Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Skittish, Andy Baio's upcoming "playful virtual space for online events" (go here to register for early access) recently added High Fidelity's 3D spatial audio to the platform, so naturally, I had to get a hands-on (ears-on?) demo from Andy — watch above, but maybe turn the sound down a bit due to my overly booming voice.

So far Skittish is an incredibly charming virtual world-type space for live meetings of all kinds, especially if they lean toward the whimsical — think Animal Crossing meets Zoom, except your cartoon animal avatar is the one on camera, not you.

Integrating High Fidelity, Andy tells me, "dramatically increases the cross-browser compatibility, audio quality/latency, and scale for concurrent users." This also makes Skittish the first virtual world-type experience using the API to the Philip Rosedale-led spatial audio technology. (At least the first one that I'm aware of.)

Other new features you'll see in my demo with Andy:

• "Stages" for broadcasting audio from one of more speakers to everyone in the space.
• An asset picker for adding, removing, importing, and editing 3D objects to the space. [Yes, live content creation, with a low poly mesh file upload option]
• Simple moderation tools for muting, kicking, and banning problem attendees.

We also touch on Skittish's in-world video streaming options (Twitch, YouTube, etc.), and upcoming monetization features, so musicians and other creators can earn tips and other payments for live performances. (The Skittish project is funded by monetization startup Coil.) Andy hopes the platform can evolve to support indie games, interactive fiction, and other immersive  content.   

While Andy is very careful to note that he's not building a persistent virtual world per se, I love how much Skittish manages to capture the fun and serendipity of one. If anything, given the convergence of many trends, we're more likely to see virtual worlds start to seem increasingly like Skittish per se.

Again go here to sign up for early access — Andy says the first public event will be in May, so watch for that announcement too.