Tiny Speck – MMO Fallout

Glitch Assets Are Now Public Domain

Despite the failing of Glitch on a financial level, the folks at Tiny Speck have already cemented their place in our hearts. Rather than allow years of work to go to waste, the team at Tiny Speck has announced that all of the art assets (minus the logo and trademark, of course) have been relinquished to the public domain.

The entire library of art assets from the game, has been made freely available, dedicated to the public domain. Code from the game client is included to help developers work with the assets. All of it can be downloaded and used by anyone, for any purpose. (But: use it for good.)

You can find the library of assets at the link below. Hopefully the files are used for good.

(Source: Glitch HQ)

Thanks For The Memories, Glitch

So 11pm Eastern has come and gone, and so has one of the best games to ever release and then quickly de-release and head back into beta. While Glitch may not have been a traditional game, it was still a load of fun to log into and check out the wild and wacky bits and pieces that the developers had added in. Unfortunately, as Tiny Speck had laid out in plain words, while the game was quirky and fun, it didn’t appear to be viable in the market. Still, the game has had a profound impact on its community, who I’m sure will miss it far more passionately than I ever could.

Check out this song by Theremina Lute. It is a fantastic song dedicated to the memory of the Glitchens and the gods.

Additionally, if you want to throw some money toward Tiny Speck, you can check out the Indiegogo campaign to turn Glitch’s art into a hardcover book. $65 gets you the hardcover edition, as well as your name displayed on a thank you page. Check it out at Indiegogo.com.

There are a hundred other pieces I could put up here, but I will close out with the original Alpha trailer to Glitch.

If you have any memories you’d like to share of Glitch, leave them in the comments section below.

Glitch Shutting Down December 9th

What a terrible day. As posted on the Glitch website today, the fledgling MMO will be shutting down forever as of December 9th. The website and forums will remain up until 8pm Pacific on the 9th, during which time the website and all services including mobile apps will no longer be available. The team is heartbroken to have to make the announcement, but according to the news post, Glitch had simply not attained a level of income to remain viable.

Unfortunately, Glitch has not attracted an audience large enough to sustain itself and based on a long period of experimentation and our best estimates, it seems unlikely that it ever would. And, given the prevailing technological trends — the movement towards mobile and especially the continued decline of the Flash platform on which Glitch was built — it was unlikely to do so before its time was up.

All recent purchases will be refunded automatically, while all purchases made since November 11, 2011 will be refunded eventually as they are to be taken care of by hand. According to the FAQ, selling the game is not possible:

It’s complicated, but it comes down to this: if that were a transaction that made sense to the purchaser, we wouldn’t be shutting the game down.

There is a ray of sunshine in this story, however. Even though Glitch will die, Tiny Speck will continue on as a company.

Tiny Speck, the company behind Glitch, will continue. We have developed some unique messaging technology with applications outside of the gaming world and a smaller core team will be working to develop new products. But now is not the time to talk about that. Right now our concern is with the players and our comrades who are suddenly looking for new work.

If you want to get some final memories of Glitch, do it now.

(Source: Glitch Website)

Glitch Beta Key Giveaway

[UPDATE] I have more invites, so comments have been reopened. Again, remember you will need a legitimate, active email address and to answer the email I send you to confirm.

It’s been a long time since Tiny Speck opened Glitch up to the public: Ten months by my count. But a few days ago, Tiny Speck opened the door to newbies by offering beta invites to current players. As promised in my previous article, I will be offering those invites up to the first three who comment.

The requirements are simple, but I will repeat them again since several of you had your posts looked over last time:

You must provide a valid email address. I will be sending you an email to confirm before I send the invite.
The first three to comment will be sent an email confirming that the address they gave is valid.
Once again, you must respond to the email.