March 2024 on Glitch: Serene scenes

March has madness, lions, lambs, Easter, and ides but to me this month always signifies one thing: the beginning of yard work. And allergies. No, I’m not much of a spring season person although seeing the wildflowers bloom in my yard is nice. I much prefer to be cozy in my happy place, passing the colder months playing video games. (This year I beat God of War!! 💪) Luckily, the Glitch community makes each month memorable and March was no different.

Speaking of memories, Director of Community Jenn Schiffer shared some of her memories of working on Glitch for 7 years just as Glitch turned 7 on our blog. And if the blog looks a little different to you for some reason, I can think of eleventy reasons why.

Did someone say 11ty? They sure did on a recent Glitch Jams Live (our weekly-ish livestream where Jenn shares your projects and works on her submission for each month’s code jam) when Jenn was joined by 11ty creator and maintainer, Zach Leatherman. If you missed it, watch the video first, and then read Zach’s account on his (11ty) blog. So many amazing and genuinely beautiful sites are created with 11ty, check it out!

The Masterpieces of March 🖼️ #

The image in the header for this post came from one of my favorite Community Code Jam submissions last month, ~objects-in-motion by @ShannonLin. More about that later, but first I should tell you that April’s theme is “cool bugs” so chew on that. This screensaver was so unpredictable, but pretty and featured a quote from Sir Issac Newton, I mean, what is not to love? I give it five out of five unburnt CRT monitors (a standard scale of measurement).

This screenshot shows the route of the Nettelhorst Bike Bus lined in red, in the Nettelhorst neighborhood of Chicago.

Attention please, a new 🚲 Bike Bus 🚌 has joined the community! Please give ~nettelhorst-bike-bus by @daniel73473 a round of applause, and Thanks 💖 (IYKYK) for providing a safe way to get these children to school in a healthy and sustainable fashion!

With a name like ~maps-and-splats I wasn’t sure what to expect. But @kfarr has done it again by combining Google Maps 3D tiles with Luma Gaussian splat scans, plus a little A-Frame and PlayCanvas to create a zoomable (and zoom-out-able) rendering of major city scenes.

🪁 Experience the wind in your browser, with your cursor as the kite! ~chipped-kindly-larkspur by @zichen-oliver-yuan allows you to sail the skies of your location from the safety of wherever you type by mixing fickle WeatherAPI data and a Perlin noise generator to mimic the sensation of flying a kite.

This project was featured as an App of the Week, but I absolutely had to share it here too. If you love the ingenious ways people create unique experiences with everyday objects and tools, then ~all-about-computer-love is perfect for you. I am such a big fan of your work @identikitten!

Love games? 👾 So do we! What about games built with Glitch? Even better. 😍 Check out goodbye.monster from their team, which includes Matt Mora, Rook Liu, Lorg An, and Beckett Rowan. goodbye.monster is an original Neopets-inspired game prototyped on Glitch, and after you play it, you can read more about their development process in their team’s profile on Game Developer.

In cool WebXR news, ~seeds-of-gomorrah is a first-player shooter game created by our pals at Needle Engine (@herbst and @felix.reinemann) and also uses Luma and Glitch! Since I’m terrible at this style of game and would much rather watch between my fingers from the couch while someone else plays, I’m going to need one of you to play it all the way through and tell me about the jump scares.

~pet-here, by @WeaselMcDiesel, is a sweet memorial of an app that serves as a sort of yearbook for folks to celebrate their favorite furry friends, even if they have shed their mortal coil. This was another App of the Week (hint hint, submit yours!)

On a dark gray background, a very colorful drawing (think Microsoft Paint with the largest brush) is shown. Objects like animals, stick figures, an umbrella are shown in all of the colors of the rainbow. Over the image the words 'Tranquil House in a Tranquil Village' appear in blue text.

I don’t want to ruin the surprise of ~future-wonderland, by @qzhang04 which is in equal measures both delightful and jaw-dropping, so I’ll just say, give it a whirl!

Have you ever wondered how a QR code works? Me neither, but Jenn Schiffer did and created ~qr-code-wow to help you create your very own QR codes to… I don’t know, leave at bars and restaurants that you steal all of the menus and drink lists from.

A strip mall marquee with the buiness logos is centered. From top, left to right, the following business names are shown: Baskin Robbins, K&S Boutique, Implant and Periodontal Associates, Hi-Tech Cleaners, Yada Salon, Pedi Spa & Nails, Codes QR Us, Olivieri Portrait Design, elves, and Kat Phurrrs.

True story, I am not a designer, but I once worked at a consultancy in a strip mall that took up several spots, so we received that many spots on the pylon sign for the businesses. My boss told me to just make up some businesses since we had the room, and that was when I created my very first QR code. (If you scanned it, it took you to our competitor’s site). Follow me for more advertising life hacks.

Frustrated with today’s Connections game on the NYT Games app? By the way, this account mocking the answers is my new favorite TikTok follow. 😂 Well, now you can play ~spellingbee, created by @marshy-the-mallow, to your heart’s content in the browser.

If you are new to Box Breathing, this app ~breathing-timer created by @caesiumtea, will help you to learn this new rhythm of breathing that can calm you down, and put you more in touch with your human body. I know, it’s weird to have a body but if you didn’t have one you wouldn’t be here. I don’t make the rules!!

Rounding out last month is ~highly-artificial-locations, another absolute banger by the folks at @mapsmania. Try asking HAL 2000 about doors—oh and make sure your speakers are on, HAL only gives audio answers.

🍓 Jamming on Saving Screens 🦸 #

Last month the community focused on creating screensavers for the March Glitch Community Code Jam. Here are a few of our favorites (but of course, there’s too many to list here!):

~mintycrisp-aframe-orbit-clock created by @mintycrisp is a neat clock that uses planetary orbit paths to render hours, minutes, seconds, etc.,
~colour-vector-fields by @dethe creates a wiry, colorful scene with P5.js and HSLuv.
~screensaver-miles by @MilesWK jumbles your name in weird ways using CSS animations! Remix it to see your name in action.
~fish-bounce-screensaver by @derekahmedzai is a fun take on the bouncing DVD screen using the Glitch logo which gets larger and more chaotic with each bounce.
~illsaveitmyself by the brilliant @wh0 asks the question, “What if the bouncing DVD screensaver watches YOU?”
~magic-puddle by @PixievoltNo1 creates generated and colorful ripples to save your screen.

Play with, or remix these screensavers, and more by checking out the playlist for March’s Code Jam.

Also, if you haven’t yet, follow us across the open social web 🌐

If you’re sharing your project on the web, use the hashtag #MadeWithGlitch so we can find it. As always, you can send your projects and playlists to us via the community forum, or email [email protected]—we’d love to see your work in our next roundup!

For my fellow freaks, a leak #

If you grew up reading the comics and watching the cartoons on FOX, ~xmenleaks is especially entertaining for my fellow mutant fans! Seriously, the Sentinels had young me shaking! No luck getting my fave character, Jean Grey, to appear yet but I’m going to keep trying. Great work by @JoshNaus!