Avatar
An avatar is the virtual representation of each player within the world of Glitch. Currently, in the alpha stage of development, each human player of Glitch is limited to creating only a single avatar per account. It has been heard that when the game goes "live", more than one avatar per account may be permitted (possibly only to premium subscribers).
Vanity
Main article: Vanity
The Vanity designer lets you customize the face on your avatar by selecting different hairstyles, eyes and mouth etc. and their placement. Some options (such as a bigger variety of hair colour) are subscription only, but whilst the game is in Alpha, every tester gets a free trial subscription. There are several different appearance options:
| Asset | Customizability |
|---|---|
| Skin colour | Colour |
| Hair | Colour, Design |
| Hat | Design - cannot go over hair |
| Eyes | Design, Scale, Distance and Height |
| Ears | Design, Size and Height |
| Nose | Design, Size and Height |
| Mouth | Design, Size and Height |
Wardrobe
Main article: Wardrobe
The Wardrobe lets you clothe your avatar by applying a shirt, pants and shoes etc. from a large selection of pre-designed items. Some of these are free for all, some cost credits, some are free but only to subcribers and others cost credits but can only be bought by subscribers. Whilst the game is in Alpha, every tester gets a free trial subscription and 200 credits. There are many different types and designs of clothing to chose from:
| Asset | Customizability |
|---|---|
| Dress | Design |
| Coat | Design |
| Shirt | Design |
| Skirt | Design |
| Pants | Design |
| Shoes | Design |
Emotions
Using keyboard commands, you can have your avatar display 3 different emotions: anger, confusion, and joy.
For Angry, press 1 OUTSIDE the chat box: File:Http://i.imgur.com/j7bcw.png
For Confusion, press 2 OUTSIDE the chat box: File:Http://i.imgur.com/6H3eY.png
For Joy, press 3 OUTSIDE the chat box, or type "lol" into the chat box and hit enter: File:Http://i.imgur.com/UBiAZ.png
These emotions will vary according to the facial features of your avatar.
Subscription Benefits
Subscribers are given a larger choice of items both in Vanity and Wardrobe. Whilst the game is in Alpha, all testers get a free trial subscription and 200 credits (though there is currently no way to add (purchase) more credits). Credits can be used to buy items of clothing in Wardrobe (though there is currently no way to add (purchase) more credits, pieces of clothing can be recycled to get some credits back). You will not have to be a subscriber to purchase extra credits.
Previously, Stoot said in a forum post that "It is very likely that free players will have a vastly-reduced palette [of hair/skin colours] to choose from, vs those who subscribe".
Avatar Evolution
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Within the world of Glitch, the avatars have evolved from simple sprites (called place-holder avatars in-house by Tiny Speck) that appeared in early 2010, to the current avatars that made their appearance in mid-July 2010.
From when the proper avatars were introduced in mid-July 2010 till February 2011, testers had a very limited palette of skin and hair colours to choose from (Stoot said the reason for this was "given the way the coloring happens, a huge amount of the color space gives really bad results"). However, one player, Eglantine, made a Chrome Extension that allowed users to hand-pick their hair and skin colour, even adding extra features that were not available to players, such as a cape, coat and wristband - forum topic about it here. Stoot replied saying that in fact the developers at Tiny Speck "have no problem with Eggy doing it (yay!, even — and we can't wait till we can better support people doing stuff with the API)".
On Friday, February 18th, 2011, the avatar system went through a major revamp, resetting all Alpha player avatars to their base configuration. The new system rolled out included an new Vanity system for facial and hair details, plus a new Wardrobe system for all clothing and accessories.