Glitch (video game)

Glitch
Developer(s)	Tiny Speck
Designer(s)	Stewart Butterfield
Engine	Flash-based
Platform(s)	PC (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)
Release date(s)	September 27, 2011
Genre(s)	MMO
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Glitch was a browser-based massively multiplayer online game. It was created by Tiny Speck, a company founded by Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield.^[1] Stewart Butterfield's in-game name was "stoot barfield". The game was officially launched on September 27, 2011,^[2] but reverted to beta status on November 30, 2011, citing accessibility and depth issues.^[3] Glitch was permanently shut down on December 9, 2012.^[4]

In 2013, one year after the MMO was shut down, all the game's artwork and some of the source code was released under the public domain-like Creative Commons license CC0.^[5][6]

Gameplay

Glitch was a casual, 2D browser-based game featuring a strong multiplayer component. It deliberately steered away from combat mechanics, instead focusing on collaborative crafting and gathering activities. Players were prompted to complete quests and perform various activities that would change the persistent world. Players were invited to expand upon the world, shaping its growth through various activities such as growing plants and trees and cooking food items. The game was free to play, but players could spend money to acquire a number of things such as customization options for their avatar.^[7]

The game was "imagined" by 11 Giants, who all pertain to a part of nature. Giants have shrines in which you can donate items to, rewarding favor with them. When one favors you 100%, you get their emblem, which can increase your mood, energy, or experience points (all vital keys in the game), to get another emblem, the favor increases by 100 needed to get an emblem each time. The more valuable item you donated, the most favor you got. 11 emblems can be combined into an icon, which was later added, which does the same as an emblem, except the rewards are much greater, and you can donate currants to it (currants were the in-game currency). The rooks, or crows, sometimes attacked the giant's imagination known as a rook attack.

Upon logging in for the first time, a user was brought to a one-time street (area), in which a staff member, or specially appointed user (called a "greeter"), would briefly explain the game and show them some features, the greeting street could never be re-entered. After the "unlaunch" they had a new, more complex and full introduction, in which it was done by NPCs, rather than players.

The game also had "groups", in which you could create your own, join another's groups, or go on the 2 default groups, which were "Live Help", for general gameplay help, in which users could help one another, but eventually, Tiny Speck introduced "guides", which were specially appointed players by the staff to help others, their "guide" badge only showed up in Live Help, as the staff's badges showed up everywhere, and "Global Chat", for general chatting. When an error or glitch was discovered by a user, they could click a bug symbol on the top of the page, then could enter the bug's information, this created a help ticket filed under "Bug". Users could also file several more tickets in several different departments for help that "Live Help" could not solve. The ticket would be answered by a staff member.

If you were being disruptful, disrespectful, rude, flooding, or cursing constantly, the user may be taken to a black room with a single, low light lamp. The user would be accompanied by one or many staff members trying to calm him down. In this room you could not move at all, called the "interrogation room", you could however teleport out, this glitch was fixed later, if the staff member(s) can't solve your problem and/or stop you, you are locked down to a chair and booted off for an amount of time, called a Time-Out.

Lastly, a very important event that happened completely randomly was a "rook attack". This is a gathering of a crow-like bird, completely in black, attack Glitch. They often land on your screen and skid/scratch it. They will also hurt the animals and trees and make them sad and hurt, players need to revive them. The way to defeat them has greatly evolved overtime. The most current and longest staying would be: You donate to the Giant's shrines along with other people very rapidly and a plentiful amount. This "stuns" the rook, then you must focus on a meditation orb, while others join in by clicking, the maximum being 8 people on one orb, if you did 9 the orb broke. Once it has been the same number for a certain period of time, the orbs shoot at the rook and partially hurt it, after several attempts of this, the rooks flee. The rooks only attack one street. Another, artificial rook attack, called a "rook roll", is when a user spins a die (one dice) and it lands on a rook, the rook will attack, only rarely though, a 1 in a 1000 chance it will actually come, and only on certain streets (rumored to be those on the edges of the map).

History

Glitch's lead designer and Tiny Speck co-founder Stewart Butterfield began conceiving the game that would later become Glitch as early as 2002. But because of difficult financial circumstances at the time, he and his colleagues at Ludicorp instead focused on a side-project which later became Flickr. In 2009, Butterfield founded Tiny Speck with the aim of creating a social game.^[7]

Glitch has been confirmed to be created on February 21, 2009 (first day of official gameplay), even though when looking at the Glitch calendar and tracing it back to the beginning, you get April 1, 2009 and/or May 22, 2009, therefore presuming the game was created BEFORE the calendar was implemented. And the game was also played on the company's website (tinyspeck.com) BEFORE it went to glitch.com. Glitch was announced in July 2009. All traces of gameplay history have gone as far back as July 2, 2009. In February 2011, the game went from closed alpha to beta.^[1]

Glitch was officially launched on September 27, 2011.^[8] But two months later, on November 30, 2011, Glitch "unlaunched", reverting to beta status.^[9] The developers cited issues of accessibility for new players, and depth of gameplay for experienced players.^[3]

Glitch had test-sessions that were usually about a week to a month, in which incorrect data like bugs were recorded, and then for a week or 2, revisions were made improving the game, based on player bug reports, staff found bugs/errors, and/or source code updates. At the end of each one, Glitch would throw a massive party, called an End of the World Party, a.k.a. EOTW, EOW, in which a large majority of the players would gather in a suggested area and party, several items were dropped and people even decorated with the items. At the last 60 seconds, the staff members, on an account called "GOD", would speak so everyone in the whole world (also known as "Ur"), even those not at the party, would see him speak, his text would also be shown in the game windows itself, and a song would play called Good Night Groddle, made by Lelu, and improved by Daniel Simmons, Glitch's musical editor,^[10] replacing trumpets that sounded the original ending. The last message of the game was GOD saying "*poof*".

On November 14, 2012, Tiny Speck announced they would shut down Glitch permanently. The developers cited limited audience appeal as the main reason for the closure, and offered refunds to players who had made in-game purchases.^[11] The game closed down on December 9, 2012. With its focus on caring for laid-off staffers and giving players access to both in-game and real-life mementos, the game's closure was cited as a positive model for how to end an MMO.^[12]

In 2013, one year after the MMO was shut down, all the game's artwork and some of the source code was released under the public domain-like Creative Commons license CC0.^[5][6]

Reception

Glitch was well received by the A.V. Club, who gave the game a B+ and commended its open-ended approach and variety of tasks.^[13] Ars Technica found the game fun, filled with funny little touches.^[7]

Joystiq's Beau Hindman named Glitch "Most Charming" in his 2011 Frindie Awards (selected from free-to-play, indie, browser-based games).^[14]

References

External links

• Glitch official page
• Closing announcement, archived from the original on 2013-02-07, retrieved 2013-06-10