Let's get ready to goo it again

December 8, 2023 5:11 AM

Hello! It's been awhile
15 years in fact!
I hope you've been well
Me? I don't like talking about myself
Not directly anyway
The goo balls are doing fine
Better than that, they have a new game
Coming in 2024
WORLD OF GOO 2
I hope you'll enjoy it, I'll see you soon
Signed, the Sign Painter
posted by JHarris (20 comments total)

I thought hard about all the vertical space in this post before I made it, it seemed necessary in this case to preserve the Sign Painter's style.
posted by JHarris at 5:15 AM on December 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

Wow, this is great news, thanks!

I just got the old Bridge Constructor games set up for my kid. While they are good and fun, they lack some of the playful joy of discovery in physics that World of Goo gave me. (I still have that on Wii but wasn't planning on hooking it up until next year :)
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:17 AM on December 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

The style of physics in World of Goo, and its predecessor Tower of Goo, date all the way back to the SodaConstructor website and Java applet, which sadly have been missing from the internet for two long ages now.
posted by JHarris at 5:24 AM on December 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

One of the three dimensions may have been lost, due to a catastrophic rounding error
posted by mittens at 5:31 AM on December 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

I noticed that little line, at the end of the trailer, too, hah!
posted by JHarris at 5:34 AM on December 8, 2023

I loved the crap out of the first one. This is such good news.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 5:58 AM on December 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed the first game, but "physics" is my least favorite style of puzzle game these days. Dunno if I feel compelled to pick up this new one. Hope it's good, at any rate.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:06 AM on December 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I loved the first game too. I don't know what it is but somehow the music manages to do a huge amount of world-building in their games.
posted by Alex404 at 6:38 AM on December 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

This is such goo news!
posted by oulipian at 6:55 AM on December 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

World Of Goo is one of those games that just keeps coming in charity bundles, on new platforms, etc.

Night In The Woods, Baba Is You, there are a handful of games like this where my only question really is "I wonder how many times I'm going to buy this."
posted by mhoye at 7:08 AM on December 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

One of the few games I've allowed myself to install and play, because I have a real issue with video game obsession. But this one was charming and didn't make me totally obsessed and was a lot of fun. I'll be curious to try this new one!
posted by hippybear at 8:20 AM on December 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

And it occurs to me, macOS has updated since I last ran World Of Goo, so I have no idea if I can even run it anymore. I suppose I could go to Steam and see if I can redownload it.

It's one of the few videogame soundtrack albums I have in my iTunes, too.
posted by hippybear at 8:32 AM on December 8, 2023

Shut up and take my money.gif
posted by Frayed Knot at 8:35 AM on December 8, 2023

Mamma mia! Here we goo again!
posted by mhum at 12:17 PM on December 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

> The style of physics in World of Goo, and its predecessor Tower of Goo, date all the way back to the SodaConstructor website and Java applet, which sadly have been missing from the internet for two long ages now.

Someone has a reimplemented Soda Constructor on their blog!
posted by rivenwanderer at 1:01 PM on December 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

So, it took a ridiculous amount of effort due to Steam being really really tetchy about trying to restore an account, but I did get my steam restored and my purchases and many of them will still run on this machine! World Of Goo has been reinstalled and I will waste some amount of time on it in the near future, I am certain.
posted by hippybear at 7:08 PM on December 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I hear you about getting too obsessed with particular games hippybear. You might be interested in Little Inferno, which has a similar aesthetic, and is basically just a game about burning things in a fireplace.
posted by JHarris at 7:20 PM on December 8, 2023

You might be interested in Little Inferno, which has a similar aesthetic,

Little Inferno was developed by some of the same people who did World of Goo, so not surprising you'd recommend it as a similar game. The same devs also developed 7 Billion Humans and Human Resource Machine, both of which are great intros into general logic and some of the thought processes that go into coding.

I really, really like these quirky games with some dark humor. Are there any other recommended games in this "odd, quirky, darkly humorous" genre?
posted by ensign_ricky at 3:16 AM on December 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

(If you have netflix, and a phone, you can get World of Goo (the first one, remastered) for free!) (as I found out last night!) (it's also on the switch but then you gotta pay money for it)
posted by mittens at 6:19 AM on December 9, 2023

If you have netflix, and a phone, you can get World of Goo for free!

Teleport this sentence back to 1996 and see where it gets you!
posted by hippybear at 9:05 PM on December 9, 2023 [1 favorite]