The game is called "The World of Goo". It features blobs which you can manipulate into wobbly shapes to build structures; towers, bridges to get the goo blobs from one place to another. It looks like a really souped up Flash game, except that the gameplay is far more complex and enthralling.
Whats better, the developers invested a little bit more to release it on Linux (deb, rpm and tarballs are available.) And it doesn't cost that much, at USD20.
This is what it looks like when you are tasked to build a bridge over a crevase. The links between the goo blobs are strong, but very wobbly. Any chance of latching on to solid walls must be taken advantaged of to build rigidity.
I really liked the Frog level, which was entitled "Not too high, not too low" because as you can see in the background of this screenshot, the "tongue" of the frog has to be suspended by the pink baloons which you manipulate. However if you place too many baloons, the ceiling is laced with spikes which would explode em, dropping your bridge to the bottom which destroys your ladder. Its quite evil.
What Im really impressed about is the art direction of this game. Its very colourful, the UI elements blend extremely well including the blobby cursor. The sound is cute, with a suitable soundtrack. The squeels of the blobs as you pick and place them remind me of Lemmings. Infact the game play is Lemming-like.
2D Boy, the developers have not DRM'ed the game, and offered Chapter 1 as the free demo levels. Ive played it Linux, and the performance was smooth, with no problems full-screen and windowed (as pictured). There is virtually no help in the game, not that its needed, but each level has some sign boards which are crypting and haiku like. Annoying but you just have to click on it.
Its a really good game, and I would recommend it, especially for those who love abit of puzzle solving, mouse dexterity and good clean fun.Read on for more info via the HeliOS project.
yk
