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World of Goo is indie gaming's Cinderella story
Tech blog Venture Beat has a story on the success of World of Goo, which is almost as indie as indie gaming gets.It's the product of two guys, no money, and lots of hard work. The ex-Electronic Arts designer-developer duo, Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, don't even have a garage. Their game studio, called 2DBoy, is based out of any Wi-Fi enabled coffee shop in San Francisco they can squat in for the day. According to Carmel, World of Goo has been built with a budget of just $10,000 dollars, all of which comes from personal savings.
But before you quit your day job and repair to the garage to make your own indie game, keep in mind a couple of important points. 1) Gabler and Carmel had already worked in game development at the largest publisher in the industry. They knew what they were getting into and they had invaluable experience to draw from. And 2) they got a big break at a festival.After the game won awards at the Independent Games Festival at the Game Developers Conference last year, a snowball effect helped the game land publishers and other distribution deals. Suddenly, publishers who didn't respond to earlier requests now wanted to publish the game. The duo also capitalized on every public relations opportunity that presented itself.
So while World of Goo is indeed a heartwarming David vs. Goliath story, this David had more than just a makeshift sling.
Also, I can't help but think it's a bit of a victory for World of Goo that I'm sitting here writing about it and I haven't even played the darn thing.
By budgethero at 1:00 PM ON 01/05/09
"But before you quit your day job and *repair* to the garage to make your own indie game, keep in mind a couple of important points."
do u mean retire?
By someguy at 3:16 PM ON 01/05/09
I bought it the other day, after playing it and finishing it with a pirated copy in pc. So they can lower the piracy rate a 0.001% from their study. ;)
By Troy Goodfellow at 8:21 PM ON 01/05/09
No, 'repair' is the right word. An alternate meaning is "to return" or "to retreat".
By Hypocee at 11:28 PM ON 01/24/09
You should play it. It's a game (mostly) about finite-element truss design, and it's in the top 5 most joyous, uplifting experiences of my 20 or so years of gaming. It's also about 8 hours tops for a first playthrough - 4, if you understand torque and simple harmonic motion.
Hypocee:
You should play it. It's a game (mostly) about finite-element truss design, and it's in the top 5 most joyous, upli...More »