Glitch the Game: A Website in Review
Here's the deal. At Children of Ur, we want to create a fairly faithful recreation of Glitch the Game, which includes more than just getting avatars to jump around on screen (although that's important, too). It's also about the flavor of the game, all the little nuances that made the game cool, and then building on top of that.
As your friendly neighborhood developer, part of my job is building the website for CoU. Slapping together any ol' website's pretty easy, but trying to make a website that properly conveys a concept, an idea, a feeling is pretty hard. Let me show you what I mean.
Over the years, Glitch the Game had four different styles of landing page. You can check out all their old stuff through the Wayback Machine, if you like. In order:
Late 2010. This was the first page I saw, when I signed up to play. Really dark, mysterious? This was waaaay early in the game, before there were updates or posts.
Most of 2011. Still SUPER dark. What's up with that. The game was not yet 'open' to play, so the conversion factor here was to request early access. There were updates at this point, and tweets, too!
2012 - Wow! Suddenly a lot brighter. Looks super fun and inviting, they even have testimonials. Minor modifications were made throughout the year, beta opened and closed and invite-only, and all these other shenanigans. BUT, in essence, this is what ya got. The format mirrors the landing pages for many games still in their early stages (though interestingly unlike many sites for MMOs).
And now, of course, there's the final resting site of the game. Short, quick, and to the point. And sad.
So now we have Children of Ur, a magical (if somewhat sparser) site that will one day grow into something brighter and more absurd. We've done our best to recapture the same look and feel, and, more importantly, the flow. As you peruse the site (especially in upcoming iterations), you'll see a lot of things from Glitch resurface.
Be on the lookout in the next few weeks for some fun changes. We might even have shiny new forums up! But you didn't hear it from me. Shh...
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