General

This site works as a sort of online portfolio for Tobias Sturt.

There are write ups on some of the various projects I’ve worked on as well as links where they’re relevant.

My work is generally split between client-side development - mostly HTML and Flash, with some server side work, too - and more creative work - creating solutions, development, design - but often they involve both, being involved and running projects from start to finish.

The blog is organised in date order, so more recent work will be at the top. You might find it easier to browse using the Category links in the right hand menu.

Click here to email me.

Enjoy.

Web • Web/Client-side • Web/Server-side • Web/Flash • Web/Entertainment • Web/Development

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.

Writing • Writing/Comedy

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

Writing • Writing/Childrens • Writing/Novel • Projects/Magi

I’ve now uploaded Oscar & the Magi up to Scribd, the online writing community, where you can read it on screen in their lovely interface. You can find it at:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2516647/Oscar-and-the-Magi

Writing • Writing/Childrens • Writing/Novel • Projects/Magi

Well, it’s finally finished, the hardly awaited minimum opus…

“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.

It’s the story of a small boy who is sent a textbook for student wizards as a birthday present and who, as a result, finds himself caught up in a secret London, where a magical police force hunts evil spirits unseen among the Christmas shoppers and a desperate band of wizards dream of rebellion and freedom…

…and that’s just the first four chapters…

It’s a rip-roaring pulp adventure (I hope), full of magic, sword fights, terrifying monsters, extraordinary visions, rebellion, oppression, dragons, steam trains, rooftop chases, enchanted tea sets and a blink and you’ll miss appearance from the Prime Minister. Now I wish I’d mentioned the kitchen sink somewhere in it so I could complete that list properly.

You can download a pdf of the book for free from http://www.mediafire.com/?xxt13xx0mdy. The pdf is formatted for A4 for printing.

Or, if you wanted an actual book, you can buy a copy, paperback sized, from lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/content/1198864. I’ve priced the lulu edition at £6.00, which, I must admit, includes a few pence royalties for myself, so you will be giving me money, if you buy it, so you have been warned.

I’d also like to point out that delivery from lulu.com can come in at over £2, and can take a while, so its worth bearing that in mind if you want to order one (on the other hand, of course, you do get a book out of it, which would be exciting for me, at any rate).

You can also download a pdf from lulu.com for free, but its formatted for print at paperback size, so you might be better off with the file hosted at mediafire.

I’m also going to be blogging the book here, a chapter every Friday, although you might prefer to use the www.ruritania.co.uk/book link, which will have just the text from book, without the various announcements, etc, that I might add in here.
I’m releasing the book under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/), so please feel free to pass on any copies and I would be absolutely delighted to know if anyone wants to create anything inspired by or playing with the book, drop me a line here if you do.

Anyway, here are those links again:

book: http://www.lulu.com/content/1198864

download (pdf): http://www.mediafire.com/?xxt13xx0mdy

download (rtf): http://www.mediafire.com/?rgguy2gmtdr

download (txt): http://www.mediafire.com/?wyt2ymmeaey

blog: http://www.ruritania.co.uk/book

Edit

Oscar and the Magi is now also available on Scribd, the online writing community, which has a very nice interface for reading online.

scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/2516647/Oscar-and-the-Magi

Web • Web/Client-side • Web/Flash • Web/Content • Web/Entertainment • Web/Development

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.

www.patandpals.com

Web • Web/Client-side • Web/Flash • Web/Development

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.

www.patandpals.com

Web • Web/Client-side • Web/Flash • Writing • Web/Content • Web/Entertainment • Writing/Interactive • Writing/Development • Web/Development

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 mroe about the world of the Planet Protectors.

www.planetprotectors.co.uk

Web • Web/Design • Web/Client-side • Web/Server-side • Web/Flash • Web/Development

Rockcandy Records had started developing a much more complex site but had run into difficulties. They asked me if I could build something quickly that they could edit and update and also include an e-commerce solution, all for a minimal budget.

The site is based on Wordpress, with custom templates based on their original site design. It uses the XD-Forum plugin to provide a forum, a plugin simply called Mailing-List to provide a mailing list and interfaces with the PayPal Shopping Cart to allow people to buy Rockcandy’s records. And Wordpress being easy to install, it didn’t take long to put it in place, either.

And, hopefully, it rocks.

www.rockcandyrecords.com

Web • Web/Design • Web/Client-side • Web/Flash • Web/Content • Web/Entertainment • Web/Development

I have developed two new games for the Jack Stalwart site - one each for two basic sections: Puzzles and Arcade games.

The Puzzle game is the ‘Bomb Defuser game’ - it is a maths game, requiring players to solve a sum in order to discover the secret code that stops the bomb countdown. Players are provided with a calculator to make solving the sum easier. The game randomly creates a new sum each game, shortening the countdown to make things more difficult.

The game aims to dramatise Maths and make the whole process of solving difficult problems a little more fun.

The Arcade game is a Flyboard Chase - a sidescrolling race through the streets of New York. The player has to guide Jack as he rides his flyboard, avoiding obstacles and picking up lost gadgets. The aim is to stay on the flyboard for as long as you can, while your speed increases in direct relation to your score.

The game is intended not to be too daunting for younger players while still be entertaining enough for the older audience.

www.jackstalwart.com