Soundtrack: World of Goo 2 — 50 people recorded apart, and it became one bridge

Introduction — the sound of picking up one goo ball

The moment you pinch a single goo ball, a short call-and-response of woodwinds and acoustic guitar answers back. As you keep stacking the bridge, that little phrase layers up into something close to a march. Roughly 100 BPM, I'd guess — the gait of walking home from a festival.

The music Kyle Gabler wrote for the original World of Goo carried the smell of a gothic carnival, all in waltz time (see my earlier essay). This sequel sets that smell aside and leans into a noisier, more celebratory mix of woodwinds, whistling, and brass.World of Goo 2 (from the Steam store page)

It's written by Gabler again, this time with newcomer Jonny Trengrove. What the two of them wrote, I'd learn, was less a set of 'songs' than a set of blueprints. More on that in the next section.

The puzzle's own trait — stitching separate parts into one bridge, in music too

This sequel's soundtrack runs to a staggering 47 tracks and nearly two hours. And it wasn't written solely by Gabler and Trengrove. The pair sent out only a click track, a lead melody, and a rough harmony guide to more than 50 musicians from the community, who each recorded their part separately, without hearing anyone else's take.

The two of them then stitched the recordings together afterward, one part at a time. By their own account, the results were 'often surprising, and became something better than we ever imagined.' That doesn't read like coincidence to me. World of Goo, the game itself, is about grabbing loose goo balls one by one and connecting them into a bridge or tower that nobody drew a blueprint for.

There's a good detail buried in this: the track 'Sloppy Walker' features a performance by Aleš Mlakar, one of the team's own programmers. The line between the person who writes the music and the person who writes the code dissolves here — much like the line between goo and structure, or player and architect, dissolves throughout the game.A structure nobody drew a blueprint for, built from linked pieces alone

The analogy — you only learn if it holds once you've added the next piece

Solving World of Goo is always a matter of judging 'one more.' Where do you add the next ball, and will the structure hold the instant you let go? You don't know the answer until that exact moment.

The recording process must have carried the same bet. Fifty-some performances arrive, none of them having heard the others. Nobody knows whether they'll lock together or fall apart until someone lays them on top of each other in the edit.

A balance that looks like it should collapse, and doesn't. That's the feel of this game in your hands, and it's also how this soundtrack was made. I see one and the same aesthetic in both.

Tracks to hear — one track that crosses the bridge at full speed

Start with 'Atomic Express.' It plays over the scenes led by the new stretch-and-pop goo type, and it drops the series' usual pastoral warmth for a rushed, lean-forward tempo. Here's the preview clip the developer posted on its own blog.

The other track that sums up this sequel is 'Cog in the Machine.' It replays a motif carried over from the original, now scored for a fuller ensemble — on its own, it maps the whole distance between the first game's waltz and this one's noisier celebration.

To take in all 47 tracks in one sitting, head to the official playlist: World of Goo 2 (Official Soundtrack) — official playlist ↗. It's also on the Steam OST DLC, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Closing — hand over the skeleton, then let go

If I were writing music, this is what I'd steal: don't try to write every part yourself. Hand over the bare skeleton — a click track and a lead melody — and bet on someone else's interpretation for the rest.

I suspect the same idea applies to puzzle design. Don't over-specify the rules; hand the player a single verb, 'grab and connect,' and leave the rest to their hands. World of Goo wins that bet, in both its game and its music.

The original's waltz in three, and this sequel's noisy march. Tonight, black coffee in hand, I plan to listen to both back to back. I expect I'll notice, once again, that quiet and noise take the same shape in this series — the shape of a bridge.

Reference links

・Steam: World of Goo 2 Official Soundtrack DLC

・Tomorrow Corporation blog: soundtrack announcement (on the 50+ community musicians)

・Tomorrow Corporation blog: 'Atomic Express' preview

・Jonny Trengrove — official site

・Official YouTube Music playlist: World of Goo 2 (Official Soundtrack)

・PC Gamer: World of Goo 2 drops globular trailer, soundtrack preview ahead of launch