Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Whenever I try new games, I look for game design lessons I can learn for my own projects.
World of Goo has strong user interface, gameplay progression and atmosphere, so I looked at
these aspects to figure out why they are so successful.
Let's start with the user interface.
The cursor is a black circle with a short trail which makes it fun to move around.
It has a grey outline which makes it easy to see, even on dark backgrounds.
When you pick up a ball the usual cursor disappears so you can better see what you're doing.
As you move a ball around it squashes and stretches along the velocity vector, a fundamental
technique in animation that adds life and realism to these objects.
Releasing the goo balls is made more juicy, so to speak, by adding a small shower of little
droplet particles.
When the selected ball is held near a connected structure, ghostly lines appear to show how
it will attach.
These lines shrink into nothing as the ball moves out of range, giving an analog indication
of how far they can stretch, instead of just a binary indication of whether it can attach
or not.
The menu interface is also very clear, every button shows exactly what it will do and then
gives feedback to reinforce what it did.
The transitions between screens are fast and entertaining, disguising load times of animations
and title screens.
Now let's move on to gameplay progression.
This is the first level. It is interesting because it never pulls you
out of the game to say 'this is what to do.'
You're expected to experiment and figure it out, and look at the sign in the background
if you're totally confused.
'Drag n' drop to build to the pipe,' that's really all you need to know. You can figure
out all the details just by looking at what happens now.
This screen makes it obvious that the goal is to collect as many Goo balls as you can,
as fast as you can, with as few moves as possible.
Show, don't tell, its a cliché but true.
Watch how we're shown which level we've unlocked.
This is my favorite transition in the game.
It is very hard to smoothly bring the player back to the world map,
and this underground pipe transition really keeps the sense of momentum and attachment.
Each level in the first island exists to teach the player about a different gameplay mechanic.
What is special here is that they serve as guides rather than school teachers, for example
this level tells you that you can build bridges but it doesn't teach you how, you have to
figure that out for yourself.
Figuring out how to do these things is really why this game is fun and rewarding.
What's interesting about this level is that they don't tell you that these spinning blades
are fatal to your goo balls.
What they do tell you is that you can click on these bugs flying around to go back in
time, and of course you'll use that after you kill your guys for the first time.
These new mechanics are also always only part of the objective, like here you have to wake
up these goo balls below but you also have to build to the pipe above.
Every time they introduce some weird new strategy, it's one more tool they can use on the
later levels to make it hard without being unfair.
In this level a sign tells you that you can click to draw the balls closer to the cursor,
but they don't tell you why, so you have to figure that out.
By making the tutorial fun, you can make a complicated game that appeals to everyone.
By slowly building up the player's skill in a fun way, you can end up making really complicated
level like this one, and it won't feel unfair, it will just be a natural progression of the
player's skill set.
To make absolutely sure that a player can't get stuck permanently, there is a limited
number of skips you have to skip levels entirely.
Conversely, if it's too easy, you can try for the OCD requirement, or Obsessive Completion
Distinction Criteria.
My favorite hint in this game, is a level titled, 'You Have To Explode The Head.'
This is a new mechanic, and, without that titled I'd have no idea what I was supposed
to do.
That brings us to atmosphere.
Let's look at a few different levels, and just see how different they are.
This level here shows of the layering techniques that they use to achieve rich and active looking
backgrounds.
Lets look at these layers one at a time from back to front.
First there's this yellow, red, and black gradient which forms the background of the
entire level.
Next are these rotating wheels and gears.
Then come these volumetric spotlight effects which help make the room look smoky.
Next we have the fire layer which consists of a number of particles shot upwards.
Then comes the middle layer with the level itself, including the walls and all of the
static objects like pipes and spikes.
Next, we have the active objects like the Goo balls and their structures.
In front of that, there are even more volumetric light effects, like this glowing sphere.
Finally, there are these little black soot particles that are flying upwards, and crossbeams
across the front of the entire level.
All of these layers add up to make a really active looking level which reinforces the
industrial theme of this island.
The cold snowy exterior serves to contrast the fiery levels and make them feel even hotter.
There are a couple of other graphical techniques that I thought worth mentioning.
First, each Goo ball casts a shadow around it that is masked to the level layer.
This is a very efficient technique that helps make these layers look like they exist in
the same space.
Second, the extreme foreground and distant objects are usually blurred.
This serves two purposes.
First, it shows that it's in the distance and we don't have to care about it.
Second, it allows them to use smaller, more efficient images.
Having strong atmosphere doesn't just mean looking and sounding good.
Each island here has a specific theme to it, and each level on each island serves to expand
on that theme and tell a story.
The theme and story are supported not only by the graphics and music, but also by the
level itself.
Here is an example of a level with a theme of making sacrifices to achieve fame.
An open minded literary critic could have a field day trying to analyze the symbolism
of that level, but I'm not going to go into that.
The level design, story, art and music in this game fit together very well.
I'm not sure how they got such great communication between those departments...
...Well I guess that explains it.
Well that's about all I have to say about World of Goo.
I hope you enjoyed my first game design tour.