jellytanks

Jellytanks are editable, digital vehicles built of masses, wheels and bones at the user's discretion. An editing environment is the construction ground for piecing together parts into the likes of a stable, working vehicle. Thoughtful though whimsical engineering and planning must go into the creation of tanks capable of handling the diverse terrain of their environment. The editor is made to resemble graphic editing software and promotes trial and error via edit-time simulation. Thusly, the whole of the project revolves around the user's individuality and willingness to experiment.

A few key components have been central to my work for the past couple years: mathematically stimulated visuals, game theory and interface design. Jellytank.com is an amalgamation of these components.

I wanted to create something that teeters on the brink of gamedom, yet focuses on user creativity and individualistic implementation such that no set goal is involved save interaction and experimentation. Furthermore, I wanted something visually rich enough to sustain a unique experience for return users.

http://www.sodaplay.com

An ideal user is interested in playful mechanics and games.

To accommodate the sorts of updates/modifications I intend to make with jellytank.com, I developed a modular, reusable OOP framework in ActionScript. It uses both a MySQL database via Perl and locally stored files for user specific data and other dynamic content.