two weeks have gone by and world of goo is now 5 weeks old.  as a screenshot, it hasn’t changed much in two weeks, but it feels completely different when you play it.  you can download this build here.

since we knew that the game would be some collection of puzzles, or levels, we needed to start defining what a level is in order to start working on level design.  if you look inside this build you’ll see our first attempt to define the level format.  it’s in <root>/res/levels/GooHill/GooHill.xml.  this level format allows us to create layers at different depths for a parallax effect (see the clouds?) and to define the physical geometry from which the actual structure of the level is comprised.  press CTRL+ALT+D to enable debug mode and see the physical geometry.  also added force and velocity vectors to visual debugging.

but the main focus of these two weeks was to bring the goo balls to life.  the ball definition file (<root>/res/balls/balls.xml) was enhanced  to allow for balls with “moving parts”.  eyes and pupils were added, the goo balls look where they’re going, glance around, and stare at you when you mouse over them.  their eyes jiggle when you move them around to make them feel more squishy and juicy and they have different animations for different parts in different states (falling, attached, walking, etc).  there’s also the first attempt at making them cast shadows, which was super simple but had serious limitations.  another new thing in this version is the ability to throw the balls around.  it adds absolutely nothing to how you play the game, but it feels good.  that’s probably the most important thing i learned from kyle so far, that game design is more about crafting an experience than perfecting a game mechanic.

GameTrailers is hosting a World of Goo contest and inviting everyone to submit videos of their gooey and goo-like creations. Check out the amazing prize packages they’re offering…

The grand prize for each of the two categories is:

• A trip for 2 to Los Angeles during E3 2009 and visit the GT office
• 10,000 Nintendo Points™
• Wii™ System
• Nintendo DSi™ system
• 52″ Flat Screen Sharp TV
• Bose® – CineMate® Digital Home Theater Speaker System

Two runner ups in each category will each receive:

• Wii™ system
• Nintendo DSi™ system
• 10,000 Nintendo Points™

The deadline for entry is April 10 and winners are announced on April 14.  Hey, GameTrailers, can Kyle and I enter this contest too?

it’s september 1, 2006, and we’re now slightly past the get-something-on-the-screen phase.

notes from ron: i’ve played around with the physics a bit, added the walking logic for the balls, and got rid of the awful aliasing around the balls and strands.  the main drive was simply to get things looking a little more “presentable”.  if you run the code (here’s a download link) you can hit CTRL+ALT+D to enable debug mode.  it’ll look something like this:

those lines and numbers are visual aids for debugging the balls’ walking and climbing logic.  in-game visual debugging is an amazing tool that we don’t see used often enough.  a bug that might take hours of stepping through code to figure out could be instantly seen with the right kind of visualization.

Notes from Kyle: The background image in the above early version was the first piece of art that we thought might be “final” – essentially a softer, “more casual” (because we originally thought we were making a casual game, like bejeweled) version of the original Tower of Goo prototype over there on the right. ->

I still sucked as an artist, and had not yet discovered Photoshop’s wonderful vector technology! The art here was all drawn with a mouse and Photoshop’s paint brush, and carefully tweaked and tuned to look like vector art. A lot of effort, for minimal payoff. This art style was unsustainable, and unimpressive. But at the time, we thought the game was looking mighty shiny.

In the original Tower of Goo prototype, Goo Balls didn’t have eyes! They must have had internal gyroscopes to know which way was up. And to answer a question in the comments, yep, the Tower of Goo prototype came before the peewee prototype. It was the little toy that made us think making a game about sticky balls might be possible! And if you’re not the ESRB, listen carefully to the voices…