Company:Glitchers

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Short description: British video-game developer
GLITCHERS
Glitchers-Square-512.png
Founded10 September 2013
HeadquartersLeith, Edinburgh, Scotland
Founder(s)Matthew Hyde, Maxwell Scott-Slade, Hugo Scott-Slade
IndustryIndie game design and development
Websiteglitchers.com

Glitchers is a British video-game company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 2013 by Matthew Hyde, Hugo Scott-Slade, and Maxwell Scott-Slade (of Johnny Two Shoes).[1][2][3] Glitchers is best known for developing Sea Hero Quest in 2016. The game was developed in collaboration with Alzheimer's Research UK to help dementia research by tracking players' 3D navigation.[4]

The company's name was GLITCHE.RS from 2013 to 2016.[5] It uses the tagline "Games for Good",[6] and aims to "create games that could make a positive impact on the world".[7]

Games

  • Plunderland (2010) is an interactive pirate adventure game for iPhone, released initially as part of Johnny Two Shoes but now developed by Glitchers and is available as part of GameClub
  • Chippy (2013), a time management game in a simulated fish and chips shop, Chippy was developed as a self-funded app based game and is now available as part of GameClub.[1] Chippy was well received and described by Pocket Gamer as “addictive stuff, and it’s easy to play”.[8]
  • Gumulon (2013) is a mobile app based game promoting Stride chewing gum by requiring the player to chew to activate the game.[9]
  • Kano is an experimental colour-matching arcade game,[10] which Glitchers explain “was designed primarily as an experiment for us to test out assumptions around player retention, payment models and growth hacking.”[11]
  • Sea Hero Quest (2016) is a mobile game which contributes to research on dementia by tracking players' 3D navigation[12] It was designed by Glitchers in association with Alzheimer's Research UK, University College London and the University of East Anglia and with funding from Deutsche Telekom.[13][14][15] The idea for the game came from neuroscientist Michael Hornberger of the University of East Anglia who collaborated with Hugo Spiers of University College London and a group of six other neuroscientists.[16] A new Research Edition was announced in 2021.[17]
  • Cone Wars (2017) is an online multiplayer and PC game featuring Ice cream van turf wars[18] in which teams compete to sell the most ice creams using weapons and tactics.
  • Nestlums (2020) is a money training app for children, designed to teach good financial habits using familiar gaming techniques, developed in collaboration with Cauldron.[19]
  • Crush your FOFO (2018) was developed with the Patients Association and AbbVie to explore patients' "Fear of Finding Out" which leads them to delay seeking medical advice.[20][21][22]
  • Drive Buy (2021) is described as a "short-session multiplayer vehicle combat game with a delivery twist" and is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch[23]

In a 2023 blog post marking the 10th anniversary of the company, two forthcoming games were described:[7]

  • Forest Guardian will concern rainforest protection
  • Enhance, developed with University College London, will be a "spiritual successor" to Sea Hero Quest, "targeted at the 60-80 year old audience Sea Hero Quest couldn’t quite reach".

Awards

In 2018 Sea Hero Quest was nominated for a British Academy Games Awards BAFTA in the category: Game Beyond Entertainment,[24] a new category for games which "deliver a transformational experience beyond pure entertainment".[25] Sea Hero Quest also won bronze in the 2018 The One Show awards.[26]

Also in 2018 Glitchers won a Webby award for Social Impact.[27]

In 2020 Sea Hero Quest was nominated for the Coney Island Dreamland Award for Best AR/VR Game at the New York Game Awards.[28]

In 2022 the company was awarded funding from the UK Games Fund to support the development of Cone Wars.[29][30]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Lomas, Natasha (2 November 2013). "Chippy Is A Fish & Chip Shop Simulator For iOS That Puts The Fun Into Deep-Fat Frying". https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/02/chippy/. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  2. "Maxwell Scott-Slade". http://www.icetotallygaming.com/node/35581. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  3. "Company Profile: Glitchers". 5 February 2021. https://scottishgames.net/2021/02/05/company-profile-glitchers/. 
  4. "'We can change lives': How one Scottish games company is helping to fight dementia" (in en). 31 October 2023. https://www.thenational.scot/community/subscriber/23892050.one-edinburgh-based-gaming-company-helping-tackle-dementia/. 
  5. "Glitchers Ltd overview" (in en). Companies House. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08683349. 
  6. "Glitchers - Games for Good". Glitchers. https://www.glitchers.com/. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Celebrating 10 years". Glitchers. 21 September 2023. https://www.glitchers.com/blog/celebrating-10-years. 
  8. McKeand, Kirk. "Chippy". https://www.pocketgamer.com/articles/054982/chippy/. 
  9. "Gumulon Case Study". Wieden+Kennedy. http://wklondon.com/work/view/stride-gum-gumulon-case-study. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  10. "Kano". http://www.kanoapp.com/. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  11. "Kano". https://glitchers.com/project/kano/. 
  12. "Mobile game Sea Hero Quest 'helps dementia research'". BBC News. 4 May 2016. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36203674. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  13. "Partners". http://www.seaheroquest.com/en/credits. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  14. Titcomb, James (4 May 2016). "Playing this smartphone game can help fight dementia". The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/05/04/playing-this-smartphone-game-can-help-fight-dementia/. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  15. "Home page". Glitchers. http://glitchers.com/. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  16. Kaplan, Sara (7 May 2016). "Two minutes playing this video game could help scientists fight Alzheimer's". Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/05/07/two-minutes-playing-this-video-game-could-help-scientists-fight-alzheimers/. Retrieved 8 May 2016. 
  17. "Sea Hero Quest relaunches as a new Research Edition". Glitchers. 12 October 2021. https://www.glitchers.com/blog/sea-hero-quest-research-edition. 
  18. "Cone wars". http://conewars.com/. Retrieved 5 May 2016. 
  19. McLaughlin, Aimee. "Meet Nestlums, the app teaching kids all about money". https://www.creativereview.co.uk/nestlums-app/. 
  20. "Crush Your FOFO". https://www.glitchers.com/crush-your-fofo. 
  21. "A new quiz app wants to help users beat their fear of finding out bad news from the doctor" (in en). www.expressandstar.com. 15 February 2018. https://www.expressandstar.com/news/science-and-technology/2018/02/15/a-new-quiz-app-wants-to-help-users-beat-their-fear-of-finding-out-bad-news-from-the-doctor/. 
  22. "Quiz aims to help understand the fear of finding out medical conditions". Digital Health. 20 February 2018. https://www.digitalhealth.net/2018/02/online-quiz-which-aims-to-help-understand-the-fear-of-finding-out/. 
  23. Craddock, Ryan. "Multiplayer Vehicle Combat Game Drive Buy Speeds Onto Switch". https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/02/multiplayer_vehicle_combat_game_drive_buy_speeds_onto_switch_next_month. 
  24. "Game Beyond Entertainment: Sea Hero Quest VR". https://www.bafta.org/games/features/game-beyond-entertainment-sea-hero-quest-vr. 
  25. Makedonski, Brett (12 April 2018). "BAFTA names What Remains of Edith Finch its best game of 2017". Destructoid. https://www.destructoid.com/bafta-names-what-remains-of-edith-finch-its-best-game-of-2017-498392.phtml. Retrieved 13 April 2018. 
  26. [s+London/2018/3/all "The One Show - Archive of Winners | The One ClubOne Show | Glitchers / London | 2018 | Interactive"] (in en). https://www.oneclub.org/awards/theoneshow/-agency/Glitchers+[s]+London/2018/3/all. 
  27. "2018 Winners". The Webby Awards. 24 April 2018. https://winners.webbyawards.com/2018/games/general-games/social-impact/57774/sea-hero-quest-vr. Retrieved 10 March 2021. 
  28. Sheehan, Gavin (2 January 2020). "The New York Game Awards Announces 2020 Nominees". Bleeding Cool. https://www.bleedingcool.com/2020/01/02/the-new-york-game-awards-announces-2020-nominees/. Retrieved 4 January 2020. 
  29. "Three Scottish Studios Awarded £25K By UK Games Fund". 13 May 2022. https://scottishgames.net/2022/05/13/uk-games-fund-awards-grants-to-three-scottish-studios/. 
  30. "Cone Wars". https://ukgamesfund.com/funded-project/cone-wars/. 

External links