Small worlds, alive behind glass.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.