Design the Whirled

A while back I did some sample work for Three Rings Design, a game studio out in San Francisco. The projects I did were for Whirled, their latest game which is a flash-based MMOG. It’s an online community where people can play games, chat, etc. – but the real reason to play Whirled rather than one of its many competitors is the wealth of player-created content.

On Whirled, anyone with Flash and a little bit of time can create their own avatars, furniture, or pets. And unlike most of the other online community games I’ve seen, you can create these from scratch. So instead of using a simple in-game avatar-creator to tweak an existing design, players can make any kind of character they want using flash. This makes the game a little like a cross between Second Life and the website Deviant Art.

Three Ring’s most recent Whirled newsletter highlighted one of the avatars I made, which reminded me that I’ve been meaning to blog about them!

Whirled Avatar – The Marquis

 
The Marquis is inspired, loosely, by the Marquis de Carabas (the character from Puss in Boots, and from Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere). He’s something of a trickster who is, perhaps, a bit down on his luck. However he won’t let that stop him from comporting himself with class and grace. After dealing with a slow character (see Spaceman Tom) I wanted to make someone with quick, snappy movements – his run was a blast to animate.

Try it out
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Whirled Avatar – Spaceman Tom

 
Spaceman Tom is a cute astronaut kind of person. Getting his rather slow, low-gravity movement to work with the technical restraints of a player-controlled character was a bit of a challenge, but I’m pretty happy with the end result. The weightless float animation was also tricky.
 
Try it out

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I also specced out some suggested improvements to the user interface. I won’t put the whole comp here, but I did want to share these buttons. Maybe I’ll turn that pixelly slab serif into a fontstruct font one of these days.

I haven’t spent much time on Whirled since I made this stuff – going back is on my ever-expanding list of things I’d love to do if I had more time on my hands. But while I was working on these I spent a lot of time there and really enjoyed it. The games were fun, and so was seeing everyone’s creations – but more than that, the community was really welcoming. And if I ever go back I’ve got a mountain of coin to spend from everyone who purchased my avatars ^_-