Steamboat Willy for Web 2.0

Posted by on October 3 at 12:42 PM
The game is called A Car's Life. And, while it's laughably simple, it's completely floored me. Think Steamboat Willy (as Very Short List has billed it). A sign of thinking Outside the YouTube Box. While millions try to figure out how to make the best viral video, the funniest Sarah Palin commercial, someone blows up the expected and comes out with the first ever interactive game on YouTube.

And when I say it's simple, I mean that. You watch a short video, you're prompted to click on a box that appears on the screen. If you click in time, you go to the next video, which shows your car narrowly avoiding disaster. If you miss clicking the button, the short video plays out and shows the chaos that ensues as a result of your click negligence.

But the line drawings are endearing. The concept is simple. And it was featured in a major email newsletter just this morning. It makes me wonder: what's next?

And it makes me think: we need to always go for the unexpected. Rowland is big on the unexpected here. And sometimes I fear that I don't know what he means by unexpected.

Well, this would be unexpected. Someone says "what do we do on YouTube". And someone responds "we make a game."

Sounds crazy. I didn't believe it at first. But look what they've done. And who knows what will come next, now that someone's put this ball (er... car) in motion?
Topics: interactive        SHARE: