Rock, Paper, Shotgun

This feature was originally published in PC Gamer early last Summer – I republish it here, slightly revised and updated, as it’s a few of the indie names we’ve mentioned often on RPS – 2D Boy, Solium Infernum’s Vic Davis, Edmund McMillen… – talking about what drives, defines and binds the independent development community, and why it’s on such a roll at the moment. It’s also a love letter to a form of gaming and imagineering only the PC can offer.

What is indie? It’s a term so overused, in everything from music to movies to comics and, of course, games that it’s almost lost its meaning. “Independent” is the untruncated form, of course – but, by that token, Valve are indie. Is that a term that can sit comfortably around a multi-million dollar studio that juggles multiple franchises at once? Or is indie more of a statement, a specific state and ethos, where profit and success play second fiddle to the unfettered creativity?
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How much would you pay for World Of Goo? Is the question 2D BOY are asking to celebrate its first birthday. For the next six days you can choose how much you want to pay for one of our favourite games of last year, whether it’s 1p or a million billion pounds. It’s also a chance, they point out, for those who previously acquired a copy without paying to return and offer something for their entertainment. Head here to get a truly stupendous game for whatever you wish to pay. It will be fascinating to see how this works out.

This is mainly of use to the cynics (and the evangelists, of course). Anyone who’s even slightly vulnerable to purple-prose will have already worked out how to buy it and done exactly that. If you haven’t – well, what are you waiting for? A demo? Well, wait no more. It’s currently spreading across the net, but let’s point at Filefront for this 33Mb slice of splendidosity. It’s the whole of chapter one, which made me start ranting about it all those months ago. You will too.

Well, almost probably. A couple of tiny thoughts plus some more Goo-in-action-video-footage follows…
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This is something special. This isn’t just the small matter of being one of the best games of the year, it’s also the emergence of a stellar new talent in gaming. World Of Goo is so stunningly designed, so beautifully illustrated, so precisely programmed, and so completely adorable that any of the greatest development companies in the world would be proud to release it. That this is a tiny indie dev’s first release – it is beyond belief.

Small blobs of Goo, when put near one another, form rigid bonds. Connect enough of them together and you can build towers and bridges along which unconnected Goo can saunter. The goal in the majority of levels is to see particular balls of Goo reach a pipe opening, into which they are satisfactorily sucked. There’s your raw concept. Now apply four hundred million gallons of imagination.

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It was only the other day that I was loudly lamenting the lack of more World Of Goo. What can be taking him so long? How could he tease us with that first chapter, and then no more for such a long time? Just how long ago did we place our pre-orders again? But phewie to the extremes, 2D Boy has declared the game has gone gold.

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I’d seen the trailers linked, but didn’t realise one of the World of Goo was a new one until Chris Evans mentioned it. And – blimey! – it really is something, showing a load of new bits and pieces from later in the game…

Message to 2dboy. Hurry up. For God’s Sake, Hurry Up.