Skittish, a playful space for online events
November 17, 2021 12:00 PM Subscribe
Skittish, a playful space for online events
For the last year, I've worked on Skittish, a weird space for virtual events and gatherings of all kinds, where everyone's a goofy-looking animal and you talk to others with spatial audio in a customizable browser-based 3D world. It's now open to everyone with a demo that doesn't require registering, and it's free to create a world of your own.
This is an extremely scrappy project, funded by a grant and just me and another developer, and I'm really proud of what we've made. In our invite-only beta, we've had a bunch of events this year as we've built it out, including the delightful !!Con conference, a film festival, game dev camp, and dozens of other meetups, parties, and conferences. You can really see the progress on the news blog, informed by the feedback of everyone using it.
It came out of my work on XOXO, an experimental festival about artists and creators working on the internet held annually in Portland, Oregon, that went on hiatus during the pandemic. There's no shortage of interesting projects oriented around spatial chat and virtual events, but I just didn't see anything out there that worked the way that I wanted, so I started making one.
Anyway! Hope you like it. Happy to answer any questions if you have them.
For the last year, I've worked on Skittish, a weird space for virtual events and gatherings of all kinds, where everyone's a goofy-looking animal and you talk to others with spatial audio in a customizable browser-based 3D world. It's now open to everyone with a demo that doesn't require registering, and it's free to create a world of your own.
This is an extremely scrappy project, funded by a grant and just me and another developer, and I'm really proud of what we've made. In our invite-only beta, we've had a bunch of events this year as we've built it out, including the delightful !!Con conference, a film festival, game dev camp, and dozens of other meetups, parties, and conferences. You can really see the progress on the news blog, informed by the feedback of everyone using it.
It came out of my work on XOXO, an experimental festival about artists and creators working on the internet held annually in Portland, Oregon, that went on hiatus during the pandemic. There's no shortage of interesting projects oriented around spatial chat and virtual events, but I just didn't see anything out there that worked the way that I wanted, so I started making one.
Anyway! Hope you like it. Happy to answer any questions if you have them.
Role: founder
I am soooo conflicted about my desire to check this out and my fear of having to talk to people. If I join, can I walk around overhearing conversations or do I have to engage?
posted by brachiopod at 5:35 PM on November 20, 2021
posted by brachiopod at 5:35 PM on November 20, 2021
I set up a little play world and my kid went through it with great delight. It sorta worked on her phone but she couldn’t edit easily. Her big request is more colour choices and furniture - can people upload image packs? I would like right click menu for the responses so I can heart thumbs up etc without having to go through the menu. We’re going to test it out with her bffs who have laptops next
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 10:11 PM on November 20, 2021
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 10:11 PM on November 20, 2021
is this
[gestures to butterfly]
the metaverse?
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:47 PM on November 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
[gestures to butterfly]
the metaverse?
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:47 PM on November 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
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