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Join Silverstring studio director @lucasjwjohnson as he begins his journey through LOVE SHORE @loveshoregame on Twitch, Fridays at 3pm PT, starting now!

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As if that wasn’t enough, in 30 minutes (3pm PT June 23) Studio Director Lucas J.W. Johnson aka @lucasjwjohnson will be going live to try to finish his run of TUNIC!

Going live in 10 minutes, Creative Director Claris Cyarron will be having a cool ambient friday morning synth jam. Come say hi!

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Going live in 10 minutes, Creative Director Claris Cyarron will be having a cool ambient friday morning synth jam. Come say hi!

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Studio Director Lucas J.W. Johnson will be going live with his ongoing playthrough of TUNIC, starting at 3pm PT today! Come say hi~

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Glitchhikers Anniversary Celebration: Interview with Lucas J.W. Johnson & Audrey Storey

As we celebrate its first anniversary, we can't help but look back at the incredible journey we've been on, and how much we've accomplished together. Below, our Studio Director Lucas J.W. Johnson and Technical Director Audrey Storey sat down with Double Jump to reflect on the journey so far.

Happy One Year Anniversary for Glitchhikers! Since Glitchhikers is a game all about journeys, how have you found the journey since launch?

Lucas: The journey since launch has been quite a wonderful trek. We’ve had some amazing press and Steam reviews that clearly get what we were going for with Glitchhikers, which is always so gratifying and validating. We’re always overjoyed when new people find the game, and find something in the game that speaks to them, and unlike a lot of projects, there hasn’t been a huge dropoff in people discovering the game from sale to sale—Glitchhikers isn’t a flash in the pan; it has some staying power. And we’ve seen a lot of love for our amazing soundtrack, including the incredible experience of having the UBC Orchestra arrange and perform a medley of tracks from it.

Audrey: Launching a game is always such an emotional rollercoaster. You’re always worried about whether you did enough to make the game really shine. Did we optimise everything enough? Is it easy to navigate the menu? Are there any weird bugs we didn’t catch? Usually that anxiety disappears for me once I start seeing some Let’s Plays or Twitch streams. It's always funny to see how the things you worry about as a game developer just don’t line up at all with how players think. When you’ve spent over a year working on a thing, it's easy to forget how easy it is for players to get lost in the mystery of the experience. But then you get to see that excitement mirrored back to you in the eyes of the first wave of players and it's just an amazing feeling. I’ve definitely felt that about Glitchhikers so far.

What is it about a ‘journey’ that you think provokes thought?

Audrey: Being on a journey lets you detach yourself from the realities of the world in a way that you normally can’t. The mind can wander freely. I think we all have the capacity for deep introspection and connection, but we don’t all have the space. Journeys provide that space.

Lucas: It can sort of be this enforced time with your own thoughts—if you’re driving a long distance on a highway, especially alone, all you have to do is let your mind wander. Or sitting on a train staring out the window. Even when you go for a walk, even when you’re listening to music, your mind is just wandering. Add to that it being late at night, when the world is so different and you’re probably tired, and the places your mind goes are always a little strange. You’re not engrossed in the day to day; you become untethered, and can contemplate the bigger questions.

What was your goal with encouraging introspection in players? Was it to encourage people to sit with uncomfortable thoughts? Or perhaps to explore a different avenue of thought?

Lucas: Glitchhikers was never about trying to give the player a really particular, specific experience, but rather to create a space to help them have the experience they are ready to have. Maybe a player just needs a break from the day to day, or maybe they’re hurting and need the space to heal or explore difficult ideas. If we help a player gain a better understanding or acceptance of their place in the universe, obviously that’s a massive success; but if we just provoke them saying, “Huh, I never thought of it that way” or “Oh I had no idea” or even “Yeah, this hiker gets it” then that’s also a success.

Why did you choose the particular locations and modes of transport for the game?

Audrey: When we worked on the original game, there was never a question of what we were doing. Glitchhikers was about a road trip. For me, it was specifically about the road trip from Calgary, Alberta to Vancouver, BC, which I had driven many times before. Over the years I think we came to realize that although the road trip is a fairly common experience, it isn’t quite as universal as we wanted it to be. When it came time to make The Spaces Between, we thought long and hard about what kinds of journeys would help broaden the Glitchhikers experience. We talked a lot about what would just be the “most” universal travel experience but eventually came to decide that there wasn’t any one single option that would fit everyone. Instead, we opted to focus on a couple more journeys that, while not perfectly universal, captured a pretty large amount of what people think about when they travel.

Were any of the hikers based on real people?

Lucas: As a writer, there’s always a little bit of myself in all the characters I write, especially in Glitchhikers when we’re often exploring personal but universal ideas as a gateway into conversation. And none of the hikers were directly based off of specific people; that said, a few had some pretty strong inspirations. The hiker that’s a wheelchair user took a lot of inspiration from a friend and consultant on the project from whom I’ve learned a lot, for instance. And when we were writing and designing the hiker with all the screens in front of him, I was like, “Oh no, he’s me”—which then led to an idea that a few of us might have “glitchsonas”, as it were. He’s me; the travelling witch with the familiars is Claris’s glitchsona (Claris Cyarron is our Creative Director) and was largely written by her; the bird from another dimension is Audrey’s glitchsona, with a lot of their conversations coming from discussing ideas with her. (Come find us on Twitter or Discord and tell us what your glitchsona would be like!)

What’s your favourite piece of feedback you’ve received to date about the game?

Lucas: Hard to say just one thing. We love watching livestreams and seeing all the conversations the game provokes in the chat. One player who said a character reminded them to take their meds. I’m humbled that there’s an occasional review saying the game saved their life in some way. But I also love the reviews that are just something along the lines of “wtf, 10/10”.

What journey do you have planned next?

Audrey: If and when we are able to make it back to the Glitchhikers universe, I really want to do a hotel mode. Just endlessly wandering uncanny hallways with interesting hikers and bizarre spaces behind random doors!

Lucas: In the meantime, we’ve been working hard in the last year on a handful of new game ideas and prototypes. We’re always keeping the sensibilities that we refined in Glitchhikers—accessibility, personal and real storytelling, a little weird and a little queer—but we’re trying to take those to somewhat more “mainstream” game ideas. We love our alt/art game history and what we did with Glitchhikers, but we love strategy games and action games and roleplaying games too! We’ll just have to see what comes next 😁

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We're live now for our Glitchhikers Anniversary Synth Jam! Claris is showing off the Glitchhikers Videopak, a free visualizer that we've made so that you can make your own Glitchhikers music videos, and playing some familiar tunes from our Glitchhiker's original soundtrack.

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It's Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between's 1st Anniversary!

Happy 1st anniversary to Glitchhikers TSB! 🎉🎂 Hard to believe that this genre-bending surreal game has captivated hearts & minds for a full year. Here's to another year of exploring the highways of our minds, reflecting on life, death, and everything in between

We have a ton of surprises to mark this joyful occasion, and we will be sharing them throughout the day. To start with, Glitchhikers TSB is now available for our biggest sale yet – explore the highways and byways of your mind for -35%!

BUY NOW ON STEAM

We also pushed our patch 1.0.7 live today, made a number of quality of life improvements, as well as smoothing out a couple last glitches that were more bug than feature. There's never been a better time to take your first journey with us!

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Dancing Frogs by Tokuriki Tomikichiro (1950's)

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And we're live!

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We've got something a little different happening for our Friday Twitch Stream this week

Our Creative Director (and co-composer for Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between) Claris Cyarron will be having a chill and cozy music studio hangout. Get a peak at her home music set up, meet her pet synths, and listen to some musical improv.

We're starting at 3pm PT/ 6pm ET, come join us and give us a follow to keep up with all the fun events we have coming :)

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sorry but there is no romance in bluetooth earbuds. they're very handy and nice but nothing will ever compare to sharing a pair of corded earbuds with someone to listen to music or watch a video and leaning together so the earbuds don't get pulled out. even now when i get handed a bluetooth earbud to share i lean close out of instinct. we need to bring the cords back for the love of god

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“If we could communicate fully, there would be no need to communicate. If we could love perfectly, there would be no need to love. If we could finish grieving, there would be no need to live. If we could touch completely, there would be no need.”

— Chen Chen, “a small book of questions: chapter iv” from Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

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the best thing you can do is give people an alternative

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D.W. Winnicott

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Our stream with Lindsay Ishihiro, Head Writer of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist and Creator of the webcomic Motherlover, starts now!

Follow us on Twitch

Our stream with Lindsay Ishihiro, Head Writer of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist and Creator of the webcomic Motherlover, starts now!



Follow us on Twitch and join the chat to ask questions!

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Don't forget to tune in to our Twitch at 3pm PT/ 6pm ET for Tales From The Writers Room: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

We're hoping to have more of these conversations with game devs and narrative designers in the future so that you can get an inside look at the creative process behind your favourite Indie Games

We finished our "Delusions Run" of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist last Friday, so for tomorrow's stream we're going to be chatting with the game's Head Writer Lindsay Ishihiro about all things Narrative Design. Tune in on Twitch Friday February 10th at 3pm PT/ 6pm ET

Come join us on Twitch, and be sure to give us a follow!

Lindsay is also the writer behind the wonderful webcomics How to Baby and Motherlover, following the parenting journeys of two queer mothers who (eventually) fall in love.

If you have any questions for Lindsay or about I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, be sure to join the chat or send them our way