Phileas Fog may have circumnavigated the world in 80 days, but London-based creative agency Poke tasked players with travelling across the World Wide Web in only 11. Balloonacy, Poke's promotional game for UK mobile phone provider Orange, first appeared in 2008 and allowed website owners to host stages of a balloon race on their pages. The simple game, which was laid over these websites, was a success that Orange wanted Poke to repeat this year.

On visiting participating websites, the game had players launching their balloons from the bottom of the screen with the aim of reaching pipes at the top of the screen - the internet, after all, is simply a series of tubes - navigating obstacles and collecting canisters of air to replenish their fuel on the way. Additional air could be won through WarioWare-inspired mini-games while swarms of angry bees impeded the ascent.

"A lot of the people working on it were big gamers," says Poke technical director Tom Quick when we ask him about the company's move to less familiar advertising ground. "The fact everyone was hell bent on producing an exciting game experience really helped to achieve things."



Creative director, Ben Tomlinson adds: "We don't know anything like it. It goes on for ten days. It's depressing really, because you've done all this work, and that's as long as it lasts."

Over the course of its short life, the second round of Balloonacy attracted 46,000 players, all jostling for the fastest overall time and prizes - the top one being a holiday in Ibiza. Poke felt that it was important to create a social experience, so to that end pilots could see each other onscreen and even wave, while collectable badges were awarded for specific achievements. This community spirit wasn't restricted to players, however, as sites set about competing to be the best hosts.

"There were host prizes," explains Quick. "They just had to put a tiny pice of code on their website. Some people made bespoke sites for the racetrack with a picture of themselves waving at the balloonists."

Despite the concept's simplicity, pitching the game's difficulty just right was a tough balancing act - especially considering the inherently abstract nature of an internet balloon race. "If you hand-hold people too much then you lose other people," says Quick. "There are two psychological types of gamers: those who like to be told what to do and won't do anything until you tell them; and others who want to be unleashed to do whatever they want. We tried to pitch it in the middle.

"There are subtle pop-ups in the game but the most important thing is you get into the gameplay straight away. Overall, most people got it. The vision was to have it as easy and seamless as possible, so you'd just be pulled into it."