Chapter 1 Preview Released!
Friday, February 15, 2008

Yesterday, after a somewhat choppy start with an installer bug, we finally released a preview of chapter 1 to all those that have pre-ordered the game. Thanks for supporting us, everyone!

And thanks to all those who have written us with encouragement and bug reports. You're helping us make the game better. The three big ticket items we've been notified of are:

• The game freezing on a black screen after the scrolling text
• Crash during the World of Goo Corporation
• Game dies after ALT+tabbing away and returning to it

Those items have been bumped up on our priority list and we hope to have them fixed soon.

The feedback has been super-helpful, so we've decided to make it as easy as possible for people to give it. First, we opened up the beta /at/ 2dboy /dot/ com list to everyone. You no longer have to be subscribed to post to it. If you want to subscribe and get the messages others are sending to the list, send a blank email to beta-subscribe /at/ 2dboy /dot/ com.

World of Goo Beta Testing Round 1 Begins!
Saturday, January 25, 2008

Hi there! Welcome! The main purpose of round 1 is to make sure the game runs well on a variety of platforms and iron out serious bugs. There are a few things we'd specifically like you to keep an eye out for:

• Crash bugs
• Out of memory and low memory errors
• Visual glitches: big white splotches, flashing images, etc.
• Auto-updater: this should run the first time you run the game and whenever we post an update. Let us know if you run into any issues with it.

One important thing I'd like to cover is how to file a good bug report. To report a bug, send an email to beta /at/ 2dboy /dot/ com (all currently selected beta testers are automatically subscribed to this list). The subject of the email should start with the word BUG and have a short description of the bug. For example: "BUG: goo balls disappearing". The most important thing in a bug report is to tell us how we can reproduce the bug. If you have a set of steps we can follow that makes this bug happen, that's the best kind of bug possible. For example: "In the level 'Impale Sticky' drag a ball into the water, then release it, then attach a different ball to the tower". It's also important to add a description of what the bug is. For example: "The goo ball that was placed in the water disappears". So an email for this bug might look like this:

To: beta /at/ 2dboy /dot/ com (address mangled to avoid spam)
Subject:BUG: goo balls disappearing

In the level 'Impale Sticky' drag a ball into the water, then release it, then attach a different ball to the tower. The goo ball that was placed in the water disappears

Another yummy part of bug reports is screenshots. If it's a bug that can be seen, take a screen shot and send it along with the bug report email. To take a screen shot, hit the Print Screen button on your keyboard, open up any graphics editor (like Microsoft Paint, which comes with every copy of windows) and paste the image into it (usually by hitting CTRL+V). You can then save the file and send it to us. Some email programs will let you paste the image directly into the email.

Filing a bug is not the only way to help us fix bugs. When one person reports a bug, the email they send will go to everyone on the list. Sometimes it can be very difficult to find a consistent way to reproduce the bug. If you see a bug report without reproduction instructions and you think you can reproduce it consistently, send a followup email with your reproduction instructions. We will love you for it! Reproduction instructions are just important, if not more, than finding the bug

If you've seen something strange and you're not sure if it's a bug, write an email to the list and ask, we're on the list and will respond shortly.