I have just had a walk round Children of Ur and it was lovely to see Ur again, but clear that much work still to be done, thank you to everyone working to bring us home to Glitch. It is great to see the updates here, and realise it is getting closer every day!
I actually popped by Cofur just to show support and see the difference (I had the honor of being drafted to Closed eleven alpha last round) and while the games have the same goal of bringing back ur, I think they will both have unique aspects that will bring people to play both of them. Maybe if you don't like a feature the CofUr team adds later on you can switch to eleven and vise versa. However, both projects are being created by amazingly kind people. I happened to run into Paul in CofUr and he was kind enough to help me out a bit with a few comands and even took me on a tour around. Ofcourse, we all know how great the devs for eleven are already! You guys rock!
I think it won't be a competition as much as Coexisting with the same amazing community and love for a game. I plan on playing both just to see how different choices affect different outcomes. I might make Eleven-Artemis a cook and make CofUr-Artemis a miner (both with the same great fashion sense)
I was on Children of Ur to show support, too. I like the ability of posting pics/adding color to text with ease…Even created a colorful greeting from me to my fellow Glitchen…worked on it with love…and it was erased for what reason I don't know; then to top it off, my account was taken off. Not gonna lie and say it was fine, that it didn't sting a bit. *:( I did go ahead and 're'sign-up; but too afraid to comment/post anything. So - for now I'm just dedicating myself to Eleven.
Also, it got a mention in Eleven's recent article on MMO Games...
So, yes, they definitely know about each other. Per the MMO Games article (and my understanding), Eleven is essentially reconstructing Glitch as it was, initially (and then maybe adding enhancements once it is rebuilt). However Children of Ur is rebuilding the game on a different platform, and as they rebuild, they are adding improvements and moderate changes to the game to improve gameplay and performance while keeping the spirit of Glitch the same.
They are two very complementary projects, and I'm sure both teams would encourage folks to support both, if possible.
I don't remember who I heard this from anymore, but I distinctly remember someone recounting or maybe even quoting Stoot saying that what Tiny Speck did with Glitch in Flash couldn't be accomplished in HTML5. (Does that ring a bell with anyone? Can anyone confirm that Stoot made this statement?) Granted, that would have been around the time that Glitch closed (late 2012 or early 2013) and HTML5 has progressed a lot since then. However, I don't know — and hopefully someone can shed more light on the technical details — whether HTML5 even today is capable of running Glitch.
When people talk about how Flash is dead and how HTML5 is emerging as the new standard, they are talking about streaming video (e.g. YouTube, Netflix), graphically rich websites, and webapps. Flash is still the standard for browser games, and who knows if HTML5 will ever depose it. It's a given that Flash is as good as dead for video streaming, etc. but things are far less clear when it comes to games.
So, the developers of Children of Ur are taking on a big risk by going with HTML5 if indeed there is some legitimate doubt as to whether it's even a technically feasible option.
Another risk that the developers of Children of Ur are taking is that they are replacing some of Tiny Speck's handiwork with their own creative decisions and design decisions. Children of Ur wants to have its own original interface, visually and functionally distinct from Glitch's interface. This has the potential to alienate fans, given the strong nostalgia for Glitch. Players are looking foremost to return to the game as it was, and may not be receptive to a "fork" of Glitch that feels foreign in some aspects.
There is an argument that newcomers who never played Glitch don't know what Glitch was like, so they won't care whether or not Children of Ur resembles Glitch exactly. But — and this is entirely a judgement of taste — almost every detail of Glitch was so thoughtfully and masterfully crafted by Tiny Speck, a large team of professional artists, designers, and programmers, that it is hard to imagine that Tiny Speck's creative work can be bested by a few well-meaning volunteers.
The final point I'll make on this topic is that any comparison of Eleven and Children of Ur is essentially moot. Eleven is so far ahead in development (take a look at the demo videos if you want to be impressed) that it's hard to imagine Children of Ur ever catching up at this point.
Not only does Eleven have a huge head start, it is also moving ahead at a much faster pace. Eleven seems to be making steady progress all the time. Children of Ur, on the other hand, hasn't changed much since they started working on it about a year ago.
So, it seems a sure bet that Eleven will launch as a feature-complete game long before Children of Ur does (that is, if in fact Children of Ur turns out to be a technically feasible project at all). If one game launches while the other is still in the early stages of development with a year or more to go, it is hard to imagine that the other game won't lose momentum. Players won't want to wait around. It's been more than two years already. Players will get invested in the first game to launch. The community will become established there, and won't want to migrate somewhere else a year or more later.
Children of Ur is in pre-Alpha and Eleven is in Alpha, respectively. CoU did go with HTML5 and wants to make modifications along the way, Eleven is in Flash, wants to rebuild the original in full, and add things later on only after the original full game is in place. There are games now in HTML5, and Flash is not being developed anymore, but Flash is still a much fuller program than HTML5 is, hence arguments for both formats. Thus far however any changes CoU have made i have not found offensive, one such thing was having ppl submit sayings for the trees etc, to use as well as the original phrases, the font on sayings is different, the signposts act slightly different. But it is much more risky IMO to do things like that. And yes Stoot did say HTML5 could not support the game, but that was stated a few years back, it might eventually be able to, but i do not think it will be any time soon. However best of luck to both projects, they do both have different goals and ideas, Eleven is ahead in development but i still want to see what happens with both!
I'm very excited to see how our community's combine. Maybe we can have weekly tournaments in games? I think that would be cool! A bit of friendly competition would be great! I enjoy just friendly competition!
I am very happy to see both projects, but I haven't followed CofUr because their main discussion platform is Google Groups, and I refuse to get a G+ account.
CofUr has been created to allow people to wander in and look around, but Eleven is more developed, I think.
Both are progressing, and I would hope the two teams keep in touch enough to offer each other suggestions if the code isn't entirely incompatible--I would like to believe that Glitch was wonderful enough that two different forks of it could both survive.
In case anyone hasn't seen the lay out of CofUr here a screen cap I took with the lovely @"Liza Throttlebottom" a while back. Yes, it still needs work but it's still fun to teleport to random locations and talk about the olden days! Oh how that hole looks creepy even in the light!
(P.S. I take lots of screenshots holy cow) (P.P.S. Hope your okay with my tagging you Liza!)
@Artemis don't worry you take the correct amount of screenshots ; ) You can never have too many! And of course it's fine that you tagged me! That was a great adventure we had. (Also little Liza thanks you for the compliment ; ) She really is a dear isn't she? My favorite part of CoU is probably that we can import our little Glitchen to marvel over again!)
when glitch died i cried cause it was sad, then again when i realized i had lost my happy place. then again when i realized everyone lost their happy place. and then again when i realized that coolbettycakes might not even exist anymore. but somehow we have managed to stay alive. waiting on giants, truly we are glitch refugees. children of ur has my heartfelt support and lobe as does elevengiants or anyone who creates anything that lets me/us be ourselves again.
I'm so happy all these kind people here in Eleven and over in CoU are working to make this wonderful, unique place available again. I have walked around in CoU and was lucky enough to run into a few other folks who were as kind and helpful as I remembered from Glitch. @Smallchalet--did you ask why your stuff was deleted? While I was on, someone was having trouble and one of the devs said their account wasn't loading correctly and they helped to fix. I like to think of Eleven and CoU as two new colonies (there must have been two spaceships there at the end--remember that wonderful pic someone made with all the Glitchen boarding a spaceship at the EOTW party?). It's twice the wonderfulness and I'm delighted.
@Axa: Thanks for mentioning that; and no actually, never did so. *:( But perhaps that was the case, with my account, as well. Since then, I really hadn't visited the site. But have sort of been following some of the development, via Slack - @klikini posts updates there, from time to time; and it seems like there are lots of fun changes, for CoU. *:) You know what? Think I will, just go ahead and visit the site; to catch up on things. *:) Thanks again for bringing it up.
I also have been around playing CoU before beeing a alpha here. Now fortunately I can choose, and I prefer a lot more the wonderful original layout, but I always think that both projects are around the same game and they may one day be together, since (please apologize my programming ignorance if I'm saying something stupid) CoU will work better in mobile platforms due the different / more recent software used then eleven, and eleven will always have a better/original looking on a PC web browser, so if they could somehow, one day, be connected in data we could use the advantages of both works without the need of choosing always one or another. Just choose depending if you are using a PC or a mobile device.
But I know, it's very hard to join two separate teams without hurting some feelings, but I may keep wishing/dreaming right? I really don't want to choose among two different games that share the same soul, mostly when I am so thankful to everyone who is working so hard to bring our home back.
As I told you once I did manage to get on CoU, it doesn't work with Firefox. I have a lot fewer problems w/ Chrome......but it still likes to occasionally freeze up and get jerky after a while.
Comments
I think it won't be a competition as much as Coexisting with the same amazing community and love for a game. I plan on playing both just to see how different choices affect different outcomes. I might make Eleven-Artemis a cook and make CofUr-Artemis a miner (both with the same great fashion sense)
Also, it got a mention in Eleven's recent article on MMO Games...
So, yes, they definitely know about each other. Per the MMO Games article (and my understanding), Eleven is essentially reconstructing Glitch as it was, initially (and then maybe adding enhancements once it is rebuilt). However Children of Ur is rebuilding the game on a different platform, and as they rebuild, they are adding improvements and moderate changes to the game to improve gameplay and performance while keeping the spirit of Glitch the same.
They are two very complementary projects, and I'm sure both teams would encourage folks to support both, if possible.
When people talk about how Flash is dead and how HTML5 is emerging as the new standard, they are talking about streaming video (e.g. YouTube, Netflix), graphically rich websites, and webapps. Flash is still the standard for browser games, and who knows if HTML5 will ever depose it. It's a given that Flash is as good as dead for video streaming, etc. but things are far less clear when it comes to games.
So, the developers of Children of Ur are taking on a big risk by going with HTML5 if indeed there is some legitimate doubt as to whether it's even a technically feasible option.
Another risk that the developers of Children of Ur are taking is that they are replacing some of Tiny Speck's handiwork with their own creative decisions and design decisions. Children of Ur wants to have its own original interface, visually and functionally distinct from Glitch's interface. This has the potential to alienate fans, given the strong nostalgia for Glitch. Players are looking foremost to return to the game as it was, and may not be receptive to a "fork" of Glitch that feels foreign in some aspects.
There is an argument that newcomers who never played Glitch don't know what Glitch was like, so they won't care whether or not Children of Ur resembles Glitch exactly. But — and this is entirely a judgement of taste — almost every detail of Glitch was so thoughtfully and masterfully crafted by Tiny Speck, a large team of professional artists, designers, and programmers, that it is hard to imagine that Tiny Speck's creative work can be bested by a few well-meaning volunteers.
The final point I'll make on this topic is that any comparison of Eleven and Children of Ur is essentially moot. Eleven is so far ahead in development (take a look at the demo videos if you want to be impressed) that it's hard to imagine Children of Ur ever catching up at this point.
Not only does Eleven have a huge head start, it is also moving ahead at a much faster pace. Eleven seems to be making steady progress all the time. Children of Ur, on the other hand, hasn't changed much since they started working on it about a year ago.
So, it seems a sure bet that Eleven will launch as a feature-complete game long before Children of Ur does (that is, if in fact Children of Ur turns out to be a technically feasible project at all). If one game launches while the other is still in the early stages of development with a year or more to go, it is hard to imagine that the other game won't lose momentum. Players won't want to wait around. It's been more than two years already. Players will get invested in the first game to launch. The community will become established there, and won't want to migrate somewhere else a year or more later.
CofUr has been created to allow people to wander in and look around, but Eleven is more developed, I think.
Both are progressing, and I would hope the two teams keep in touch enough to offer each other suggestions if the code isn't entirely incompatible--I would like to believe that Glitch was wonderful enough that two different forks of it could both survive.
(P.S. I take lots of screenshots holy cow)
(P.P.S. Hope your okay with my tagging you Liza!)
Now fortunately I can choose, and I prefer a lot more the wonderful original layout, but I always think that both projects are around the same game and they may one day be together, since (please apologize my programming ignorance if I'm saying something stupid) CoU will work better in mobile platforms due the different / more recent software used then eleven, and eleven will always have a better/original looking on a PC web browser, so if they could somehow, one day, be connected in data we could use the advantages of both works without the need of choosing always one or another. Just choose depending if you are using a PC or a mobile device.
But I know, it's very hard to join two separate teams without hurting some feelings, but I may keep wishing/dreaming right?
I really don't want to choose among two different games that share the same soul, mostly when I am so thankful to everyone who is working so hard to bring our home back.
PS: Sorry about my basic english.