Honeyway Train
- Brand
- Honey Nut Cheerios
- Year
- 2010
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- AR & VR
- Agency
- Boffswana
Objective
Honey Nut Cheerios wanted the cereal box itself to become the fun, not just a package with an ad on it — turning breakfast on the kitchen table into a moment of play with the brand's mascot. It also let General Mills push Buzz the Bee's story onto new, technologically adventurous ground, signaling the brand as playful and current rather than just nostalgic.
Solution
The player opens the game site, switches on their webcam, and holds up a real box of Honey Nut Cheerios; the camera reads the box's front panel and overlays a game world right on top of the live video feed. From there, tilting and moving the box steers Buzz the Bee along a runaway honey train, dodging obstacles as the track unfolds. The session builds toward a final showdown with the honey thief Handsome Hector, who Buzz has to catch to win. Players without a box in hand — outside the US, say — can print a paper stand-in and use that instead, waving it the same way to control Buzz.
- 1
The player opens Honey Nut Cheerios' promotional site and launches Honeyway Train, a browser-based augmented-reality game, from within it.
- 2
The game runs through a webcam: the player sits in frame and holds a real Honey Nut Cheerios box in both hands to serve as the physical controller, or, lacking a box, prints and holds up a paper substitute using the game's PLAY WITHOUT WEBCAM mode.
- 3
Once the box is recognized, a 3D honey-desert scene featuring the bee mascot Buzz is overlaid on the live camera feed directly on the box's surface, framed by a heads-up display: logo, webcam mode toggles, help, hearts and a countdown timer, a menu button, and a four-point stage tracker.
- 4
The player steers Buzz entirely by moving and tilting the physical box in front of the camera, with no keyboard input, while the timer counts down and the heart count changes over the course of the run.
- 5
Hearts scattered through the scene can be collected to add extra lives to Buzz.
- 6
Bandit bees in cowboy hats patrol the route and must be steered around as Buzz advances toward the objective.
- 7
Progress culminates at the Honey Express train, where bandits are shown rolling honey barrels onto a platform beside the cars as Buzz is guided along the train.
- 8
A boss, the honey bandit Handsome Hector, appears at the train as the final obstacle on the route.
- 9
The session ends with a confrontation between Buzz and Handsome Hector, which completes the last point on the stage tracker.
