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I am making a series of videos deconstructing the game design aspects of other games, starting with World of Goo. I hope you like it! You can see the full video here: youtube.com/watch?v=XAoW9fjKmo4&fmt=22

Check out our blog at blog.wolfire.com/ to see more videos like this when they are done, and to see Kyle Gabler's response to this one! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss them!

You can get the demo for World of Goo at 2dboy.com/games.php

Credits

88 Likes

  • Lucas Orsvärn 11 months ago
    This was really interesting! Thanks.
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  • Jeffrey Rosen 11 months ago
    Sweet
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  • John Doe 11 months ago
    Great analysis
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  • Chris Dary 11 months ago
    Very well thought out analysis! Also, now I really want to play the game. :P
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  • Nick Orrick 11 months ago
    well done
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  • bookhling 11 months ago
    I was on the fence, but now I know I need to play this game. Great job.
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  • Tony Clavelli 11 months ago
    Nice analysis of a really brilliant game. I had more fun with it than many full-price games, and it was cool to hear a breakdown of the reasons why it was so good.
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  • Avi Flax 11 months ago
    Excellent analysis! I love this game!
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  • djcramer 11 months ago
    That was a very well put together movie and even though I've been playing the game it made me want to go play some more. Thanks for a great movie.
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  • Mikkel Nielsen 11 months ago
    Very nice, but you should maybe have a level-objective spoiler alert? :-)
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  • Aubrey Hesselgren 11 months ago
    Good work picking out some very nice design choices. Although I believe that this game has one of the nicest interfaces around, I got my dad to try it, and despite being a fore-runner in CAD circles, he spent a long time clicking and dragging on menu icons in order to move them around, and misinterpreting signals in the game, and completely, *completely* ignoring the tutorial signs in the background... like they were invisible or something. He's not well versed in gaming conventions, so what seems really obvious and well designed to me and you is a paradigm shift in thinking for him. Funny/frustrating to watch him work out what the flies do - he was convinced that they were making his bridge stronger some how (they don't of course. They simply remove a blob, making the overall structure weight less and thus typically make it feel stronger).

    The guys have done everything they possibly could have done to make this game easy for everyone to pick up and understand, but the truth is, there comes a point (or user) where your barrier to entry is already tissue thin, and there is nothing extra you can do to get them to understand what's going on.

    As Ellington's first rule of design posits: "You can make it fool proof, but you can't make it cunt proof."
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  • Gerardo Cotera 11 months ago
    Nice!
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  • John 11 months ago
    Nice work David!
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  • Benoit FOULETIER 10 months ago
    Quite interesting, subscribing to your blog right now!

    Regarding the "You have to explode the head" level, I believe the name is also a reference to the game You have to burn the rope... beware, indie culture emerging! ;)
    Except in YHTBTR, the instruction actually backfires instead of helping you, so it's kind of a twisted double pun thing... at first I thought it was a trap and you had to NOT explode the head.
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  • eightohnine 10 months ago
    Great analysis!
    Makes me want to play the game again.
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  • Vladekk 10 months ago
    Interesting to watch while playing the game ;-)
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