Fall 2024 on Glitch, Part 1

The other day, I got an email for a job opening as a prompt writer, which immediately made me think “...writing prompts? Awesome!” Obviously it was not a job generating creative writing prompts for millions and millions of blocked writers. But imagine the volume of weird and amazing writing that could exist if it was!

As I began to write, I had to look for a prompt generator to see if I could work one into this post, and reader, I found the perfect one. My prompt for today—and wait until you hear this—is, “Create a character who can communicate with insects.” Outstanding.

Speaking of prompts, here is a better one #

All the way back in September, Sue Smith published a tutorial on how to “Compute your site” if you want to give your current site/app superpowers with a Free Fastly Developer account. The best part is Sue captures several different ways to learn: follow a tutorial, watch a video, or get started tinkering in a Glitch project!

Our Engineering Team also made uploading and importing much easier with some improvements to drag-and-drop in the Glitch editor, in case you missed it.

Lastly, before we get to the good stuff (your work!) I had the chance to chat with my pal Richard Littauer for the Sustain Podcast about being a writer in open source and the tech industry. Now, let’s take a look at what the Glitch community built in the last season.

Fawning over Fall projects 🍂 #

~letterboxd-besties by @derekahmedzai is a fun app for lovers of the movie cataloging social network, Letterboxd. Find users with the same great taste in films as you!

~df-color-configurator by @sxtxixtxcxh, as shown above in the blog header, is a lightweight configurator for Dwarf Fortress color schemes, which hits all the sweet spots of pixel art, rainbows and RPGs for us.

~rubiks-cube-2d by @alexgaiv0748 is a site you’ll want to keep in a tab on your desktop so you can click back to it every once in a while and continue working on unscrambling this flattened version of a Rubik’s cube.

~depthanything by @akbartus is another link you’ll want to bookmark because it calculates the depth of any image you can upload!

~synthwave-chimes by @electrocute is a digital electronic synth in the form of wind chimes created with p5.js - try it out!

~cryptic-world-places created by @mapsmania is a map-based game where you solve cryptic clues to figure out your location!

~foul-band-spectroscope was featured in journalist @elijah-messmer fascinating recounting of their project scraping years and years of Tiny Desk concerts at npr to examine how musical genres have evolved with data visualization.

One of my favorite Platinum Girls, @SueSmith, created this fun site that teaches you about status codes with screenshots from the epic television program, The Golden Girls.

~soda-soap-map by @abolishjails is another map-based app that visualizes how advocacy organizations listed in Real Change’s Emerald City Resource Guide, plotted as orange dots, intersect with Seattle City Council’s recently proposed Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) & Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP) Zones.

~pleasuregallery created by @angela.vaj and @kanadgupta is a catalog of anonymously submitted sexts, randomly chosen to be displayed, so… (nsfw, probably).

~disventure-camp-memory-game-2 by @AlexandraVargas is a fan game that plays memory based on your knowledge of the cartoon, Disventure Camp.

It’s the IT girl of the summer…or fall? You know her as the cutest, sassiest, little baby pygmy hippo, Miss Moo Deng. After numerous requests for Moo Deng themed-apps, @jeffphi saved the day, and created this cute game, based on Meat on the Move. 🦛

~dolphin-fin-drumpad by @meklarian finally lets you create a beat for dolphins with maybe the world’s first FNDP 😂

~celestial-abrupt-frame by @samboholmes helps you find the best reviewed pubs nearby, that is, if you live in jolly old London town!

~shinin created by @ootaoota0038 is new two-person exhibition, inspired by a previous exhibition given by a seminar teacher and I love that energy.

Marking up the #maps code jam 🗺️ #

After twelve months of some amazing jams, Season One of Glitch Community Code Jams has come to a close. But not to worry, code jams will return in 2025! Ooh, and don’t forget to give your feedback if you have some. In the meantime, here are a few of the projects you created!

~map-maker-1 by @thecodingpanda is a program that helps you make maps, whether you are mapping out your house, or a world you thought up, it will help you!

~world-level-zero by THE MASTERS of maps @mapsmania is a game that scores how traveled you are.

~spectacular-large-battery by @cfjedimaster creates a 'wrapper' around a local police site incident report to better visualize the data.

See all of the #maps submissions on Glitch.

Connect with Glitch 🎏 #

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!

Stay tuned for Part 2 📺 #

But before you go, I have to share one of my favorite projects this fall, How did you find me? created by @elankiderman. I won’t spoil the surprise, but it definitely gives me old school web, guest counter/guest book vibes. It reminds me of this exercise I used to do when I was suffering from insomnia as a teen, which was to retrace my thoughts back to how I got started down a specific thread. It’s kind of like that, but you’ll have to visit the site to see for yourself. ✨