I’m not certain where this recent resurgence in indie games has stemmed from but it is very welcome. Games like fl0w (PS3) and Audiosurf (PC) have not only been interesting, innovative and quality games, but they’ve also been commercially successful. Usually they start off as small self-contained projects released for free on the Internet, but with a little risk taking on the developer’s part, good press and at times help from industry players (from Sony of all places) they manage to break through… and it’s about time too…
World of Goo is a prime example of an indie game. Birthed as the Tower of Goo (part of the Experimental Gameplay Project which some of you may recall when I was raving about it) it has matured into a weird but wonderful game – twisting and stretching the original core concept to an extent only dreamed of in multi-million dollar games. It’s so well resolved in so many way it demands respect. If you’re only vaguely interested, please take the time to view the trailers linked above and below. They speak louder and clearer than I ever could. Please note this is all being developed by just two people. From programming, art, all the way to music, sounds, websites AND marketing material.
So I pre-ordered it a couple of days ago and have been playing it heavily since. 2D Boy, the developers, were nice enough to provide pre-orderers with a playable preview of the first chapter. What’s impressive is that even the preview feels like a complete polished game. The level designs hint at what’s to come and it feels EPIC. I don’t know how they managed to pull off playing around with Goo epic, but they have, and it seems all so effortless…