Topic

Why can't Tiny Speck give Glitch to the community?

Glitch is not the only game to ever run into these sorts of problems. Some other games continued to exist because the devs open-sourced the game and let users host the servers.

I don't want to hear about how complicated the game is or how it would take months to train new devs. This is the internet. Sure, it might take a few months... or a few years... but the internet has some truly amazing people. Someone could get SOMETHING running, even if it's on a much smaller scale than Glitch is now. I like to think that the internet would be a better place for it.

The worst that could happen is... nothing. The game would be down for good... And isn't that the situation we're in right now? What do you have to lose, Tiny Speck? Please, give the fans a shot.

Posted 28 days ago by Torako Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • From the announcement's FAQ:

    "Why don't you give the game away or make it open source or let player volunteers run it?

    "Glitch looks simple, but it is not. Any massively multiplayer game is several orders of magnitude more complex than a multiplayer game (and those are usually an order of magnitude more complex than a single player game). The state of the world changes hundreds of thousands of times a second, and each of those changes has to be immediately saved in a way that is safe and redundant. Most of those changes — decrease in a chicken's lifespan, the regeneration of a rock, the health of a tree, the movement of every player — have to be sent from server to server and from server to player's local computers. If you're in a busy place in Glitch, your computer might be receiving hundreds or even thousands of messages about stuff that's happening around you every second.

    "It takes a full-time team of competent engineers & technical operations personnel just to keep the game open. Even if there was a competent team that was willing to work on it full time for free, it would take months to train them. Even then, the cost of hosting the servers would be prohibitively expensive."
    Posted 28 days ago by Classical Subscriber! | Permalink
  • From the post that you apparently didn't read before copying and pasting the FAQ:
    "I don't want to hear about how complicated the game is or how it would take months to train new devs. This is the internet. Sure, it might take a few months... or a few years... but the internet has some truly amazing people. Someone could get SOMETHING running, even if it's on a much smaller scale than Glitch is now. I like to think that the internet would be a better place for it."
    Posted 28 days ago by Torako Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Maybe the internet doesn't simply have these competent engineers and techies floating around, maybe they are actually busy being paid and distracted to the point where glitch is not going to happen. This highly highly disappointing me, i've been looking forward to glitch for a very long time, and I am completely and utterly shocked that it didn't bring enough attention to the world, this is really disappointing.
    Posted 28 days ago by LųĉĩđεşşΨ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I suggest you check out the twitter feed. They've dangled the prospect of open-sourcing, at least: https://twitter.com/playglitch/status/268945257398411264
    Posted 28 days ago by kalsangikid Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Really? You don't think that the internet has competent engineers and techies who would work for free to create something they believe in?

    Um... Linux. That's about all I have to say.

    kalsangikid, oh, good! I hope they do.
    Posted 28 days ago by Torako Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I hope they can :( I will help if I can!
    Posted 28 days ago by Kurtie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Seriously wtf, opensource the client and server components.

    But I'm sure there is some component they could use else where, or potentially sell so its not going to happen. fml
    Posted 28 days ago by cynder Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I posted it because it appeared that it should otherwise answer your question: that's the reason why they're not doing it.  /shrug

    Despite being an artist who believes strongly in creative commons and open source material, I deeply respect the right that the devs have to their own creation, the years of work they've put into making it, and the decision they've already made (re: that announcement).
    Posted 28 days ago by Classical Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Classical, well, apparently they've changed their minds or something. I hope so.
    Posted 28 days ago by Torako Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't know anything at all about the business end of Tiny Speck or Glitch-the-game, but the answer is almost certainly that they don't fully own the intellectual property involved. In situations like this, the venture capitalists who funded the development generally have at least partial rights to the intellectual property created, and would have to approve any sale or giveaway.

    This is just a guess, but I've been in the industry a long damn time and that's the first thing I thought.
    Posted 28 days ago by rahaeli Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hopefully they can figure this out and opensource it.
    Posted 28 days ago by cynder Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A game like Glitch would also invariably contain dozens of licensed commercial libraries, which are essential to its functionality, and can't legally be given away. It would be a lot of work stripping out all of this.
    Posted 28 days ago by Fritzl Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Fritzl- It's not like no one else could obtain the libraries. It wouldn't be true open-source, but it'd be better than the game shutting down.
    Posted 27 days ago by Torako Subscriber! | Permalink