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Check out all of Keita Takahashi's unused ideas on Glitch

Windmill trees. Brain-shaped UFOs. Pudding rocks. These and more can be found in among the almost 200 design ideas Keita Takahashi found in the archives of Tiny Speck's now-closed MMO Glitch.

Kris Ligman, Blogger

May 2, 2013

1 Min Read

When Tiny Speck's browser-based MMO Glitch closed its doors in late 2012, it did so perhaps more gracefully than most. The game's website now stands as a static archive, preserving all of its former players' profiles and forum posts, along with a complete compendium of Glitch's lore. More recently, Tiny Speck added to its encyclopedia almost 200 internal design notes from Keita Takahashi, who joined the Vancouver-based team in 2011. Dubbed "Quick Ideas", the notes vary from fairly practical suggestions regarding the game's UI to more outlandish concepts like mutant, bipedal farm animals and a subway system based on dinosaurs' gastro-intestinal tracts. Many of Takahashi's written notes are just as surreal. One proposes a context-sensitive animation to cause chickens to run away from the player if she types "KFC." Another reads simply:"I'm not sure why tower can't transform into robot. It looks so cool." Some ideas have less to do with the game itself and more to do with engaging subscribers. Takahashi spends one post proposing tangible rewards for faithful customers. "[F]or example... Glitch sound track by cast tape. Meat T-shirts. Real Mr.Rock. I can gather it at the shores of river and then draw face." From "Quick Idea #141". The archive is definitely worth a browse if you're a fan of Takahashi's style or just curious about some of the behind-the-scenes of one of the more idiosyncratic MMOs to grace browser games. You can view them all here.

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