Eyeballery and Snapshotting

Tink Speck introduced a couple new skills the other day: Eyeballery and Snapshotting.

I love these skills.

Along with the new skills came a new feature: camera mode. Now, camera mode isn't just for taking pictures. With Eyeballery, you can use it to look around the whole screen. You can even do it WHILE mining. So while you're picking away at one rock, you can look around to find the next one. This has helped my own casual style of mining immensely. Although it doesn't work quite so well when the termites descend and clean out everything at once.

Now, Snapshotting is using the camera mode to take pictures. The pictures become png files saved to your computer. I really like this, and I'll explain why this is different than using print-screen to take a screenshot:

1. Print-screen takes a picture of the whole screen.  This includes the UI and chat area.  Now, it's easy to crop out the chat area, but not so easy to get rid of the UI.  The camera feature takes a picture of the play area without the UI.  No metabolics, no rock.  Just picture.
2. PNG file = better picture than a JPG.
3. I think those are the only two reasons, actually, but they're good enough for me.

I'm not great with the whole print-screen thing so I like this feature. I know others won't care and are annoyed that it's a skill. There's one more thing I noticed, though. The skill is Snapshotting I, not just Snapshotting like other skills. This implies that there might be a Snapshotting II which will have more robust features, like perhaps zooming in or eliminating the foreground layer. I rather like that thought.

There will be more skills coming in the next few weeks, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they are.

I leave you with a picture of my house, taken with Snapshotting I:

Street Projects!

I got to participate in a street project this afternoon!

There are bunch of them going on in Pollokoo to open up a new mining area. At least, there were a bunch of them. The Locations page does list where the active projects are, so check it out. :)

I thought it was really great to see everyone playing nice together to get the project done. A bunch of Glitchen who could radiate did so as much as possible to help out. People were converting spices for others who couldn't grind. Food was being given freely. It was a wonderful collaborative atmosphere and a palpable sense of excitement.

The project I had a hand in was only 2 phases. I understand it's a temporary shortened thing so that the new streets could be rolled out quickly.

I really enjoyed the project. Hopefully the full projects will offer a little more of a feeling of control over what the end result looks like. It would be nice to see players choosing/competing for a certain path, and it's something that would put those "glitch referendum" votes to use. I'm sure I'm off the the mark here, though, and welcome the beta testers to illustrate in the comments how it worked before.

I should mention that there is a bit of competition built in for top contributors, but I didn't get much of a competitive vibe at all. Once again I'm struck by how friendly and mature the community is. I really hope it can keep that feeling as the playerbase grows. It's up to the veterans to lead by example, and the more socially-inclined glitches to foster a sense of community. If the new players see that "this is the way it is," they'll be inclined to continue the status quo, but it's up to us to build that status quo in the first place. I think we're doing really well so far. :)

Can't wait to get involved in the next project. I'm going to start stockpiling.... er.... stuff....

Cubimal Racing League!

I was going to wait for an interview with That Kid Tyler before posting about this, but I want to give a shout out.

I learned about Cubimals last night when That Kid Tyler posted in the forums about the very first organized sports league in Glitch: the Cubimal Racing League. I'm hooked already.

Cubimals are little cube-shaped wind-up toys that look like various creatures and characters in the world of Glitch. There are 23 types and you get one at random when you purchase a Cubimal Box from a toy vendor for 5000 currants. They're really just there for silly fun, but they're SO CUTE!

I love that the playerbase of Glitch are taking it upon themselves to organize things like this to enrich the community, and I really hope that Tiny Speck adds in more tools to help foster this atmosphere. I'm sure they will. This seems like exactly the sort of thing they intend for the game.

Once the league forms, there will be more in-depth coverage. For now, clicky the linky and go check it out. Sign up. Race a cubimal. It's fun.

You Can't Stop the Signal

I love how portable Glitch is.

Because it's based in flash, it can run on any computer with a flash-enabled browser. Of course, it runs better on some computers and not so well on others. My old backup PC gets bogged down with crazy lag when there are more than three Glitchen in the street, but my wife's laptop runs it just fine, as does my PC at work. My main PC is down with a busted video card at the moment.

I'm looking forward to an iPad app. I even have a pretty good idea for a UI. But I really like the app already in place that lets you keep up with the news feed and manage your skills. It needs a few more features, and should absolutely be universal, but it's a wonderful start.

And changing the topic...

I now have three piggies and I'm toiling away at crops. Picked up blending so I could make myself some quick pick-me-ups, too. I'm going to have a housewarming party sometime in the future. Just not sure when. I'm also investigating the merits of different housing. I think that might be a future blog entry. I don't really want to get into strategy too much because there's already a good blog and wiki for that, although the wiki is lacking a little. That's not so much a complaint as motive to get me involved in the wiki project.

I was never good at ending posts. See you in the world. :)

Oh Give Me a Home...

I now have a house. It's a very very very fine house. With two cats in the yard. Life used to be so hard...

Sorry. Flashback.

It is a nice little house, though, and I was fortunate to get one with a fruit tree and a spice tree. I can also ride the subways, but I don't need to yet.

The problem now is I don't know what to do with myself. I think the issue is that I don't know what I can do. There's a lot that can be done, I just don't know what the possibilities are, so I don't know what to aspire to. I should focus my skills toward a goal, but I don't have one.

My new goal is chickens. I'd like a few chickens in the house, and for that I need Animal Husbandry. I was learning Better Learning II, but I have since switched to Animal Kinship III. Something nice that I noticed is that your time spent learning is not actually wasted. Once I'm done with AK3, I can go back to BL2 and pick up where I left off. But I need AK5 to get Animal Husbandry, so I'll be at this for a while. I want chickens for the grain, really. To make buns, for sammiches. I like sammiches. I'm also going to capture a few piggies. I don't know if I'll go full-on farmer and do the meat collector/piggy feeder thing just yet. I might also need a bigger house first. For now, chickens.

I find that with these types of sandbox games, much like life, it's better to divide your "play story" into a bunch of smaller goals and work toward each one. You can have a grand design, but break it up into milestones and it'll make the experience much more rewarding. My problem is I want to do everything. Unlike the other games, though, you only get one Glitch.

Once I figure out how to get screenshots (I think it's the Print Screen key ;) ) I'll start posting pictures. I'd like to show off my house and my current avatar, and I had thought to post "avatar of the week" shots if I see fun costumes.

Now Tiny Speck needs to add in furniture and the ability to decorate your house. I like my house, but the rook decor is a little creepy.

Getting around...

I'm level 5 now and I still don't know what I'm doing. I'm having fun, though. Mining seems to be the most efficient way to make some cash right now. I'll check out cooking and blending soon. I don't have a goal for myself just yet beyond exploring and experiencing everything I can.

I started the road to getting my papers so I can ride the subway. The bureaucracy involved is hysterical, and I'm having great fun going through the process. This game is my type of humor.

For those of you who, like me, want to keep track of where they've been to better explore, you may want to download this handy location tracker. In the Glitch forums are a couple of Greasemonkey posts with other handy scripts in them. I may have to bookmark a few things soon.

While I'm at it, you should have this link handy, too: The (unofficial) Glitch Strategy Blog and Wiki

You're so vain...

I have a new avatar now.

Customizing your Glitch is done through two methods: the Wardrobe and the Vanity. The Wardrobe is for clothes and the Vanity is for appearance.

In the Vanity, you can customize your eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair and skin color. There are a lot of options to choose from, and more if you're a subscriber. Once you picked a part, you can adjust the size and height of it. For hair it's just color. I was a little disappointed to see no color option for eyes, especially since you can make them really big.

The Wardrobe has options for hats/masks, coats, shirts, pants, footwear, dresses and skirts. Boy is there a selection! There are plenty of free clothes for you to mix and match all sorts of different looks. Most of the clothes must be purchased with credits, and many of them are subscriber-only.

The biggest thing I noticed in doing this is that there is no gender in Glitch. You are what you want to be. You can change your appearance at any time, so you can be a boy one day and a girl the next. That sort of freedom is liberating and wonderful.

I'm looking forward to changing my appearance a lot and playing with styles. I really like what Tiny Speck did with avatar customization and hope it just gets more robust.

First Impressions

I got my shiny sparkly golden ticket to the world last night and played for a little while.

The very first things that hit me were the visuals and humor. This game is gorgeous and funny. It could very well be the most beautiful flash game I've ever played. Not that I play a lot of flash games, certainly not of this caliber.

Making a Glitch is easy. You just pick from one of four different avatars. You can customize them later, which I haven't yet done.

The tutorial is fun and engaging. You start off in a brain and walk out into the world, where you pet a piggy, water a tree and squeeze a chicken. Yes, they are making that joke.

Which brings me to the humor.

This is an adult game. You have to be at least fourteen to play, and under seventeen requires parental consent, although I just saw one of those checkboxes so I'm not sure how they enforce the parental consent part. While it has a cute and cuddly visual style, this is certainly not a family game. That's not to say that you shouldn't let your young adult play. I don't think this is inappropriate at all, and so far it's no worse than any PG-13 movie. There is booze, and there are drugs ("no-no powder"), and there is a lot of innuendo, but everything is so tongue-in-cheek that it's of the "if your kids understand it's not our fault" variety. I personally love it, and I'd be happy to let my fourteen-year-old play if I had one. This is up to the parents, of course, but there's no explicit sexual tones and no violence. Just good old-fashioned playground humor. I can't speak for the community yet, but I was impressed by the maturity level of the forums.

Now, the big question is: Is the game fun?

Maybe.

This is a sandbox game. There are quests to do, and there is a vague overall plot/goal which is laid out in the tutorial, but there's no real story to it. Much like Eve Online, the game is what you make of it. Unlike Eve, you can't make any money off it. ;) Okay, there are a lot of differences, but the type of game is the same. You do what you want to do and things will happen.

Hardcore players will probably get bored. Casual players will love it. My initial impression was "hey, I'm in Farmville!" The biggest focus is on crafting. Mining, gardening, farming, cooking, creating. There's a lot to do, but it's the sort of thing that's considered the province of casual games. For the curious, there's a lot to explore, too. Also like Eve Online, you get skills to research, and the research is done even while you're not playing so your Glitch continues to grow and improve while you're away.

In the next couple weeks, Tiny Speck will open up a feature that really sets their game apart. You create the world as you go through group quests. The world itself is divided into "streets" and it's up to the players to create those streets. I'm not sure how this works yet, but I understand there are crafting options and a group vote and the street turns out to reflect what avenue the players took to create it (see what I did there?).

One last thing, speaking of streets... the game is 2d. In a genre where 3d rules, it's refreshing to see a break from the mold. I wasn't really crazy about the 2d aspect in a combat-heavy game like Maple Story, but I think it works well here. The streets are laid out intelligently and I get a really nice old-school vibe in that there are hidden areas and pathways to explore in the individual streets. Hopefully they'll add more hidden secrets and alternate pathways.

I'll be customizing my avatar next before I resume playing. One of the great benefits of this being a flash-based browser game is that there is a lot you can do on the website without actually logging in to the game, like avatar customization and picking skills. Another great benefit is that you can play this anywhere on any computer with a browser and flash installed.

I really like this game. It may not be for everybody, but I think it'll turn out to be something I'll play for a good long time.

Welcome!

I'm not sure what this blog will turn out to be. I know what I'd like it to be. I'm starting it with the intention of jotting down my thoughts about a wonderful new game. I'd like it to turn into sort of a culture blog, relating the "three ews" of Glitch: News, reviews and interviews. We'll see if all that happens. For now, I'll just write what I feel like writing, and you read what you feel like reading. Deal? Deal. Anyway, welcome to the blog. This is all about Glitch. My name on there is Crifmer, which is pretty much my username everywhere, so I'm not hard to find. Why Crifmer? Because I've never seen anyone else use that name, and it's always open. But as for where it comes from, that's a story for later. So I'm Crifmer. Nice to meet you. Stay a while and listen.