Google: Cube Slam
Open the game- Brand
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Tech
- Mechanic
- Sports
- Agency
- Public Class
Objective
Google sought to demonstrate the capabilities and maturity of WebRTC technology—an emerging open web standard for real-time communication. The campaign positioned WebRTC as a practical technology for browser-based multiplayer gaming by showcasing a peer-to-peer game that could run natively in Chrome without plugins or dedicated servers.
Solution
Cube Slam is a multiplayer browser game inspired by classic Pong, where players compete head-to-head using webcams for face-to-face interaction via WebRTC. Players destroy each other's screens using a cube projectile, with obstacles, shields, gravity fields, and power-ups creating dynamic level variety. The game demonstrates three core WebRTC APIs: getUserMedia for webcam/microphone access, RTCPeerConnection for streaming video between players, and RTCDataChannel for low-latency gameplay synchronization. Built with WebGL and CSS3D for graphics, it runs natively in Chrome and was distributed through cubeslam.com and Google's Chrome Experiments platform.
Results
Cube Slam was launched on June 12, 2013, and Google positioned it as the first large-scale application to use RTCDataChannel. The project received industry recognition including the Cutting Edge Award and Project of the Year designations.
