Browser MMO Glitch to Close

[Shinsei-J]

Ah, yes, I remeber this game.
Mostly due to the trailer giving me nightmares.
I guess I just ended up forgeting about it because I never got the chance to play it.
Damn shame.

 

[Akytalusia]

that's kinda sad. i would have at least looked at it, had i known about it's existence. blame insufficient PR.

 

[KeyMaster45]

When I saw the older article about it going back into beta I remembered it and thought to myself "Holy shit why did we never hear about this again?". I would have love to have tried it, but I guess I'm not going to get that chance now. Kills me to think the devs are probably kicking themselves right now as the internet responds to the closure with a loud "What? We've never heard of this game before."

-EDIT-
Damn, they've shut down sign ups as well. Was hoping that maybe if they had a sudden huge influx of members they'd rethink the shutdown. Hell, knowing it would stay open till Dec 9th made me want to at very least see what they had made.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I play this (same name on Glitch). I can agree with many folks that it was probably not advertised enough. I found out through a friend about 2 months ago, and that was because she finally got her beta invite through the mail. The beta label just dropped off maybe a month ago. It's also not a very Googleable name. One of the staff also said that the game cost a half million a month to run, and it was a free-to-play game that offered the ability to buy credits and subscriptions. It also got a bit of crap for being Flash-based.

It's a fun game. You grow trees, mine, explore, fish, build furniture and towers, and fight off a giant bird that wishes to unmake imagination by meditating and throwing stuff into a shrine. Definitely different, and the community was pleasant (although they were ruthless with anyone who confessed to being under 14 due to the TOS). I really hope that Tiny Speck gets a new project soon, and maybe someday we'll see Glitch in another form again.

That sounds fun
What was the actual gameplay like? Interface, controls, etc.

 

[twaddle]

can someone who has an account send me an invite so i can play this for a few weeks? They locked out new users unless they are invited from other players

 

[Denamic]

I'm sad to hear this, but I'd likely be even sadder had I known about this game at all before today. I'm probably more on top of the gaming world than most people, even fellow gamers, and I had never heard about this game. Well, I might have heard of it in passing, but nothing that stuck in my memory. Rather than a failure of the game itself, it seems to be a failure of PR.

 

[SoulSalmon]

Me and a few friends have been actively LOOKING for MMOs recently and we've never heard of it...
Which is a shame because we would have tried it out if signups were still going.

Having a little-known game closing because of lack of players always reminds me of Faxion... and Faxion was one of the better MMOs I've ever played :/

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

I played it for a bit, then it went back into beta... or something. So I figured I'd come back when it would launch in proper. Except, I must've completely missed the announcement.

But like others have said, I'm not even sure how they were ever hoping for this to be a success without any real marketing, I only heard from this through a friend, who is an industry insider herself. Without her I'd never have heard of Glitch until today. A shame, but one that easily could've been avoided if they had thrown some money into marking the game, even blasted Facebook ads if need be.

 

[Callate]

I'd literally never heard of this game before this moment, which I'm guessing is part of the problem.

I'm generally sorry to see creative projects by passionate people fail, though. Especially when it doesn't sound like they failed on lack of merit.

 

[mooncalf]

+1 person wondering if they ever heard about this game. I'm sad they're losing their world!

 

[vxicepickxv]

can someone who has an account send me an invite so i can play this for a few weeks? They locked out new users unless they are invited from other players

I'd literally never heard of this game before this moment, which I'm guessing is part of the problem.

I'm generally sorry to see creative projects by passionate people fail, though. Especially when it doesn't sound like they failed on lack of merit.

They cite lack of users for their failure, but require an invite to join the game.

I think I see what their problem is.

 

[Sol_HSA]

Like many here, never heard of it before the shutdown notice. Having a totally un-googleable name also helped, I suppose..

 

[Alar]

Honestly? I've never even heard about it. Still, it's a shame to see a game die.

 

[Andrew_C]

Dunno why everyone says the name is ungoogleable. It's the top result for "glitch mmo" "glitch computer game", "glitch game", "game glitch" and for now even "glitch". Probably as a result of the closure announcement, but it would have been on the first couple of pages of results beforehand.

 

[F'Angus]

That's sad.. I woulda played this if they'd advertised it better.

 

[nyttyn]

I've played it.

I'll be completely honest with all parties who are wondering what the fuss was about: It was a crap game. It was essentially a souped up version of farmville. Hell, you could've called it Bars: The Game. You used a progress bar to make your other progress bars go up and then those progress bars enable progress bars to make other progress bars go faster and let you use more progress bars. And it was all accomplished by clicking. Movement was monotonous, and most things had absurdly high upkeep.

Essentially, it was a korean bunny hop MMO with none of the sustenance or style that makes a korean bunny hop MMO work. It was all of the grind of a MMO, and none of the fun.

I'd rate it generously 1 star out of 5 simply because of art style and sound. The game itself was complete and total rubbish.

Its loss will not be mourned.

 

[Callate]

They cite lack of users for their failure, but require an invite to join the game.

I think I see what their problem is.

The original post says

New signups to the game have been closed following the announcement. Existing players can still invite a new player in to experience the last few weeks of the game, but that's it.

(emphasis mine.)

Which would imply, unless you're privy to some information outside the article, that the requirement of an invitation to play is specific to the last weeks of the game in its decline.

 

[Jikuu]

I play this (same name on Glitch). I can agree with many folks that it was probably not advertised enough. I found out through a friend about 2 months ago, and that was because she finally got her beta invite through the mail. The beta label just dropped off maybe a month ago. It's also not a very Googleable name. One of the staff also said that the game cost a half million a month to run, and it was a free-to-play game that offered the ability to buy credits and subscriptions. It also got a bit of crap for being Flash-based.

It's a fun game. You grow trees, mine, explore, fish, build furniture and towers, and fight off a giant bird that wishes to unmake imagination by meditating and throwing stuff into a shrine. Definitely different, and the community was pleasant (although they were ruthless with anyone who confessed to being under 14 due to the TOS). I really hope that Tiny Speck gets a new project soon, and maybe someday we'll see Glitch in another form again.

That sounds fun
What was the actual gameplay like? Interface, controls, etc.

Arrows keys or mouse clicks to move around, spacebar or double click to jump. I ended up using one hand on the keyboard for movement and the other on the mouse for selecting stuff. Lots of teeny menus that go away quickly. Just don't right-click on the screen; the menu for that can take forever to go away and stop interfering with your view.
This explains the interface better than I could: http://www.glitch-strategy.com/wiki/Game_Screen

 

[Jikuu]

They cite lack of users for their failure, but require an invite to join the game.

I think I see what their problem is.

The original post says

New signups to the game have been closed following the announcement. Existing players can still invite a new player in to experience the last few weeks of the game, but that's it.

(emphasis mine.)

Which would imply, unless you're privy to some information outside the article, that the requirement of an invitation to play is specific to the last weeks of the game in its decline.

I checked my "I've invited you to play Glitch" link (http://lem.to/r/ubc1), and I don't think it works. Feel free to try, though.

 

[barbzilla]

I'm sorry, but I have a hard time feeling bad for the game closing. While I do feel bad for the players who loved the game, and the people who are losing their jobs, I do not feel the slightest twinge of remorse for the game or the developers. The developer's job isn't just to make a game, but also to make sure people know about said game. I don't care how awesome the game is, if there is no easy way for people to find out about the game then the game will never make any money. So if they never bothered to let people know the game was out there (and it is never the player's "job" to advertise the game through word of mouth) how were they intending to make money off of it. The feeling I get from the interview is that Tiny Spark never expected it to be successful, they just wanted to try something new and different. That is all fine and well, but if you don't have faith in your product why make it?


Where this becomes truly sad is when you think about all the players who actually want to try something different. This failure means even more fear for the developers about creating something outside the "normal" mold. I for one have been longing to try something new. I got a taste of "different" with The Secret World (and I am still playing it), but it was only a taste as it didn't go very far from the tree of normal.

I hope the next project they work on will include an advertising budget. If not I think we need to petition them to get off of their collective buttocks to make room on the budget. I am sure they will probably stick to typical design choices in the future though, as I am sure they lost a boat load of money on this game. I am hoping they don't though.