Katamari Damacy creator joins Glitch

Exciting news: Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi has joined Glitch, a spunky browser game startup from Flickr cofounder and all-round-good-guy Stewart Butterfield. Takahashi had left the industry, but was lured back by playing the Glitch beta. He describes his job in Glitch as "to make the world unique and more fun and more surprising."

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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jonathanbruder

I’m a beta tester. I can’t say much, but I encourage you to check it out on release; even if you find the letters “MMO” discouraging.
petsounds

“Exciting” is probably not the word I’d use. Bemusing, perhaps? Disappointing? Watching the Glitch materials, it feels very contrived. Katamari Damacy was so great because everything about it felt GENUINE and EARNEST, from game to art to soundtrack. You can’t say that about most non-indie games these days. I didn’t really “get” his Noby Noby game, but at least it was daring and seeking something different. Glitch doesn’t seem to have any of these aforementioned properties.
Anonymous

When I read that on Kotaku I re-applied for the Glitch beta, which apparently put me on top of the queue since I was invited a few days later. I didn’t see an NDA, but I don’t know if that was just an oversight.

I’ve described it as taking the least offensive elements of Maple Story, Free Realms and EVE Online and fusing them together. The most fun thing for me is the ‘hidden fun stuff’ like secret doors and treasure caches and hidden puzzles. I expect Keita Takahashi will be adding more of those, so I’m very excited for that.

The thing that shocks me the most about Glitch is that for all that it looks like a kids game, it’s full of drugs, alcohol and sexual innuendo. A couple of the first quests I got were “Happy Endings for All” where I had to massage and milk a number of butterflies, and another quest where I was asked to drink a dozen beers.

Most regions of the world are somewhat ‘normal’ if seen through the alien lens of the glitch concept, but some are very strange. There’s some areas that seem inspired by Dr. Seuss, and some that seem inspired by Jim Woodring or Paul Robertson. It’s only when you see these places next to eachother that you realize how much difference there is in styles of psychadelia.

The most disturbing thing is the Nightmare Fuel element of The Rook attacks which I haven’t personally seen but you can check it out on YouTube if you want to see it for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCWn95ISJDo
Anonymous

I am also a beta tester for Glitch. After playing WOW this is a breath of fresh air. No fighting, player cooperation is required to expand the game (building roads). Its still quest based, but you could just hang out and do chat or gather friends. One more thing that makes it really good? Its FREE!
Alvis

“Katamari Damacy creator Keita…” Ooh! Excited now!

clicks link..

“Glitch is a massively-multiplayer…” *closes browser window* Dang.
DaveP

really love kd, but i’m not sure about the massively-multiplayer thing either.
rourin_bushi

“to make the world unique and more fun and more surprising.”

I would expect no less of the man! What else would he come out of retirement to do?

Sadly, I have to agree with the “meh” regarding him working on an MMO in particular :(
middleclass

“MMO” didn’t bother me too much, but the letters “FACEBOOK” were quite discouraging.
Anonymous

Seriously? Score!