Hello everyone!!!
Welcome to the official website of Howard Glitch....
here is where i will be keeping a development log of the project, and also where i will be giving away some freebies and also hiding extra material within the website, if you can find it!!
Thanks for taking the time to look around, and please consider supporting the project by visiting my kickstarter page which is now up and running....
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IN ALL LIKELIHOOD, THE YOUTUBE GAME BROUGHT YOU HERE. A SECOND GAME IS IN THE WORKS.
FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO VENTURE FURTHER DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE, CHECK OUT THE INCIDENT......
wow.
i almost forgot that this website exists, lol!
apologies to anyone that has been visiting here hoping for updates...
in a nutshell, the howard glitch project successfully got crowd-funded at the end of 2010, and ever since then, me and my team of amigos have been working 26 hours a day to complete the entire multimedia puzzle. we're nearing the end now, with the most crucial piece - the novel - demanding the most attention for its completion....
[CONT'D ON NEXT PAGE]
I have been updating for the last year but it has been at our kickstarter website at
honestly, the project is maturing so wonderfully.
the current state of the book is radically different to the first draft that was written many moons ago.
the characters have truly taken on 3D form, constantly pestering me at all hours, to redefine the history of their lives with greater accuracy. I've also found a strong desire to seek out the most gritty challenging questions and scenario's that really test the mettle of faith,within the battleground of the Howard Glitch story, and then see how they realistically fare.
most of the music for the EP is either bitcrushed or heavily inspired by retro chiptune music from 80's platform games, but here is a preview of a piece we did in strings:
I have also had the pleasure of combining my existential hunger with visual artist Cihan Geleri's amazing pixel art, which you can see on the first page.
the choice to have pixel art as a defining way of story-telling, comes in part for my love of old school videogames, and also just because there is something so primal about pixels that gives the symbolism and alchemical roots of the story a perfect visual representation.
most people who come to this website, do so because they played the crazy-ass youtube game-prototype i built long long ago, when mobile phones were the size of telephone boxes, and supermarkets were unbuilt futuristic concepts ;)
a second game is in the works, but I cannot give any timeline for it's release, as the main multimedia project of Howard Glitch has absolute priority with our engines until it is complete.
Ideally, i would like to be able to release the 2nd game for free, with the option of players being able to experience it in 3D, and for this one to be substantially longer than the initial prototype game.
as much as I would love to attempt to build the most existential platform game of all time, I also love the challenge of building a massive youtube game, that is successful on the level of both pure innovation, and a gameplay mechanic that can actually sustain the curiosity and addictiveness of an old time RPG. Now in theory, the odds weigh heavily against us, because youtube is not built for games, as by its nature it is simply the playback of pre-built, predetermined media. And there lies inspirado for our time, in our attempt to work with this impossible medium ;)
I have so much gratitude to all of our kickstarter backers, that have given us this amazing opportunity to bring the whole glitch to life.
thank you all for your patience. we cannot wait to share this with you :)
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Hello everyone! Its been a while since I updated here.
First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I really wish you all the best, and thankyou to everyone that helped us with backing & supporting our project in 2009..
In a nutshell, the HG team have been ultra busy, ever since we succeeded in getting our project funded on Kickstarter....
So now, we are building the 3-fold perception-spinning project, which involves turning the first draft into a published book, recording the music album, and painting the visual artwork.
All of our updates are now at our Kickstarter page, and for anyone interested, you can still order the limited edition copy of Howard Glitch for a short while...
Thank you everyone for being so
incredibly supportive...
Over & out,
Rob & Jay :)
§ 06-11-10 §
ON DECEMBER 6TH 2010,
THE GLITCH OCCURED....
YOU PROBABLY DONT REMEMBER IT,
AS IT HASN'T HAPPENED YET,...
BUT YOU WERE THERE...
IF YOU ARE READY TO REMEMBER,
VISIT :
§ 02-10-10 §
As you can see, the website has been massively updated, now previewing the whole project in Audio, Text, and Visual Art form. We are now in the process of putting on our rocket suits to be ready for our Kickstarter launch...
For anyone not familiar with KICKSTARTER, it is a funding platform where anyone can start a project online and try to raise the funds to make their project come alive basically.
How it works is really no different to you buying a product from amazon.com, only what you get in return for supporting a Kickstarter project, is a physical product AND you get to be a part of the journey supporting something that you believe in...
I also wanna say a massive THANKYOU to everyone who is visiting this site, listening to the music, or playing the game... The Glitch Team are all primarily artists, and so we REALLY welcome your help spreading the word with what we are doing here.
Have an awesome weekend :)
§ 17-09-10 §
the HOWARD GLITCH FORUM is now open!
for all those that have a love for curiosity & philosophy come join us.....
www.howardglitch.omgforum.net
§ 12-10-10 §
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§ 05-09-10 §
In response to the most frequently asked question, let me explain a little more about the project...
Howard Glitch is a multi-media jigsaw puzzle... Each piece of media is essentially a character with its own perception of what is occuring...
So for anyone who has played Howard Glitch [the game], and doesn't understand why there is no "happy ending" to it, let me explain ........ (cont'd on next page)
.........you are only seeing a small fragment of the greater picture.
The purpose of telling a story through sound, writing, artwork and games, is that it gives the reader/player the full spectrum of ideals and mindsets. Some of these are futile and some are truly hopeful, but ultimately it leaves the story in your hands to decide what is really the truth.
It is also worth me mentioning that only about 5% of the actual story was written into the game, to prevent spoilers from anyone who will read the book.
So the game really is a prelude and opening into a much deeper adventure that goes way beyond just escapism.
To everyone who has emailed me, reviewed the game, or left a comment -both positive and negative- I want to say thankyou for taking the time to check out my project. I'm very conscious that it is not everyone's cup of tea, but for anyone who has a love for philosophy, religious studies, spirituality, or simply just a childish curiosity for life, I really feel you will love what is to come..... :)
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§ 24-08-10 §
I definately consider this game the first of many in a series of Howard Glitch adventure games...
My original intention was to build it as a philosophical platform game, kind of like playing Quackshot through the eyes of a Zen Monk.
However, with a severely-limited time budget, and just not enough game-making experience, I decided to ditch the game altogether....
(cont'd on next page)
2 weeks later, the concept of the game kept bugging me, until I finally surrendered, and decided to still find a way to build it...
Long before I considered making it as a game, Howard Glitch was a written story, with a heavy theme built around THE DRIVER and THE PASSENGERS, or what can also be described as THE DECIDER, and THE DECIDED... It then made sense to use youtube as the game's medium, because a video is a piece of media that is premade, and pre-written, and again, this fits into the project's challenging philosophy towards pre-destined events in life.
The game took about a week and a half to build, (more than half of that being used to render movie files). The gameplay was an improvised jam in photoshop, much the same as the music, which involved squeezing the best retro tones out of an archaic Yamaha PSR keyboard.
the medium of Youtube Games is a toughie... To sustain a really good concept along with great playability, is very very challenging, and I'm not suggesting that I succeeded either. Games that can be released on flash or youtube, have such wonderful accessibility to anyone. There is no requirement for a decent graphics card, or any prior gaming experience, it's just plug and play.
As for future games, I already have another wildly ambitious idea to take youtube gaming to the max, but before I can start work on that, I'm aiming to get the rest of the Howard Glitch project funded on Kickstarter very soon.
§ 11-08-10 §
Howard Glitch
- THE GAME -
a fourth dimension to the Howard Glitch project is about
to emerge...
it is an online game with a totally different tangent story to The Book, so playing it won't reveal any
spoilers for the rest that is to come.
I'm going to go out of my way to be vague right now, so
that the experience is retained for new players.
all i will reveal,......
is that the game is an experimental short, based around warping perceptions in an existential crisis...
i also decided to pick a relatively impossible medium to release the game on, which is both challenging and highly rewarding to build..
gaming inspirations are wide from genesis titles like quackshot & toejam and earl, to more recent indie titles
like portal 2d, vvvvv, & and yet it moves.
the game should be finished within a week...
i have the final stages to complete, which is mainly just scoring some music and an insane equivelant to an end boss!!!
i also wanna say a huge thankyou to n4g, diygamer, and pixel prospector, for being so enthusiastic towards the
4th dimension of howard glitch.
§ 05-08-10 §
AUDIO SKETCHES
Demo-ing a long line of potential songs and riffs, to be used for The Glitch soundtrack.... the first sketch is playing around with stacked fuzz pedals, 60's microphones, and of course squarewave 8-bit synth sounds... apart from sounding gorgeous in a nostalgic way, i feel there is one character that just has to be portrayed in a very monophonic, 2-dimensional way, though i won't reveal that yet :)
This second audio sketch is a modern attempt to delve into persian culture, as one of the main characters from the story is a wounded persian man, and for me personally, brings the most beautiful & exotic element to the project.....
i have been playing these kind of scales all my life naturally, but it was only after doing considerable research into ancient persia & their religions and rituals, that it really started giving gravity to the music and what it means...
§ 27-07-10 §
OK, the website is now live and running....
had a very fulfilling and exhausting week, hitting around 20hrs a day of video editing, & sound recording, and finally got a website going too last minute...
i have a couple of short music videos to finish editing to represent a preview of what is coming from the musical side of The Glitch...
I also want to add an interactive element to the website so viewers can be a part of the process, as a central theme with all the artwork being made is bent around how drastic everyone's perception can be over a singular event...
