Santa Tracker
Open the game- Brand
- Year
- 2013
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Ueno
- With
- Upperquad
- With
- Plan8
Objective
Having launched its own Santa tracker in 2012 after NORAD moved its tracking partnership to Microsoft, Google wanted a holiday ritual it could call its own — one built to pull families back to the site every single day in December. The project doubled as a showcase for Google's own tools, from Maps and Earth to Chrome, Android, and the newly launched Chromecast.
Solution
Players land on a hand-drawn panorama of Santa's Village at the North Pole, where buildings, characters, and small details are clickable. Each day in December unlocks one new thing to do — a simple keyboard-driven arcade game like a reindeer race, a present-flinging catapult, or a river crossing, plus the occasional video or animated scene — while everything unlocked on earlier days stays open and future days stay locked until their date arrives. Along the way there are hidden extras to stumble on, like clicking the sun to flip the village between day and night. On December 24th the village gives way to a live tracker: a world map follows Santa's route stop by stop, showing his last and next city, a running gift-delivery count, and his mood, and clicking any visited city reveals his arrival time and the local weather there. The same tracker carries over to the Android app, complete with its own games, casts to the TV over Chromecast, and is one click away in the browser via the Chrome extension.
- 1
The player opens the Santa's Village landing page, an illustrated panorama of houses, elves, and reindeer that can be panned and clicked. The village works as an advent calendar: a new mini-game, video, or animated vignette unlocks each day in December, while everything already unlocked stays playable and future days remain visibly locked until their date arrives.
- 2
Clicking certain background objects triggers ambient easter eggs rather than games: the sun toggles the village between day and night, the airport shows elves arriving and changing into uniforms, the windmill shows a giant fan powering the village, and a reindeer wearing headphones plays a comic video of Santa on vacation.
- 3
Other village objects open standalone arcade mini-games: a reindeer race steered with the arrow keys against a timer, a gift-launching catapult charged by holding the spacebar and released to lob presents into passing boats, a Frogger-style crossing where players ferry gifts onto boats while dodging icebergs, and a sled run down an icy river collecting gifts along a winding path.
- 4
Selecting a mini-game loads a runner in which an elf with a jetpack climbs continuously while the world scrolls downward past it; the player steers the elf left and right through the flow, collecting candies for points and gold watches that each add a few seconds to a countdown timer, which is the run's win condition.
- 5
Climbing height advances the run through numbered levels, signaled by the sky color changing and a large pale level number appearing in the clouds; later levels thicken the stream of collectibles and add obstacles — coal, hanging ornaments, and birds — that the player must dodge without losing upward momentum.
- 6
Colliding with an obstacle flashes the elf red and deducts points from the score, but the run continues on whatever time remains; when the countdown reaches zero the game ends on a "Game Over" screen showing the final score, replay and home buttons, and links to other village content.
- 7
Players can also carry the experience to a companion Android app with the same mini-games and countdown, or install a Chrome extension whose toolbar icon shows Santa's current location without opening the site.
- 8
On December 24, the village view is replaced by a live tracker: a world map shows Santa's current position, his previous and next stops, a running count of gifts delivered, and his mood; players can expand a list of visited cities with arrival times and weather, switch to a 3D "Earth" satellite view of the route, and cast the tracker to a TV via Chromecast for a feed that keeps updating even with the phone off.
