General

‘Two Years Past’ or ‘Welcome Home’

It’s been exactly 2 years to the day since we thought we all lost the world of Ur forever.  It most certainly was a sad day for me, and I’m sure I can say the same for the rest of the team (those that played at least).  Little did we know at the time that just under a year later, we’d be given the opportunity to bring it back…and that exactly a year later, we would be able to walk around in Ur, even though it was only on a single street.  It’s been a year of hard, but fun work, and while we’ve got a long ways to go, significant progress has been made.

Welcome Home

Eleven Logo

As those that have been keeping up with the blog may know, we started work on our ‘true’ server, the one that’s going to be for keeps, a while back.  Since we’ve had a chance to figure out how most of the main game functions work, the true test there was going to be getting the overall system architecture set up in such a way that we’d have the stability and organization we need in order to bring the world back together as we left it 2 years ago, and allow a full load of players.  Well, while only a very minimal set of gameplay functions have been implemented in the ‘proper’ way on this new version of the server, we feel we’re ready to open up, albeit to a very small group to start.

It may sound like a tiny number, but we’ll be welcoming 13 people in to start.  How are we going to choose those 13 people?  This first group will be a mix of people we’ve identified as good testers and 5 people brought in based on their levels of interaction with our group via social media (Facebook, Twitter and here on the blog).  Different rules will likely apply to future groups coming in, such as contests and/or first-come-first-serve registration, but those 5 people will be identified and notified shortly.  For now, one of the most important things to remember for testers is: Alpha is really not about playing the game at all, but often rather tedious testing and enduring crashes and bugs and… stuff…

How are we going to let people in to the game?  Well, that’s where the web app piece comes in to play.  Our shiny new forums are launching today as well!  Everyone will be welcome to register and chat on the forums for now, and those chosen to participate in the Alpha will be given access to the game through the same login along with a special Alpha only forum.  The forum url will be announced in approximately an hour via Facebook and Twitter. (Update: look here! http://humbaba.elevengiants.com )

While we’re glad to start bringing people in, please remember that this is a work in progress, and we’re likely to experience some growing pains as we move forward, and since this is a volunteer project, please bear with us while we work these things out.  As always, your best source for updates, whether they be related to issues we’re having, rules for bringing in the next batch of alpha testers, or announcements for new functionality being rolled out will be right here on the blog, on Facebook and on Twitter.  Further information for how you can help out as an Alpha tester once you’re in will be found in the Alpha forums.

Again, welcome home,

-Kaiyon

P.S.: Please look forward to follow up posts from some of the key team members that have helped make this happen.

P.P.S.: Special thanks go out to Aroha, Joey, JustinD, LadyCeres, Scheijan, Turnip and Varaeth for their contributions to this last push towards Alpha, and of course to the rest of the team for all of their hard work on the rest of the project.

76 Comments

76 thoughts on “‘Two Years Past’ or ‘Welcome Home’”

  3. THANK YOU for all of this INCREDIBLE hard work. I want to say “You have no idea what this means to me!” but I think you know EXACTLY how much it means… I cannot wait to experience Glitch again!

    Reply

  5. I have started and quit various MMOs over the years… and not once has a game brought me such emotion and a sense of community. For all that you are doing to bring our lovely world back to us, thank you, thank you, a million times thank you. *bow*

    Reply

  6. I nearly burst into tears when I read the words ‘welcome home’. Huge thanks to all of you for working so hard on this project, I cannot wait to return to Ur! 😀

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  11. Cool news, congratulations to the lucky testers!
    Can’t wait to jump with all of you again.
    Just one personal opinion, I don’t need all the things working as they were when the game ends, one of the things I loved much was how new things appear often, so, it’s perfectly ok if the game starts with half the streets and goodies, and then during time they appear when fully functional, it will be even more fun I think.
    My nails are gone, please, please, please make it beta soon!

    Reply

  14. I have been a beta tester for few games, but feel I would not be worthy to beta test this. I join Glitch primarily to chat and explore. I don’t feel that my skills there would justify testing Eleven. But the day you roll it out, I’ll be there.

    Reply

  27. I was so sad when Glitch closed, because I had stopped playing about 5 months ( I was on a hiatus) before it shut down on November 30th. (and additionally to make things more emotional for me, it was a few days after my birthday.) I did play on the last few days I believe, but I really regret I didn’t spend more time on such a good gamge.

    It’s been 2 years, I’ve waited patiently. Now, reading this blog made me overflowed with joy… thank you so much for working on this! Can’t wait until it’s in open beta stages.

    Reply

  28. I don’t seem to be receiving the email to activate my account. I checked in the trash and spam but still nothing and it’s been a while now. Any ideas anyone? Thanks.

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  32. Ahhhh~ I am so happy after reading this!! This is indeed a HUGE leap in terms of the production process, and i’m extremely excited that you’ve made such progress! Thank you so much to all of you working on bringing back our beautiful land of Ur, i don’t think we could ask for a more skilled and dedicated team~ <3

    Also, a huge congrats to those who get to be some of the first testers! It's like you're the chosen ones to go on a mystical journey that the rest of us can only dream of for now! lol

    Reply

  36. So so Happy..A massive Thank you to all and everyone that worked so hard to get to this point..there will be lots of Happy people hearing this news..Can’t wait..I am a very Happy Fuzzbuzz

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  39. I want to be one of them. I haven’t been interacting b/c my heart was broken.
    Still wanna, tho.
    I also have a tech background. I’m useful!

    Reply

  40. Congrats on a major milestone! Well done! Congrats to those first few hard working Alphas who will be chosen. I know I’m a bit busy with holidays and such right now to justify begging to be one of the first, but consider me for some of the follow-on Alphas (was one of the original late Alphas that migrated from Faunasphere), and yes, I know can be a bit harsh/terse in my feedback, so wait until you have some thick skins ;).

    Wishing you all a successful Alpha launch, and a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See y’all in the forums.

    Reply

  44. Did not know where to post this….so I posted it on the forums AND here. One thing that I feel should definitely be looked at is potential website conflicting with eachother when the forums get merged with the website. For some reason I have had to change my password twice because it has said it was wrong. If users who post on the blog, also post on these forums and the website gets merged then there might be confliction with username/passwords from the blog and on the forums. To avoid confliction, maybe have a system that can recognize that a user has both a blog account along with a forum account and ask if the user wants to use one standard username/password. This would have to be implemented after the merge of course but this is just an idea though. I do feel this does need some looking into so there is no conflict with it later on.

    Reply

  52. Oh, I am squeeing all over the place! I discovered Glitch not long before you had to close down, and have missed it every day since. I will be patient, but ooooooo, this is the BEST Christmas/birthday present EVER! Please let me know if I can help.

    Reply

  55. Thank you so much for sharing this news with us! I can’t wait to learn more about how things are progressing. You guys are amazing for devoting so much time and energy to bringing Ur back.

    Reply

    1. XD of course the progress is magnificent, and i can’t thank anyone of the creators enough for this!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Reply
  67. Pingback: OMG, OMG, OMG – What Will Your First Day Be Like in Game? | The Eleven Project

  68. Wait. Is this, in a way, Glitch 2? ._.

    Oh my god. I remember that game.. At first, I actually didn’t care a lot about it, and the day before you guys announced that the game was being shut down, I started playing it. A lot. And when you posted that there were 24 hours to game on, I honestly felt extremely sad. And I played for as long as I could. I talked to everyone I could, until, in a blink, my character stopped moving. 1 second later. A text box said “Server shut down”.

    And I shed a tear.

    And now, I suddenly remembered the game. I was about to publish on twitter saying “@playglitch What an awesome game. Even 2 years after your death, you still live on in my heart”, and I stumbled across this.

    I felt a spark of joy.

    Glitch, is back.

    Reply

  69. Thanks for all the hard work you are doing to bring back our beloved Glitch,I am waiting for the time we can all be part of the game and i just hope and pray I can be a beta player, good luck to you all.

    Reply

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