Communicator World[Link]
We collaborated with our super-talented friends at Tado to create an online portfolio for the Shoreditch-based integrated agency Communicator.
We were happy to be involved in the creative process from early on in the project, this enabled us to set ourselves exciting and challenging technical goals that would make for a truly unique website.
One of the main technical challenges we faced was the creation of customizable avatars with artificial intelligence. Each avatar selects an activity (e.g. water the garden) based on those currently available and by order of priority. Once an activity is commenced they will go through a cycle of sub-activities until they are completed or they are too tired to continue. When tired out, they find a spot near the pool to recuperate. The avatars find their way about using a combination of isometric grid and A* pathfinding techniques. This helps to create the illusion that the avatars are autonomous and cooperating with each other towards a common goal.
Every section of the site is content managed using the Unwrong Cms. This allows the client to add/edit/delete profiles, photo galleries, jobs and portfolio items. We created a custom Swf component for the Unwrong Cms to enable Communicator to design personalised avatars. Communicator also have the ability to create private portfolio sections available via login.
The site has deep-linking functionality, which comes as a standard feature for any Unwrong Cms powered Flash site. With this system you could for instance send a direct link to your portfolio page, or perhaps you may wish to take the user straight to your holiday snaps.