What is a Goo Ball?

The answer may seem obvious, but if you're new to editing World of Goo levels then there are some types of Goo Ball you probably won't be familiar with.
Things that you might not know are Goo Balls, but are.

  • The Squares and Rectangles in "Graceful Failure"
  • Timebugs
  • Fixed Anchor Points
  • The UndeletePill and the mass of Spam Envelopes in "Deliverance"
  • The Applications and Games folders that create the window blocks in "MOM"

All these things are Goo Balls, along with the ones you'll know like "Ivy" and "Fuse". The different types of Goo Balls

Adding Goo Balls (aka BallInstance) to your level


The Goo-lbar allows you add any of the common types of Goo Ball from the original game. You can also add any other type of Goo Ball that came with the game, or a custom one you have made yourself, just add any Goo Ball from the toolbar, then change its type attribute to the type you want.

Goo Balls can be selected and moved with the mouse in the Level View. Square balls (Bone, BlockHead, RectHead etc) can also be rotated using the mouse.
You can Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete the selected Goo Ball using the toolbars, menus or the usual keyboard shortcut. Note: Pasted Goo Balls will appear exactly on top of the Copied one. So you should spread them out afterwards.

Connecting them together

Goo Balls can be connected together using Strands. The easiest way to do this is using the new "Strand Mode"
All you need to do is click on a Goo Ball and drag the rubberband line to another Goo Ball. If a Strand is too long, it be shown in red.
Some types of Goo Ball cannot have Strands (Beauty's, Blocks etc) the editor will prevent you from connecting these types of Goo Ball together.
Strands can be removed by simply selecting them and pressing {Delete} or from the Edit menu / toolbar

Note on deleting Goo Balls
If you delete a Goo Ball which is connected to another then the Strand will remain. Strands with only one (or no) Goo Balls attached will be highlighted in the Level Tree Tab.

discovered or sleeping

Goo Balls have a discovered attribute, this sets whether they begin the level awake or asleep. If this is left blank or set to true then the Goo Ball will begin the level awake. If discovered is set to false the Goo Ball will begin the level asleep.
Hint: By default Goo Balls are added awake. If you want a lot of sleeping Goo Balls, it is easier to add one, set it to be asleep, then Copy and Paste it as many times as you need.

Utility Balls

There is yet another type of Goo Ball; the Utility ball. These balls are used for many different things in the game, some you will have seen (the black support chain in Genetic Sorting Machine). Others you will not because they are invisible, and are used to do something "special" like playing a sound-effect or producing a cloud of other utility balls that each produce a particle effect. More information on Utility Balls