World of Goo is overrated

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World of Goo is overratedjayjay4411/05/2009 - 23:19

World of Goo is is a well polished and charming game, not unlike some of the stuff you can play for free online in lots of flash based games. The fact that people are praising this game as innovative and challenging just goes to show the dismal state of indie video game development -- this is the best we can come up with? An inferior Lemmings rip-off?

As far as the gameplay goes there are numerous problems that everyone seems to overlook. For one it is easy. You can beat it in the span of 3 hours, and it doesn't have much replayability (after all, most of the fun of the game comes from figuring out how to beat a level, not how well).

The colors are also not well thought out. Lots of times you can't see the grid of new pieces. Too many instances of black on black or white on white going on. Overall the game is visually pleasing but it basically uses four or five colors -- black, white, green, orange... it gets repetitive, and it's too plain. To say this game is "beautiful" is a stark overstatement. Maybe you're just underexposed? Maybe the game developers really aren't that imaginative?

It is impossible to select the type of goo ball you want. Why wasn't any mechanism made to make certain types of balls go to the forefront? A simple tabbing option perhaps? Now if you do select the wrong type of ball, you have to precisely place it back on the main structure without constructing a new joint, which is often difficult when the whole thing is shaking.

Too much scrolling involved. Much of it tedious.

Oh yeah, and you can't turn off the sound.

Not new. Not innovative. Not beautiful. Not cute. Not hard. Not worth $20. Belongs no Newgrounds.


Last modified Thu, 11/05/2009 - 23:23 by jayjay44
Re: World of Goo is overratedjayjay4411/05/2009 - 23:21

Oh wait, I have something good to say about the game. There's a torrent Linux client!

Re: World of Goo is overratedNic Freed11/06/2009 - 17:08

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
Belongs no Newgrounds.


Yeah, that's right! Down with Newgrounds!  :D

Re: World of Goo is overrated!11/06/2009 - 21:27

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
World of Goo is is a well polished and charming game, not unlike some of the stuff you can play for free online in lots of flash based games. The fact that people are praising this game as innovative and challenging just goes to show the dismal state of indie video game development -- this is the best we can come up with? An inferior Lemmings rip-off?

As far as the gameplay goes there are numerous problems that everyone seems to overlook. For one it is easy. You can beat it in the span of 3 hours, and it doesn't have much replayability (after all, most of the fun of the game comes from figuring out how to beat a level, not how well).

The colors are also not well thought out. Lots of times you can't see the grid of new pieces. Too many instances of black on black or white on white going on. Overall the game is visually pleasing but it basically uses four or five colors -- black, white, green, orange... it gets repetitive, and it's too plain. To say this game is "beautiful" is a stark overstatement. Maybe you're just underexposed? Maybe the game developers really aren't that imaginative?

It is impossible to select the type of goo ball you want. Why wasn't any mechanism made to make certain types of balls go to the forefront? A simple tabbing option perhaps? Now if you do select the wrong type of ball, you have to precisely place it back on the main structure without constructing a new joint, which is often difficult when the whole thing is shaking.

Too much scrolling involved. Much of it tedious.

Oh yeah, and you can't turn off the sound.

Not new. Not innovative. Not beautiful. Not cute. Not hard. Not worth $20. Belongs no Newgrounds.


Kill. Kill. Kill. >:(

Awright, sorry. Much of this is opinion, and you can't assert it like that. You can say, "I didn't like it and here's why", but you can't just state these things like they're facts. As for the colors, they really reflect the personality of the developers. A little devious, quirky, but occasionally all-out charming.
And for the difficulty. How many skips did you use? You could easily skip all the levels that were even slightly difficult, but that would make you a cheating rat in my opinion.
The length problem is easily solvable, thanks to my good buddies David Croft and Hany. Goofans below, in case you were too inept to notice it.
goofans.com
And whuddabout the Least Moves, Time, and Max Goo threads? Those are where the legends like Pavke, DaftasBrush, Kopa, dwerdver, Etc. are! You're just standing on the sidelines, tearing down something we all (Minus you) came here to do: Love the Goo, Love the World. Try and learn something, man. Just try.
However, some one of these things I agree with you on. The tabs would be a nice touch.
And why the F**K would you want to turn off the sound? That's art, man. Gabler's art. Plus, you have a handy volume system built into your computer. Maybe check it out when you're done griping.

And who knows? Perhaps you're just a trolling newbie developer who envies the game. ;)

Re: World of Goo is overratedGMMan11/07/2009 - 11:44

(I'm too lazy to quote, so you'll have to figure out what part I'm talking about.)

Hey, doesn't everyone like pastel colours? Sure, the colours may get repetitive, but the level design draws you away from that repetitiveness. At least they're better than most of the other 2D games I saw out there (Pinball, anyone?).

Replayability: very, as you're always trying to beat your current record to get OCD. That would give hours on end of replayability. Sometimes getting OCD is trickier than getting the level done first time.

I agree with the ball selection part. I always manage to pick the other goos when I want an Ivy, and it drives me nuts. Maybe that could be assigned to the right mouse button.

Music is decent. I want to see you come up with a whole collection of soundtracks for World of Goo and see how well you do. For mute, most computers come with mute buttons. If not, you can just turn off the speakers. No one's preventing you.

Of course World of Goo "belongs no Newgrounds". If it belongs to Newgrounds, then it probably won't upload because of the size. Yet again, a bunch of Newgrounds stuff are awesome, so you're not making much of a point.

Re: World of Goo is overrated!11/07/2009 - 14:46

[quote author=! link=topic=2184.msg15105#msg15105 date=1257560840]
[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
World of Goo is is a well polished and charming game, not unlike some of the stuff you can play for free online in lots of flash based games. The fact that people are praising this game as innovative and challenging just goes to show the dismal state of indie video game development -- this is the best we can come up with? An inferior Lemmings rip-off?

As far as the gameplay goes there are numerous problems that everyone seems to overlook. For one it is easy. You can beat it in the span of 3 hours, and it doesn't have much replayability (after all, most of the fun of the game comes from figuring out how to beat a level, not how well).

The colors are also not well thought out. Lots of times you can't see the grid of new pieces. Too many instances of black on black or white on white going on. Overall the game is visually pleasing but it basically uses four or five colors -- black, white, green, orange... it gets repetitive, and it's too plain. To say this game is "beautiful" is a stark overstatement. Maybe you're just underexposed? Maybe the game developers really aren't that imaginative?

It is impossible to select the type of goo ball you want. Why wasn't any mechanism made to make certain types of balls go to the forefront? A simple tabbing option perhaps? Now if you do select the wrong type of ball, you have to precisely place it back on the main structure without constructing a new joint, which is often difficult when the whole thing is shaking.

Too much scrolling involved. Much of it tedious.

Oh yeah, and you can't turn off the sound.

Not new. Not innovative. Not beautiful. Not cute. Not hard. Not worth $20. Belongs no Newgrounds.


Kill. Kill. Kill. >:(

Awright, sorry. Much of this is opinion, and you can't assert it like that. You can say, "I didn't like it and here's why", but you can't just state these things like they're facts. As for the colors, they really reflect the personality of the developers. A little devious, quirky, but occasionally all-out charming.
And for the difficulty. How many skips did you use? You could easily skip all the levels that were even slightly difficult, but that would make you a cheating rat in my opinion.
The length problem is easily solvable, thanks to my good buddies David Croft and Hany. Goofans below, in case you were too inept to notice it.
goofans.com
And whuddabout the Least Moves, Time, and Max Goo threads? Those are where the legends like Pavke, DaftasBrush, Kopa, dwerdver, Etc. are! You're just standing on the sidelines, tearing down something we all (Minus you) came here to do: Love the Goo, Love the World. Try and learn something, man. Just try.
However, some one of these things I agree with you on. The tabs would be a nice touch.
And why the F**K would you want to turn off the sound? That's art, man. Gabler's art. Plus, you have a handy volume system built into your computer. Maybe check it out when you're done griping.

And who knows? Perhaps you're just a trolling newbie developer who envies the game. ;)
[quote author=GMMan link=topic=2184.msg15113#msg15113 date=1257612275]
(I'm too lazy to quote, so you'll have to figure out what part I'm talking about.)

Hey, doesn't everyone like pastel colours? Sure, the colours may get repetitive, but the level design draws you away from that repetitiveness. At least they're better than most of the other 2D games I saw out there (Pinball, anyone?).

Replayability: very, as you're always trying to beat your current record to get OCD. That would give hours on end of replayability. Sometimes getting OCD is trickier than getting the level done first time.

I agree with the ball selection part. I always manage to pick the other goos when I want an Ivy, and it drives me nuts. Maybe that could be assigned to the right mouse button.

Music is decent. I want to see you come up with a whole collection of soundtracks for World of Goo and see how well you do. For mute, most computers come with mute buttons. If not, you can just turn off the speakers. No one's preventing you.

Of course World of Goo "belongs no Newgrounds". If it belongs to Newgrounds, then it probably won't upload because of the size. Yet again, a bunch of Newgrounds stuff are awesome, so you're not making much of a point.


Care to defend against this?

Re: World of Goo is overratedjayjay4411/09/2009 - 15:43

Quote:
Kill. Kill. Kill.

Awright, sorry. Much of this is opinion, and you can't assert it like that. You can say, "I didn't like it and here's why", but you can't just state these things like they're facts. As for the colors, they really reflect the personality of the developers. A little devious, quirky, but occasionally all-out charming.
And for the difficulty. How many skips did you use? You could easily skip all the levels that were even slightly difficult, but that would make you a cheating rat in my opinion.
The length problem is easily solvable, thanks to my good buddies David Croft and Hany. Goofans below, in case you were too inept to notice it.
goofans.com
And whuddabout the Least Moves, Time, and Max Goo threads? Those are where the legends like Pavke, DaftasBrush, Kopa, dwerdver, Etc. are! You're just standing on the sidelines, tearing down something we all (Minus you) came here to do: Love the Goo, Love the World. Try and learn something, man. Just try.
However, some one of these things I agree with you on. The tabs would be a nice touch.
And why the F**K would you want to turn off the sound? That's art, man. Gabler's art. Plus, you have a handy volume system built into your computer. Maybe check it out when you're done griping.

And who knows? Perhaps you're just a trolling newbie developer who envies the game.


No shit it's my opinion, should I have prefaced everything that I said with "In my opinion..." to avoid this confusion? The colors never vary from level to level, and outside of the fact that this is plain to look at, it also introduces lots of gameplay problems. I didn't use any skips, that would sort of invalidate me saying I beat the game in 3 hours [Personal attack No. 1: Intimation that I'm a "cheating rat"]. I'm aware of goofans [Personal attack No. 2: too "inept" to find a website], this is the game's only saving grace, hopefully the fans will come up with some levels that are truly challenging.

I already said I find no joy out of doing better on a level [Personal attack No. 3: Inability to learn; Personal attack No. 4: I'm destructive], don't know how you want me to respond to this.

*some things you agree with me on? You mention one*

I shouldn't be forced to listen to his "art". Every other PC game I've ever played (and I mean that literally) has given me the option to turn off the sound, is WoG's so precious that it refuses to give me this option? And -- I dunno -- maybe I want to listen to music from my computer, so muting the master volume just might be an unacceptable solution. [Personal attack No. 5: Unappreciative of art]

[Personal attack No. 6: Newbie developer]

So let's recap, shall we? Here is what I complained about, and how you responded:

3 hours? You cheated.
Colors? They were actually "quirky" and "charming", and never got in the way of the gameplay.
Cant select certain balls! You're right.
Too much scrolling. ???
No sound. You should have liked it, and you have no reason for wanting to mute it.

Re: World of Goo is overratedGMMan11/10/2009 - 10:09

I think the volume control problem might have something to do with that the game was on Wii. The Wii can only run one program at a time, and all your adjustments are done on the TV. Of course, I don't really know the development timeframe, so I can't say if they based the other versions around the Wii or the other way around. Of course, you can always use that volume hack in GooTool.

About your too much scrolling: I never seemed to use the scroll wheel, so that doesn't apply to me. Of course, zoom would be a nice feature.

Re: World of Goo is overrated!11/10/2009 - 17:22

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15163#msg15163 date=1257799425]

Quote:
Kill. Kill. Kill.

Awright, sorry. Much of this is opinion, and you can't assert it like that. You can say, "I didn't like it and here's why", but you can't just state these things like they're facts. As for the colors, they really reflect the personality of the developers. A little devious, quirky, but occasionally all-out charming.
And for the difficulty. How many skips did you use? You could easily skip all the levels that were even slightly difficult, but that would make you a cheating rat in my opinion.
The length problem is easily solvable, thanks to my good buddies David Croft and Hany. Goofans below, in case you were too inept to notice it.
goofans.com
And whuddabout the Least Moves, Time, and Max Goo threads? Those are where the legends like Pavke, DaftasBrush, Kopa, dwerdver, Etc. are! You're just standing on the sidelines, tearing down something we all (Minus you) came here to do: Love the Goo, Love the World. Try and learn something, man. Just try.
However, some one of these things I agree with you on. The tabs would be a nice touch.
And why the F**K would you want to turn off the sound? That's art, man. Gabler's art. Plus, you have a handy volume system built into your computer. Maybe check it out when you're done griping.

And who knows? Perhaps you're just a trolling newbie developer who envies the game.


No shit it's my opinion, should I have prefaced everything that I said with "In my opinion..." to avoid this confusion? The colors never vary from level to level, and outside of the fact that this is plain to look at, it also introduces lots of gameplay problems. I didn't use any skips, that would sort of invalidate me saying I beat the game in 3 hours [Personal attack No. 1: Intimation that I'm a "cheating rat"]. I'm aware of goofans [Personal attack No. 2: too "inept" to find a website], this is the game's only saving grace, hopefully the fans will come up with some levels that are truly challenging.

I already said I find no joy out of doing better on a level [Personal attack No. 3: Inability to learn; Personal attack No. 4: I'm destructive], don't know how you want me to respond to this.

*some things you agree with me on? You mention one*

I shouldn't be forced to listen to his "art". Every other PC game I've ever played (and I mean that literally) has given me the option to turn off the sound, is WoG's so precious that it refuses to give me this option? And -- I dunno -- maybe I want to listen to music from my computer, so muting the master volume just might be an unacceptable solution. [Personal attack No. 5: Unappreciative of art]

[Personal attack No. 6: Newbie developer]

So let's recap, shall we? Here is what I complained about, and how you responded:

3 hours? You cheated.
Colors? They were actually "quirky" and "charming", and never got in the way of the gameplay.
Cant select certain balls! You're right.
Too much scrolling. ???
No sound. You should have liked it, and you have no reason for wanting to mute it.


Hey, sorry man. I just don't feel like anyone should attack something two guys developed over years, put sweat, blood and tears into, and got a bit overwhelmed by it. I love Goo, and over the past year I've been trying to overcome various mental diseases such as OCD, Autism, Depression, Etc., so it's still a bit hard to imagine things from another perspective, especially when I only know what you type. Again, sorry. :(
But why did you buy it in the first place? ???

Re: World of Goo is overratedsdmsanilover11/12/2009 - 17:57

To JayJay
Ok. you bought the game. you didnt like it. i respect that. everyone has their tastes. But dont go onto a WORLD  OF Goo form where everyone shares a love of goo, attack it, and expect not to be attacked.
To everyone else
he didnt like it, and (for those who are still arguing) we all should accept that. thank you for your time.

Re: World of Goo is overratedBlockout01/12/2010 - 08:29

I just tried this game...

I think also the game plan is way too simular to Lemmings so I can agree on that it's not really that innovative  :-\
The music is however nice allthough it reminds me of some soundtracks from movies.

Most of the levels could be much more difficult I think, especially from start.

The good things about it I think is the funny graphics and the physics. So I give this 6/10

Sooo... Yes overated.



EDITED...

"And -- I dunno -- maybe I want to listen to music from my computer, so muting the master volume just might be an unacceptable solution."

Yes... You got a good point there.


Last modified Tue, 01/12/2010 - 09:15 by Blockout
Re: World of Goo is overratedAldenteVonTino01/12/2010 - 10:38

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
World of Goo is is a well polished and charming game, not unlike some of the stuff you can play for free online in lots of flash based games. The fact that people are praising this game as innovative and challenging just goes to show the dismal state of indie video game development -- this is the best we can come up with? An inferior Lemmings rip-off?
I personally see very little in common with Lemmings. With Lemmings, you had to make the Lemmings do special things from a list, while in WoG the Goo-Balls already have their jobs assigned and it's our job to figure out how to make them do it.  :o

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
As far as the gameplay goes there are numerous problems that everyone seems to overlook. For one it is easy. You can beat it in the span of 3 hours, and it doesn't have much replayability (after all, most of the fun of the game comes from figuring out how to beat a level, not how well).
FYI, everyone will see the same thing in a different way. One can look at a nice car and say, "Wow, that chrome is awesome! Too bad it's not all the way around!" Does this take away from the value (or charm) of the car for everyone? I think not! No, most of this comment of yours is totally one-sided IMHO. I partially agree with you about figuring out HOW to play, but in THIS case HOW WELL is almost as important. ;D

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
The colors are also not well thought out. Lots of times you can't see the grid of new pieces. Too many instances of black on black or white on white going on. Overall the game is visually pleasing but it basically uses four or five colors -- black, white, green, orange... it gets repetitive, and it's too plain. To say this game is "beautiful" is a stark overstatement. Maybe you're just underexposed? Maybe the game developers really aren't that imaginative?
Again, totally one-sided. Just because you don't see the full intent of the developers does not mean they are faulty! IMHO anyone that instantly finds fault with another person's creation because of personal standards does not have an open mind. I personally find the colors in the entire game reflect the story of the game rather well as well as the plight of the Goo-Balls themselves! 8)

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
It is impossible to select the type of goo ball you want. Why wasn't any mechanism made to make certain types of balls go to the forefront? A simple tabbing option perhaps? Now if you do select the wrong type of ball, you have to precisely place it back on the main structure without constructing a new joint, which is often difficult when the whole thing is shaking.
Unfortunately you are slightly correct in this comment. Tabs would have been nice, or some way to specifically select which Goo-Ball you want. However we must accept this is how the game was introduced, therefore the developers intended to make the game as challenging as they could, w/o making it impossible. As for the shaking structures, that is merely the nature of Goo and should be taken in stride. ;)

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
Too much scrolling involved. Much of it tedious.
Again, part of the developer's style and must be accepted. :D

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
Oh yeah, and you can't turn off the sound.
The ONLY comment you made that truly makes me smile. However I personally like the sound, but admit it would be nice to turn it down (or even off) to listen to music w/o 'extra noise'. :)

[quote author=jayjay44 link=topic=2184.msg15097#msg15097 date=1257481178]
Not new. Not innovative. Not beautiful. Not cute. Not hard. Not worth $20. Belongs no Newgrounds.

It is important for any developer to know how the public feels about it's product, but I think you took the wrong approach. Ok, maybe not in making a post, but in the way you posted it. I just don't think you seriously understand what WoG is all about. :(
All I can finish with is:  ::)
-AVT

Re: World of Goo is overratedSoultaker01/12/2010 - 11:03

[quote author=AldenteVonTino link=topic=2184.msg16015#msg16015 date=1263310713]
However I personally like the sound, but admit it would be nice to turn it down (or even off) to listen to music w/o 'extra noise'. :)
For what it's worth, you can install my volume control hack with GooTool on Windows, and on Linux you can mute sound altogether with Alt-M, so this limitation only applies to the Mac OS version.

Re: World of Goo is overratedBlockout01/12/2010 - 12:11

Ok, I may sound negative now.... Excuse me LOL  ;)

I just played the game in multiplayer mode (there you try to build the highest tower). What's really boring is that people seems like "cheating". I have maximum 103 balls or what you call them meanwhile allmost all my opponents got many hundred balls (it differs from opponent to opponent).

Duhhh.... Then what's the point of it??

It's then more a competition about patient than skill  >:(


Last modified Tue, 01/12/2010 - 12:19 by Blockout
Re: World of Goo is overratedGMMan01/12/2010 - 15:00

You earn the balls as you complete the game. The max anyone can get is 300 (without cheating).

Re: World of Goo is overratedBlockout01/12/2010 - 15:17

Ok I understand. The thing is I have seen people with over 600 balls. That must be cheating, right?!

Re: World of Goo is overratedPavke01/12/2010 - 15:40

[quote author=Blockout link=topic=2184.msg16017#msg16017 date=1263316280]
Ok, I may sound negative now.... Excuse me LOL  ;)

I just played the game in multiplayer mode (there you try to build the highest tower). What's really boring is that people seems like "cheating". I have maximum 103 balls or what you call them meanwhile allmost all my opponents got many hundred balls (it differs from opponent to opponent).

Duhhh.... Then what's the point of it??

It's then more a competition about patient than skill  >:(


I must intervene here. Cheating is not common nowadays as it was in the beginning. I personally have 1473 gooballs(without cheating or custom levels!) but like GMMan said I can only use 300 balls.
You are probably seeing - "using [number less then 300 hundred] out of [many hundreds]" Right?? They can only use 300 but their total number of goos is higher. If you see one cloud that says: using 301 or more out of XXX that means he is cheating but you haven't see such a cloud? right?
For example if you see my cloud it would say: Pavke, using 300 out of 1473. So that's not cheating


Last modified Tue, 01/12/2010 - 15:43 by Pavke
Re: World of Goo is overrated!01/12/2010 - 17:54

So I found this topic again, and realized that I should have said, 'Well, what do you want us to do about it?'. Sorry for the argument.

Re: World of Goo is overratedBlockout01/12/2010 - 18:34

[quote author=Pavke link=topic=2184.msg16020#msg16020 date=1263328834]
[quote author=Blockout link=topic=2184.msg16017#msg16017 date=1263316280]
Ok, I may sound negative now.... Excuse me LOL  ;)

I just played the game in multiplayer mode (there you try to build the highest tower). What's really boring is that people seems like "cheating". I have maximum 103 balls or what you call them meanwhile allmost all my opponents got many hundred balls (it differs from opponent to opponent).

Duhhh.... Then what's the point of it??

It's then more a competition about patient than skill  >:(


I must intervene here. Cheating is not common nowadays as it was in the beginning. I personally have 1473 gooballs(without cheating or custom levels!) but like GMMan said I can only use 300 balls.
You are probably seeing - "using [number less then 300 hundred] out of [many hundreds]" Right?? They can only use 300 but their total number of goos is higher. If you see one cloud that says: using 301 or more out of XXX that means he is cheating but you haven't see such a cloud? right?
For example if you see my cloud it would say: Pavke, using 300 out of 1473. So that's not cheating


Yes you are correct, that's what I am seeing.

Aha I understand. Ok my fault. I didn't know you could possibly get more than 300 balls...

So it's kind of also a competition on who got most balls in total after finnish all chapters and levels. Or you can see it as for fun. Allrighty then.


Last modified Tue, 01/12/2010 - 18:39 by Blockout
Re: World of Goo is overratedBlockout01/13/2010 - 07:29

I got one question. How do you possibly know how many goo balls from which level that has been added into multiplayer?! Can I somehow see this information when browsing the levels in each chapter?

Why I wonder is because I played this game without activate the score for multiplayer (I forgot to do it) and now I don't know which levels I need to play in order to get more Goo balls into multiplayer mode since I actually turned on the function later on. I don't remember which levels I did play with this activated.

It's simple but kinda hard to explain I hope you guys understand me anyway.

Thanks!


Last modified Wed, 01/13/2010 - 10:13 by Blockout
Re: World of Goo is overratedBlockout01/13/2010 - 12:22

Anyone??

Maybe it's not possible  ???

Re: World of Goo is overratedGMMan01/13/2010 - 14:57

Use GooTool.