Ornamental

Ever tried to hosting a Secret Santa event with colleagues that you barely recognise? We know that awkward feeling. Christmas doesn't have to be like that. Let Ornamental change that.

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Ornamental

Inspiration

Having a Secret Santa event is always fun, well... only when you know the players well. The last thing you'd want to do is give them a crappy toaster when their kitchen already has 2. That is why we are here today.

What it does

We know Secret Santa generators and services already exist all over the internet, but we believe that the way most are done are wrong. Secret Santa shouldn't be an activity that's hard to hold. Secret Santa shouldn't be an activity where people lists their wished items for others to be obligated to buy them. Secret Santa shouldn't be a one and done event.

That's why we implemented our own.

Our platform aims to elevate the Secret Santa experience and make it an event that can get your friends, family, colleagues, or even acquaintances to get to know each other better. Through short interactive questions that allow your friends to understand each other, as well as the customisation of a shared tree that belongs uniquely to your iconic group, this Secret Santa experience brings along both intrinsic and sentimental value. Hang your custom ornaments with your friends, place your gifts, because this room belongs to you. This Christmas, make deeper connections within your communities, spread the love through giving thoughtful gifts.

Features

  • Create a cozy virtual room and join with your friends
  • Get to know the acquaintances you've greeted as an intern for the past 2 months through short interactive questions
  • Personalize your room, because this room belongs to your unique friend group
  • Get assigned the role of Santa to a random friend
  • Be reminded that as Santa, you have a responsibility to purchase a gift by the decided deadline
  • Feel the pressure, knowing that your peers have already bought their gifts via the presents surrounding the virtual tree
  • Flame that one friend that has yet to buy their gift
  • Deck the halls with unglams of your beloved friends

How we built it

This grand experience is being delivered to your devices via NextJs, R3F(3js), MongoDB Not to mention, our blood sweat and tears

Challenges we ran into

i am running low on sleep threejs. why is it so hard to animate components before unmounting

Accomplishments that we're proud of

a proper database the idea, the execution, the friends we made along the way. the deers the deer's nose color the deer's antler the deer's eyes the deer with the red nose

What we learned

threejs is hard. threejs is very hard. animations are tough. nextjs backend is kinda cool compared to making an api.

What's next for Ornamental

We have many unfinished things in-store for this application! Here's some to stay excited for:

  • Upload your own images and really make that room uniquely your friend group's.
  • Hang ornaments of your choice
  • Unique avatars! (We only have so many reindeer's in stock)
  • A "guess your Santa" minigame
  • More unique bonding games
  • A "Save as Image" feature, that creates a snapshot of the room you and your friends decorated.
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