Hello there! We meet again. To start this article, let’s imagine this: you’ve got an awesome Gather Town space, but your lobby feels a bit unwelcoming. You could have some objects and flashy decorations, but they don’t quite give that personal touch. I’ve experienced it myself, especially in my own Gather Town space. Then, an idea hit me. What if there was a custom receptionist in the lobby of Gather Town? Instead of just any objects, a receptionist in the form of a person would definitely be more interesting.
Naturally people connect with other people. Even in a virtual space, we’re wired to notice with human-like figures more than static objects. The presence of a receptionist isn’t just visually interesting. It feels more personal and welcoming, making guests more likely to stop and interact. That’s why a custom receptionist comes in! Ready to make it happen? Let’s get started!
Step 1: Preparing Your Custom Receptionist
First, you need a picture of receptionist for your Gather Town. You may open up your favorite graphic design tool to create your custom receptionist (I use Aseprite, but anything similar works). Think about giving them a friendly face and maybe even a uniform. This time I created a receptionist with pink hair, a black uniform, and a green tie. I made sure the style fits the avatar look in Gather Town. Please remember that tiles in Gather are 32×32 pixels, so keep your image smaller than those dimensions. Then, save the image as a PNG file with a transparent background.
Step 2: Preparing Your Information
Besides getting the receptionist’s image ready, we also need to prepare the website that the receptionist will share. In this article I’m using my website https://withjulio.com/. Just a note, the website must be a URL that begins with https. Gather Town does not allow http sites for security concerns. In addition, the website must allow embedding in an iframe. If the site does not allow embedding, you will see a “refused to connect” message or something similar when you interact with the object.
Step 3: Get Into Gather Town and Your Space
Now that we have our image, let’s head over to Gather Town and get everything set up.
Step 4: Enter Edit Mode
To place your receptionist in your Gather Town, you’ll need access to the Mapmaker. If you do not see these options, you may need to ask your space Admins to change your User Role and Permissions.
Step 5: Add Your Custom Receptionist and Setting Up Interactivity
This is where the magic happens. We’re going to upload your custom receptionist avatar in Gather Town. First, open the Mapmaker and select the Objects tab at the top. Then, click More Objects in the panel at the right. The Object Picker window will open and select Upload New in the lower left. Drag your receptionist or click to upload.
Under Object Interactions, select Embedded website. Enter the URL of the website you wish to embed. Set your activation distance (the default is 3), and add a custom prompt message. You can add a friendly greeting for your guests, like “Welcome to our space!” or simply “Hello there!” Click Select when ready. Place the object in your Space.
If needed, adjust the arrangement of the objects so they don’t overlap.
Step 6: Test it Out
Now, let’s test it out! Exit Edit mode and walk up to your receptionist avatar. From the picture above, we can see that the prompt text is working as expected.
When we press X, the website https://withjulio.com/ pop ups, which is also working as hoped.
And there you have it! You’ve just created a custom receptionist in Gather Town. This friendly receptionist is now ready to welcome your guests and guide them with all the information you need to share. Give it a try and see how it works!
Happy gathering!
