Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about fun alternatives to online chat. One of the more interesting ideas (IMHO) is having an actual space to move around in. "Open Forum" is an attempt to realize that.

To try it out, head over to openforum.samwarmuth.com/n/tutorial in Chrome/Safari (I'm having some FF issues).

Open Forum visualizes each user as a point on a 2D grid. When sent, messages are heard by users within 'earshot'. The environment consists of buildable and destructible blocks that obstruct movement. Users can create and destroy blocks at their "power level" or below, but not higher (e.g. administrators can create invincible blocks). Using this platform, you can create all sorts of things, like "chat rooms" that actually have real-space identities, or have whispered conversations with a neighbor without interrupting the main speaker.

Thanks in advance for the feedback, and if you have any questions/comments/ideas about the project, I'm eager to listen :)