Order Up! and World of Goo get press

I always love seeing my favorite unsung games get press. I’m a huge proponent of independent games and both “Order Up!” and “World of Goo” have that independent spirit. I guess technically “Order Up!” is not independent (it was developed by SuperVillain Studios, working with Zoo Games), but it still retains that quirky indy feel. “World of Goo” – definitely independent. Those guys did amazing things as a distributed team with an indy budget.
The Escapist magazine has a piece this week which mentions “Order Up!”: The Joy of Videogame Cooking. There is something very satisfying about cooking games… I just can’t get enough. With quick, short bursts of gameplay, and a very unique art style, “Order Up!” for Wii is an awful lot of fun. It’s developed by SuperVillain Studios (while I was working at Zoo), who have also worked on versions of Dungeon Siege and Flow, and have a background working on the Tony Hawk games. Check out the article, then check out the game!

VentureBeat covers “World of Goo” from an indy, viral gaming perspective. The article is right – the game industry landscape is changing. The number of platforms are increasing, the availability of games is increasing, and there are more and more free games for play on the web. In this environment, it takes something especially creative, unique and fun to stand out from the crowd, and “World of Goo” just nails it. It’s a physicsy puzzler a la “Armadillo Run”, with fantastically engaging gameplay and quirky art and music. Take a look at the video!