Spring has sprung without any updates about what is going on either with the actual boat, or with this website! This time I'll focus on the website, but in the coming days I will get back with information about the spring preparation as well! :-)
The virtual harbour
While hanne-ii.dk has a practical reason for existing — to
organize sailing and work on Hanne II without involving too many large
corporations — it is also made with the intention of just being silly,
and over-the-top, and to try out fun things.
First steps, the little boat
I love interactivity, and of course I wanted to bring that here from the beginning. I was inspired by other websites, and ended up making the little boat that follows the cursor around, and anchors when it comes close enough.
Going online
But I wanted to take a bit further and use some of the ideas of the original multiplayer version of emissary.live. If you log in, you'll be able to see other logged in users boats, and even send chat messages that are visible for a short duration of time for nearby users.
A few interesting questions came up. What should happen when a user opens multiple tabs? What trade-offs are necessary in order to not congest the server with too much information? I might delve into these questions, and the answers I chose, in a future post :-) For now, try it out if you have a login. Otherwise see what it looks like below:
Next steps
And of course I am not done yet either. Ideas are floating around my head... Customization of colours, and even different hull shapes that could be unlocked by participating in certain events, minigames that grant point: imagine a shark fin popping up, and the first to catch it gets a gold star!
And the big idea I am testing out right now is to abandon all sensible ideas about web design, and turn the entire website into an actual virtual harbour, the prototype of which you can see below.
