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scottishgames Jun 6, 2025

Glitchers Unveils Next Chapter for Groundbreaking Alzheimer’s Research Game, Sea Hero Quest

Edinburgh-based studio Glitchers, renowned for its innovative work in ‘applied games,’ has shared exciting developments in its groundbreaking project, Sea Hero Quest – a game that has already significantly advanced Alzheimer’s research. The studio’s latest blog post, “Put a Lab in Your Pocket,” details the journey so far and offers a glimpse into the future of this pioneering ‘game’.

For years, Glitchers’ Sea Hero Quest has demonstrated the profound potential of games beyond entertainment. Initially launched to create a benchmark for healthy human navigation – one of the first skills to decline in Alzheimer’s dementia – the game has provided invaluable data, giving researchers a 15-year advantage over traditional methods in tracking navigational performance decline. The insights gathered have already contributed to an impressive 29 scientific papers.

This work underscores the immense power of ‘applied games’ – using game mechanics and design for serious, real-world applications. Glitchers highlights how Sea Hero Quest has effectively put a “powerful lab in your pocket,” making large-scale cognitive testing accessible via smartphones without needing specialist equipment. This approach is revolutionising how data can be gathered for crucial scientific research.

The journey doesn’t stop here. Glitchers has ambitious plans to relaunch Sea Hero Quest, integrating learnings from their “Research Edition” (created in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Research UK) into a single, enhanced experience accessible to everyone. The new version will feature familiar and new quests, and for those who opt-in to support the research, it will offer a trackable “brain score” comparing their spatial skills against millions and monitoring changes over time, all while continuing to contribute vital data to the fight against dementia.

The studio’s ultimate aim is to move from raising awareness to enabling tangible action to “end dementia, before it begins.”

This is a remarkable story of Scottish studio’s ingenuity making a global difference. To get the full picture of Sea Hero Quest’s incredible impact, Glitchers’ innovative approach, and their exciting future plans, we strongly encourage you to read the whole blog post.

Want to be among the first to experience the next evolution of Sea Hero Quest and contribute to this vital research?

Glitchers is inviting people to join the waitlist for the upcoming Sea Hero Quest beta. This is your chance to provide feedback and be part of this groundbreaking project from its next phase.

To read the full story and find out how to join the Sea Hero Quest beta waiting list, visit the Glitchers website.

#AlzheimersResearch #edinburgh #games #Glitchers #research #scotland

scottishgames Jun 2, 2025

Haggis Studios, GLITCHERS, and Theria Games Win at Scottish EDGE Round 25

Scotland’s games industry received a boost last week as three innovative businesses – Haggis Studios, Glitchers, and Theria Games Ltd – were announced as winners in the highly competitive Scottish EDGE Round 25 awards. The results, unveiled at a ceremony on May 29th, 2025, saw a total of £1.2 million in grant and loan funding distributed to some of Scotland’s most promising early-stage businesses.

Scottish EDGE, the UK’s biggest funding competition for startups, once again highlighted the dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit thriving across various sectors in Scotland, with the games industry making an increasingly strong showing. This round saw 42 businesses from 19 different local authority areas emerge victorious, each securing vital funding to help scale their operations and realise their ambitious plans.

The Scottish EDGE Round 25 Winning Games Businesses Are:

Haggis Goes Wild Studios, an Edinburgh-based company, impressed the judges with their innovative approach to game development, securing £15,000 in the Wild Card category for pre-trading companies.
Glitchers, also based in Edinburgh and known for their impactful games, received £75,000 to further their work on ‘A Fitbit for your brain: a mobile game that tracks cognitive performance to detect issues earlier, starting with Alzheimer’s dementia. Following the studio’s groundbreaking work on Sea Hero Quest.
Theria Games Ltd, from Stonehouse, a mobile gaming hub and resource, was awarded £10,000, for their work across guides, wikis and how-to’s for the leading mobile games titles.

This follows the news that Edinburgh’s Wardog Studios secured £75,000 in round 24 of Scottish EDGE to begin work on the studio’s first original IP project.

Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said:

Scottish EDGE has played a central role in supporting emerging entrepreneurial talent and innovative business ideas for many years and I am proud that the Scottish Government continues to be long standing partner of the awards.

I am also pleased that a growing number of businesses and private investors are supporting the vision behind Scottish EDGE. Scotland’s entrepreneurs and start-up businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and we must do all we can to encourage and foster the incredible talent and innovation in evidence right across the country.

Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE, echoed this sentiment, commenting:

Reaching our 25th round is a true testament to the resilience, ambition and creativity of Scotland’s entrepreneurial community. With every round, we continue to see businesses not just innovating, but actively contributing to a better future, whether it’s through sustainability, social impact, or cutting-edge technology. We’re incredibly proud to support them on their journeys and excited to see what the future holds for this new group of winners.

The Scottish Games Network extends its warmest congratulations to Haggis Studios, Glitchers, and Theria Games Ltd, and indeed to all the winners of Scottish EDGE Round 25. This recognition and support are invaluable, particularly for creative tech businesses, and underscore the potential for Scottish games companies to make a significant impact both nationally and internationally.

The next round of Scottish EDGE, Round 26, is anticipated to open for applications in July 2025, offering further opportunities for Scotland’s burgeoning games startups.

#games #Glitchers #HaggisStudios #scotland #ScottishEdge #TheriaGamesLtd_

scottishgames Nov 14, 2024

OUT NOW: Restore From Glitchers & Stirling University

The University of Stirling has teamed up with Edinburgh-based studio Glitchers to launch Restore, a new browser-based video game designed to give players a hands-on experience with environmental restoration while contributing to critical real-world research. The release of Restore highlights how video games can powerfully support real-world tasks and research into global challenges like biodiversity loss and pandemic prevention.

In Restore, players step into the shoes of an agriculturalist or arborist, managing land and forest regeneration while balancing the economic and ecological impacts of their decisions. Players face dynamic choices – such as whether to cultivate land for settlements or regenerate forests.

This creates complex trade-offs. While increased restoration efforts can initially heighten pandemic risk, fully restored landscapes ultimately become resilient to disease, offering insight into the delicate balance between nature and health.

Commissioned as part of the RESTOREID initiative, a European-funded research project led by the University of Stirling, Restore serves both as an educational platform and a data-gathering tool. RESTOREID explores the intersections of ecosystem restoration, biodiversity, and infectious disease risk, generating data to inform policies and practical guidelines for healthier, disease-resistant landscapes.

In Restore, players’ anonymised decisions are gathered to study human priorities in ecological scenarios, providing valuable insights into the choices being made that shape restoration projects on a global scale.

Dr. Brad Duthie, Lecturer in Environmental Modelling at Stirling, explains:

Restore applies ecological knowledge to in-game simulated environments, within which player decisions are made on landscape restoration under different scenarios.

“As well as being fun to play, the game educates players on restoration while giving us a better understanding of the factors driving the restoration process.

“Data generated by the game, which are anonymised during collection, will allow us to learn about how people prioritise different decisions in restoration.

Professor Nils Bunnefeld, a partner in RESTOREID, added:

The RESTOREID project is an exciting opportunity to make the voices of many people heard through their decisions in the game, and collect data on opinions from people that are often hard to reach.

Crafted by Glitchers, Restore stands out as a meaningful gaming experience that challenges players to consider the ecosystem’s complexities, where every choice has consequences.

Maxwell Scott-Slade, Game Director at Glitchers, told the Scottish Games Network:

The game will give users the chance to shape the world they want to create, but the ecosystem is delicate, and every decision has ripple effects, much like in real-world ecosystems. Users must look out for unexpected consequences in this simplified environmental scenario, such as disease which can lead to a cull of livestock.

We hope people will enjoy taking on the roles and cultivating the land in whatever way they choose.

Restore is free to play, with no downloads or registration required, making it an accessible and immediate resource for anyone interested in learning about restoration, biodiversity, and the role of ecosystem health in disease prevention.

Play Restore now and experience the future of games for research and restoration.

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