I like to think that there are elements of the game that could be incorporated into something much more interesting, but I don’t think Flash is the platform for it. Even with the simple, click “progress bar” click style thing lag could really stuff the game up with enough players on a screen at any given time. If more players had signed up these problems only would have gotten worse and I think thats the real problem. Had it been more of a success, the playability would have dropped.

It’s a very pretty game and the tutorial is much better than the first time I played. It’s such a shame.

Both were annoying, not fun at all. They required a small measure of skill that made the task tedious, and the Flash interface was just not ideal for it.

I’ve been on Glitch on and off for a year, mostly because I kept hoping something big would happen to the gameplay and it would somehow realize its potential. But even though I spent a lot of time there, it never really clicked for me. It was just a cross of a platformer and MMO-like grinding. The quirkiness was nice, but in such high doses that, just like a pound of cheesecake, it usually weighs too heavily on your system.

I just never found something I felt I should share with my friends. That’s where the crux of the matter is. If it had been something exciting that I wanted to bring my friends into, then I, like everyone else, would have done the marketing legwork. I do feel sad about it ending… But it failed, not for lack of trying, but for lack of succeeding.

Maybe easier said than done, but it seems like such a waste to abandon it entirely.

I say this as a F2Player who does _not_ buy hard cash. I see it as an option, and I accept the limits I impose on myself by not purchasing items with real money. But most people like the convenience and power that real-money spends give them.

It would have been nice to purchase swag associated with the game. A book of concept art, a CD of the music, a Glitch mug… just some way to help identify myself, as a player, with the game.

Sure, I could curry favor with the giants, but why would I do so? If the benefit isn’t immediately clear… if it doesn’t seem to lead anywhere right from the get-go… then why would I do it? Why would I spend my resources on that?

Sure, I could explore, but exploration in a 2D environment is far less immersive and impressive than exploration in a 3D environment. A 3D environment can easily feel more vast, which lends itself to deeper exploration. Surprises can be hidden more effectively within a 3D environment. That element of surprise and the delight that accompanies it is a very powerful motivator. 

Navigation is also more difficult in a deep 2D environment, because your axes of exploration are limited. For example, I don’t have to do a lot of jumping or climbing to explore in Guild Wars or WoW. I just have to move. I’m not presented with a skill challenge every time I want to take a tour of a new area. I can reach a vantage point that lets me enjoy a larger view of the whole area… one that I don’t have to buy.

It might simply be a matter of different play styles. I wanted to enjoy the game. I was emotionally invested in wanting to like the game, as one of my very dear friends worked on it. I never felt compelled to monetize, the “social” aspect didn’t seem fully formed, and I didn’t really feel compelled to return after a few visits. Bear in mind, I spent a few weeks playing the game. I didn’t just give it a half-hearted try one weekend. 

But I accept that I might not have been the target market.

EDIT: I read Mark Stephan’s comment below. I guess I just never saw the community that others described.

I played briefly before they went offline, then again when they relaunched. I never felt or experienced the sense of community that others here claimed to experience. I suppose it is truly my loss, and I wish I would have known what I could have done to have had that experience.

A Tale in the Desert, in comparison, has the players working towards the Monument goals. Glitch had it in the beginning, with the construction of streets and such. But I arrived after all the construction was over.

When I heard this, I thought about returning. A number of my online friends were having great fun with it. However, being busy forced me to stay away.

I don’t think I could have stood for it to break my heart twice, but I am sorry it’s leaving. It’s never nice to see something die.

I mean, for Christ sake, I KNOW that Glitch music will help me to keep woke up all night if I need it. Well, a couple of Street Spirits selling coffee and random magical shit in every street near my house wouldn’t hurt either.

NINJA EDIT: Found a Glitch site with music download links!
http://glitch.com/downloads/ (click “Music”, between the “Wallpapers” and “Ringtones” options)

What I didn’t like:

1. Very very slow. I mean slow not just in loading times and in navigation, but in overall game progress. The earliest stages of the game seem deliberately designed to slow you down, which is not a good thing. Also very slow technically. Takes way way way too long to load a new screen. The loading was also somewhat buggy, with invisible objects that apparently failed to load in a scene that was nevertheless open to play.

2. Too facebooky. Looked like it was going to become the grindy sort of game where you not only have to gather a whole bunch of resource to get anywhere, but where resource requirements go up in a steep curve as you continue. This is a crude way to design a game like this. This could in fact be a false impression, because I could only bear to play for an hour or so due to problems in item 1. For anyone who despises the evil business model behind a typical facebook game, however, this is a big first-impression/early-experience turn-off, even if the game would actually turn out not to have that kind of model in the end.

I don’t know if the above were changes only added recently, but there were so many ways to go about levelling up when I just joined about a month back, suiting any playing style.

I also got many friends from different circles and age groups to join, and usually the response after seeing my gameplay was lukewarm, but after they played for a week or so, each have also gotten addicted.

Fact is, Glitch has been evolving rather rapidly (at least over the past few months, according to forum postings). changing things from core gameplay mechanics to new features and enhancement. I suspect one of the reasons they “unlaunched” the game back in Nov last year was for this purpose. A lot of “balancing” has been done since then. There’s actually quite a bit of skills learning, minimal grinding if you know how to combine those skills and specific in-game actions, though players can play in either style and still progress well.

A lot of changes has been continuously made to improve the game based on suggestions by the playerbase, but comments from former players about how the game sucked, while no longer true, ended up discouraging a lot of new players to the game. I too joined after reading some of these articles and comments, but what a surprise after I joined. It’s too bad Tiny Speck didn’t publicize the changes as much to counter the negative press.

I can still feel the heartbeat of the Giants…

Also, the great thing about Glitch were its endless double-entendres and pretty kinky jokes disguised as saccharine “family game” stuff. You just couldn’t avoid laughing at the “aggressive hoeing” messages, or the dirty talk from Wood Trees. Nor at the paranoid trees, the selfmutilating pigs, the snails (screws + nails, of course) or the eggplants (plants which gave you eggs, clearly)…

Damn, they had just added a transportation system based on lemmiwinking through dinosaur intestines… All those things will be gone, like tears in the rain…