Flickr creator to launch new social game in 2011

Did you know that photo-sharing site Flickr started off as an innovative web app? Stewart Butterfield and his Flickr co-founding chums are going back to their roots with a new social game, Glitch, planned for early 2011.

Taking place within the imagination of 11 giants, Glitch is to have all the quests, missions, items and achievements needed to make its world one in which it's easy to be at home and easy to find friends.

In those respects, it mixes the fundamentals of Facebook games such as Farmville, Social City and Pet Society with longer-term online multiplayers such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and Maple Story - except with an emphasis on co-operation rather than conflict.

Players are able to improve and customize their homes, locales and, ultimately, the health and size of each giant's dream world, while defending against The Rook, black crows that want to eat the giants' imagination.

Yes, it can be played via Facebook, but plans are bigger than that - Glitch will be accessible from mobile phones and PCs, with the Facebook platform just a small piece of the puzzle.

The game was originally slated for fall 2010, but instead opted for a longer testing phase, with Butterfield indicating to VentureBeat that it's now likely to launch in March or April 2011.

Meanwhile, Glitch.com has re-launched and fans are being encouraged to follow twitter.com/playglitch in order to get hold of a pre-release game account sooner rather than later.

Glitch alpha trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6O5QXj6n18