Guest Post: Finding Inspiration in Biology for Creating Game-Like Experiences

Termling styles Guest Post Finding Inspiration in Biology for Creating Game Like Experiences

Another guest post for you guys from Sal Deniz. I got chatting to him on twitter about his latest project Termling and how he had used his background in biology to create a great avatar maker for his gamified learning app. It is quite technical and speaks about how he leveraged HTML5 canvas and the like. However, it is a great read and shows you can get inspiration for quality solutions from anywhere and everywhere!

Points, badges, and leaderboards are some of the game elements now commonly used in non-game contexts, but complex game elements like allowing users the ability to create a highly customizable avatar is less common. Before HTML5, Flash and complex scripts that manipulated HTML document elements, like div elements, images, or tables, could be used to produce a limited character creation system. With the introduction of HTML5 Canvas, complex avatars can be drawn on the web browser without the use of plugins. The HTML5 Canvas has made it possible for me to create Termling, which is an online tool for studying vocabulary that uses a highly customizable avatar system to motivate users to study. Read More ...