Goo balls connect to each other, allowing you to create structures that goo balls not used for the construction of the structure travel through. The goal of every level is to get the goo balls to the pipe at the end, a few end of chapter parts switch up the goal, but the method to accomplish that goal is always the same. The smooth and occasionally bouncy soundtrack helps, never distracting you too much while you’re trying to figure out a solution. This all helps the game create a sense of personality all its own, only recaptured in Gabler’s later projects, and it makes the main puzzle gameplay more enjoyable in the process. Even the art has an ugly yet cute quality to it, never going into full cynical satire while remaining critical of various aspects of modern life. The environmental and economic commentary is very blunt, but in a charming and quirky wrapping, complete with cute self-aware jokes and fun alliteration that humanizes the world and everyone living in it. Little living goo blobs start to venture through the world, reaching for odd pipes littered through the land, and its eventually revealed that the powerful World of Goo Corporation is gathering the goo blobs to create energy sources and different commercial products (a thinly veiled commentary on the oil industry and crass consumerism). The game’s narrative is expressed like you’re being read a story book, with bits of writing mixed in during stages given by signs created by the mysterious sign painter. It was a perfect storm, further strengthened by the novelty of the game itself, both in its mechanics and its very anti-capitalist personality shaped by Gabler’s art and writing. The end result was a wild success, getting strong word of mouth not just through the game’s quality and the novelty of being an independent release on the Wii’s online store, but also for refusing to put in DRM during a time when that practice was just starting to become a major controversy in the gaming world. Created by a small team, 2D Boy, led by two dissatisfied EA employees named Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, World of Goo took two years, roughly $10,000 dollars, and a lot of coffee shop visits to finish. World of Goo is, without a doubt, one of the single most important modern indie games, released in 2008 and one of the first to kick off the 2010s indie boom.
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