Glitch (Minnesota company)
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Video game development, Video game publishing |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founder | Evva Karr, Nicolaas VanMeerten |
| Headquarters | Minneapolis, Minnesota , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Evva Karr (co-founder) |
| Products | Optica, HyperDot |
Number of employees | 11 (2022) |
Glitch SBC, presented as GLITCH,, is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based American company focusing on software and video game development. The firm specializes in creating original games, analyzing player data, and publishing independent titles. Established in 2013 by Evva Karr and Nicolaas VanMeerten, Karr brought prior expertise from roles in publishing and strategic partnerships at Riot Games and Activision Blizzard Media Network.
Through its Moonrise Fund, GLITCH invests equity ranging from $120,000 to $250,000 into prototypes developed by early-stage studios, while also providing $10,000 Galaxy Grants aimed at supporting emerging game creators. The company initiated its co-development and publishing ventures with the indie game Optica in 2018, followed by HyperDot in 2020. As of January 2022, GLITCH's team comprises 11 employees.
Formation and Early Progress (2013–2022)
GLITCH was founded by Evva Karr and Nicolaas VanMeerten during their time as students at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Initially self-funded, the company produced white-label games for clients such as PBS, Disney, and Warner Brothers, deliberately avoiding external investment.
In 2019, GLITCH collaborated with Charles McGregor from Tribe Games to co-develop and publish HyperDot, which launched as a timed exclusive on Xbox consoles and Steam in 2020. The title earned critical praise, including a nomination for Innovation in Accessibility at the The Game Awards 2020. By January 2022, the game had attracted over 800,000 players globally.
Capitalizing on this momentum, GLITCH introduced the Moonrise Fund to provide early-stage studios with equity investments between $120,000 and $250,000. Additionally, they rolled out Galaxy Grants offering $10,000 to promising developers. These programs aim to alleviate common obstacles faced by indie studios during early production phases and improve access to valuable player insights.
In June 2021, GLITCH launched Future of Play Direct, an online event streamed via Twitch as part of Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest. A subsequent showcase was broadcast live during the pre-show of The Game Awards 2021. Both presentations highlighted games from more than forty independent studios worldwide.
Moonrise Fund
The Moonrise Fund operates as an equity investment fund, aggregating capital from studio investors to support developers innovating new gameplay experiences. It benefits from an advisory board comprised of experts in game development, marketing strategies, and publishing operations. Notable advisors include Susana Meza Graham (former COO of Paradox Interactive), representatives from Unknown Worlds Entertainment (creators of Subnautica), InnerSloth (Among Us), Chandana Ekanayake (Outerloop Games), Saleem Dabbous (KO-OP), Sunni Pavlovic (Yacht Club Games), Felix Kramer (The Game Band), and Zhengua Yang (Serenity Forge).
During 2021, the fund invested in three studios: Future Club—recognized for Skullgirls and Indivisible; Virtuoso Neomedia—developers behind Raddminton, Killer Auto, and Zodiac XX; and Perfect Garbage—the team behind the cyberpunk visual novel Love Shore.
Founder's Kit
Introduced in 2020, GLITCH's Founder's Kit serves as a resource hub designed to share knowledge with startup game studios. It aggregates publicly available notes and toolkits contributed by the global developer community. The Kit is organized into three parts: Pacts, Covenants, & Treaties—which contains templates for legal agreements such as mutual NDAs and founders’ contracts; Business Structures—offering advice on choosing suitable business entities; and Pitch Decks—a curated selection of presentation materials from prominent titles including Bioshock, Diablo, and Backbone.
Future of Play Direct
In June 2021, GLITCH launched its digital festival, Future of Play Direct, as part of Summer Game Fest on Twitch. Drawing inspiration from Adult Swim's Toonami programming block, this event spotlighted creative developers and groundbreaking gameplay experiences. The showcase was hosted by Melios, a bespoke android Vtuber designed in collaboration with 3D artist Sakura Rabbit. The lineup included titles from twenty different studios, such as InnerSloth (Among Us), Team Reptile (Lethal League), Future Club, and ORIGAME DIGITAL (Umurangi Generation).
A follow-up broadcast occurred in December 2021 during The Game Awards pre-show, featuring fresh indie game announcements, trailers, and updates. Notable premieres included trailers for The Wreck and CURSES, alongside new footage for El Paso, Elsewhere; ValiDate: Struggling Singles in Your Area; Hyper Gunsport by Necrosoft Games; Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between; Midautumn; and One More Multiverse. The event also incorporated live concerts showcasing video game soundtracks and was synchronized with a Steam sale highlighting all featured titles from both editions of the Direct.
Optica
In 2018, GLITCH partnered with Graveck—the acclaimed studio behind Strata—to publish the puzzle title Optica.
HyperDot
Released in January 2020 through a collaboration with Tribe Games, HyperDot emphasizes accessibility with broad support for various input methods including eye-tracking, touch interfaces, and the Xbox Adaptive Controller. The game automatically recognizes connected devices and provides customizable options such as colorblind-friendly modes, high-contrast visuals, button remapping capabilities, and the ability to disable background animations, vibrations, and screen shake effects.
At the 2020 Game Awards, HyperDot received a nomination for Innovation in Accessibility, competing alongside prominent games like The Last of Us Part II, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Watch Dogs: Legion.