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Images: How Glitch's aesthetic matured

In the early months after start-up Tiny Speck began working on its online social game Glitch, its aesthetic needed a lot of work. It has become beautiful.

Daniel Terdiman
Daniel Terdiman is a senior writer at CNET News covering Twitter, Net culture, and everything in between.
Daniel Terdiman
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1 of 6 Tiny Speck

Glitch

The logo for Tiny Speck's Glitch, which the company announced on Tuesday after eight months of stealth development by a team led by Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield and fellow Flickr veterans Serguei Mourachov, Cal Henderson, and Eric Costello.
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2 of 6 Tiny Speck

May 19

A screenshot from a very early version of the online social game that Tiny Speck eventually named Glitch. The company got its first checks in March 2009, and this example of early development on the game client dates from May 19, 2009. At this stage, the graphics are rudimentary and the impressive layering of the game's aesthetic are missing, but the client already shows that the team was thinking about the game's mechanics--or system of scoring and rules--as evidenced by the Stats table across the top of the screen.
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3 of 6 Tiny Speck

June 11

This screen grab dates from about a month later, June 11, 2009, and shows a lot more elegance than the previous shot. Now, the layering is more visible, as is the sophistication of the aesthetic. Still very basic at this stage--as they are today--are the game's avatars.
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4 of 6 Tiny Speck

July 6

A few weeks later, on July 6, the aesthetic has taken another leap forward, and the interface is sleeker. The avatars still need a lot of work, something Tiny Speck is the first to say is still a major priority.
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5 of 6 Tiny Speck

Firebog

A much later image of a location in Glitch called a firebog. Note the polished aesthetic and the elegant layering. These elements are expected to be big parts of Glitch's selling point.
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6 of 6 Tiny Speck

Psyche Ruins

Tiny Speck hired a group of illustrators, each with a different artistic style. The various styles are meant to represent the imaginations of the individual giants, on which the game's back story is based.

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