With this presentation, I will engage in an in-depth close reading of the game, World of Goo, in order to parse out various meanings I found in the experience of playing the game. I approach the experience from the perspective of how its narrative development and game design help a player learn how to play the game. Sequences in the game will be played and analyzed in detail in order to illustrate and interpret how these various components of the game come together to create a fulfilling playing experience that leads to a literacy and mastery of the gameplay mechanics. I’m currently editing a book with a group of authors performing similar analyses of various videogames. The goal of this book is to help develop and define a literacy of games as well as a sense of their value as an experience. Videogames are a complex medium that merits careful interpretation and insightful analysis.

1. From Experimental Gameplay to the Wonderful
and How Physics is Your Friend

2. Analysis
• Narrative Development & Game Design
• Literacy & Mastery of Gameplay
• Learning Units – Flow
• Themes

3. Narrative

4. Gameplay

6. Analysis
• Cultural Buzz
– Media Attention
– Industry Interest
• Development Process
– Indie
– Beta Testing
• Playing Experience
– Game & Story
– Variations on Gameplay

7. Full Disclosure
• I know Kyle (ETC)
• Participated in Beta Testing (PC)
• Played Tower of Goo (Unlimited) countless times
• Played Chapter 1 Demo about 6 times
• Recorded complete Play Through for Beta Testing
• Completed Gold Candidate
• Played various Levels multiple times
• Honored to receive Special Thanks
• No Major Spoilers

10. Going Up
Play

11. Impale Sticky
Play

12. Fisty’s Bog
Play

13. Buzz
• Media Attention
– Blogs
– News
• Industry Interest
– Conferences
– Articles
– Awards
• Community
– Forums
– Fansites

14. Shirts

15. Tower of Goo

16. Tower of Goo
• Play

17. Experimental Gameplay Project
• Student-Pitched Project at the ETC @ CMU
• 4 Grad Students Prototyping Games
– Kyle Gabler, Kyle Gray, Matt Kucic, Shalin Shodhan
• 3 rules: Each Game must be...
– Made in less than 7 Days
– Made by exactly 1 Person
– Based around a Common Theme
• Over 50 Games during the Semester

18. experimentalgameplay.com

20. 2D Boy
• Kyle Gabler
– Design, Art, Music and Story
• Ron Carmel
– Programming and Production
• “... making games the old fashioned way –
a team of two, no money, and a whole lot of ‘love’...”

21. 2dboy.com

23. World of Goo
• “World of Goo is a physics based puzzle /
construction game. The millions of Goo Balls that
live in the beautiful World of Goo don't know that
they are in a game, or that they are extremely
delicious.”

24. The Game
• 4 Chapters, an Epilogue and a MetaGame
– + Additional Chapter for European Release
• 48 Levels
• @ 25 types of Goo
• @ 10-12 hours
• Metagame Leaderboard
• 3 profiles
– # of Goo Balls
– Time Units

26. Beauty School
• Play

27. Whistler
• Play

28. The Red Carpet
• Play

29. Gameplay Mechanic

30. Gameplay Mechanic

31. Gameplay Variations
• Goos
• Levels
• Islands

32. Goos!
Common Albino Ivy Water
Balloon Fuse Pokey Bone
...and Many More!

33. Levels
• Construction
• Directions
• Navigation

34. Islands
• Chapter 1 – “The Goo Filled Hills”
• Chapter 2 – “Little Miss World of Goo”
• Chapter 3 – “Cog in the Machine”
• Chapter 4 – “Information Superhighway”
• Epilogue – “End of the World”
• World of Goo Corporation
• Tower of Goo Memorial Park and Recreation Center
• * Additional Chapter – “The Moon 2.0” *

36. Burning Man
• Play

37. Misty’s Long Bony Road
• Play

38. You Have to Explode the Head
• Play

39. Playful Story
• Satirically Elliptical
• Ambiguously Ominous
• Constructively Gooey

40. Satirically Elliptical

41. Ambiguously Ominous

42. Constructively Gooey

44. Chapter 4
Super Secret Surprise

45. Information Superhighway
• Show

46. Experiential Themes
• Trickster Humor
• Friendly Physics
• GooPunk World

47. Trickster Humor

48. Physics is Your Friend

49. GooPunk World

51. Infesty the Worm
• Show

52. Weather Vane
• Show

53. Horizontal Transportation Innovation Committee
• Show

54. Literacy & Mastery
• Flow across Learning Units
– Sometimes Interrupted
• Trickster Humor
• Variations on Gameplay
• Physics is Your Friend
• GooPunk World
• Goo is Elliptically Ambiguous and Ominously Constructive as Satire
– Open-Ended

55. Ludic Narrens
• Homo Ludens
+
• Homo Narrens
=
• Ludic Narrens
=
• World of Goo

58. Tower of Goo Memorial Park and Recreation Center
• Play

59. Quality
• Polish across the Board
– Game Design
– Art Direction
– Music & Sound
– Story
– Technical
• Independent Revolution

60. • World of Goo
• Release on 10/13!
• Wiiware
– 1500 Points
• PC
– $20
• Mac / Linux
– Shortly After

61. And So...
• Interpret & Analyze
• Buzz & Dev
• Narrative & Gameplay, Learning Units
• Meaning & Themes, Literacy & Mastery
• Well Played
– ETC Press
• etc.cmu.edu/etcpress

62. Questions?