Want to experience the music of Glitch? Listen to this while reading..

History

Browsing through some old folders on my computer, I (re-)discovered some things I saved for the game Glitch. And while researching/writing this I found out this game only lasted for a little over a year, but it felt so much longer..

Glitch was a game made by Tiny Speck, led by Stewart Butterfield who after sunsetting the game for costs, went and created Slack (the chat app), to critical acclaim.

The domain (glitch.com) was then given to Jen and Anil and turned into a community-based site-builder/codepen/html-sharer. But two months ago, they're also sunsetting that.

The game

The game was a 2D side-scrolling platformer where each scene was a street in an area.
Each area had its own theme, or biome if you will. You would collect resources, interact with players or just explore the environment.

The game also allowed player housing, certain streets had plots and you'd have to buy the plot before you could decorate your house.
You could literally tell your friends "I live on Baeli Bray 34".

A big incentive was also collection, from achievements to in-game items. One of the most famous collection items were called Cubimals.

The community

The biggest driver of the game however was its community.
If you build a cutesy, whimsical, social game, you will attract cutesy, whimsical, social people.

One of the hardest achievements you could get was called Glitch Train. It required you to get 20 people to line up and hold hands, forming a train.
It's very easy to ask Glitchians to help you with something, but the game's obscurity and immense world meant that finding 20 people was the real challenge here.

I remember getting this achievement by a bunch of people walking through the streets of Glitch shouting "Follow the train to {street}" long enough to get the required number of people.

The game also had profiles (I think?) and it came with in-game screenshots you could take and store. The below screenshot is one I took when I met Steward Butterfield in-game, under his in-game name "stoot barfield".
The description and comments on the screenshot are precisely "Glitch"..

Caption: Meeting the man behind the game. He's tired..
Views: 27
Likes: 1
Posted On: 2012-10-26 13:40:53

Comments:
Lazy Cubimal: Or he is reading very boring mail.
Scarlet Begonia ♫: it's tiring making such an awesome game
Sir Lagsalot: Narcolepsy, where will you be when it strikes....hopefully not in a prison shower.

Screenshots

Glitch was one of those games where I (cis-man) went with a girly avatar because the cosmetic options were so much cuter.

I liked the achievements so much, I actually made a companion site for Glitch called Gleetch. Using their API, I would tweet on your behalf and share your achievements.

Farewell

Glitch will be missed. It was a unique game with a unique community and a unique style.
But all good things must come to an end, and I'm glad I got to experience it while it lasted.