Using embedded links within YouTube videos, some creative designers are creating clickable interfaces for YouTube gaming.
A small number of YouTube content creators have pioneered a new medium for gaming: linked videos on popular hosting sites. An unintended result of YouTube updating its video flash player with the ability for users to add bubble links to videos, playable YouTube videos have grown into internet alternate reality games.
You Don’t Know Jack Interactive bases its games on the popular quiz game. The first video in a series asks a question and offers multiple annotation links for each answer, leading the player to a screen explaining the correct answer if the guess is incorrect. The series is even able to keep your score based on which videos you visit.
The most adventurous experimentation in YouTube gaming is the create-your-own-adventure Aventura Interactiva designed by Victor Losa. Losa’s first film story plays like an old point-and-click adventure or full-motion video CD game from the 90s, and chronicles the exploits of a traveler who stumbles into a small city looking for bread, is hit in the head by a bottle and must overcome amnesia and side quests for A-Team memorabilia from villagers to purchase his meal. A bizarre premise, but one so wildly successful in Spanish-speaking countries that Losa has begun translating the game into English.
Most of these games are still rough, yet the concept and innovation of their designers highlight the innovation still available to the industry. Hopefully the people behind all these titles are succeeding at their day jobs, but if not, they might just have a place in the games industry. The easy access to YouTube might also inspire others to try out both film-making and gaming in one Internet show experience.
Source: Games For Gamers, GameCulture
