Tanya Parker, Creative Developer
Disney Princess | Portal to the Princesses
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Additional hosting: Amazon S3 / CloudFront
Adaptive quality video encoding: FFMPEG & HLS
Rendering: Three.js
Portal to the Princesses released in the summer of 2024 as part of the "Create Your World" campaign, as an interactive web-based experience that allowed the user to open a portal to one of four Disney Princesses.
During the experience the princess takes the user through an event, asking their opinion on what they should do. The environment around the princess changes based on the options the user chooses. Once the story event is completed, the user is presented with a photo feature designed around the Princess and the choices they made.
This project represented a major shift in terms of development at Zappar. Not only was it one of the first major projects delivered using Three.js, it was the first projects that necessitated several developers working concurrently, organising and managing additions to the project via GitHub.
Legoland | Miniland Missions
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Additional hosting: Amazon S3 / CloudFront
Since launch in 2023, 111k guests have spent a cumulative 117 days saving minilands from calamity.
Embedded inside the Legoland app. Miniland Missions provided a hub for additional digital activities whilst inside the park, focusing entirely on the Minilands attraction inside Legoland Windsor.
This was a significant undertaking as the Minilands areas are widely regarded as important areas of each Legoland park, entertaining thousands of people every year. This posed a challenge in terms of delivering additional digital content, as we could not place any permanent signage in a way that would get in the way of Minilands itself.
Miniland Missions culminated in four interactive games that are played though the user's smartphone camera, overlaid on top of the physical Minilands, as well as a capstone parade experience and a photo feature that can be enjoyed outside of the park.
As part of this project, I developed two of the four games, the core menu, and also made several trips to the park for on-site testing and refinement. The two games I developed were:
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Air Rescue
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Pilot a helicopter around Urquhart Castle and rescue the belongings of some beachgoing minilanders.
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Spy and Seek
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Some minilanders have lost some valuables out and about and it's up to the player to find them. This utilised a hot / cold meter to tell the player when they were both physically near the object, as well as looking at it.
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Legoland | Mythica Germany
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Additional hosting: Amazon S3 / CloudFront
An addition to the Günzburg park in the summer of '23. This built off of the successful deployment of AR Content in the Mythica lands of Legoland Windsor in '21 & '22.
Compared to the previous work at Windsor, Günzburg provided unique challenges in terms of development, primarily due to the site being less available. The project's producer and I were on site only once before launch to finalise plaque locations and to fine tune the AR content. A second site visit post launch was required for some in person bug fixing which involved just myself.
The 2023 update to include a Germany specific variant of the Mythica embed delivered interesting technical challenges around optimising embed download size, ensuring any additional content for Germany did not break any pre-existing Windsor or International content as well as still providing an engaging experience for guests.
As part of this project I developed two of the four AR interactions, including the 'hero moment' of augmenting the Sea Serpent element around the Flight of the Sky Lion rollercoaster. Additionally I handled minor content updates to the main app menu and digital collectible card album inside the app.
Legoland | Mythica & Mythica Magical Forest
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Additional hosting: Amazon S3 / CloudFront
First launching in 2021, the Legoland Mythica experience was embedded into the Legoland app.
As part of the initial launch, I was involved in developing the core app menu, as well as variants for a streamlined international release.
In addition to the core menus, I developed the template for the AR experience, and two of the four creatures available at launch.
Mythica itself expanded in 2022 with the addition of the Magical Forest, which also included the addition of five new creatures, and careful re-engineering of the already-live core menu. Mythica Magical Forest won the 2023 Auggie award for Best Location-Based entertainment.
The Magical Forest creature experiences required careful adjustments due to the reduced space available, with concerns regarding guest flow through the space. Several creatures had their content tweaked and calibrated to make use of the environment in unique and captivating ways.
Countdown | Bricks Farm
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Additional hosting: Amazon S3 / CloudFront
Embedded in the Countdown App, this project was the 2023 Auggie Awards winner for Best Campaign. The main drive of the project was to highlight the importance of farming in Australia and New Zealand, as well as driving sales in Countdown stores.
My main contribution to this project was the developing of the Farm Menu, a 3D main menu that could either be explored on-screen or placed in the world by the user and viewed in AR. The farm grew and developed depending on the brick packs that the user had received and scanned in-app. Additionally the user was presented with a farming and agriculture based fact of the day.
Beyond development work, my responsibilities also involved managing the other developers on the project, ensuring the disparate elements fit together and were visually consistent with each other.
PEZ Play
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Additional hosting: Amazon S3 / CloudFront
Since 20216 PEZ Play has seen 7.6 million unique users spend a cumulative 51 years playing games and taking photos.
Pez Play was specially designed to scan candy codes on-pack, unlocking a world of exciting gameplay that engages the player, designed to be modular, PEZ Play has grown from an initial offering of 7 mini games to 20+
I Developed two of the original PEZ PLAY games in 2016. Later returning to the project in 2020, 2022 & 2024 to support additional games, app menu redesigns, UI/UX overhauls and supplementary tie in media such as Transformers Robots In Disguise, and the PEZ Festive line of dispensers.
Countdown | Craze Super Insects
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Additional hosting: Amazon S3 / CloudFront
Both the 2021 Auggie Award winner for Best Campaign and #1 App in education for New Zealand for the duration of the campaign. Over the duration of the campaign, 3 million users spent a cumulative eight years learning about the insects of New Zealand.
The Super Insects whitelabel app was centred around a series of 72 collectable Insect Cards and 36 Puzzle Cards alongside a collectible album to store them, which Countdown customers were rewarded with after spending $30 on their shopping.
As part of this project I developed the main app menu screens, as well as the Insect Race mini game, Photo Feature element and the select line of AR Insect cards, that allowed the user to let a digital insect roam their living room
Rovio | Angry Birds Explore
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Additional hosting: Amazon S3 / CloudFront
My initial involvement in this project was just to develop a face tracked mini game for a Chupa Chups licensed tie in. However as the project progressed my role expanded to include UX tweaks across the app, refactoring a daily giveaway element to use weighted values, and general maintenance.
BBC | The Human Body: Secrets of your life revealed
Programming Language: TypeScript / JavaScript
Working alongside a three-part BBC series produced in partnership with the Open University, this project revolved around three separate AR experiences.
Using a smartphone, users were able to discover and explore a 3D model of the brain, liver and heart. The 3D models had accompanying hotspots encouraging users to learn more about how the organ functions. A toggle allowed users to view healthy and unhealthy versions of the organ.
Variants of the experience printed onto postcards included a photo feature that allowed the user to pose with the card, showing a cutaway of the organ in situ.
