South Park Avatar Creator
Online tool that allows fans to create personalized avatars in the style of the animated series South Park with extensive customization options.
Project Snapshot
South Park Studio (via Hooky Interactive)
Entertainment & Media
August 2009 - December 2009
Software developer
ActionScript 3, PHP, MySQL, Flash, API Integration
Desktop Application Development, Cross-Platform Development, API Integration, Complex Logic Implementation
3 developers, 1 designer
What It Was
The South Park Avatar Creator is an online tool that allows fans to create their own personalized avatars in the style of the animated series South Park. It's a popular way for fans to express their creativity and showcase their unique characters. The creator offers a variety of customization options, including hairstyles, clothing, and accessories, enabling users to mimic their real-life appearance or create entirely new characters.
This was a massive undertaking. 6 base characters (third/fourth graders, but also for the first time, kindergarteners, Canadians, and adult men and women), each with hundreds of facial expressions, clothes, and accessories. Each asset was layered perfectly on each character. Extra logic was added for edge cases and conflicting clothing or accessories. It was incredibly complicated. All configured in a MySQL database with a PHP API.
Demo of the Flash-based character creation tool
South Park Avatar Creator was available on all devices
What I Did
- Coded the Desktop version of the app in ActionScript 3
- Collaborated with the PHP developer who created the API and organized all of the assets
- Collaborated with the mobile apps developer to ensure cross-platform consistency
Character body type selection
Hair style and facial feature customization
Clothing and accessory selection system
Color customization and advanced options
Background and character placement
Final character preview and export options
What Came Out of It
- Millions of characters created since launch
- The South Park Avatar creator still lives on and has been iterated on for the last 15 years
- High-profile usage including Marc Andreessen using his South Park avatar as his Twitter profile picture for many years
What I Learned
This was my second avatar creator style app. My first was Nike Team uniform builder. Avatar creators are so much more complex than they look. It's a giant logic tree with edge cases. It can be a total mess if you let it.
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