World of Goo Teams Up With Nature, Borrows Liberally
Apparently ants build bridges and structures using their own living bodies as a way to optimize their foraging path. Good thing humans invented steel and math. I just discovered this ant ability this morning, but look at how much we totally ripped off mother nature! Or maybe she bought the Chapter 1 preview, we may never know!
Ivy Towers
Ode to the Bridge Builder
Scientific Research Chain:
http://blogs.sun.com/rama/entry/world_of_goo
http://thinkorthwim.com/2007/05/28/ants-using-themselves-as-living-bridges/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6692853.stm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seethis/453390616/sizes/l/
http://undergrowth.org/ant_bridge
March 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hey, us humans are not so bad at it either!
http://media3.guzer.com/pictures/cool_human_bridge.jpg
We’re can be like goo, too!
March 11th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
thx for the acknowledgment- does this mean my RFEs via the beta mailing list get top priority? ;)
March 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Yep. I think we’re also putting in the frequently requested whistle! Thanks for discovering the ants. :)
I remember now, in the opening of the movie “Antz” (with a Z) (or that other movie about ants that came out at the same time as that pixar one about ants), a bunch of them crawl all over each other and create a wrecking ball out of their little living CG selves and smash through something. Level ideas are everywhere!
March 11th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
As a fan of “SimAnt” ~90% of the manual for that game was ant info. They covered this. Army ants will even form themselves in to a ball with the queen @ the center to protect her @ night. Tumbler right there! :D
March 11th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
you could also look at bee communication for inspiration. it’d be sweet if goo could communicate to each other with a little dance or something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_learning_and_communication
March 12th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Ants do other shapes too that remind me of one of the levels in chapter 1.
They also make big ‘ant balls’ to float over water:
http://claycoleman.tripod.com/id180.htm
:)
-Kees
March 12th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Hehehe. Goo like ants.
Good to hear you’re putting in the whistle, It’ll be very useful.
Also, wrecking ball is an excellent idea. You’d have to have a way to make it swing though… perhaps do the level with green/detachable gooballs, then you could pull out one strategic gooball and watch the whole thing swing!
PS: awesome picture of the human bridge there.
March 14th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Oh noes. Now I am sad ;(
Do you tell me that I kill the cute little goo-balls by placing them in awesome structures? I cannot do that! That is racist. Black goo-balls die, while the green goo-balls keep on living. :x
March 17th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Wow! That’s quite a resemblance there. Do you think you’ll ever come out with an expansion pack that turns the goo balls into ants? That might be cool. :)
I also like the goo wrecking ball idea.