Your real clock, moon and season
Morning light at your breakfast, dark water at night. The moon phase is calculated from the real lunar cycle, and the tide is modelled on a twice-daily cycle.
In Reefglass now
A series of living worlds
Small worlds, alive behind glass.
Each world follows your real clock, moon and season, so it is different every time you look. Simple at first glance. Flip to Detail when you want to know what you are seeing.
Nothing is on sale yet. Reefglass v0.2 is in private preview; Antglass, Dinoglass and Pondglass have working development builds, and more worlds are in the workshop.
What Glass Worlds is
A real place, in a glass case, on your own clock.
Each world is one real ecosystem with real species. One shared model of time, light and weather drives everything you see, and every tool you use pokes that model rather than playing an animation.
Simple first, Detail when you want it
By default you just see the world. One Detail toggle opens species cards, tide and moon readouts and the tools.
Being refined for v1.0
Living cycle
Leave it running and the world looks after itself: animals feed, grow, hunt and are recycled back into it. Predation is real but never gory.
Planned
Runs where you look
A window you can play with, a live wallpaper behind your desktop icons, and a pre-rendered loop for your Mac lock screen.
Mac app in development
The worlds
Four worlds, each with its own look.
One engine, four very different places. Each world has its own page, palette and pace.
Private preview · v0.2
Reefglass
Kerama Islands, Okinawa
An Indo-Pacific coral reef in sunlit shallow water. Feed it, stir the current, kick up silt, wipe the glass, then dive in.
Explore Reefglass
In development · build 0.3
Antglass
Lasius niger · a UK garden
A black garden ant colony digging its own nest in a block of real soil. Slice through it to see the tunnels, the brood and who is doing which job.
Follow Antglass
In development · build 0.2
Dinoglass
Jehol Biota · Liaoning, China
A forested lakeshore from one real fossil assemblage: small feathered dinosaurs, early birds and volcanic ashfall, with colours drawn from fossil evidence where it exists.
Follow Dinoglass
In development · build 0.1
Pondglass
A UK garden pond
A wildlife pond cut through like a slice of cake, living through the real British year: frogspawn when it would really arrive, dragonflies climbing out at dawn, and ice in winter.
Hear when Pondglass is readyIn the workshop
More worlds are being built now on the same engine. No dates yet, and plans can change; join the waitlist to hear when each one is ready.
- Kelpglass A Californian giant kelp forest off Monterey, with sea otters, urchins and the real swell.
- Hiveglass A UK honey bee colony in an observation hive; every waggle dance points at a real place.
- Ventglass A deep-sea vent field 2,500 m down on the East Pacific Rise: black smokers and giant tubeworms.
- Penguinglass An Adélie penguin colony at Cape Royds, Antarctica, on the real polar light and sea ice.
- Lavaglass A living lava lake at the summit of Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi, on the real Hawaiʻi clock.
- Orreryglass The solar system as it really is right now, and the real sky over your town tonight.
- Botglass A robot outpost in Jezero Crater on Mars, running on the real Mars clock and season.
- Townglass A near-future UK fen market town where people and service robots live side by side, with an optional Zombie mode.
- Savanna A drying river pool at Seronera in the Serengeti, on the real Serengeti clock and rains.
- Rockpool A real mid-shore rockpool at Wembury, South Devon, that floods and drains on the real tide.
- Titanglass A lakeshore on Saturn's moon Titan, with its slow orange day and methane rain.
Where it runs
On your Mac, behind your work, or in a browser.
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Glass Worlds for Mac
A signed, notarised Mac app that hosts every world in a normal window, with a menu-bar control. It follows launch, and it will be free for everyone who has already bought a world.
In development
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Live desktop wallpaper
The world runs behind your desktop icons. At launch you set a bought world as your wallpaper with a free wallpaper app, following our set-up guide. The Mac app will build it in, with a frame-rate cap and pausing when it is hidden or on battery.
Set-up guide at launch
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Full-screen mode and lock-screen loop
A full-screen mode that can start when your Mac is idle, and pre-rendered video loops for the lock screen. macOS does not allow a live 3D lock screen, so those are real captures from the engine.
Planned
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In your browser
Reefglass runs in a modern browser with WebGL2. A free web demo is planned for launch day, with no account needed.
Planned for launch
Pricing
Start free. Buy once. Keep it.
The Glass Worlds app and one world will be free. Buy a single world, a collection of four, or every world for one payment. These are our proposed launch prices: they may change before anything goes on sale, and nothing can be bought yet.
Launch prices — confirming. £ prices include VAT. $ prices are set price points for buyers outside the UK, not live conversions.
Every world, one payment
All Worlds, lifetime
Every world we publish in Glass Worlds, including the ones we release after you buy. Licensed for personal use on your own devices. Nothing to renew.
- Reefglass, then Antglass and Dinoglass as each one ships
- Every later world, at no extra cost
- Each world as an offline file that opens in your browser, and Glass Worlds for Mac free when it ships
£39.99 one-off
$52.99 outside the UK
£19.99 for the first month after launch, then £39.99
Launch price — confirmingAny single world
£4.99 each, one-off $6.49
Pick the world you want and keep it. At launch you get it as a single offline file that opens in your browser, and the Mac app is free for you when it follows.
- Reefglass private preview
- Antglass in development
- Dinoglass in development
Collections of four Planned
£12.99 each, one-off $16.99
Four related worlds together. Most of these worlds are planned, not built yet.
- Ocean Reefglass, Ventglass, Kelpglass, Rockpool
- British Nature Antglass, Pondglass, Hiveglass, Rockpool
- Deep Time & Future Dinoglass, Lavaglass, Botglass, Townglass
Glass Worlds app + one free world
The app is free, with one world that stays free for good: the first small world we ship. Until then, the free taste is Reefglass in your browser, with no account and no email.
Browser demo planned for launch day
Free
Try your tank
Plan a freshwater tank and see how the fish get on over the months. Free.
Free page planned
Free
All Worlds pass
Every world while the pass is active, if you would rather pay yearly. Buying once is the main way, and it always will be.
Optional
£14.99 a year
$19.99
Launch price — confirming
For schools, waiting rooms and shops
A personal licence does not cover public or commercial display. For classrooms, waiting rooms, lobbies and aquatics shops we offer site licences, invoiced by Launchpad Technology. We are setting these prices with our first customers, so talk to us.
- Education site licence · £50 ex VAT a year per school site
- Commercial display licence · £100 ex VAT a year per venue, up to 3 screens, plus £25 ex VAT for each extra screen
- Retailer embed · a free 90-day pilot, priced afterwards
Proposed prices, to be confirmed with pilot customers.
No strike-through prices, no countdown timers. The launch-month price for All Worlds is a genuine introductory price: we will state its end date on launch day and charge £39.99 after it. We plan to take payment through Stripe; full checkout details will be shown here before anything goes on sale.
Free · planned
Try your tank before you buy the fish.
Pick a tank and three to five fish on one simple screen, then watch the months pass. Detail mode shows temperature, pH, stocking load, the nitrogen cycle and each clash, with its source.
A planning guide, not a guarantee. Fish vary; always check with your local fish store and a water test. An educational simulation, not husbandry advice.
Get told when Try your tank opens- 16
- freshwater species verified so far, the only ones it will include at launch
- 0
- marine species until we have a source we can check them against
- 3–5
- fish per tank, chosen on one screen
Questions
Straight answers.
Will it drain my battery or slow my Mac down?
A live 3D world uses your graphics chip, so it does use power. The Mac app is being built to cap the frame rate and to pause when the world is hidden, when you are on battery and in Low Power Mode. We have not measured its power use on a range of Macs yet. We will publish a measured figure on this page before anything goes on sale.
Which Macs will it run on?
The Mac app is still in development, so we have not set a minimum spec yet. It will be stated here, with the Macs we tested on, before the app goes on sale. The web version needs a modern browser with WebGL2.
Does it work offline?
Yes. At launch, a world you buy comes as a single file that opens in your browser and works with no connection. You can also set it as your Mac desktop wallpaper with a free wallpaper app, following our set-up guide. The Glass Worlds Mac app follows later and is free for everyone who has already bought a world. The free web demo will work offline once installed.
What does “lifetime” mean for All Worlds?
One payment covers every world we publish in Glass Worlds, including worlds we release after you buy, licensed for personal use on your own devices. There is nothing to renew. The price is £19.99 for the first month after launch, then £39.99; we will state the exact end date on launch day.
What do I get when I buy, and how do I pay?
At launch, each world you buy comes as a single offline file: it opens in your browser, works with no connection, and our set-up guide shows how to use it as your Mac desktop wallpaper. The Glass Worlds Mac app follows later and will be free for everyone who has already bought a world. We plan to sell through Stripe, whose Onelink service is the seller of record and handles VAT and sales tax, so your bank statement will show LINK.COM* and your receipt will come from Onelink. Your licence code and download link come from us, in a separate email.
What if I want a refund?
We plan to offer a 14-day no-quibble refund on every consumer purchase: email contactus@launchpadtechnology.co.uk. After that your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for faulty digital content still apply. The full refund policy will be published before anything goes on sale.
What data do you collect?
The worlds run on your own device. If you join the waitlist we keep your email, the worlds you ticked, a record of your consent and a hashed, day-scoped key used to stop spam; we never store your IP address. We never share or sell your address. When you buy, Stripe handles your payment details; we keep only what we need to issue your licence. See our privacy notice.
How accurate is it, and where does it come from?
Each world is built from a researched species list with sources, but it is a simulation, not a scientific instrument. Fish behaviours are inspired by observed species temperaments. The moon phase is calculated from the real lunar cycle; the tide is modelled on a twice-daily cycle rather than a local tide table. Dinoglass uses only animals from one fossil assemblage, and where an animal's colour is not known from fossil evidence, we say so. Try your tank shows its source for every warning.
Can I use it in my shop, school or waiting room?
A personal licence is for your personal use on your own devices. Public screens, venues and schools need the commercial display or education licence (see site licences above). Talk to us.
Who makes Glass Worlds?
Glass Worlds is a product line of Launchpad Technology Ltd, a software company registered in England & Wales (No. 17071004). You can reach us on 0330 133 4432 or contactus@launchpadtechnology.co.uk.
Waitlist
Hear when a world goes on sale.
One email when something you ticked is ready, plus occasional news. No account, no spam.