Players from all over the world can compete, as the height of the tower and number of goo balls used are being constantly uploaded to the 2D Boy server.

The main objective of the game is to get a requisite number of goo balls to a pipe designed to represent the exit.

In order to do so, the player must use the goo balls to construct bridges, towers, and other structures to overcome gravity and various terrain difficulties such as chasms, hills, spikes, windmills, or cliffs.

In an interview the developers stated that the retail version released in Europe would receive an additional sixth chapter, set on the Moon.

[7] Few details were disclosed, but reportedly this chapter would have featured a freeform sandbox mode, similar to that of the World of Goo Corporation.

At the end of the first chapter, some Goo Balls escape from a Corporation building by attaching themselves to eyeballs which have the ability to fly.

With this newfound energy, World of Goo Corporation was able to open a factory, aiming to complete their most compelling new product.

In the fourth chapter the player sets out to find the mysterious "MOM" program amongst a vector style environment.

After pumping many of their own kind into the object, the graphics rendering improves, creating a more realistic environment (and the Pixel Goo Balls).

Near the end they encounter MOM's computer, who turns out to be a spam bot, and supplies the Goo Balls with an "undelete" program.

The player tries to overload Product Z by having the gooballs send every message in the history of spam to everyone at World of Goo Corporation.

After venturing to the Recycle Bin and un-deleting everything, World of Goo Corporation receives the mail and, unable to deal with so much spam and mail, explodes, shutting down Product Z while creating a massive layer of smog, dust, smoke and debris that envelops the entire world.

The remaining Goo Balls decide to work their way up the world's tallest island to reach a site where the telescope is located.

[8] World of Goo was developed by 2D Boy, a team based in San Francisco consisting only of former Electronic Arts employees Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel.

The game's development was started in January 2005[9] as a graduate student project at the Entertainment Technology Center of Carnegie Mellon University.

[10] Gabler created this initial prototype in four days and submitted it under the title Tower of Goo for the Experimental Gameplay Project at the university[11] as a response to the prompt "make something with springs".

[12] Carmel and Gabler estimated that development on World of Goo lasted two years and cost US$10,000 of their personal savings, which included equipment, food, and rent.

World of Goo was programmed using available open-source technologies, including Simple DirectMedia Layer, Open Dynamics Engine for physics simulation, TinyXML for configuration files, Subversion, Mantis Bug Tracker, and PopCap Games Framework.

[18] After the initial release, 2D Boy announced a bonus patch called "Profanity Pack", which would "[replace] the normal voices in the game with naughty words."

For the game's European release in December, 2D Boy depended upon the community to translate and localize World of Goo into the appropriate languages, including Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Tomorrow Corporation, formed by Gabler in 2010 along with his former EA colleagues Allan Blomquist and Kyle Gray, would develop and publish World of Goo for the Nintendo Switch which was released in March 2017.

These updates will be offered free to users on other digital storefronts like Steam and GOG.com, with the patches to be released around the same time that the Epic Games Store promotion starts in May 2019.

[31] Both Wii and Windows versions of World of Goo received critical acclaim, holding an aggregate score from Metacritic of 94/100 and 90/100 respectively.

"[39] IGN said of the Wii version "World of Goo is an amazing WiiWare game that you simply must buy for this is exactly the type of software that needs both recognition and support", finding only minor fault with the camera controls and lack of a level editor.

At the 2008 Independent Games Festival, World of Goo won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Design Innovation Award, and Technical Excellence.

[53] 2D Boy responded by saying they were honored that World of Goo had this much mainstream awareness, and that it derives sick pleasure from the "industry big-wig's indignant, self-righteous incredulity".

"[56] World of Goo 2, a sequel developed by 2D Boy and Tomorrow Corporation, was announced at The Game Awards 2023 and was released on August 2, 2024.