Early in 2011, Deep Blue Sky were chosen to design and build an innovative web application powered by data from social networking websites.
twiDAQ is an online stock exchange game where players compete to gain virtual capital and level-up to gain exciting rewards. The game works on many of the same principles as a real stock market, utilising statistics from Twitter to allow people to trade fantasy shares in celebrities, companies, TV shows and more.
Why did twiDAQ choose Deep Blue Sky?
twiDAQ chose to work with Deep Blue Sky specifically due to our experience with the latest web technologies (including HTML and CSS3), our proven design record and our ability to solve any technical problem not matter how challenging. As one of the most complicated website's Deep Blue Sky has ever been required to produce, twiDAQ testifies to the abiilty of our team to solve a range of visual and technical problems to produce a quality end product.
The Technical Challenge
To create the game mechanics, our technical team had to harness data from Twitter, skilfully manipulating it to create a realistic trading environment where trending patterns on Twitter trigger fluctuations in the twiDAQ marketplace. Happily the technical challenge of utilising the power of the social networks to drive twiDAQ came easily to our technical team, who regularly employ social networking tools to aid clients such as Dickies Workwear Ltd and Room for Romance.
All of the data generated by twiDAQ has to be stored and processed by Deep Blue Sky’s web framework Spirit, which is used to run all of our client projects from small businesses to large hotel booking sites. The ability of Spirit to cope with the huge volume of data generated by the game testifies to the platform's capacity to match the demands of any project.
The Design Challenge
The twiDAQ game was previously in live testing for 12 months during which time thousands of excited players signed up, buying and selling over 75 million shares.
Drawing on feedback gained during the trial period, our Design team redesigned the twiDAQ interface from the ground up. A robust design process of wireframes, storyboarding and user research ensured that we were able to produce a design which was no only visually appealing but also incorporated a wealth of exciting new features and enhancements to the gameplay.
Try it for yourself
Having sucessfully launched in early November, twiDAQ is now live and available to play online for free. Simply sign up at twidaq.com. Be warned however, it's extremely addictive!
If you'd like to speak to Deep Blue Sky about creating your online game or application get in touch online or simply call 01225 444674.
Gregory
Twidaq
Hey guys was just checking out the project you guys did and was totally amazed at the quality of work and how well you guys executed it. Awesome work, great job!