Who is Gooby?
Gooby is a round orange blob with a hair tuft, mismatched eyes and a mouth that's too big for his face. He believes, every single time, that he might be able to fly. He cannot. He says so himself. He jumps anyway.
He's an original character, made for this game. He isn't based on any existing mascot, meme or show.
Why we made it
Most games are fun to play. Fewer are fun to watch someone else play. We wanted a game that works in a 15-second phone video: something is happening from the very first frame, it gets faster every second, there's a character to root for, and the ending is a punchline.
- No slow start. Gooby is falling fast the moment you tap.
- One thumb. Slide to steer. That's it.
- Something new every second. A wall, a ball, a donut, or a new opinion from Gooby.
- Funny with the sound off too. Every line has a huge caption.
- Under a second to restart. Splat, laugh, tap, fall.
How Gooby talks
Gooby's voice isn't a recording. Your browser builds it on the spot from sound waves shaped like vowels, one syllable at a time, then pitches it up and adds a little wobble. Each line is generated from the caption text, so "HI RAT! BYE RAT!" sounds different from "TELL MY FISH I LOVE HIM," and long vowels like "WHEEEEE" stretch into a real scream. His mouth moves in time with every syllable.
The music is generated the same way: a four-bar loop with a kick drum, a bass line and a little melody, and it speeds up with Gooby's fall. The splat, the record scratch, the sad trombone, the boings and the dings are all synthesized too. There are no audio files at all, which means none of it belongs to anyone else, and you can post your recordings anywhere.
The joke rules
- Every caption is short enough to read in a glance.
- Gooby is the butt of every joke. Nobody else is.
- No real brands, people, shows or memes.
- Nothing that needs explaining.
- Everyone can play, including kids.
Gooby would like you to know that he is fine. Flat, but fine.
How it's built
Everything you see is drawn in code with simple shapes on an HTML canvas. There are no image files in the game. It runs at 60 frames per second on most phones, saves only your best score and mute setting in your browser, and sends nothing to a server.
Credits
- Fonts: Archivo Black and Inter, via Google Fonts, under the SIL Open Font License.
- Character, art, music, sound and code: original, made for Gooby Drop.
Say hi
Ideas for new Gooby lines, bug reports and your best splat stories are welcome on the contact page.
Gooby is ready to jump.Drop now