Paranoia and Awe in IGF 2008
Ok, almost two weeks after the fact, time to update the blog - “Breaking NEWS!! We entered World of Goo in IGF!!!!1“. There were 173 games submitted, more than any other year, and holy crap are there some good ones. (Not to mention Edmund submitted like ten games, Petri used his magician skills to whip up a surprise, and Data and his army of cortex commanders aren’t messing around this year) It’s scary and encouraging how indie talent and capabilities seem to be accelerating non-linearly. And here I was secretly hoping everyone would forget about IGF this year and World of Goo would be the only game submitted, resulting in a courageous victory-by-default!!
We submitted “Chapter 1: The Goo Filled Hills” of (about) 5 chapters. Each chapter contains 12-15 levels tied together by a sub story arc. Even though it’s just an early demo, I always feel paranoid and self conscious when releasing stuff like this. Because it’s “not done yet”, and “omfg what if they judge it” But whatev, this has all been fun so far, and it forced us to make a bunch of those tiny lingering game decisions that we never would have gotten around to if we didn’t have a deadline. Like “What color is a level title’s font?” became “lively white on black in front of some mysteriously parting bushes”. It’s that last 10%…
It’s nice to be back and making stuff in the indie scene again. And to put a little cherry on top, I totally beat (yeah I said beat) Cave Story and am now working on the Welcome to Hell ending, so watch out Derek Yu! I swear enemies in that game make the same damage sound as the bosses in Zelda: Link’s Awakening for gb… Game’s got a lot of heart.
October 14th, 2007 at 7:31 am
Good luck ^^ I can’t wait for a demo, this thing just looks awesome. I also don’t think that you have to hope that no one else challenges in order to win… oO
October 15th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Hehe noticed that too how much games Edmund submitted, oh and trust Data is gonna kick asses with CC, so much improvements oh and go World Of Goo.
October 19th, 2007 at 7:59 am
You’re right about the amount of insanely good indie stuff exploding, frealz. So much good stuff is bubbling up. I can’t wait to see how Braid and WoG do once they get into everyone’s hands. Apparently Portal is doing well :P. Also *slings butter Kyle’s way* having played teh ‘Gooz, the level of polish is…well…back o’ the neck tinglies, I tell you!
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:12 am
Yeah, Cave Story is a real gem of a game… It’s almost TOO good. In fact, without that game, I would have done a lot better in school last year… It sort of bothers me that although I beat the “regular game,” in order to save the girl, I have to beat the (pretty much) impossible level. I just sort of gave up. But wow, what a game.
And World of Goo looks pretty awesome! Good luck!