Ruritania - a sort of portfolio: a sortfolio

This is a portfolio/showcase/work blog for Tobias Sturt
I'm currently rebuilding the site and moving it over to Drupal, which is why there isn't much here at the moment - but there will be soon, honest.

personal projects

Oscar and the Magi


"Oscar and the Magi" is a children's book that I've written largely as a present for someone, but which I'm also making available online for everyone else.

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recent work

Jo Malone Gift Reminder

Jo Malone Gift Reminder
The Jo Malone Reminder is a desktop application that allows the user to store relevant dates - birthdays, anniversarys, special events - and then reminds them of the date up to two weeks in advance, along with recommendations of appropriate Jo Malone products to purchase as presents.
 
The application was designed by Alex at Swordfish, and I then built it in Flash, using the Northcode swf studio wrapper to create a PC application that would launch itself on start up to begin reminder service.
 
The application also updates itself regularly, asking user permission to download any updated settings xml and product images for the recommendations.

Cbeebies Poster Maker


A poster making application for Cbeebies, designed by Alex at Swordfish, but coded by me. Kids can select a background and images of animals to place on it - they can scale and move the animals how they like and also add their own titles. They can also submit their picture to a gallery for other children to see, email a link to their friends to come and see their picture in the gallery and also print it off, either in colour or in black and white. It's built in Flash, inevitably, with a mySQL and php back-end, passing information back and forth in xml.

Tilt

BBC 7
The Remainders gang (myself, Finbar Hawkins & Jon Millington) have had a few sketches featured on Tilt, a BBC Radio 7 sketch show - so, finally got that credit on a BBC radio comedy show. My work here is done. I think the most recent show is available on listen again, still, but this is the show's page, which might prove slightly longer lived than any Listen Again link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/comedy/progpages/tilt.shtml

Pat and Pals

Pat and Pals website
The Pat and Pals website is home to a series of books for very early readers by Colin & Jacqui Hawkins. The main aim is ecommerce, allowing people to order and pay for the books, but it also includes games and things to do.
 
I built the site templates following designs by Will Richards and worked with Dragnet to develop the final site. I also built and helped develop the 'ebooks' sold on the site, of which more later.
 
As well as selling printed books, the Pat and Pals website also sells 'eBooks', interactive versions of the printed volumes.
 
The eBooks include animated versions of the books with narration by the ever estimable Bill Nash & Sally Hawkins. The narration can be customised by the reader, to encourage their own reading skills. The eBooks also include a range of simple reading 'games', print out activities to play with and black and white versions of the pages to print out and colour in.
 
I helped spec out and develop the eBooks and built the final applications in Flash, with designs by Will Richards.

Planet Protectors


Planet Protectors are a new range of environmentally aware action figures from the Early Learning Centre.
 
I helped develop the site and and its content. I built it in Flash to Will Richards' colourful and dramatic designs.

 
The aim was to give the children an online destination that complemented and expanded on the world of the characters.
 
To this end the majority of the content is held in XML which is then pulled into Flash templates. This means that the site can easily be updated and expanded, turning it into an evolving, living online resource.
 
I also helped develop the characters of the figures themselves, along with Finbar Hawkins, fleshing out their world and storylines. I wrote an 'origins' story as an online comic for the site.
 
I also wrote the content for an online encyclopedia for the site to expand on the environmentally aware message of the figure range.
 
The entries in the encyclopedia are tied into the backstory of the characters and the events of the online comic, giving the children the opportunity to learn more about the world of the Planet Protectors