released.
2D Boy decided against placing DRM
protection on the PC versions, stating that "DRM is a futile attempt to prevent piracy, and it's expensive. Every game for which there is demand will be cracked
and find its way onto the scene, so why waste time and money trying to prevent the inevitable?" 2D Boy later reported that between one in five and one in ten copies of the PC versions had been legitimately purchased.
For the game's Europe
an release in December, 2D Boy depended upon the community to translate and localize World of Goo into the appropriate languages, including Dutch
, French
, German
, Italian
and Spanish
. During the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit
, Nintendo
announced that it would publish World of Goo in Japan
during the second quarter of 2009; the game was released on April 21, 2009 under the title .
World of Goo was made available through Microsoft's Windows Games on Demand
marketplace as a Games for Windows – Live title on December 15, 2009. World of Goo was also ported to iOS, available for purchase on both the iPad
and iPhone
by April 2011. On October 3, 2011, 2D Boy announced that they would port World of Goo to Android, with an expected release date of late 2011 or early 2012.
The song "World of Goo Beginning" was created with the intention of resembling Libertango
by Ástor Piazzolla
. "Regurgitation Pumping Station" was originally written for a friend's short film about going on a date with the devil
. "Threadcutter" was originally written for a game called Blow which Gabler made available on his site. "Rain Rain Windy Windy" was originally written for the soundtrack for a short children's film, commenting that writing children's music is difficult. "Jelly" was originally written for a short film about a virtual reality world. "Burning Man" was written for a friend's drama/mystery series. He made it by recording two friends singing single notes, and then using a keyboard to make it sound like a choir. "Cog in the Machine" was originally written for another game of his called Robot and the Cities who Built Him.
and Windows
versions of World of Goo received critical acclaim, holding an aggregate score from Metacritic
of 94/100 and 90/100 respectively. On GameRankings, it holds an aggregate score of 92.27% for the PC. Eurogamer
called World of Goo "Physics' latest, purest, and most brilliant gift." 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. 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." 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." Nintendo World Report
criticized 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." Resolution Magazine referred to it as "an instant classic," awarding it 90%. Official Nintendo Magazine awarded the Wii version a score of 95%, claiming it to be "Virtually flawless".
World of Goo has won many awards. It won Best Independent Game from the Spike TV
Video Game Awards show, and won six Wii-specific awards and one for the PC, including Best Puzzle Game, Best Artistic Design, Best WiiWare Game, Best New IP
, Most Innovative Design, and Game of the Year from IGN
. GameSpot
awarded it as the Best Game No One Played. It was featured in Eurogamer's top 50 games of 2008 in the tenth slot. Peter Moore, the head of EA Sports
, in a rant about FIFA 09
being missing from Eurogamer's list, commented that he was surprised World of Goo was included up so high in the list, despite not having played it. 2D Boy responded by saying they were honored that World of Goo had this much mainstream awareness, and that it derives sick pleasure from the "industry big-wig's indignant, self-righteous incredulity". In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die
.
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
-based puzzle game by 2D Boy
2D Boy
2D Boy is an American independent video game development company founded by Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, former Electronic Arts employees who left their jobs to form an independent development and production company....
, an independent game developer
Independent video game development
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
consisting of Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, both former Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
employees, released for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, iOS, Android and WiiWare
WiiWare
WiiWare is a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications can only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel under the WiiWare section...
. It was nominated for the Seumas McNally
Seumas McNally
Computer game programmer Seumas McNally , was the founder, president and lead programmer of independent game development company, Longbow Digital Arts...
grand prize, Design Innovation Award, and Technical Excellence at the Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
, and has gone on to win several other gaming awards since its release.
Overview
Objective
The main objective of the game is to get a requisite number of goo balls to a pipe representing the exit. In order to do so, the player must use the goo balls to construct bridges, towers, and other structures to overcome gravity and various terrain difficulties such as chasms, hills, spikes, or cliffs. There are several types of goo balls in the game, each of which has unique properties. The player must exploit combinations of these goo balls in order to complete each level. 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. Players can also try to achieve the "Obsessive Completion Distinction Flag" for each level by completing the level under more stringent criteria, 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.
The WiiWare version includes multiplayer with up to four people on the same Wii. This facility is also available, albeit unsupported, in the Linux port.
Levels
World of Goo is split up into five chapters, each containing a number of levels. The chapters are set over the course of one year in the World of Goo. Each chapter takes place over one season, beginning in the start of summer, and ending at the end of spring the next year.The last winter level, Product Launcher, has "happy new year" as its tagline. This is similar to Northern HemisphereNorthern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
seasons. The 4th chapter is seasonless, and is set in a virtual world.
An additional 'chapter' selectable 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 unique in that they can be repositioned like Ivy Goos but are black and can only form two connections at once like 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, including World of Goo Corporation.
In an interview the developers stated that the retail version released in Europe would receive an additional sixth chapter, set on the Moon. Few details were disclosed, but reportedly this chapter would have featured a freeform sandbox mode, similar to that of the World of Goo Corporation. This addition was, however, canceled for Wii when 2D Boy announced they were releasing the game on WiiWare in Europe.
Plot
The story is told primarily through the aforementioned cut scenes and signs encountered throughout the game, which were left by an unseen characterUnseen character
In fiction, an unseen character is a character that is never directly observed by the audience but is only described by other characters. They are a common device in drama and have been called "triumphs of theatrical invention". They are continuing characters — characters who are currently in...
known as the Sign Painter.
Initially, pipes appear throughout the land, waking up many sleeping Goo Balls who have gone undisturbed until this, as they are filled with a childlike sense of curiosity and naivety they build themselves towards the pipes. Upon reaching the pipe entrance, the Goo Balls are sucked by the pipe system into the "World of Goo Corporation" main building where they are processed into many products, for example an energy drink
Energy drink
Energy drinks are beverages whose producers advertise that they "boost energy." These advertisements usually do not emphasize energy derived from the sugar and caffeine they contain but rather increased energy release due to a variety of stimulants and vitamins....
. The excess Goo Balls are left outside the Corporation headquarters where they together begin to build a giant tower. At the end of the first chapter, some Goo Balls escape from a Corporation building by attaching themselves to eyeballs which have the ability to fly. The chapter ends with the Goo Balls "seeing far away new lands".
In the second chapter, more pipes appear in an impossibly windy desert where World of Goo Corporation turns out to be searching for a new power source due to wind power not being sufficient anymore. However, the location and appearance of the power source was forgotten, because in the past, it stopped producing electricity."Lately, its output has been less than satisfactory." -- Fly Away Little Ones, Little Miss World of Goo, World of Goo A new Goo Ball is introduced, which is ground up by the Corporation into a facial cream
Cosmetics
Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...
. Near the end of the chapter, the power plant, which looks like a giant woman, is discovered. It is revealed that for many years, its tremendous "beauty juice" powered the world. Unfortunately, as the years went by, its energy started to die. Thanks to the Goo Balls' actions, however, it becomes operational again, causing the world to fill up with energy again. This energy, among other things, opens up a factory in the south.
During the third chapter it is said that the Corporation is developing a mysterious "Product Z". It eventually turns out that the mysterious Product Z is actually the third dimension (Product Z is the Z axis
Cartesian coordinate system
A Cartesian coordinate system specifies each point uniquely in a plane by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are the signed distances from the point to two fixed perpendicular directed lines, measured in the same unit of length...
in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
). 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 after mankind, all animal and plant life becomes rendered "incompatible with the world".
In the fourth chapter the Goo Balls set out to find the mysterious "MOM" program amongst a vector style environment. Shortly after the beginning the Goo Balls find the object responsible for rendering all the graphics. After pumping many of their own kind into the object, the graphics rendering improves, creating a more realistic environment (and the Pixel Goo Balls). Near the end they encounter the MOM program, during a somewhat disturbing conversation with, turns out to be a spam bot. The Goo Balls try 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 Recycle Bin and un-deleting everything, World of Goo Corporation receives the mail and, unable to deal with so much spam and mail, explodes, shutting down Product Z while creating a massive layer of smog
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
, dust
Dust
Dust consists of particles in the atmosphere that arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind , volcanic eruptions, and pollution...
, smoke
Smoke
Smoke is a collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product of fires , but may also be used for pest...
and debris
Debris
Debris is rubble, wreckage, ruins, litter and discarded garbage/refuse/trash, scattered remains of something destroyed, or, in geology, large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc. The singular form of debris is debris...
that envelops the entire world.
In the final chapter, it is revealed that all Goo Balls, except "scientifically pure" have been sucked away to the shattered pieces of the Corporation's Headquarters. The remaining Goo Balls decide to work their way up the island to reach a site where a telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
is located. The final level of the game reveals that the Goo Balls are now completely extinct, all the remaining having been sucked away to the shattered remains of the World of Goo Corporation and added to the tower, and the gigantic telescope at the site has been rendered useless as it cannot see past the layer of smog. The Sign Painter reveals that in his final sign he has now become the Telescope Operator. Some balloon-like fish in the sea connect to the telescope and lift it out of the ground, where it breaks through the layer of smog and sees the tower of goo that has been built at the former World of Goo Corporation Headquarters, which can also see past the smog. The telescope falls back to earth before it could see what the Goo Balls were building towards. However, a final and last cutscene reveals their goal; the camera pans up into space to reveal that the Goo Balls that escaped at the end of Chapter 1 have managed to reach a far-off planet populated entirely by Goo Balls.
An additional chapter, located on the Moon, was initially planned for the European retail version of the game. This idea was put on hold as the developer felt they were rushing to finish extra content to justify the price, "If we release any additional content, we will make it available on all platforms, to all people, at the same time. No more of this “region” nonsense".
Development
World of Goo was developed by 2D Boy2D Boy
2D Boy is an American independent video game development company founded by Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, former Electronic Arts employees who left their jobs to form an independent development and production company....
, a team based in San Francisco consisting only of former Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
employees Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel. Carmel and Gabler estimated that development on World of Goo lasted two years and cost USD $10,000 of their personal savings, which included equipment, food, and rent. Actual development was usually carried out in coffeehouse
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
s equipped with Wi-Fi hotspot
Hotspot (Wi-Fi)
A hotspot is a site that offers Internet access over a wireless local area network through the use of a router connected to a link to an Internet service provider...
s.
World of Goo was programmed using available open-source technologies, including Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
, Open Dynamics Engine
Open Dynamics Engine
The Open Dynamics Engine is a physics engine in C/C++. Its two main components are a rigid body dynamics simulation engine and a collision detection engine...
for physics
Game physics
Computer animation physics or game physics involves the introduction of the laws of physics into a simulation or game engine, particularly in 3D computer graphics, for the purpose of making the effects appear more real to the observer...
simulation
Physics engine
A physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, such as rigid body dynamics , soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics, of use in the domains of computer graphics, video games and film. Their main uses are in video games , in which case the...
, TinyXML
TinyXML
TinyXML is a small, simple XML parser for the C++ language. It is free and open source software, distributed under the terms of the license of zlib/libpng.- Features :...
for configuration files, Subversion, Mantis Bug Tracker, and PopCap Games Framework. Allan Blomquist, a friend of Gabler and Carmel, was responsible for porting
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
and optimizing the game for WiiWare
WiiWare
WiiWare is a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications can only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel under the WiiWare section...
.
Release
World of Goo was first released both for Windows and WiiWareWiiWare
WiiWare is a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications can only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel under the WiiWare section...
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on October 13, 2008. The Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
version was released on November 2. The Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
version was released February 13, 2009. After the initial release 2D Boy announced a bonus patch
Patch (computing)
A patch is a piece of software designed to fix problems with, or update a computer program or its supporting data. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, and improving the usability or performance...
called "Profanity Pack", which would "[replace] the normal voices in the game with naughty words." The patch would be made available to users who pre-ordered the game. As of September 2011, the patch has not been released.
2D Boy decided against placing DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
protection on the PC versions, stating that "DRM is a futile attempt to prevent piracy, and it's expensive. Every game for which there is demand will be cracked
Software cracking
Software cracking is the modification of software to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software, usually related to protection methods: copy protection, trial/demo version, serial number, hardware key, date checks, CD check or software annoyances...
and find its way onto the scene, so why waste time and money trying to prevent the inevitable?" 2D Boy later reported that between one in five and one in ten copies of the PC versions had been legitimately purchased.
For the game's Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an release in December, 2D Boy depended upon the community to translate and localize World of Goo into the appropriate languages, including Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. During the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit
D.I.C.E. Summit
D.I.C.E. Summit is an annual multi-day gathering of video game executives held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Established in 2002 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the conference is host to the annual Entertainment Software Association's Interactive Achievement Awards...
, Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
announced that it would publish World of Goo in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
during the second quarter of 2009; the game was released on April 21, 2009 under the title .
World of Goo was made available through Microsoft's Windows Games on Demand
Windows Games on Demand
This is a list of 212 released and 13 upcoming Games on Demand for the Microsoft Windows platform.-See also:*Xbox 360 Games on Demand*Games for Windows – Live*List of Games for Windows – Live titles*List of Games for Windows titles*Live Anywhere...
marketplace as a Games for Windows – Live title on December 15, 2009. World of Goo was also ported to iOS, available for purchase on both the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
and iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
by April 2011. On October 3, 2011, 2D Boy announced that they would port World of Goo to Android, with an expected release date of late 2011 or early 2012.
Sequel
2D Boy initially stated that they will not be producing a sequel. In a November 2010 entry on the World of Goo blog Kyle Gabler stated that "a second World of Goo is a possibility, and something we would enjoy working on." In addition, the community has already developed tools to expand the game, with a number of new levels and modules released on GooFans.com.Soundtrack
The World of Goo soundtrack was created by Kyle Gabler, who also designed, wrote and illustrated the game. It was released as a free download on 20 January 2009.The song "World of Goo Beginning" was created with the intention of resembling Libertango
Libertango
Libertango is a composition by tango composer Ástor Piazzolla, recorded and published in 1974.The title is a portmanteau merging "Libertad" and "Tango", symbolizing Piazzolla's break from Classical Tango to Tango Nuevo....
by Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...
. "Regurgitation Pumping Station" was originally written for a friend's short film about going on a date with the devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
. "Threadcutter" was originally written for a game called Blow which Gabler made available on his site. "Rain Rain Windy Windy" was originally written for the soundtrack for a short children's film, commenting that writing children's music is difficult. "Jelly" was originally written for a short film about a virtual reality world. "Burning Man" was written for a friend's drama/mystery series. He made it by recording two friends singing single notes, and then using a keyboard to make it sound like a choir. "Cog in the Machine" was originally written for another game of his called Robot and the Cities who Built Him.
Reception
Both WiiWii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
versions of World of Goo received critical acclaim, holding an aggregate score from Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
of 94/100 and 90/100 respectively. On GameRankings, it holds an aggregate score of 92.27% for the PC. Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
called World of Goo "Physics' latest, purest, and most brilliant gift." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
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. 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." 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
said "World of Goo isn't "just" anything—except, that is, one of just a handful of truly excellent original games for the Wii." Nintendo World Report
Nintendo World Report
Nintendo World Report is a Nintendo-specific video game website that covers Nintendo's current consoles, the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, and Wii.-History:...
criticized 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." Resolution Magazine referred to it as "an instant classic," awarding it 90%. Official Nintendo Magazine awarded the Wii version a score of 95%, claiming it to be "Virtually flawless".
World of Goo has won many awards. It won Best Independent Game from the Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
Video Game Awards show, and won six Wii-specific awards and one for the PC, including Best Puzzle Game, Best Artistic Design, Best WiiWare Game, Best New IP
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, Most Innovative Design, and Game of the Year from IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
awarded it as the Best Game No One Played. It was featured in Eurogamer's top 50 games of 2008 in the tenth slot. Peter Moore, the head of EA Sports
EA Sports
EA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA Sports Network" with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John...
, in a rant about FIFA 09
FIFA 09
FIFA 09 is the 2008 installment of Electronic Arts' FIFA series of football video games. Developed by EA Canada, it is published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. It was released in October 2008 for Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii,...
being missing from Eurogamer's list, commented that he was surprised World of Goo was included up so high in the list, despite not having played it. 2D Boy responded by saying they were honored that World of Goo had this much mainstream awareness, and that it derives sick pleasure from the "industry big-wig's indignant, self-righteous incredulity". In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die
Quintessence Editions Ltd.
Quintessence Editions Ltd. is a publishing company based in London which is the originator of the "1001 Before You Die" series. Typically, the titles in this series are intended as reference books. They are illustrated books authored by multiple contributors...
.