American Odyssey
NBC / Google
An interactive experience worthy of its namesake
NBC and Google approached HAUS to create an interactive experience for their new geopolitical drama "American Odyssey". Our hope in starting the project was to create an experience that felt like a seamless extension of the show – a place where fans could follow the characters across the globe and through different timelines. The goal was that as the show progressed, the experience would evolve to become more complex, and eventually hosting a variety of exclusive content for all 13 episodic chapters of the show’s first season.
Interactive map
Plotting a course for American Odyssey
Uncharted territory
Pushing Google Maps to the limit
Since the map is the hero of the experience we knew that achieving the show’s dark, dramatic look-and-feel would be key. Making the map black and white wasn’t going to cut it. After a period of creative and technical exploration, we were able to achieve profoundly realistic video glitch effects and transitions, many of which are normally reserved for broadcast pieces, all the while maintaining native Google Maps functionality.
Finesse and performance
Bringing the pieces together
With each new episode that aired, exclusive behind-the-scenes content was added to the site. This CMS-backed content needed to be easily accessible in an adaptive interface that felt easy to use. It was vital that all elements of the experience fit thematically with the show. To bring the interface to life, we utilized a dashboard-style array of collapsible panels that were animated with SVG and <canvas>. Mobile optimization required that all transitions and effects be adjusted to ensure a level of visual finesse without any loss in performance.
