GALLERY
Inspirational sites
GSAP, PIXIJS, VUE.JSHEIHEI I-SPY
https://ispy.heihei.resn.coEngaging the hearts and minds of young web
users is growing increasingly difficult, given
the myriad of competing distractions online. This
was indeed the challenge for Travel Aotearoa, New
Zealand, when attempting to extoll the virtues of
the region to curious kids. The resulting experience
is i-Spy, a kind of Where’s Wally (or Waldo) for the
point-and-tap generation. Made for the children’s
content network HeiHei and paid for by the
broadcasting funding agency NZ On Air, the site
was built by the remarkable folks at Resn. Featuring
the charming artwork of Wellington-based
illustrator T Wei, i-Spy challenges users to spot
specific characters or animals concealed
frustratingly in plain view. A choice of five detailed
2D locations are packed with lavishly hand-drawn
scenery and crowds of maddeningly similar figures
from ramblers to campers, swimmers and skaters.
Challenge mode sets your search skills against a
timer, while Free Play makes the hunt more
leisurely. Immediately accessible and fiendishly
engrossing, it’s amazing how taxing i-Spy is for all
ages and how cleverly little NZ factoids are dropped
in to keep it mildly educational. Equally enjoyable
across the devices, it’s probably still true to assume
the game’s swipe-seek mechanics were engineered
for touchscreens first.