Glitchers is a British video-game company based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland.

Overview

The company was founded in 2013. Glitchers is best known for developing '' Sea Hero Quest'' in 2016. The game was developed in collaboration with

Alzheimer's Research UK Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) is a dementia research charity in the United Kingdom, founded in 1992 as the Alzheimer's Research Trust. Alzheimer’s Research UK funds scientific studies to find ways to treat, diagnose and prevent all forms of ...

to help dementia research by tracking players' 3D navigation. The company's name was GLITCHE.RS from 2013 to 2016. It uses the tagline "Games for Good", and aims to "create games that could make a positive impact on the world".

Games

* '' Plunderland'' (2010) is an interactive pirate adventure game for iPhone, released initially as part of Johnny Two Shoes but now developed by Glitchers and is available as part of

GameClub GameClub is a video game subscription service for iOS and Android devices that was launched in 2019. The service primarily offers games that were previously delisted from app stores or are no longer actively maintained by their original dev ...

. * ''Chippy'' (2013), a time management game in a simulated

fish and chips Fish and chips is a hot dish consisting of batter (cooking), battered and fried fish, served with French fries, chips. Often considered the national dish of the United Kingdom, fish and chips originated in England in the 19th century. Today, ...

shop, Chippy was developed as a self-funded app based game and is now available as part of GameClub. Chippy was well received and described by Pocket Gamer as “addictive stuff, and it’s easy to play”. * ''Gumulon'' (2013) is a mobile app based game promoting Stride

chewing gum Chewing gum is a soft, cohesive substance designed to be chewed without being swallowed. Modern chewing gum is composed of gum base, sweeteners, softeners/plasticizers, flavors, colors, and, typically, a hard or powdered polyol coating. Its tex ...

by requiring the player to chew to activate the game. * ''Kano'' is an experimental colour-matching arcade game, which Glitchers explain “was designed primarily as an experiment for us to test out assumptions around player retention, payment models and growth hacking.” * '' Sea Hero Quest'' (2016) is a mobile game which contributes to research on

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

by tracking players' 3D navigation It was designed by Glitchers in association with

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

and with funding from

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

. The idea for the game came from neuroscientist Michael Hornberger of the University of East Anglia who collaborated with Hugo Spiers of University College London and a group of six other neuroscientists. A new Research Edition was announced in 2021. * ''Cone Wars'' (2017) is an online multiplayer and PC game featuring

Ice cream van An ice cream van (Commonwealth English) or ice cream truck (North American English) is a commercial vehicle that ice cream products are sold from, usually during the spring and summer. Ice cream vans are often used for street vending and ...

turf war A turf war is a fight over territory or resources, or may refer to: Music * ''Turf Wars'', a 2007 album by the Canadian band Daggermouth * "Turf War", a song on the 2001 album '' Filmtracks 2000'' by American composer Bill Television * '' Turf ...

s in which teams compete to sell the most ice creams using weapons and tactics. * ''Nestlums'' (2020) is a money training app for children, designed to teach good financial habits using familiar gaming techniques, developed in collaboration with Cauldron. *''Crush your FOFO'' (2018) was developed with the

Patients Association The Patients Association is an independent charity operating in the UK that aims to improve patients' experience of healthcare. Established in 1963, it became a registered charity in 1991. The Patients Association works with patients directly: t ...

and

AbbVie AbbVie Inc. is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. It is ranked sixth on the list of largest biomedical companies by revenue. In 2023, the company's seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 74, and rank 89 on the ...

to explore patients' "Fear of Finding Out" which leads them to delay seeking medical advice. * ''Drive Buy'' (2021) is described as a "short-session multiplayer vehicle combat game with a delivery twist" and is available on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

In a 2023 blog post marking the 10th anniversary of the company, two forthcoming games were described: *''Forest Guardian'' will concern

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

protection *''Enhance'', developed with

, will be a "spiritual successor" to ''Sea Hero Quest'', "targeted at the 60-80 year old audience Sea Hero Quest couldn’t quite reach".

Awards

In 2018 Sea Hero Quest was nominated for a

British Academy Games Awards The BAFTA Games Awards or British Academy Games Awards are an annual British awards ceremony honouring "outstanding creative achievement" in the video game industry. First presented in 2004 following the restructuring of the BAFTA Interactive En ...

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

in the category: Game Beyond Entertainment, a new category for games which "deliver a transformational experience beyond pure entertainment". ''Sea Hero Quest'' also won bronze in the 2018

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weekdays at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Roman Kemp, Ronan Keating ...

awards. Also in 2018 Glitchers won a

Webby award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

for Social Impact. In 2020 Sea Hero Quest was nominated for the Coney Island Dreamland Award for Best AR/VR Game at the New York Game Awards. In 2022 the company was awarded funding from the UK Games Fund to support the development of ''Cone Wars''.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://glitchers.com/ Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies Video game companies established in 2013 British companies established in 2013