For those who played Chapter 1:

Too easy/difficult? Specific levels?

What types of challenges would you like to see more of?

Overall difficulty seems about right.  Maybe a tad on the 'too easy' side, but not much.  Besides, it's all about maximizing the number of goos you save, so it doesn't have to be difficult to win the level, just to get 'all' the goos.

Personally, i'd like to see more levels where you use balloons to help support your structure, like the frog level.  I really enjoy those.

In my opinion the Difficulty Level is Optimal for the First Chapter.
Great Learning curve and pretty Challenging.

I feel that it was probably difficult enough, but that it would have been much better if levels were simply larger in scale.  A great example is ode to the bridge builder.  A challenging level, but still easy once you know how.  I think you should try to make all levels larger (Another example is Impale Sticky), but also give more goo. 

Difficulty is great for the introductory chapter. It introduces both controls and essential game concepts in an easy first chapter before ramping up a little as a strat to the rest of the game.

If you make sure the difficulty ramps up a bit in the next few chapters to some almost impossibly unsane challenges in the End Of The World, the difficulty should be just right.

By the way, you asked what we want to see more of. 
I really want to see more levels like Impale Sticky, Ivory Towers, and Tumbler, where you don't just have a normal set of terrain to build on.  Both of these levels are some of my favorites, because it isn't just the standard 'build up' or 'build sideways'.  Maybe introduce more strange terrain formations, like one where you start off with 5 goos wrapped around a small ball which freely rotates.  There would be no walls, ceiling, and floor (nothing to stabilize), so you would have to build a heavy structure below the ball to keep it balanced and then build your primary structure upwards.

For the first World difficulty seems almost dead-on.

Just fine. Don't touch it!  >:(

agreed, it's just fine. It's relatively easy to complete the levels, but the extra goo mechanic makes for a pretty cool way to up difficulty without changing the level itself.

If I'd have to suggest something, it would be related to the last level. It's awesome as it is, but maybe giving a slight visual cue to the tethers, like a small glow when you have a ball picked up or something like that would make it a bit more obvious that they are there and usable.

I agree with the general feeling in this thread.  The level of difficulty in what we've seen so far is perfect.  It provides a gentle learning curve to get people used to the concepts involved (especially folks who are new to this sort of physics sim). 

Additionally the levels with all the 'extra' gooballs give the experts a chance to really shine and the novices the ability to complete them without getting too frustrated.

I agree as well that it's perfect for an introductory chapter.  Most were really easy as they should be to get one started and gradually got more difficult.  BTW, where the hell is the end to the last level? I built to the top of the screen but there's nothing up there.  It wouldn't let me scroll any higher and I even managed to get a goo ball half-way off the top of the screen.

Your supposed to use the eyeballs as balloons, and float your structure upwards.

hee hee, nice to have my point made for me so quickly :D

Rather than a glow or anything, why not have them bob up and down or side to side in the wind.  (It would be a nice effect for balloons to bob and sway anyways.)

We made them proper eyes now, so they follow your cursor around, and look a lot more alive. It actually seems to help!

Thanks for the tip Dil999.  I used the balloons to keep my structure from falling over but it didn't float, guess it must've been anchored somewhere.  I'll be sure to give it another try.  Thanks again!

I thought the difficulty was just about spot on for my first play through.

HOWEVER the extra goo mechanic is actually a bit confusing! Its not immediately obvious that when you start the level next time that you dont have the same amount of goo as you did the first time, or even why that is...

It would be better, imho, to give you the option to "Continue" from your best attempt  (which is how it is now, with all the rescued balls missing) or just "retry" from a pristine version of the level (and of course, to not give you any more extra balls for world of goo corp unless you  beat your best attempt.)

I agree that it is annoying to have to top your scores each time.  How about letting you finish a level after the default number of goo balls, but also have a display showing your best score.

[quote author=Peter link=topic=45.msg373#msg373 date=1205386228]
I thought the difficulty was just about spot on for my first play through.

HOWEVER the extra goo mechanic is actually a bit confusing! Its not immediately obvious that when you start the level next time that you dont have the same amount of goo as you did the first time, or even why that is...

It would be better, imho, to give you the option to "Continue" from your best attempt  (which is how it is now, with all the rescued balls missing) or just "retry" from a pristine version of the level (and of course, to not give you any more extra balls for world of goo corp unless you  beat your best attempt.)

Er, what? Sorry, you thoroughly confused me. When I retry a level, I start from the beginning, with all the same goo in the level that my first attept had. The only thing that changes is that the GOAL for you to "win" the level is equal to your best previous attempt. That doesn't matter much, though, as the following levels are already unlocked so you're playing just to "beat" the previous high score. I really don't know what you're talking about with the ""Continue" from your best attempt  (which is how it is now, with all the rescued balls missing)" part. I never started a level with balls missing

Aye I've made a mistake.  It is keeping the balls every attempt (my mistake) but its not allowing you to "complete" the level a second time unless you beat your old score. 

This is a bit rough if you consider my wife wanted to have a play and couldn't even get close to rescuing 15 balls on small divide.

It also doesn't help that occasionally if you just leave small divide alone, some of the balls suicide off the structure down the chasm.  Any chance of having balls lost to the abyss returned to you?

Good point, we will have "profiles" in the final version of the game, so the wife, kids, etc can all have their own scores, ball counts, etc all on the same computer.

The difficulty is good for a first chapter. But you should really be asking people who have never played this sort of game before I think :). Everybody on an internet forum will be a little familiar with these games already imo. I hope later levels are fiendishly hard though >:D. Brain-bogglers are very fun!

That said, please make sure that if someone just gets *absolutely stuck* on a particular level they can skip it. In puzzle games, there's nothing worse than getting stuck on a level I should be able to easily do and missing out on seeing the rest of the game. Maybe an ability to 'skip' a certain number of levels? That is what the old motorcycle game Elma did. You had 15 skips and could use them to not need to pass a level.

I agree, maybe 1 skip per each of the 5 areas?

In my opinion the first chapter is about right.  I really enjoy playing (and replaying!) the first set of levels, as does my seven year old daughter.  If the first chapter of a game can span a generation like that, I think it's doing something right!

I very much hope that the difficulty level ramps up through the second chapter and beyond though.  It's nice replaying levels to see how many goo balls you can squeeze out of them, but a game also needs to give a bit of a challenge.  ;)

Yea, its amazing how many people like the game.  My dad, who doesn't understand how to hold an xbox controller, even had a fun time playing it.